Valentine's Day Recap

As a general rule, SCL and I dislike romantic cliches, especially when it comes to Valentine's Day. No roses or sappy cards in our house. I like to think that we're a bit more creative in that department, so here's a recap of what our day looked like.

SCL was out of town for a conference the three days before V-Day, so I took the time to really clean our apartment from top to bottom. Then I braved the great outdoors to get some place mats, napkins, and a few other things to spruce up our apartment. Since moving in last July, we really haven't spent any money to make it feel homey, and I thought since we were making a delicious dinner for Valentine's Day, it would be a nice touch to add some love to our old, rickety, hand-me-down table.

Gift wise, we kept it non-traditional and went for things for the both of us rather than specific gifts for one another. SCL bought us tickets to see Chelsea Handler in March. This is my favorite kind of gift--time together doing something fun, something we wouldn't do as a regular date. And I bought us some kitchen things we didn't have, including (my favorite) a salad spinner! We love cooking, and having a few more of the right tools will hopefully make it even more enjoyable.

And dinner! This is something to write home about. We--really SCL--made the most delicious dinner of all time. We decided to make steak, which we made last year, but this time we took it to a new level of awesome. We got up early and hit up Costco for filet mignon (only $9.99 a pound there!) The price made it worth standing in line for about 30 minutes to check out. I don't know what it is about this Costco, but whenever we go, it's a total nightmare.

SCL prepared the steak with garlic butter, wrapped it in bacon, and served it with caramelized onions. We made more onions on the side, a simple salad, and fresh bread with more garlic butter. And, our favorite wine from Trader Joe's. Turned on the cheesy "Love Songs" channel on the TV and had a romantic, delicious dinner.

I'm a big proponent of spending Valentine's Day at home. Restaurants are nice, but they're crowded, expensive, and (hello!) cliche on V-Day. For a lot less cash, we made a delicious dinner together and got to enjoy it in our sweatpants, in our cozy apartment. We splurged on a food we normally don't buy, but we only spent $20! (We got four steaks and had them again yesterday.)

What do you think? Do you like going out for Valentine's Day? Or do you prefer dinner at home?