Valentine's Day

Money has been tight and time has been tighter, and Valentine's Day fell on a weekend, and we've promised all our non-promised weekends to our house renovations. . . .so that meant for Valentine's Day weekend we were home, and we were working. Friday night Shane cooked chicken and pastry for me (one of my favorites). I took time to create a table setting that even Sandra Lee would probably approve of for Valentine's Day -- a white tablecloth with clear vinyl placemats with multi-colored hearts and a little glitter for good measure, a centerpiece that was quickly pieced together from various little gifts and hand-me-downs, and 2 floating candles. . . .quick and simple, but festive -- and nice. So in between working upstairs and getting ready for my sister's baby shower and doing dishes and laundry, we dined.. .Saturday morning Shane brought me breakfast in bed, which was delicious, and he even color-coordinated the dishes on the tray with the tray. . . (am I a lucky girl or what to have a man who even notices???) We sanded, cleaned, and painted upstairs all day long Saturday. I took some steaks out to thaw early in the day. . . .I stopped around 5 or so and went downstairs -- took out the trusty laptop and began searching for recipes. One of our favorite movies is Chocolat, and we had joked about doing a chocolate feast for supper on Valentine's Day and watching the movie. . . .so I found recipe for a steak rub that contained...................yes, chocolate (and coffee and oregano and salt and pepper and cayenne and paprika. . . .) So I whipped that up and massaged the steaks well, stuck them back in the fridge. . . .then looked up a chocolate vinaigrette salad dressing Sandra Lee had made on Food Network. Unfortunately, it called for a pre-made balsamic vinaigrette dressing (which I happened NOT to have), so then I had to look for Rachael Ray's balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Well, when I finished I had a chocolate vinaigrette and it was actually very good! Now, I can't tell you that I added chocolate to the baked potatoes -- they were just butter and cheese, but I did spray them with olive oil and sprinkle them with sea salt before wrapping them in foil and baking them. . . .After we showered, we got a little dressed up. . . .then we lit the candles, listened to NorthPole radio, turned on the gas logs, and had a wonderful relaxing supper. We followed it up by watching Chocolat, snuggling on the sofa and ending on a very romantic note ;~}

No roses, no candy, no dinner reservations, no balloons, no pantyhose, no fighting the crowds at the restaurants, no standing in long lines, no chaos, no drama -- just Shane and me spending a beautiful, nice, quiet, private evening together. . . .

Dinner from the freezer/pantry $0.00
1 Valentine's Day card bought on sale $1.50
1 tablescape created from stuff on hand $0.00
Private showing of a romantic movie $0.00
A quiet, PRIVATE gourmet dinner with your handsome husband AND getting home renovations moving forward PRICELESS