Our First Valentine's Day

After being away from home on Valentine's weekend adopting a new kitten, I was excited to spend a quiet evening at home with my valentine. After exchanging our valentine's gifts, my husband and I decided to cook dinner together at home. We ran to a couple of stores picking up ingredients before starting in on one of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals. From past experience these 30 minute meals tend to take me between 2-3 hours so this would be an experience!

The cookbook I have had a nice romantic meal laid out start to finish so my husband and I each worked on different parts of the meal. I consulted my Martha Stewart cooking school book to know exactly how to prepare the rosemary for our Rosemary garlic potatoes while my husband got started on the Gorgonzola steak. After an hour of hard work mixed with trips upstairs to check on the baby kitten our dinner was completed. So only 60 minutes for the 30 minute meal!

My husband set the dining room table with our gorgeous candelabra, pink roses, and our red napkins and place mats. We ate by candle light and the food was delicious, especially the steak. I would say that our first gourmet meal cooking experience went amazingly well.

Sadly, I couldn't pay homage to Donna with pearls this time in the kitchen. Hopefully the diamonds will suffice.

Instructional Videos

My dear friend Autumn brought to my attention a website about men and women who live in different eras. I was intrigued so I checked out this site "Time Warp Wives". It is fantastic. I am especially enjoying the 1949 video "Cooking Terms". This is exactly what I need. I wonder if these are the films that taught Donna all she knows.

http://www.timewarpwiveshomekeeping.blogspot.com/

Butter and Onions

Every great recipe starts with butter and onions sauteing on the stove. This is the exact smell coming from my kitchen at this moment. Ironically, my husband just commented that it doesn't smell very good, more like "b.o." I disagree. The smell is amazing. And then adding all of the spices-cloves, basil, garlic-pow! The smell changes and is even better.

Still, I manage to make mistakes along the way. Although this time it is not my fault. The recipe calls for chopped carrots and celery but it fails to tell me when exactly to use the carrots and celery. Even so, I know this one will turn out right because my husband is cracking open a bottle of wine (or maybe he needs a little something to get through dinner) and the butter and onions...they were perfectly tender and brown.

If at first you don't succeed...

So I gave the whole cooking thing another try tonight. My dear husband was sitting in front of the television watching a basketball game while I was slaving away in the kitchen. I attempted to be a bit less formal this evening (the only pearls were the onions) and the cooking was more successful. When everything was ready I called my husband to the table and we enjoyed our meal together and he ate everything! What a relief. The inner Donna is working...or maybe it was just the nice people at Pasta Roni...Thanks for those boxed meals!

My Inner Donna Reed

As I embark upon my first year of marriage, I am striving to be the quintessential wife. My model for this? None other than Donna Reed. No other woman could keep her heels and pearls so beautiful while cooking fabulous dinners for her family and maintaining an impeccably clean home. The dilemma? I can't cook. Tonight I made my husband's favorite and when presenting the meal to him, the reaction of "I'm not hungry" said it all. Still, with Donna on my side, I will learn to cook, I will be clever, and yes I will vacuum in stilettos.