Saturday, February 14, 2009

Celebrating Valentine's Day


We had planned to go to a school dance this evening. Hubby was taking me to the Winter Formal at my beautiful high school. But gang warfare interfered. This week a Latino gang had a shootout in front of a local elementary school. A middle school student was killed and one of our high school students was wounded. The gang members go by the nickname F13 -- so the rumor mill was rife with retaliation reports scheduled for Friday the 13th. Extra police and even undercover cops were placed in three of the area high schools, including mine. The Winter Formal fell victim -- it was just too expensive to hire the needed security to protect the attendees.

So Hubby spent the day plumbing. In his little house around the corner he has opened a day care. Currently they have six tots and one certified woman who oversees all the action. Hubby makes sure the house passes inspections, of which there are many. This week some kid flushed something large down the toilet, so today Hubby spent the day snaking out the plumbing lines. He has exhausted himself in the process. So probably our NOT attending a formal dance was beneficial for him.

After 35 Valentines together, cards are just paper to recycle. Flowers die too soon. Don't need 'em, don't crave 'em. Diamonds would be nice, but in this economy? Think not. So instead, I boggied over to the local high-end grocery and bought -- meat! $110 worth of steak, roasts, and chops. Frankly, that's really not much meat. Two fillet mignons, one lovely chuck roast, two butterflied extra-thick pork chops, and one huge T-bone. That's what I got for $110. Well, the butcher threw in a special - with the fillet mignons he added in two lobster tails free. That tells you how expensive those steaks were!

For dinner I made Hubby's fav -- the butterflied pork chops. I floured and seasoned them, browned and crisped them in hot oil and then baked them along with a medium sized pan of home-made mac and cheese (made from a real white sauce, too). Added with some garlic bread and Hub's favorite ice cream we had quite a feast.

Cooking in the crock pot is the pot roast for Sunday's dinner. Simmering in the juices are pearl onions, tiny red potatoes, and baby carrots -- along with enough stock to make some fabulous gravy once everything has cooked (in about another five hours).
Our house smells absolutely delicious. One wants to bathe in the smell.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You think it's a sign of having arrived at a certain age when you prefer a slab of steak to a bunch of roses on Valentine's Day? :) Cos I'll tell you the same thing -- the steak wins anytime.