Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Valentine's Day

We usually have a low key Valentine's Day, some candy, some Valentine's Day cards, and a homemade with love dinner. My husband did surprise me this year by putting cash into my card, I playfully accused him of tipping me like a floozy, but he said it was to buy my beekeeping supplies. Awwww. We never do gifts, so this was a nice surprise and so dinner was going to be dedicated to him. This year one of my beekeeping teachers gave me guanicale (pig cheek bacon) so I decided to make a carbonara, per Chef Jason Lord's suggestion, and my husband's favorite dessert, German Chocolate Cake. My dear friend CB shared her old family recipe for German Chocolate Cake, which the recipe will die with me, but let me just tell you I don't like coconut and I loved this cake, so did my husband. The leftovers went with him to work today. CB is my very favorite baker, you should check out her blog, Yeast Coast Baking (it has a great name, right?) And she is my go to for all my baking questions.

The cake took up my afternoon, especially since my kid decided he didn't want to take his afternoon nap. It was far from the most beautiful cake, this is what happens when a 3 year old helps, but like I said the taste was awesome and it was certainly made with love.


Dinner was done, the table was set, I had printed out fun Valentine's Day facts, poems, and pictures of old Valentine's cards, I put scratch tickets at each place setting so they could try and "get lucky", and my husband had said he would be home early so we could actually have Valentine's Day dinner together.
5:30 rolled around, the time we usually eat because of my kid, especially when he hasn't napped, and my husband was still not home. I called him and he promised he was leaving work shortly. Ah, the life of a general manager of a restaurant on Valentine's Day. We live about 35 minutes from work without traffic, with traffic it can take up to an 1 hour and a half. My kid and I went ahead and ate. My husband didn't arrive home until close to 7:00. The kid was already in bed and the carbonara had gone cold.


I talked to my husband while he ate the cold dinner, declining my offer to warm it up, and we ate dessert together.
We did spend the rest of the evening together watching tv in bed, my neuropathy was acting up after a long day on my feet. The dog and the cat also came up on the bed to cuddle for Valentine's Day. I fell asleep early. Holidays are hard with a husband who works in a restaurant, before our kid we would at least work them together, but now most of my holidays are spent celebrating with the kid, while my husband works hard to guarantee everyone else has a happy holiday. Remember when you are out eating and celebrating those serving you have loved ones missing out on celebrating with them.
I love you, honey.
Happy Valentine's Day!

4 comments:

  1. The cake looks great! Glad it was a hit!

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  2. Can we be blog friends and real friends? Also Ben made your mushroom polenta a million years ago and took pictures of it to send you but I think he is still working on getting the photos onto the computer.

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  3. Cdawg I didn't know you had a blog! Looks great! I can say I haven't taken the necklace you made me off since you gave it to me. I love it. How did it turn out? Are you two silently following my blog?! I would love to see the photos. Love you guys! Yes blog and real friends!

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  4. I just started the blog and am working on the store part. I am glad you like the necklace - I noticed it on your Christmas card too. It is really nice seeing people wearing my stuff. The polenta was really good, Ben is going to find the photos.

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