Our Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was really fun this year. Growing up, my mom always would celebrate each holiday with a little gift basket (that always included a stuffed animal) for Kristy and me. I want to keep that tradition alive for my kids. They were really excited to get their baskets and played with them all morning. Ty did get a stuffed animal...next year he'll get a basket don't worry! We had a pancake breakfast and then went to their favorite park in Surfside. I wanted to do something special for Avery so I decided to have a romantic dinner on the patio after the kids went to bed. So after a lot of thought, I came up with a special menu. The 1st course was lamb chops because we both LOVE them. I asked Avery to grill them for a couple minutes on each side. He looked at me weird and was like "Are you SURE you want me to grill them?" I said, "Yeah it will be fine" ....here's the thing; we have an "illegal" grill on our patio that I snuck up last Father's Day and I swear this thing knows it's not supposed to be on our property because basically every time we grill on it, it burns the food. So as I was finishing up making our main course, Avery rushes in with a plate of charred (and I mean charred) lamb chops and says the grill was flaming up so high he was seriously getting nervous. Oh well...we got a couple good bites in. The main course was seriously good though. You all know I love to cook and I was proud of this one. I made spaghetti and clam sauce. Real clams in the shells and all. I made garlic bread smothered in smashed garlic, herbs, and a stick of butter too. Growing up, my grandfather and I used to both love spaghetti and clams. We would go to a little hole-in-the wall, Italian kitchen to get it. Anyways, Avery loved it. For dessert, I made chocolate mousse. We ate with rose pedals and little candles all around. It was an awesome dinner.