Happy Valentine's Day

On Saturday night, Brandon and I celebrated Valentine's Day. It was a good thing we celebrated early because tonight I have class until 8 pm (quiz included). We decided not to buy presents for each other and instead, we are taking a trip to Memphis at the end of the month. Cooking together was a good way to spend some quality time together without spending too much money.

After bowling, we hit up Kroger to decide what to make. We went to the grocery store with the idea of steak in mind but saw that ribs were on sale. Brandon was so excited when he saw them but I was intimidated. How in the world would we cook a piece of meat so large?  The decision was made a bit easier when we saw that there were thawed ribs for sale (because they are too large to defrost in the microwave!).  Then we called the King and Queen of the kitchen, Jim and Dana, for advice on cooking. Turns out these babies are super low maintenance. We just trimmed and seasoned the meat and set it in the oven at 275 for 1 hour. Then we lathered it up with Uncle Joe's bbq sauce (best. sauce. ever.) and cooked it for 1.5 more hours. Look at the final product:

So tender and juicy!

Brandon was very proud of his work.

We rounded out the meal with homemade mashed potatoes (a true accomplishment because we have been using instant potatoes a lot) and Heartland Blush. The evening started with a little bubbly, cheap tasty Champagne, my idea, because we needed to toast our engagement properly.

Absolutely delicious! For dessert, Brandon picked out this recipe for us to try. Brandon's favorite desserts are raspberry, but unfortunately, this time of year the berries in the grocery store are terrible! We found a semi-decent pint - but really it was rough. This dish also gave me a great excuse to finally use my microplane zester (thanks Brittany!).

Lemon zest + raspberries = winning! The end product was Raspberry Clafoutis (cla-foo-tee). So French!

We ate while watching the movie - In Time. The movie about a bunch of 25 year olds, which we got with our Family Video gift card.

What are you doing to celebrate?


Last year's celebration here