Our Valentines Day

Since Valentines landed on a Sunday this year we spent the entire day together, it was perfect. We went to the early service in church then headed over to the theaters to watch the new movie Valentines Day. We really enjoyed the movie as it had so many famous people in it. We then headed to the grocery store to pick up all of the ingredients for our dinner that night!
It has become a tradition that for Valentines Day we always make a delicious home made meal as our gift to each other! (Here were our meals from 2009 and 2008/2007) I love that we don't bother dealing with crowds and reservations by going out to dinner, but instead have lots of quality time spent at home.

Whenever we go out to nice dinners, usually stuffed mushrooms is our appetizer of choice. This was our first time making them ourselves, and it was SO EASY and delicious. Without a doubt we are making these again in the near future! Here is the recipe!

Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- 1 pound medium fresh mushrooms
- 4 Bacon slices diced
- 1/2 cup minced onion, or use part green onion
- 2 tablespoons Minced fresh green pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Pepper
- 3 ounces Cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs, plain
- 1/4 cup Hot water

Preparation:
1) Clean mushrooms, remove and chop stems; set aside.
2) Fry bacon in a heavy skillet. Remove with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain. In bacon drippings, saute onion, green pepper, and chopped mushroom stems until tender; drain. Add salt and pepper.
3) Soften cream cheese; blend in cooked bacon and vegetables. Press mixture firmly into mushroom caps, mounding a bit. Place bread crumbs in a small bowl. Turn filled mushroom caps upside down and press gently in the bread crumbs to coat tops. Place in a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking dish. Add hot water to pan and bake, uncovered, 20 to 25 minutes at 325 degrees.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen stuffed mushrooms. ** Now we only got a pack of 6 large stuffing mushrooms and it fit inside those. SO the 2 1/2 dozen that the recipe calls for must be SMALL**

Next was making the garlic mashed potatoes! Again Kyle and I had NEVER made home made mashed potatoes in our house-- sadly, we always do instant! They were very very good! Here is the recipe:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes Ingredients:
- 3 medium baking potatoes peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon (or more) whole milk, at room temperature or warmed
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
1) In a medium saucepan, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and return them to the saucepan.
2) Add the butter, sour cream and garlic. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or the back of a fork until the ingredients are blended. Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the potatoes are the desired consistency. Taste and add salt and pepper, if needed.

Lastly were the filets! Kyle cooked them perfectly! Here is the recipe that we used:

Filet Oscar Ingredients:
- Filet Mignon
- 8 Asparagus spears
- Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 lb lump Crab meat (fresh if possible)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Bearnaise Sauce (we decided to just pick this up in a jar... not make it ourselves!)

Directions
1) Season the Filets with pepper. You should not salt a filet before cooking as salt draws the juice out of meat.
2) You can grill the Filets over Med-High heat or saute them. 4 min. per side for Med-Rare.
3) While the Filets are cooking: roll asparagus in Parmesan cheese, then bake asparagus crispy.
4) Heat the crab meat and Bearnaise Sauce.
5) To plate: Season the Filet with Sea Salt , put Filet on plate, top with 2 ounces crab per Filet, 2 asparagus spears and 2 ounces Bearnaise Sauce.

Such a delicious meal and wonderful way to spend Valentines Day together. We hope you all had wonderful Valentines Days spent with the ones you love!