Valentine's Day/President's Day Weekend

Happy Valentine's Day! This year our family gift giving included pretzels, cookies, and bean bags. I thoroughly enjoyed working on my various projects, was overjoyed to find a use for the stale beans in the pantry, and appreciated the beautiful flowers and delicious candy that were given to me. Because it landed on a weekday, our actual Valentine's Day celebrating was kept to a minimum. I didn't even fix breakfast because Wayne ate at the office that day. However, we did try special heart-shaped pasta for dinner, which had to be quick and simple so we could fulfill our assignment to clean the bathrooms at the church building that evening. 

Simple grilled swordfish and asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce made it fancy enough for a celebration dinner.

However, the next day, Wayne took the afternoon off, we went to the temple for an earlier-than-normal session, and then had a fancy dinner at Abe and Louie's in Boca Raton.

Tuna Tartare, House Salad, French Onion Soup, Prime Rib, Veal Chop, Potatoes au Gratin

We boxed up half of it to save room for dessert - Key Lime Pie. Wayne said their version is the best he's had since we moved to Florida, and I agree it was very delicious - sweet and tart, light and airy - yummy! And I took a picture of the empty plate just for Michelle.

We continued our little staycation by waking up early the next morning to watch the sunrise. That little trip - see more pictures here - resulted in more take-out boxes for the refrigerator.

Wayne tried the last omelet on the menu - next time he'll have pancakes or french toast!

Sunday was still a vacation, because although we had our normal church meetings and family phone calls, I didn't have to cook at all, only reheat leftovers. Oh, and take some dessert out of the freezer.

Monday morning we had another "fancy" breakfast, finishing off the last of the leftover Hollandaise Sauce and asparagus with our regular, boring yet still delicious, eggs. Then we headed off to enjoy the beautiful south Florida day.

The original Plan A for President's Day was going to be a visit to the beach. When rain was in the forecast, we moved to Plan B which was playing tennis at the city park. However, Monday morning was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, so we opted to go for Plan A and drove out to Ocean Ridge Hammock Park. Unfortunately, we didn't leave early enough, and other people had the same idea. The parking lot was full! So, we drove home, changed clothes, and went with Plan B. It was a beautiful day to play tennis. (And we left earlier, and found a parking space at the beach a few days later.)