Joey and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary and wanted to do something really special. However, with Joey's layoff and the cuts at my company, we are counting pennies like everyone else. With that in mind a swanky dinner at Gary Danko was definitely out of the question. I remember Rachel Ray saying, "Nothing says 'I love you' more than a home cooked meal." On that note I am saying, "I love you" all the time, so how could I make this meal special? The menu was easy. I just saw Danny Boome's Hot Date episode so I knew what I wanted to make, but where would we eat?
We live in a very comfy apartment, but the only "dining table" we have is in the kitchen. We usually eat at our coffee table while watching TV. (Boy, that's romantic.) While I do love my kitchen it's about as sexy as a trip to grandma's house, so what was I going to do? Eureka! I am going to move my kitchen table to the living room. Heck, I am gay so naturally every light in my house has a dimmer switch - mood lighting was easy. iTunes would easily provide mood music. I could even stretch it to say the birds would add ambiance. My conundrum was what do to with that table? I decided to go to Ross and see what they had to offer. Oh, goodness, I LOVE a bargain. I found a tablecloth for $5.99; placemats and napkins for $3.99; and candles and candlesticks for $4.00! I even found some heart-shaped dishes for $2.99 each! Wow! All I needed was some flowers and I was good to go. (In all honestly, the flowers were my one extravagance at $15.00.) I set up my table and it looked beautiful.
For my meal, I chose something a bit fancier than our usual fair, but at the same time was easy and timely to make:
Filet Mignon
Potato Gratin
Pan-Fried Asparagus with Shallots
Molton Chocolate Baby Cakes
Well, our meal was a success. I managed to make "homecooked" sexy for the night. Honestly, I
could have made Kraft Mac & Cheese and it still would have been special. This really make me think - we don't need to go out to fancy restaurants to celebrate the special times of our life. With a little creativity and love, we can celebrate those times right at home. As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."
Happy Anniversary, Joey!
Thank you for five amazing years!
Here's to many, many more!
I love you!!!!
Congrats on 5 years! Way to go! And the blog post is awesome! Can't wait to try out the recipes.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Sean and Joey!
ReplyDelete5 magical years down and decades to go!
Much love and good wishes to you both.
Mary
how beautiful is that? *spoken in my best RRay voice* You did it up in my book!! Congrats to you both on 5 years. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on 5 years. My husband's romantic dinner would probably be take out, but he would get the flowers for me. That would be just fine with me.
ReplyDelete