Surprise Dinner

I told you I would be cooking a surprise dinner for Steve, tonight. We celebrated Valentine's yesterday by getting Grandma-La to babysit and went out to lunch, then to Toys-R-Us to trade in a carseat for 25% off another piece of merchandise (got Sydney his high chair!!). By the way, did we enter a time warp yesterday that went back to Black Friday, or was everyone simply suffering from a serious case of cabin fever? I don't think I've ever seen that much traffic at the mall unless it was right before Christmas...

After getting his high chair, we nixed the plans to visit a few stores in the mall, and instead opted to go to Dunkin Donuts. Steve and I have this odd tradition - 2x a year, we get a dozen donuts. 6 apiece. We don't usually eat donuts at any other point. We go on his birthday (June) and again on New Year's. Well, I can tell you that my previous note about him being a picky eater is somewhat unfair. Ever since we got pregnant, he's suffered from more sympathy cravings than I ever did while pregnant! So, we got a dozen donuts yesterday, too. And they were fresh! Oh, so yummy...

Then, we stopped to get Snickerdoodle from Grandma-La. His rash comes and goes, but his face is, by far, much clearer than before. Unfortunately, his body is breaking out, bad. He looks like he should be Anna's child from 'V.' Instead of green scales, though, he's got serious cradle cap (broke out the Selsun Blue this evening) and red blotchy bumps all over his legs, arms, tummy, and back. And he's scratching. Even in his sleep, he scratches. Poor thing.

So, back to dinner - sorry if I made you lose your appetite. I made cornish hens that I marinated in orange juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic. I did take a page from Julia Childs and dried off the birds before rubbing them down with butter so they would brown nicely. And they did. Nice, crispy skin, tender meat, and a hint of citrus. Yum! I also sliced potatoes up and pan fried them with butter and salt, and made some fresh green beans. But dessert...oiy. Yum. I could eat the other two still in the fridge...I made a dark chocolate creme brulee. It really is more of a custard; there is no crunchy sugar on top, but holy cow was it rich, creamy, and ever so satisfying.

So, in the end, we had a truly nice weekend. I hope all my readers were able to relax, as well.