This is late for Valentine’s Day, but my husband has been home lately in the evening and has been cooking. Therefore, I haven’t, so I have been sitting back and enjoying the simple life (though not really because I have kids!) My Valentine’s story, though, goes a little something like this. Before leaving for work the evening before, my husband tells me that he is working Valentine’s Day morning and will be off in the evening. What?!! I didn’t plan anything. Ugh, holidays are so much work. I didn’t feel like searching for things to make, and I figured my experimental meals wouldn’t be romantic, so I cheated this week. My sister-in-law made a roast beef in the crock pot when we visited for Christmas. I knew my husband enjoyed it, and it seemed so simple when she told me how she made it. I texted her really quick and asked where she got the recipe. Come to find out, she didn’t have a recipe, she just threw everything in the crock pot. It did help that she told me to put the vegetables at the bottom, because I wouldn’t have known to do that. Also, she explained that she whisked beef stock and seasoning together to pour over everything. This was also helpful, because I wouldn’t have known to do that either. After throwing everything in, I set the crockpot to 7 hours on low. Actually, I set it to high, but then had to go back to double check my sister-in-law’s text and then changed it to low.
I then had to come up with a dessert. Mostly, though, it was for me and my daughter, since my husband doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth. I remembered seeing something on Facebook that involved cherries and chocolate, and it looked like something easy to make. I first made some brownies, then crushed them and made a coat over the cherries. Of course, I learned that I needed to dry the cherries, since the wetness made the brownies not stick.
After creating the base, I melted some white chocolate in a bowl over a boiling pot (a trick I learned watching pastry cooks in the kitchen). My daughter helped by dipping the cherries into it. It is not a clean process. When the dipping was done, we put everything to harden in the fridge.
About an hour before eating, I realized I had some brussel sprouts in my fridge, so I decided to roast those with garlic and butter in our handy little toaster oven.
When the brussel sprouts were done, we were finally ready to eat. The food was enjoyed by all. The kingdom rejoiced. Cupid played his trumpet. And we lived happily ever after.
