It's a Red, Red World Today

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

We really don't make a big deal about Valentines Day here at our house. Last week I told my husband that I wasn't getting him anything and he said "fine, it's only a retail marketing scheme to make you go out and spend. Agreed!

Having said that, I still tried to make the day a little more special by setting the table to reflect the day and made a yummy dinner.

I always use to watch a cooking show with a really great older man on it that would always whip up these great meals. The show was called the Urban Peasant. I even made some of these recipes and they turned out great. Anyway, on all of his shows he was always about simple good food and "using what you've got". He would always say that when making a recipe that if you didn't have what he was using he would always tell you an alternative and that to "use what you've got". To this day, that saying always rings in my mind. Not just for food and recipes, but for anything I am doing.

I didn't have any red dishes to put on the table or any valentine-ish things to put in the centre, so I hunted around the house and "used what I've got", and found a decanter with red and white on it with matching little glasses, some sexy bottles with red mix in them and arranged them on the table to make a pretty centrepiece. I had some valentines napkins and I filled little liquor glasses with smarties and placed them at each setting. My table runners had red in them, so the table was complete.



When the kids came home from school, they were thrilled and excited to see the table looking so pretty.

We had a great meal being together. Husband and I got some beautiful handmade cards and even though he said he wasn't going to get me anything.... he did come home with some beautiful smelling roses.

I hope everyone had a sweetheart of a day... and don't forget Use what you've got!!