Our Valentine's Day

We had a fun Valentine's Day! I made Chris breakfast and lunch to take to work. When Chris arrived home, he presented me with one long-stemmed rose (my favorite for Valentine's Day because it is simple and beautiful). Then we exchanged little gifts. Hallie received an Elmo and Cookie Monster book, fruit snacks, and Elmo hair clips (all from the dollar section at Target). I purchased Chris an Ella Fitgerald cd. Chris presented me with a new Scrabble board and a gift card to Starbuck's. His gifts were so thoughtful because we love to do those things together. Scrabble is a great weeknight date after Hallie goes to bed. Our absolute favorite date as of late includes going to Barnes and Noble, ordering hot chocolate at Starbuck's and wandering the store together talking and perusing books. We loved this date so much we did it two times in a row!

I had a special dinner planned for Chris. For our first course we had a swiss cheese fondue. I have attached the recipe. I substuted white grape juice for the wine and cranberry cider for the cherry kirsch since we don't purchase or consume alcohol. For dipping we had sourdough bread, steamed carrots, bartlett pears, granny smith apples, and summer sausage. It was delicious-- too delicious! We were so stuffed we couldn't eat the rest of the meal. In the future, we will do fondue as the main course. (Also, I will actually purchase a fondue pot instead of trying to keep it warm with tealight candles). The rest of the meal was supposed to be: strawberries and field green salad with sesame seed dressing (I cut the strawberries to look like hearts), New York strip steak in peppercorn marinade, twice-baked potatoes, garlic breadsticks (shaped like Cupid's hearts and arrows), and butterfly coconut shrimp. The dessert was chocolate-covered strawberries and crème brûlée. Crème brûlée is special to us because we ordered it for the first time at "The Tavern on the Green" in Central Park (New York City) in 2002. We did eat our dessert (I will try a different crème brûlée recipe in the future because I thought this one was too "eggy"). We will finish consuming the rest of our meal over the next several days.

Chris' sweet mom is coming over tonight to watch Hallie for us. Even though she lives an hour away she has been so generous to donate her time driving here, staying with Hallie, and sleeping on our crummy blow-up air mattress.

Here Hallie and I enjoy our Valentine's gifts.