Every year, girls are like, ‘This is the year I get diamonds!’ And guys are like, ‘This is the year I get a blowjob!’ Everybody’s disappointed.
Aisha Tyler
Valentine’s Day.
Throughout the years we have been a mixed bag when it comes to VDay. We have gone all out, when we were servers we worked because Hello?? VDay tips rock, and we have also gone low key.
One year I did the 14 days of Cupid. I sent Ninja 4 balloons on the 4th day, a CD with 12 sexy songs for the 12th, 6 gourmet cookies, 2 pictures of us, 14 adult fun “toys”, and so on. It was fun thinking up all the days, not that I can remember them now lol It’s funny, when I was doing it I thought, I’ll never forget this. But, then you do. That’s why everyone needs a blog to record this stuff!!!! 🙂
Another time I bought red and black silky fabric and made a harem tent in our bedroom with wine, balloons and chocolate strawberries.
When HBear was in preschool we made owls and butterflies out of old wallpaper sample books! That was the same year Ninja surprised me with an amazing overnight date in Kelowna, with the spa, chocolate shoes and roses!
In Kindergarten we did Bananas,
In Grade 1 we did Sticky hands,
Ninja surprised me one year with a Valentine week of “Olympics”! It was awesome. Everyday was a new “sport”. I got 4 tickets to the home opener of our local baseball team the Winnipeg Goldeyes. It was so cool. A limo picked us and my parents up and we watched the game on the patio while eating the best dinner at Hu’s on First. Another day was conditioning lol where a limo took me to get a fabulous massage. Golf was a new pull cart and on Valentines he got us a room at the Mariaggi, a theme hotel (take a look! Ninja proposed a few years later in the Jakarta Penthouse Suite!). We stayed in the Japan room with beautiful cherry blossoms everywhere. We had room service deliver us an amazing meal and then sat in the jacuzzi that was in the middle of the room with a huge tv playing the hockey game 🙂 He even gave me Trivial Pursuit for 1 of my daily “sports”.
Another time I sent him on a Valentine Scavenger Hunt around Winnipeg. I made beautiful cards sealed with Oiler stickers and distributed them around town. He got the first one which led him to the spa for a nice massage and the next card. It led him to a restaurant where I was waiting. We had a delicious dinner. I told him I had to go to the bathroom and to ask the server for the dessert menu. Really I paid the bill and left! The server brought him a rose and the next card. The next card told him to go to this yummy bakery, Baked Expectations and ask for a sexy dessert. They gave him a decadent prepaid chocolate cake and his next card. That card led him to our favourite Trivia Lounge at the Quality Inn. The card told him to ask the bartender for a shot of Southern Comfort. He received the shot and the next card with a hotel key that told him to bring the cake. He went upstairs to the hotel and I was waiting for him!
That is the year I made him a boudoir calendar lol. I know I told you about the snowmobiles but another crazy embarrassing photo was for September. I snuck onto the University campus in the evening and wearing only a bra, plaid skirt and knee highs a la Britney Spears, I perched precariously on my Professor’s lecturer at the front of my Biology auditorium. My WpgBesty was snapping pictures when we heard the Professor clear his throat and say, “ladies we have an exam in here now so please get dressed and get off my desk.”
Omg. My cheeks burn thinking of it.
Mom and I made a 5 course dinner for Ninja and Dad one year. (Warning: This was 5 years ago. Waaaay before this blog and my pictures were even worse back them lol)
1st Course Wine… Mom picked out a local blush to compliment seafood.
1st Course… Coconut Tiger Prawns with Spicy Orange Sauce.
1st Course… Thai Seared Scallops (in the glass)
2nd Course… Blasted Church OMG Sparkling Wine!! Just for the Hell of it 🙂
2nd Course… Camembert and Wine Soup with Garlic Croutons
3rd Course… Fennel and Pear Salad with Honey Dressing and Beet Hearts.
4th Course… Poached Lobster with Garlic Butter, Chateaubriand with Bernais Sauce, Red Wine Risotto, and Lemon Garlic Broccolini.
5th Course Special Coffee… Kahlua & Belgian Hot Chocolate infused with Coffee Beans.
5th Course… Belgian Chocolate Covered Strawberries with Whipped Amaretto Cream.
