Romantic meal

Today was a wonderful day!

I woke up thinking about how blessed I am to have a husband who teaches the older two kids math, who is such a hands-on dad, who takes care of all of the car and appliance maintenance, who provides so well for our family, among so many other things,  and who is also so hot!  ;)  I thought about how he has made me special meals for Valentine's day, but I have never done that expressly for him.  So, I decided I was going to make him a romantic meal this day!

So, after I jogged 4.4 miles and did the elliptical for 2.4 miles, I came home and found recipes that I thought would be fun to make.  

In the mean time, LMM was asked to babysit by her favorite client, she also got her ipod touch (thanks again, Pam, for helping her get a discount!) delivered, AND Baskin Robbins texted her to come in for an interview this Saturday at 10 AM.  She was so ecstatic today, which always makes me happy, too!  

So, anyways, I found several good recipes, and then set out to Twin Liquors and HEB.  I had never been to Twin Liquors before, but it was such a nice experience.  I needed some coffee liqueur for the dessert recipe, and I wanted some red wine to go with our steak.  It is so nice when you are given truly good customer service.  The manager showed me a good, cheap coffee liqueur that would work well for my recipe, and he pointed me to a mild, fruity red wine (which I asked for) to go with our steak.  Then, he told me about the importance of using a decanter to allow the wine to breathe and be bursting with flavor.

Anyways, here is what I prepared:

Mouth-Watering Stuffed Mushrooms

Tangy Cucumber and Avocado Salad

Delicata Delish

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak

Tiramisu Layer Cake

(All of which can be found on www.allrecipes.com

Rolls

Red wine

I set up a table upstairs in Stuart's office with a table cloth, colorful carnations, and a candle.  By the time Stuart came home, I was actually sweating from working so hard on our meal!  I told Katherine to serve the boys with the food leftover and make sure they went to bed by 8:30, while we enjoyed our meal.  I went on www.Pandora.com and had them play songs like Colbie Caillat, George Winston, Chick Corea, and Harry Connick, Jr. while we were eating.  Stuart liked everything I made, and we'll leave it at that. ;)  

It was so cute how the kids, esp Rockster, would peek in to see what we were doing.  We didn't let them do it more than a few times, but I liked for them to see that their old mom and dad can enjoy some quality time, too.  

I'm so glad for the inspiration I had to make this special dinner.  It was so worth the time and energy, and I feel fortunate that I had the time to do it!