Won't You Be Mine?

Normally I don't get that into Valentine's day, but this year was a completely different story. I woke up yesterday morning softly singing, "Won't You Be Mine? Won't You Be Mine?" Ed, who is getting ready for work, turns to me and days, "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" "Yep!" It's funny how songs just pop into your head!

This little tidbit has nothing to do with anything, but I just thought that Ed has excellent song recall - perhaps he should be the music therapist.....

As many of you already know, I just passed my music therapy board exam last week - whoot! I'm officially an unemployed music therapist (although I am looking!) But while I'm looking for a real job, I'm enjoying my job at home - taking care of my Ed. I often call Ed "My Ed" to differentiate between him and his dad, mostly when the family is together. We have "Bev's Ed" and we have "My Ed" or "Rachel's Ed" depending on who is doing the talking. Ok, back to what I was talking about. I've been at home now for two months since I finished my internship and have been doing a combination of the following: studying, cooking, crafting, sleeping, reading, and watching every single episode of Law and Order SVU. It's great! I feel like Suzy Homemaker. I'm embracing my inner woman - I cook, I clean, I do laundry, and so on. I enjoy it!

Now, back to Valentine's Day. I spend a lot of time at home thinking about things, especially things that I have to plan for. I love planning! So, I thought, why not plan a fun Valentine's Day dinner. I do have to give some credit to Ed for this idea as well. Not only did I/we want to cook a good meal, but I also wanted everything to look nice. I figured this is probably the only year I will do something special for Valentine's day. After all, shouldn't you express your love for each other year round?

When Ed got home from work last night he had the LAST bouquet that Pick 'n Save had in store - yellow alstroemerias. Now, he had no idea what kind of flowers these were. He just knew that he couldn't come home without some flower in hand. I just loved those flowers! I had a lot of them in my wedding bouquet. To me, they have so much more meaning than roses.

Anyway, here's our evening in pictures:

Ed and I in our little kitchen with our aprons on ready to cook. 

Ed wearing his apron and chef's hat that I made him for a gift. 

This is a great pattern to use if you want to make a chef's hat. The pattern is in PDF format, so all you have to do is print it out and start sewing! Click here for the link.

A table set for two.  

I made tissue paper roses for napkin rings curtsey of Martha Stewart. 

Ed's sock monkey wine cosy is a home next to a small tea light and my orchid. 

I added paper roses to my potted orchid. This plant isn't in bloom right now - actually, you can't see any of it. I leave the support posts in the pot so I don't loose them. I was glad to spice them up with the roses. I think I'll even keep them there!

We started with a salad. 

I'm trying to take more "dramatic" shots....

Followed by the main course. 

Thanks to the Milwaukee Journal sentinel for our main course. We enjoyed tenderloin steaks, which we cooked using a cast iron skillet, but on the cooktop and in the oven, rosemary red potatoes, and sauteed vegetables. It was sure good. Here is the recipe if you'd like it.

Cheers! 

Time for desert! 

To end the meal, we just had to have something chocolate! Now, I'm not usually one for cake, but when I saw a recipe for Molten Lava Chocolate Cakes, I knew I just had to have them! Plus, we got a boatload of ramekins for our wedding and I wanted to put them to good use.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Strawberries and Cream

 I was trying to imitate the desert you use to be able to get from Olive Garden. They served this exact same thing, although I think that the cream sauce turned our a little different than the restaurant, but OH was it GOOD! Death by chocolate... I want to make these again so bad! And, the recipe makes four cakes, so we enjoyed this dessert again tonight!

Now this is the one Ed ate. As you can see, the chocolate is spilling out! Yummy!

Overall, Ed and I had a great night. After dinner, we ate our cakes while watching Up, an animated movie. It's such a cute movie about an elderly man who looses his wife and goes on an adventure. If you haven't seen it, you should really watch it with someone special. It's a sweet movie ; -)

That's all I've got for tonight. It feel good to be back at my blog. Who knows, maybe I'll do a little bit of backtracking, considering I haven't put anything up here since we were married!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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.