Our 5th Valentine's Day

Last week we had two fancy meals; on Sunday it was the 5th anniversary of us as a couple, Tuesday was of course, Valentine's Day.  On both days Zak had to close at work, but we tried to make the most of it!  It's hard to believe it's already been 5 years, since so much has changed, mostly for the better!  We were originally going to spend the day together, get a couple's massage, but it was really difficult to get an appointment for the week, and plus Zak had to work.  So we decided to still do that, just at a later date, and just exchange small gifts and cards.

On Sunday I spent most of the day in the kitchen.  It was a bit of an 'off' day for me, I don't know why, but I kept making small mistakes or not thinking things through.  But nothing huge and disastrous happened, and everything did eventually work out in the end.  I started off with making lemon chiffon individual heart cakes.  I was dying to use my heart pan, but I was disappointed when the cakes didn't turn out as pretty as I hoped.  But they at least tasted good and I managed to save a few intact heart cakes for dessert, and whipped up some lemon whipped cream to place on top, yum!

cute, but a pain to get out of the pan, even though I sprayed it w/Pam!

The next recipe was pretty adventurous; I made sweet corn tamale cakes, a copycat recipe of the Cheesecake Factory's delicious appetizers.  My mom made them for us in December, and they were a huge hit, so I vowed to try them out myself soon.  The salsas and sauces went just fine, using the hand blender was a huge help, but the corn cakes themselves were a bit more challenging.  We don't have a food processor, so I tried pureeing the corn with the hand blender, and spent the next ten minutes picking up pieces of corn from the counters, floor, stove, etc.  But in the end, they turned out alright; Zak told me next time to just make them with little mini corn cakes on the side.  He really loves this recipe.  I also made us a really good garlic & brown sugar chicken dish with mashed potatoes.  Everything was delicious, and we were sufficiently full afterwards.

tamale cakes, so delicious!

table w/corn cakes

On actual Valentine's Day, Zak had one class, but it lasted about half an hour.  After I picked him up from school, he suggested we go out for breakfast.  We haven't been eating out for awhile, so it was a real treat!  We lucked out, it was about 10 in the morning, so the Breakfast Club wasn't super busy when we were there.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast; Zak had a big skillet-type platter, and I got 'french toast eggs benedict', delicious!  Stuffed, we lazed about at home for awhile, and I admired the beautiful, colorful rose bouquet Zak got for me.  Eventually, Zak had to go into work, which was a bummer, but gave me time to prepare dinner.

my favorite rose colors: peach, pink, pink-tipped white!

so pretty :)

I made chocolate covered strawberries as a surprise dessert.  I was so excited, I haven't really done them too much, and I wanted them to look really pretty.  About half way through I decided to do half with milk chocolate as the base, and the other with white chocolate.  They all turned out really well; Zak was super impressed, he kept telling me how beautiful they looked.  He said they could pass for professional, so that made me feel really good!

ready to go into the fridge

I made us each a plate, totally worth it!

As far as dinner went, it wasn't overly complicated.  I tried out another new recipe, it was called the 'hasselback' potato; it's supposedly a Swedish version of a baked potato.  That went alright, but I'll make some modifications for the future.  I bought steaks for dinner, as a treat, and cooked them on the George Foreman grill I've had for a few years.  I used a fancy rub we bought for them, and although I was nervous initially, they had just the right amount of flavor and deliciousness!

table set, ready for food!

yum!

Zak came home and we had a lovely dinner.  I really enjoyed making special dinners for us, rather than going out.  It's more personal, and romantic!  So that was our Valentine's & Sunday dinner for last week.  Next year we hope Zak won't have to work, but we'll see how it goes.  We have made it work before, and will continue to do so.  All in all, I would have to say this might have been the best Valentine's celebration so far!  I have such a great Valentine; Zak is a very wonderful husband and provider who always loves me and tells me so.  He is a bit of a goofball, but it only makes our lives more exciting!  He is always trying to make me smile or laugh, and is a great supporter of my dreams and wishes.

Oh, I begged Zak to take a nice picture with me to put up here, since 90% of my pictures involve food now (I'm really trying to make my recipe blog nicer).  They're not the best pictures of us, but you'll have to forgive us since we were super hungry and we took them before we ate!

take 1

take 2

Belated Valentine's Day Post

I know this is a week late, but I still wanted to write it.

Our Valentine's Day

I woke up early last Monday and starting work on breakfast. Since Zak didn't have to go in until 1, I thought we could have a nice, leisurely breakfast together. I started frying up bacon (splurge, yes), and cutting up strawberries (splurge number two, couldn't say no) and then got to the crepes. As I was about to get Zak up and start making them, I decided that I should make them pink. My family has a history of adding food dye to many holiday meals. Well, initially it started out as you know, green milk for St. Patrick's Day or pastel colored something for Easter. But then it got weirder and weirder and there have been reports of purple tuna sandwiches my father has made for Jenna. So I am just used to that and thought it would be fun. It was fun and breakfast was delicious. Especially considering the fact that strawberries, bananas and nutella make the ultimate crepe. Perfect.

Zak went into work at 1, at which point, I cleaned up a bit. For his gift, I got him some neat posters that I thought he'd like. And I had the cute idea of putting them up along the kitchen/dining room wall while he was at work, and taking down the previous pictures I had put up when we moved in. After that, I lazed around for a bit, got all pretty, and then started in on dinner. We decided on salmon, and the package for it had a recipe for honey-mustard sauce that I thought would be good. Except that the salmon was supposed to be broiled and the skin was still on half of it, so needless to say, I was a bit freaked out that it wouldn't work out right. The potatoes and broccoli were fine, but I was most worried about the fish, because I've only cooked fish like, one way before: on top of the stove, not in it.

Well, once Zak came home, we had a lovely candlelight dinner, on our traditional heart plates I've had for a few years. The fish was great, as was everything else. For dessert I tried a recipe that was like simplified bananas foster. It was essentially bananas caramelized in butter and brown sugar, drizzled with caramel sauce and topped with coconut flavored whipped cream. It was delicious but so, so rich. It was like, a once a year kind of dessert.

Zak got me a cute plush talking doll from Hallmark (Yoyo, of Hoops & Yoyo farme. They are brilliant). And this awesome print from the comic I love. It's called Extra Ordinary Comics, and it's just the cutest comic ever. I really love it. So I was thrilled, and put the print over the hamster cage so I can admire it all the day long. So we had a great Valentine's Day together, despite it being awful and snowy outside and Zak having to work. :)

all three posters

the print Zak got me, 'SPACE SHARK'

this is Yoyo :)