Valentine Dinner 2020

 Dear Reader, first off I want to beg permission to make you throw up with a glut of pictures of my table. If your answer is "no thanks!", please click on that little x at the top right-hand corner, and I will go off to snivel quietly in the corner...But if you can hang on to the end, you'll get to hear all the latest goings-on in the family!

Seriously, folks, I took way too many pictures of the table, because I had way too much fun setting it. I just puttered, and arranged, and was overwhelmed with excitement and love for the people coming to eat at my table. Food, and it's presentation, is an outward expression of love for me...

 And this is the first year that I can remember that I didn't set the Valentine's table in red. This year just seemed like pink year. And it was fun mixing and matching all my different floral china.

 The small appetizer plates in the above picture, and the butter dish below, are from a set of 14 pieces I got at Goodwill for about $10 in all. I was so excited to wash them and put them out with my grandma Tommy's wedding china, and other oddball plates.

And to break up the monotony of china, I give you my one new Valentine decoration! I found the heart chalkboard at the Dollar Tree and figured it would be the perfect billboard for Squeaky to publish his romantic desires- he he!

 Here's the deal. I made three courses from scratch and I only got one food picture, and it was dessert. (So much weeping at the thought!) But I will include the few table shots I got. Below is my new butter dish, and a compound butter I molded into a heart-- awww!

 And Greek sweet peppers, a first time try for us, but they were good.

What?! Yep, more of the table. The pink theme was timely, because after I decided it, I found a $4 bouquet of pink carnations at Wal-mart. You know how I love carnations! They usually last three week for me. And do you see the delicate pink name cards? These are vintage beauties given to me by my sweet pal, Ms Beth. Thank you, sweetie! They were the exact color of the lace cloth. And remember when I spray painted candles because I couldn't find pink ones? Yep, we burned them to the nubs. The sweet little curved bone plates were used for bread.

 And now I'm gonna tell you about the meal, not just to torture you, but because I look back at these posts so I don't repeat table settings and recipes from year to year. This year I had the appetizer and dessert set from the beginning! The appetizer course was thinly sliced pork belly that my son Seth fried crisp. I put it on a bed of garlic Parmesan grits, with a smear of balsamic reduction glaze, and a small scoop of a slaw with green apples, slivered almonds and dried cherries in a honey and yogurt dressing. The plates were GORGEOUS! Why didn't I take a picture of it??!! But the best part was that it was crazy delicious. I know it's considered bad form to praise something you cook, but there it is!

The pepper from above were also for app course, along with small slices of crusty baguette, and a cheese tray with four cheeses: a smoked gouda, a blue, and two special ones from Aldi. One was a vegetable infused cheese with a powdered basil rind, it was yummy. The other is below, and I might have gotten it because it was in pink wax and heart-shaped- don't judge!! It was interesting. Instead of the sharp tartness I expected from the rhubarb, it was sweet and fruity. I kind of liked it.

 Like I say, I was excited about the first and last course, and completely uncaring about the main. Isn't that a bit normal for me? I did make two loaves of bread, and one was filled with roasted garlic and rosemary- yum! Seth suggested I make a simple pasta dish to go with it, and I agreed. I wasn't really planning on eating that anyway- ha! I started cooking the day before, but there was still the main course to be prepped and cooked right before everyone arrived. Seth came over early to help, and he is so much fun to have in the kitchen! If you know me, you know I don't like bunches of people in the kitchen when I'm cooking. I have been known to throw out a stiff arm, and a finger pointing AWAY. But Seth and I work seamlessly together, and I know I've said before that he has an amazing palate and  natural instinct for cooking. I trust him implicitly to taste things and either know that it is good, or what it needs. So last minute prep was a blast!

 My beloved peeps noshing about the table :). And you may notice a sweet addition. My beloved cousin Reid, his angel wife, Lewel, with their new baby, Ms Stella Blue. Her middle name is because at one point the doctor told them that she was the size of a blueberry. So Reid thought Blue should be her middle name. Isn't that sweet?

And now can we talk about this, please? This is a Chocolate Hazelnut Dacquoise. Chocolate and ground hazelnuts stirred into a meringue, and baked into three crisp layers, much like a Pavlova. Then layered with Nutella buttercream, and caramel whipped cream, and topped with chopped chocolate-covered hazelnuts. I'm breathless just writing that, and thinking about eating it! It was such a hit that there was nothing left! The other dessert was equally yummy. It was a Kahlua Cappuccino Creme Brulee. I made an individual one for each person, and they were all eaten up as well. I do love good eaters!

 Then we sat around the table and yakked. My youngest son and his wife (who are expecting my first grandbaby!!) have a bid in on a house. My middle son (Seth) and his wife are about to move into the house that they have been building here on the farm. My oldest son, Devin, just shaved off his beard and mustache, and his wife, Savannah, was having a hard time looking at him with a straight face! And my cousin and his family were in attendance. Reid was my best buddy as we were growing up, and we had the best of times. He married a lady with the sweetest soul, and things should have been just perfect. But they tried and tried for years to have a baby to complete their family. God answered prayers in December when Stella Blue was born!

She is the most precious little thing, and she was adored by all of us from the very instant she arrived.

And something that is extra special- most all of my Pop's family has now passed away, including his sister, Sharon. But, Reid is Sharon's son, and his baby was born on my Pop's birthday, December the 19th. How's that for a little gift from God? Here he is, holding his little birthday baby. He said he knew a good girl when he saw one, and she was pretty fine ;)

And when everyone had gone and I was tiredly, but contentedly, cleaning up, I realized that Will and Belle's baby will be born just five months after Stella! Someday soon my little grandson, Vincent William, will be playing with Stella, and our little family will have even more love to spread around the table. My heart just overflows...