I remember 1 Valentine’s Day when Ninja decorated the whole living room like a private theatre. It had pillows, blankets, wine and chocolates. My kind of theatre! He bought Across the Universe and every time the movie said love, we had to spin a spinner that told us what to do, like a drinking game. Things like tell a reason why you love your partner. Awww
9 months later we had HBear.
One year I entered us in the best couple of Penticton photo contest. We came in second! We won a 2 night stay at the Watermark Resort in Osoyoos. It was so relaxing and nice. We went to the spa and our prize came with a restaurant credit so we ate very well.
9 months later we had SBean 🙂
This year we are making Vanilla Pudding Minion Valentines.
While I was at Walmart the other day I saw pudding on sale, 4-$1.00. I was like hmmmm what can we do with that? The next aisle I saw a minion.
Lightbulb!
I looked up vanilla pudding minion on Pinterest and Voila! I had already figured out the minion part but The Tiptoe Fairy helped with the wording 🙂
Minion Valentine
Need:
24 vanilla pudding Snack Packs
24 large google eyes
1 spool black ribbon
24 plastic spoons
3 sheets printable sticker paper
Glue tape
HBear signed all the stickers I had printed out. I just made a word/page document with 9 stickers per sheet. HBear picked the font and the colours. I used a paper cutter to cut them the size of the top of the pudding lid.
We cut the ribbons to fit around the pudding cup.
Using a glue tape we added glue to the ends and the middle of each ribbon.
Using the glue tape HBear added a google eye to the middle of each ribbon.
I slipped a spoon under each ribbon and we made a Valentine Minion Army 🙂 I was actually going to washi tape to attach the spoon and HBear suggested slipping it under, uhhhh yeah!
Every year we buy the girls a VDay book. This year SBean is getting Ollie’s Valentine by Olivier Dunrea (this is 1 in a wonderful series about a gosling named Gossie and her friends) and HBear is getting The Book with No Pictures by B.J Novak. If you haven’t read these books… why not????? The Book with No Pictures is AWESOME! Great for all ages, even adults 🙂
The other night we had Steak Frites. That’s a fancy term for Steak and Fries 🙂 The thing was Ninja was craving a good steak. But it had been snowing for DAAAAAYYYSSS. Ninja and Dad had been out shovelling every morning at 4am & I didn’t want either of them standing outside in the frigid -4 weather (sorry friends on the Prairies) and BBQing steaks. So, I attempted to use the stove. I have seen Chef Ramsay do it. I have heard it works.
I was VERY skeptical. I had tried once a long time ago. My WpgBesty and I lost a bet and had to make our friends a steak dinner. We had just moved out and we lived on the basement level so we didn’t have any outdoor space. Back them we didn’t call a balcony “outdoor space” though, we called it a balcony. We asked for a balcony every Christmas until we moved out. It became a standing joke with us and my Mom and Dad. Anyways, I called my Nana for a recipe. She was the best cook I knew so I thought I was in good hands. I ended up making my Nana’s Steak Diane.
Now, maybe that is good if done properly but I can tell you right now, it RUINED me for steaks not done on the BBQ.
Until now.
I tried, I tasted, I TOTALLY rocked it out of the park! These were good. They would have been great but I didn’t sear them long enough. I got chicken McFly 🙁 This would be a perfect dinner to impress that special someone on Valentine’s Day!
Not BBQ’ed Steaks
4 steaks of your choice
1/2 cup butter, divided
4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tablespoons thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 350.
Season your meat well with salt and pepper.
Place an oven proof pan on medium high-high. When it nice and hot, plop half the butter in. Add garlic, parsley and thyme and sauté for about 30 seconds.
Salt and pepper the one side of your steaks, place it seasoning side down into the pan and then add salt & pepper to the other side.
Let them sizzle for 3-4 minutes. Do NOT move them. You can spoon the butter on top of the steaks while they cook.
**I did NOT let them sear long enough! I got skittish but next time I will let them sizzle a bit longer :)**
Now, when you are ready, flip your steaks over, top them with remaining butter and keeping them in the same pan, throw them into your hot oven for 5 minutes.
Take them out of the oven, transfer them to a plate and cover them with foil. Let them rest for about 5 minutes.
* I also didn’t let them rest for the full 5 minutes. It is hard to do that and get the girls up to the table and the other dishes were ready and so on lol. Resting them will help with the blood pools (yuck).
