How We Spent V-Day

I woke up extra early this morning because I couldn't breathe and was incredibly uncomfortable. I have the onset of a cold or sinus infection and it's not pretty. I am really hoping that it is fleeting because the whole fam is headed to Penn State this weekend to see Christine Bean and for THON and I want to be in tip top condition!

Anyhow, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Did you celebrate?

Shaun and I had a low key evening...my favorite kind. We decided not to do gifts and instead just cards. Somehow, we both still had a similar candy idea though! Reese's Pieces for him and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for me :)

I love Reese's Pieces, but to me, nothing compares to a peanut butter cup...it's my all-time favorite candy! Conversely, Shaun doesn't like the 'fake' pb in pb cups, but loves the kind in Reese's Pieces. To each his own! I dug right into my peanut butter cups as a little appetizer :)

Shaun also picked up a pretty mixed bouqet of flowers for me and had some delicious red wine aerating for us by the time I arrived home from work. Love that man.

Instead of going out, we decided to go all out for dinner at home. Shaun picked up two porterhouse steaks and I left the cooking to him. After seasoning them with nothing but salt and pepper, he pan-seared them in butter in a cast-iron skillet and then finished them off in the oven for a few minutes. Bellissimo.

I was in charge of the side dishes. To get a little fancy, I decided to make classic mashed potatoes. So incredibly unhealthy, but so wonderfully delicious. I used my mom's recipe with a few tweaks; just a little less butter and half and half instead of heavy cream. No matter, they were still decadent, creamy and such a treat. The key to great mashed potatoes is lots of salt in the cooking water, cooking them until fall-apart tender, and then mashing them with a hand mixer/beater. Trust me on this one. They are so easy and so worth it!

I also roasted up some asparagus for some greenery.

We finally sat down for dinner around 8:15. The money shot:

Oh yeah. And yeah, I only ate like a third of that steak. It was ginormous!

For dessert, I picked up 2 oversized chocolate chocolate chip cookies from City Bakery in NYC.

I simply heated them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, topped with a scoop or two of light vanilla bean ice cream and finished them off with pink and red sprinkles for good measure. Gotta get with the holiday theme!

We tried to end the night with episode 1 of Homeland via On-Demand, however, Verizon wasn't digging our plans and we couldn't get it to work. We will have to try it again tonight! Instead we watched Castle from Monday night and an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My kinda Valentine's Day.

Questions of the Day:

How did you spend Valentine's Day? With a significant other? With your best girls?

Did you eat anything special? Or anything especially pink or red?

Comments

[Lindsay @ The Lean Green Bean]

did you know they're now making a reese's candybar??

[Christine]

Yumm those cookies look amazing! For Valentine's Day I spent the day running a rose sale and we made close to $1000 towards our THON total!! (there really is nothing like the feeling of raising money) I managed to snag myself a rose and received cookies from Mommy and Daddy, which I shared with my best friends for a really really nice Valentine's Day night

[Rachel]

Stine, that is A-mazing!! So happy that you had a great day. I cannot wait for THON this weekend!

[emily (a nutritionist eats)]

That was pretty much exactly how we WERE going to celebrate (steak, potatoes, veg) but I ended up working and didn't get home until 9 so I brought home salads and came home to a house lit with candles, a glass of wine and a really sweet card - it was PERFECT! (I still want steak soon though!) :)

[Rachel]

@Emily, that sounds wonderful! Yay for amazing husbands :)

@Lindsay, I did not know that! Will need to hunt those down asap!

[Lauren at Keep It Sweet]

I agree with you- pb cups over pieces, though I definitely do LIKE reese's pieces, too:-)

[amy @ fearless homemaker]

sounds like you had a lovely valentine's day! we had a low-key dinner, wine + sweets at home, too. it was perfect!