TBT + Are you celebrating Valentine's Day?

Though I love all things red and pink for Valentines Day, we typically don't do much for the occasion. Last week we had a date night and this weekend we will be snowmobiling with my sisters, future BIL, cousins, aunt and uncle. So probably not so romantic this year. For the last couple of years we've just made good steaks and enjoyed wine and dessert at home. That's a great Valentine's in my opinion! We were never into the big dinner out where restaurants are overcrowded and menu prices and jacked out the wazoo (is that a phrase?) just for this one day. Although last week's date night definitely gave me a hankering to go out for a nice dinner again soon :)

We also don't exchange gifts, save for cards and maybe a candy bar or two. This year, I have a few sweet valentine shirts for P and she'll be getting a Sofia the First toy mailbox filled with pocky, stickers and other trinkets (--->why are kids Valentine's treats so adorable? Curse you Target One Spot).

I also may be enjoying a brownie batter doughnut tomorrow in honor of the holiday. Just sayin'.

Do you celebrate Valentine's Day? What's your favorite way to celebrate?

tbt above: last year/cherry oatmeal cookies/blood orange loaf cake/cinnamon sugar pretzels/red velvet oreo cheesecakes

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?

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi there!

It's Valentine's Day, and so I got you a card.

Though this one is my own personal favorite:

To send your own zombie card, you may check out them out here. It's the obvious Valentine's Day choice, after all.

Tonight Shaun and I will be making steak and mashed potatoes for dinner and drinking a bottle of wine. And possibly even eating a few one of these:

I hope you all have a great day!

xo,

Rachel