I love fancy dinners in restaurants. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things. So why am I planning to cook dinner at home on Valentine’s Day? Especially since my darling husband would be more than happy to take me out to eat?
In my experience, Valentine’s Day is one of the worst days to go out to eat. Although Mothers Day is a also in the running.
The restaurants are crowded. Servers are usually overworked. There is often a limited “special” menu which is quite often not all that special. Although you wouldn’t know it by the price.
In recent years we’ve come to realize that we are better off having dinner at home on Valentine’s Day and saving the special restaurant meal for a less busy time.
This post may contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more here.
Our plan is to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Saturday. We’ll go out for lunch – probably in another town, just for something different. If the weather is nice we’ll check out Turner Falls but if it’s not warm enough, perhaps we’ll go see a movie.
And then I’ll cook a delicious dinner for us at home. David’s not a cook by any stretch of the imagination but he’s happy to help out in the kitchen. He can scrub and peel vegetables. And he’s great at keeping up with the dishes and such as I’m cooking. Besides, it’s just nice to have company while I’m cooking.
I’ll put some music on the stereo. We might take an occasional break to dance in the kitchen. David will open a bottle of wine for us to begin sipping while I cook.
And here is our “Perfect Valentine’s Day Dinner” menu:
Classic Wedge Salad – The perfect starter. Simple. Classic. Delicious.
Filet – Restaurant Style – I tried this method for cooking steaks a few years ago for the first time and it’s the ONLY way, as far as I’m concerned. We still grill hamburgers and hot dogs but I’ll probably never cook another steak on the grill. At least not filets. These are superb. We have an excellent old-fashioned meat market here in town and I’ve bought really good, hand-cut filets there many times.
Roasted Carrots – Usually I like to make whiskey-glazed carrots but with this meal I think simple is better.
Steakhouse Style Baked Potatoes – Again, simple and classic.
Crème Brûlée – Finally, dessert. This is David’s very favorite dessert. I haven’t made it myself before so I’m hopeful that I can pull it off!
David bought several bottles of French wine recently (a former employee now owns a liquor store specializing in wine) so we’ll enjoy one of those with our dinner. If you’re interested, leave me a comment and I’ll go find the name of the wine for you.
We’ll have coffee with our dessert. I bought David this stovetop espresso maker for Christmas:
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
And this milk frother:
He has really enjoyed making lattes and such with these. In general I’m more of a tea-drinker but I do enjoy a really well-made cup of coffee after a meal.
After dinner I think a romantic movie would be nice. We both loved Midnight in Paris and since I happen to own a copy of it, I think that will be a good choice. Besides, we have both been talking lately about how much we miss Paris.
I’ll pick up a bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne for us to sip during the movie.
And that is how we plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year. Do you have any plans? I’d love to hear about them. Leave me a comment.
Your Valentine’s dinner sounds perfect. We have never gone out to dinner on Valentine’s Day – same reasons as you! This year, I’m not sure what we’re going to do for dinner that night. Our son is coming home for the weekend (he’s away at school right now) and he and Brian are going to the Auto Show on Sunday. Who knows what time they’ll even be home. Not sure if I’ll be making a nice dinner for them.
I enjoy having a nice meal with my husband but our kids are important, too, right? A couple of years ago our son’s girlfriend broke up with him shortly before Valentine’s Day. He was heartbroken so of course we didn’t want to add to his pain. I had bought some Valentine clings for the front door but chose not to put them up. I fixed a nice, but not overly romantic dinner for the three of us. There’s always another night for romance. 🙂 I hope you have a nice visit with your son!
My hubby can cook, but he’s not an adventurous cook, and is often reluctant to try new recipes.
We went out to dinner on Valentine’s Day once… A triple date with my parents, and my brother and his now ex-wife. It was great that the resteraunt presented us women with a rose and a small box of chocolates each, and the “special” actually was, if you know what I mean. But it was so busy that it took forever to get served. Since then we’ve generally done our celebrating on a different day instead. We’re taking a bit of a rain check this year though, since I’m going away a few days after Valentine’s Day, so we’re busy arranging for that. We’ll do something nice when I get back.
I hope you have a fun time away and a nice dinner when you return. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