I’ve been hearing a lot of negative comments this year about Valentine’s Day, but I have to admit that I really enjoy the holiday, mostly due to the fact that the hubs and I celebrate it a little more non-traditionally. We don’t make reservations at a fancy resturant, we don’t wear matching outfits, we don’t buy each other flowers and stuffed bears. We try our best to celebrate our love in a low key, yet romantic way.

Last year, we had a picnic in our soon-to-be-home, followed by a trip to IKEA and a home-cooked dinner while playing Star Trek scrabble. Awesome? I know.

This year, it was my turn. I decided to decorate the dining area in all things pink & red, and try my hand at both breakfast and dinner. It was a daunting task, but surprisingly a success! Granted, the hubs helped me a lot, but I was impressed with my growing abilities in the kitchen.

My gift to the hubs was a tattoo from our favorite shop, Ocho Placas. I had planned to surprise him with a trip to the tattoo parlor mid-day, but unfortunately, they are not opened on Sunday’s and our artist is currently on vacation in Milan (living the good life, eh?).  So those plans kind of fell through, but in order not to waste one second of a beautiful day, we quickly changed plans and had an impromptu photoshoot at a local field off the Florida Turnpike. And don’t fret, the tattoo has been scheduled for either this weekend or the next. All is well.

His gift to me was a beautiful multi-colored, heart-shaped Betsey Johnson watch. I had been eying it for months, so I was beyond thrilled to finally make it mine! The band needs some tightening, so I can’t wear it just yet, but you better believe I’ll be rocking that sucker in the very near future.

After we came back home post-photoshoot, I started on our pre-dinner snack: chocolate spoons! I used Hershey’s special dark and Lindt’s white coconut chocolates, along with a medley of small candies and sprinkles. Unfortunately, the white chocolate never set – we wondered if it was because of the coconut flakes? Either way, it was super simple and a really fun party treat I hope to use again in the near future. To see where I got the inspiration and for a full tutorial visit here.

Shortly after we stuffed our faces full of chocolate (seriously, we had chocolate all over our teeth and lips), we started on dinner: Potato gratin with cauliflower & cherry tomato and sirloin steak. For the gratin, I just replaced the flour with GF flour and it did the trick! The steak (manned by the hubs) was cooked as simple as possible: salt, pepper & pan seared smothered in butter. It was heavenly.

For dessert, I baked GF pink champagne cupcakes. It was the first time I had made GF cupcakes, so I was a little worried as to how they would taste. Thankfully, I worried for absolutely no reason. They were delicious. And oh-so-pink. Unfortunately, I think I got too excited and applied the home-made buttercream frosting a little early. It looked beautiful as I painstakingly squeezed it on, but then melted into a puddle of goo on the cuppies. Oh well. They still tasted fantastic! For the recipe I followed, click here (I opted for both pink cupcakes and frosting, of course).

We closed the night side by side on the couch, watching the Grammy’s, with sparkling pom cocktails in hand.

Our love is so rock steady.
I love you today, tomorrow & forever, baby.

Hope your Valentine’s Day celebration was just as memorable!