Some years ago (maybe even our first year together) Debbi and I stopped celebrating Valentine’s Day on the day itself. I think at first it had to do with me having ultimate frisbee scheduled for that night or something (which would have been a Tuesday or a Thursday, so it’s not like it was a weekend night). What we started doing was celebrating it (more or less) the day after.
One great thing about that is that restaurants aren’t nearly as crowded, and flowers are a lot cheaper!
This year I decided to cook dinner on the night itself. Specifically I knew Debbi had been craving “my” rice pilaf recipe (which is actually from Cook’s Illustrated), and I decided to try making chicken breasts with a grape-and-tarragon sauce. I had tried making this combination when visiting my Dad a number of years ago and I knew it was a lot to juggle, so this time I tried to make it less stressful by making the rice pilaf first, and letting it sit while I made the chicken.
It worked to the extent that it all went smoothly and mostly stress-free. It didn’t quite work optimally in that we didn’t eat until after 8 o’clock! But at least it was yummy.
After dinner we watched Lilo and Stitch, because I had a yen to see it again after hearing “Burning Love” at the end of a Storycorps story in the morning.
True to our tradition, we went out to dinner last night, going to our favorite Indian restaurant, Amber India, where we ate too much, as we usually do.
The day ended with a short rain shower, which we really need because of the drought we’re having. We could really use a lot more rain, though!