we pretend to be fancy

i'd first like to thank everyone who emailed, texted, and commented about my post asking for advice for our Valentine's Day dinner.

it turned wonderfully.

not only was the food excellent (not trying to toot my own horn but i was really proud of myself), but it was easy and stress free.

i transformed our coffee table into a fancy table setting.

i used a pink infused table cloth covered with a frilly burlap table runner. red placemats and pink napkins and we were all decked out for the night. 

For our appetizers we feasted on Artichoke-Parmesan Crostini, which took me all of 5 minutes to prepare. recipe found here.

i was extremely proud of how our main course turned out.

the Slow-Roasted Tomatoes were juicy and savory, and blended perfectly with the smooth and creamy Creamed Spinach. The star of the night however was the Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon. Not only had i never cooked a nice cut of meat before, but i was at a loss of where to even start. After researching a little bit, i found some tips to make the filet turn out how i wanted it to. The pepper and sea salt added a big kick to the flavor and it was rich and decadent and felt oh-so fancy.

recipes found here, here, and here.

to top off our night we had Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse for dessert. i was skeptical because there were some negative reviews online, but we were not disappointed. The mousse was smooth and silky, and i used 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder instead of  2 tablespoons, making the mousse less bittersweet and more creamy.

i made the mousse in the morning and let it chill all day in the fridge, adding a whole lot less stress when it came to cook everything else that night.

paired with chocolate covered strawberries, we were all chocolated out by the end of the night :)

recipe for the mousse found here.

look at how cute he is! we got all dressed up to sit on pillows on the floor. but i felt as if we were at a restaurant, but more private and secluded, and no waiting or ordering or anything like that.

we decided to make this a tradition of ours.

after dinner chin took me on a little tour to some special places of ours, where he had a poem written for each place. they were sweet, short, and funny, and it absolutely made my day.