Valentine’s Day is a nonevent in our house. Neither of us feel that we have to buy a red card with a heart on it or give each other boxes of chocolates to confirm how much we love each other.

Love is about showing your love year-round — doing little things every day to demonstrate your love. One day of bringing flowers home and canoodling over candle-lit pasta does not make up for acting like a jerk the other 364 days.

Love is getting home from work early and wiping up the inevitable puddle of dog pee or cat barf before your spouse gets home. With six animals in the house, something’s always coming out of one end or another.

Love is getting up at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning to potty and feed the animals so that your spouse can sleep late undisturbed. At least until the bedroom kitty decides to poke your spouse in the head with one claw because the cat decided that it’s time for everyone in the house to wake up.

Love is indulging your love when she gets hangry and insists on going out to eat because heating a frozen batch of chili would take too long, when, in reality, it takes just as long as ordering food at a restaurant and waiting for them to bring it to your table.

Love is holding your spouse’s hand as she is wheeled into the operating room, all the while not letting on how scared you are. Love is doing whatever she needs after surgery, including things you thought you would never have to do. Love is doing that not once, but nine times since 2001 for surgeries of varying degrees of seriousness, from minor finger surgery to brain tumor surgery.

All these things MM does for me.

I’m extremely fortunate to share my life with someone who embodies all the good qualities of love every day of the year and who shows it through all the little things she does for me, in spite of my many issues.

MM adores strawberries, so I thought I would try a strawberry cream fudge using white chocolate as the base, combined with a homemade strawberry syrup. The strawberry syrup adds a delicate strawberry flavor to the white chocolate. When you serve the fudge, you can drizzle it with melted dark chocolate or with some leftover strawberry syrup if you want to punch up the flavor.

Any leftover strawberry syrup won’t go to waste. You can use it in lemonade or on waffles. You add it to plain yogurt for homemade fruity yogurt. You can add it to a bowl of cereal or granola.

Strawberry Syrup
Ingredients
16 oz. fresh or frozen strawberries, pureed
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

Directions

1. Cook the pureed strawberries, sugar, and water over medium heat until the mixture begins to boil.
2. Turn the heat down and simmer until the mixture thickens into a syrup consistency, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Let cool and pour into an airtight container.
4. Cover and store in the refrigerator.

Strawberry Cream Fudge
Ingredients
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup strawberry syrup
1 package white chocolate chips (12 oz. or so)
1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme

Directions

1. Heat sugar, butter, milk, and strawberry syrup over medium heat to a full, rolling boil in 3 qt. heavy sauce pan, stirring constantly.
2. Boil on medium heat until the candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly.
3. Take the pan off the heat and add the chips to the mix.
4. Stir in the marshmallow creme.
5. Stir until the mixture thickens and starts to look dull, and pour it into the foil-lined or buttered cake pan. Let it cool for a couple of hours, then cut it into bite-sized squares.
6. Store the fudge in air-tight containers.

Strawberry Lemonade
Ingredients
1 tsp strawberry syrup
1 glass of your favorite lemonade

Directions
Add one teaspoon of strawberry syrup to your favorite lemonade and stir. Add more if you want a stronger strawberry flavor.