Late Valentine's Day Date (and a couple loose recipes)

Guess what?

I'm currently sitting ALONE in my living room with a nice hot cup of joe, and sipping it s-l-o-w-l-y.

The kids are upstairs in bed with the hubby, and I am enjoying this time alone.

It's pure bliss.

Did I mention we got MORE freaking snow?!

We seriously got like another 6 inches on top of the 12 we got on Thursday!

Again, if you are praying for snow, please stop!

I'm certainly glad that Nick was home this time, cause my daughter was in pure heaven having someone to play with outside in the white stuff.

I mean seriously...Nick definitely "one up'ed" me (times a thousand) when not only does he go OUT in the snow with Dannika, but he lays down in it too?!?

She had to dig her little tricycle out of the snow.

I bet you couldn't tell by this picture that Nick hates the snow too.

Oh, and just to cross it off the bucket list, I stepped in the snow yesterday.

This is the first and last time this Winter.

It's been really nice having parent #2 around to take this little guy off my hands.

Every Saturday, we go to ballet class, and Mattis wants to be held for the entire hour that we are there.

Not only does he want to be held, but every once in a while, he demands that you stand up and bounce him vigorously until your arms feel like they're about to fall off.

It gets very tiring, very fast.

It was nice to give that responsibility to daddy for once.

Before we got slammed with the snow, we did manage to get out of the house!

We started our morning with breakfast at this little diner in Natick called "Station 5 Grille".

We headed to the mall afterwards to do some shopping....my favorite past time. :-)

Nick also wanted to take Dannika out for a Valentine's Day "day date", so we had lunch there too.

When I was deployed to Japan, I remember going to this adorable sushi place where you sat around the sushi bar, and plates of different kinds of sashimi and sushi were delivered to you via conveyor belt.

Each plate was color coded, and the price of the plate depended on the color of it.

We found a "conveyor belt sushi" place here in that Natick Mall called Wasabi.

It was totally nostalgic, and it took me back to Japan (except we were in a shopping mall in Massachusetts...but you know).

As the plates come around, if you see something you like, you take it off the belt.

At the end of your meal, the server takes your plates and adds up the total amount of your bill based on what color plates you have in front of you.

Pretty cool, huh?!

A date isn't a date without dessert.

Nick took Dannika to Crumbs cupcake shop in the mall for a devil's food cupcake.

And yes, that is a Princess Ana doll that my daughter insists has to go EVERYWHERE with us.

For our Valentine's Day date night, Nick and I decided to stay in and cook.

(I mean, even if we decided to go out, the snow would have prevented that).

We wanted alone time without the kids, so we put our son to bed at 7.

We got Dannika bathed and in her jammies, gave her a bowl of popcorn, and turned on Disney Jr. upstairs in our room.

We gave her strict instructions not to come downstairs...unless she was dying.

Her response was, "I KNOOOOOW mama! You and daddy are on a date...I KNOOOW!"

(I may have reminded her more than once not to come down....)

After it was just the two of us downstairs, it was pure uninterrupted bliss.

We sat down to an amazing glass of Rosé.

Homemade shrimp cocktail and raw brussel sprouts salad.

This brussel sprouts salad was amazing. 

I never thought of eating brussel sprouts raw in a salad form, but it was so good.

It has shaved brussel sprouts, shaved carrots, julienne green apple, and sliced scallions.

For the dressing, I whisked together 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup. 

My husband LOVED it.

For our main course, we had stuffed clam, filet mignon wrapped in bacon with sundried tomato butter, and roasted garlic and sundried tomato green beans with shallots.

The stuffed clam was the only thing not home made. 

I bought it at Whole Foods, and just popped it in the oven.

The filet mignon turned out amazing. 

I used sea salt and cracked pepper to season it, wrapped a slice of thing bacon around it, seared it for a minute on a hot pan on each side, and popped them in the oven at 450 degrees for 8 minutes.

They came out PERFECTLY medium.

The Sundried tomato butter on top of the filet was just unsalted butter, chopped sundried tomatoes, minced garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.

For the green beans, I cooked bacon until it was crispy, sauteed shallots in the bacon fat, and added the green beans.
I then added chopped roasted garlic (that I bought premade from the Whole Foods olive bar), and chopped sundried tomato.
I then put a lid over it, and let it steam a little.
Definitely nothing healthy about these dishes!
With as health conscious as we are in this house, we do like to indulge every once in a while for special occasions.

The night was perfect.
We enjoyed drinks.
We talked about life, love, kids, and work.
We laughed uncontrollably.
Having uninterrupted time alone without kids getting in the way really made me appreciate being married to my best friend.
It felt like we were the two 24 year olds that met 6 years ago on the rifle range just flirting with each other.
I can't wait till next Valentine's Day, my love!