Monday, February 18, 2008

Show Me The Love!







This past Sunday, we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day (or as much as we celebrate Vday). The way to KJ's heart has always and will always be through his stomach. KJ loves a good meal and I have always loved cooking for him because he appreciates it so much. The one thing he loves the most is a good steak and mashed potato dinner. In fact, almost every time we go out to eat (and his parents are paying -ha ha!) he will order steak and potatoes. He just loves it. I have never been a big steak fan. I am not a huge red meat fan period but steak least of all. I am not sure why. I also do not really care for mashed potatoes. I am not a big fan of that mushy texture and therefore don't like pudding or anything with that texture. (I am weird, I know) All that being the case, I have never made steak before and only made mashed potatoes once! So to really show KJ how much I love and appreciate him, I decided to make him his favorite meal of steak and mashed potatoes. (As a disclaimer, this meal did absolutely nothing to help with our weight loss goals for the year but it was a wonderful special occasion dinner!)
Luckily, my new favorite blogger, The Pioneer Woman, had done a whole series on making just this dinner for Valentine's Day and I decided to follow her recipes. I had so much success with the Super Bowl, I figured I could not go wrong. So I made her Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Pan Fried Ribeye steak, buttery thyme bread, and chocolate pie. It was all phenomenal! KJ said it was by far the best meal I have ever made and was on par with any restaurant steak and potatoes. In fact he said the potatoes were the best he ever had and thought the steak was every bit as good as Calhoun's steaks! He wants this dinner for his birthday, Father's Day, our anniversary, and any other special occasion that warrants it. He loved it! It was a success and I had one happy man on my hands. I even thought the steak was really good. It is the first steak that I have ever really liked and would be happy to make again (and the steak was easy.). My friend Jennifer had made the steak for her hubby and they both liked it but she warned me that it took a lot longer to cook than it did for the Pioneer Woman. Pioneer Woman either likes hers bloody or their steak was a lot thinner than ours. Mine was about 2 inches think and I cooked it to medium rare and it was perfect. The pie was wonderful too. I much prefer a cake to a pie (it is again a texture thing, the pie kind of has that mushy texture in the middle) but KJ much prefers a pie, so tonight, a pie it was. Again, it was phenomenal. I totally nailed Valentine's Day this year!
For the kids, I made a second dinner (something I never do). I wanted them to have a favorite too so I made HJ's favorite of tacos. Therefore, last night everyone was super happy with dinner and there were no complaints. (A bonus gift for me!)
KJ nailed Valentine's Day by finishing a project that I have wanted finished really bad. He made it possible for my car to fit in the garage! He worked all afternoon, showing me the love, and now I can park in the garage too. I am so excited! What a wonderful Sunday!

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