Valentine’s was obviously different this year – that goes without saying. We’re used to dinner out at either a new, or well-loved restaurant with cocktails, and maybe a movie or a couple’s activity.
A lot of people will dismiss February 14th as a made-up Hallmark holiday, a capitalist nightmare, and drone on, we should love our partners every day of the year! That’s all true, of course. It’s a capitalist nightmare and yeah, you should be loving your partner every day of the year.
But I see Valentine’s Day as an excuse. We wouldn’t normally dress up and book a table for a restaurant on random nights, but after the agony that is every single January, it’s ideal to have an excuse to go out.
As said, however, going out wasn’t an option this year so we, like many other couples, made a fuss this past weekend with gifts and an amazing three course dinner at home.
We love having pancakes for breakfast, but they’re time consuming and not especially healthy so we reserve them for occasions. I enjoy cinnamon pancakes, and Matt likes them with chocolate spread, but to mark Valentine’s Day I figured I’d follow a red and white theme.
On Saturday morning I made my batter as normal (I call my pancakes Vanilla Thiccies ‘cause they’re full of vanilla and THICC) but added white chocolate chips.
While I was waiting for my pan to heat up and letting my batter rest, I sliced up strawberries and put them aside, and put spare chocolate chips into a ramekin. I cooked my pancakes and sprinkled extra white chocolate into pancakes that seemed lacking.
We decorated our own pancakes with more chips and strawberries, and I drizzled mine in maple syrup. I love how mine looked! They were so delicious. The strawberries seriously brightened the breakfast.
We spent the afternoon relaxing and cleaning the house to make it shiny for our date night at home. I also made some cookie dough to use later for dessert. Then, I made myself pretty and dressed myself up because, fuck it, I need an excuse to dress up even if I’m not going anywhere.
I wore New Look black skinny jeans with a New Look wrap body suit in a camel pink colour. I wore some fishnet tights (from Claire’s lol) underneath to add some ~*~edge~*~ to the outfit.
Before dinner, Matt made my favourite cocktail, a cosmopolitan. It’s been so long since we’ve had a cocktail, and I love that Matt really went for it. They were so tasty and beautiful!
We made ourselves a three-course dinner full of our favourites. I was in charge of our starter, and I made something that Matt loves – a goats cheese and caramelised red onion tart.
I’ve made this dish a few times, but I think this was the best iteration of it. We used a different kind of goats’ cheese which turned out so rich, gooey and creamy. Matt made some balsamic glaze to go over top. My only regret is not having some greens on the plate, which I think would have brightened the starter in terms of taste and visual, but we still really enjoyed it.
Matt oversees steaks – he’s really into the craft and art of steak and it totally pays off every time he cooks one. We prepped our chips earlier in the day and basted tender stem broccoli in the steaks’ garlic butter.
We went for fillet cuts this Valentine’s Day, and my boy outdid himself. This dinner was bloody amazing – the meat melted in my mouth and the chips were perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Between the main and dessert, we finished the bottle of red wine we had and made some more cocktails for the last course. Our cookie dough had been chilling for a few hours, so I broke off a few pieces, rolled them into rough balls and popped them in the oven.
I half baked them so that they were a little crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside and served with ice cream. Not a fantastic photo, but this was so delicious.
We spent the rest of the night relaxing together, and I couldn’t stop myself from giving Matt his gift early. I got him a few pieces of Himalayan pink rock salt that came with its own grater, which makes the salt super, super fine. He was so excited for this gift which made me so happy, and we can’t wait to use it when we cook our next big dinner.
The next day, which was actually Valentine’s Day, was much more relaxed. We made breakfast together and because I hadn’t had a McDonald’s breakfast in so long, I decided to make myself a sausage and egg muffin because I’d been craving one for aaaaaaages.
I’m so proud of my first attempt. Honestly, this was so tasty. I wanted to eat eight more. I didn’t care there and then about the possibility of clogging my arteries. I just wanted more breakfast sandwich.
We had a relaxing day; I baked the rest of our cookie dough and got nine cookies out of it. Matt got me flowers and they arrived in the afternoon – they’re gorgeous! We took it easy for the rest of the day and ended the night with a fun quiz with Matt’s family (we lost by a mile) with a Burger King, because we’d cooked all weekend and couldn’t be arsed with more dishes.
Obviously, we both would have loved to go out. We’ve been cooking so much and while it’s such a fun thing we love to do for and with each other, it gets a bit tiring and we definitely miss having a meal we haven’t cooked. But still, this was our fifth Valentine’s together, and it was so special. We had fun and tasty food, and I wouldn’t have changed anything.