Valentine's Day

Darby and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day. On Saturday, I made us a yummy dinner and served it on our china. We had prosciutto and fontina stuffed chicken, roasted potatoes with artichokes and feta, and homemade bread. The chicken was very good. For the recipe, click here. (I used a whole egg to dip it in, not just the white, and omitted the Dijon mustard.) You bread it with Saltine cracker crumbs and pan-fry it. I've never tried cracker crumbs as a breading before, and I really liked how much flavor they gave the chicken. I forgot to take a picture of dessert, but we had Dark Chocolate Soup with Cinnamon-Toasted Pound Cake Croutons. It was as rich as it sounds, and delicious! It was a little difficult for me to prepare dinner with my bad toe, but I did okay. I would chop a few things, then go lay down, stuff the chicken, then go lay down, etc. It took a while, but it was worth it.




Darby got me a very sweet card and a mini-box of Lindor truffles (my fave). I felt bad because I didn't have a card for him on Saturday morning. I had been intending to get one when I did my grocery shopping on Friday, but I ended up not going because of my foot. I normally make my own cards, but I have this tradition where I always buy Darby the same type of card for every occasion (one that folds out multiple times, has cartoons of animals dressed as humans, and rhymes). Anyway, he said he didn't care, but we went to the store on Saturday and I found a card that met the criteria. I would hate to break with tradition. :)

Our gift to each other was tickets to see Lord of the Dance on Monday night. Darby really likes Irish dancing, and we noticed back in December that Lord of the Dance was coming to the U of I in February, so we've been eagerly anticipating the show. It was really cool! Definitely one of my favorite dance shows ever. I like how the dancing is very skillful and athletic without being overtly sexual (for the most part--there was one dance in which the women stripped off their dresses and finished the dance in basically underwear...I could have done without that).

All in all, it was a great Valentine's Day. Darby and I have really gotten away from buying each other gifts, except at Christmas; instead, we spend the money to go out or go on a trip. For us, it's a lot better use of our money, and it saves us the stress of finding the "perfect" gift. Plus, it helps out in our quest to stay uncluttered. It's a win-win situation (or win-win-win, as Michael Scott would say).