This Valentine's Day weekend was a very special weekend for me. This was my first and only Valentine's weekend as an engaged man. This weekend meant a lot to me because with my fiancee being so far away . Any time we spend together comes at a premium. Rachel came this weekend on Friday night, and will not be leaving until Monday. While most couples get to see each other every day, spending even 2 days and 2 nights in a row with Rachel is something I get to do about once a month. So needless to say, I wanted this weekend to be amazing!
Friday night I got home from work, and Rachel was waiting. We made a delicious turkey pot pie dinner with some of my leftover smoked turkey, onions, vegetables, smoked turkey, covered with biscuits. Just a great comfort dish! We paired it with some Seinfeld. Just a great feel good night. To cap things off we frosted and decorated heart shaped cookies that Rachel had made using my Grandma's sugar cookie recipe.
Saturday was the big day of plans. Rachel had a conference planning meeting to go to in Menomonee Falls, so after a quick pot of coffee and some cereal, she took off. I got cleaned up and went out to get groceries. Rachel had gotten us a cookbook called "anyone can cook" which had a great recipe for Steaks with Pan Sauce. I had won some steaks at an office work party, so we were all set for a lovely Valentines day dinner. I got the supplies that we would need, and got Rachel a card for Valentines day.
After Rachel got back we had a quick lunch and went for a walk on Brady street. We ended up stopping at a store called Gloriosa's. It's a very fine Italian grocery store. They have all kinds of high quality noodles, sausage, cheese, sauces, basically any italian ingredient you can think of. They also have a deli with Italian dishes and some great canoli! I think Rachel could get lost in that little store for hours.
When we got back, it was time to start getting ready for our Valentines day feast. Rachel had decided to make a new focaccia bread recipe. It had fresh tomatoes and cheeses on top. She mixed up the dough and set it aside to chill. I got the steaks out and set up all my ingredients. I cooked the steak in a skillet, and then transfered the steak do a dish and covered the dish with foil. I then started working on the sauce. Melting some butter in the pan, we mixed in some beef broth, red wine, mushrooms, onion, and a little bit of garlic. I deglazed that until it was nice and thick. While I was working on this Rachel tended to her bread, baked a potato, and cooked some green beans.
Soon it was time for everything to come together. We had our wine, we had candlelight, and our entertainment for the evening was to watch Casino Royal. Casino Royal was one of the first movies we watched together, and it was the movie we watched when I asked Rachel to be my girlfriend. It was a fantastic evening. The steak was great, the sauce was amazing, the potatoes were perfectly cooked, and the green beans added a great compliment. It was by far one of the best meals I have ever eaten. After the main course, we exchanged our valentines day cards, ate our cookies, and sipped on White Russians.
Overall I would say that this was easily the best valentines day ever. I got to spend 3.5 days with my fiancee and start a lifetime of Valentines day traditions. I hope everyone else's valentine's day was as great as mine!
-E.
