Valentine's Day

It has been such a long time since Chris and I have been out on Valentine's Day! Usually by the time we paid for a babysitter, drove at least 3o minutes to get to a restaurant, paid for dinner, drove back home, it really wasn't worth the effort. We would have just as much fun hanging out with the kids and saving at least $100, than going out for dinner just because it was Valentine's. But this year was different..... at least we thought so.....
We can't drive 30 minutes to a restaurant! Impossible!!! It only takes 5 minutes to get to our one and only dining restaurant in town. Mersades is almost old enough to babysit for us. But just to be sure, we had a friend's daughter come help out. (You know how boys can be...) So far so good...Right? Now going to the Lupe (restaurant) it usually cost our whole family around $50 to eat. That's with drinks and the whole shebang. So we figured we would get by, with a nice meal, for around $30 to $40, at the very most. (That price would also include drinks.) Right???? Wrong....Unknown to us, this was a Valentine's wining and dining experience. One that we would never forget!
Now just a little extra before we get to the pictures.... I grew up in South Dakota. We ate meat and potatoes. Hardly had Mexican or Chinese....once in a while Italian...in the form of pizza or spaghetti....but nothing too crazy! We changed up our meals with a choice of steak, roast, or hamburger, and our potatoes were mashed or baked. You get the picture???? So now, this is what I faced at the table this Valentine's dinner......

Ok, so Chris maybe not that edible.......or maybe...... We will leave that alone! :-)
The first round... I wish I would have written what we were eating down, but that my have been a little tacky, Ya Think?!?!? I do know that it was shrimp, crab, some green thing, grass??, and a sauce. I did try everything!!!! I know family members.......get your jaws off the floor!!! Actually the crab wasn't that bad. Although I think my throat was swelling shut :-)

Second round......tomato soup with a heart shaped chunk of bread. Again, not bad, but I don't like soup.

Third round..... Some kind of mushroom sauce in a flaky pastry bowl shaped crust. Add a little tree, a red ball, and more sauce on the plate. What's with all the sauce. It just makes things mushy!!! Again I did try it...Yeah for me!!!

Fourth round...... The Main Course! Now when we get beef at home, it is a chunk of meat! Not .2222756348 oz. of meat. How does that fill you up?? Oh, and the potatoes....the three balls in the bottom right corner... And of course, more sauce! I will definitely be a toothpick by the time I get back to real food if I keep this up! Hmmm, maybe that isn't such a bad idea......

Now for desert!!! Presentation awesome! Looks like something I could have made :-) It was vanilla and cherry ice cream with a cake covering roof and again more sauce!!! I believe it was pistachio. This was ok, but I am really a plain Jane girl. Vanilla alone would have been just fine! But again, awesome presentation!

After dinner drink..... I will let you think what you want....

So for $75 I got a taste of crab, a taste of soup, a taste of pastry and mushroom, a taste of BEEF and potato, a taste of ice cream, and a taste of Chris......oops, sorry....TMI ;)

Seriously, it was a great evening! It was nice to talk to Chris without being interrupted, and thankfully no drinks were spilled! I was a great Valentine's Night!

Looking forward to next year,

Robin

PS Anyone want to give me a job as a restaurant critic????