Valentine's Day Basket

My Scuba Club meets once a month (at a Mexican Restaurant whose food I abhor-huge portions of greasy, salty food. I usually eat beforehand and just have wine at the meeting :) Each month we auction off a basket, the proceeds of which go to the club. I won it last month. In the 6 or so years I've been diving, I don't remember ever having won it before, I guess because it used to be 50/50 and the winner generally donated their 50 percent back to the club. I may have won that once or twice, the winnings amounting to all of $11.,in that neighborhood. I don't remember when or how the basket raffle started.

Well, I won it last month. The guy who got it in December must have taken issue to the "girl" theme, because he donated a "Man Basket", Hot Rod Mag, Beef Jerky, Chips and Salsa, an oversized bottle of Fat Tire Beer, Beer Glass and a Butterfinger he said was to disguise  your breath so your wife doesn't know you were drinking...Do guys really do that? Do they really think it works?? But, he pointed out, there was not a single scented candle in the basket. As I drink mostly wine, I donated the beer to the superbowl party yesterday. Now, wasn't that quite a game?? Even a non-football lover like me got a little thrill, particularly when the Who, geezers that they have become, performed at half-time. Yeah, they still got it!!

Now it's my turn to fill this basket to raffle off for tomorrow night's meeting. What a dilemma-on the one hand, it's a perfect opportunity to "re-gift" those things you got for Christmas that you'd never buy yourself and will never use. Scented candles probably being pretty high on the list. I didn't want to try to invent another man basket, even though most of the dive club members are guys. I've pondered this all month. Hey, it's Valentine's Day this weekend, yeah, I know, guys are all over that holiday, only because we make them.

This month I decided to make "Food-in-a-Jar" with a Valentine's slant. Cowgirl cookies from Bakerella with pink M & M's, you gotta love it, Chocolate Cherry Cookies I found at Wheatfoods.org, and last but not least, Cupid Soup! Ok, it's actually called Country Soup in a Jar on allrecipes.com, but I'm going for a Valentine's theme here. At least if a guy wins it-and chances are one will, most of the dive club is male-they do eat cookies and soup.
And just so it doesn't look too manly, I added pink heart tissue and frilly Valentine ribbon. Please overlook the crummy labels, I'm not particularly artistic and the ones Bakerella had I could download didn't print clearly. I probably have a crummy printer, too.

I thought I'd save money and buy the jars at Value Village for .49 each. None had lids. How much could those little lids and rings possibly cost anyway? I don't can, so I've never priced this stuff. The first challenge was finding them. None at Safeway, which is on my way home from work. Ok, Michaels is just up the street. That's a hobby store, surely they'll have them. Zilch. Bi-Mart, a discount membership sort that sells food, clothes, sporting goods, and kitchen supplies. They had them.

In my infinite wisdom, though, I had chosen large mouth jars thinking they'd be easy to fill. First, Bi-Mart had only regular-size lids and second, even the large one are not so easy to fill. I found the damned things at Fred Meyer, four stores and an hour and a half later. What a bargain! I also haven't made any of these, so I can only hope that they're good.

 

I made a list of all the ingredients and tucked it in, just in case someone is allergic.

Happy Valentine's Day!