Valentine's recap

Happy Monday to you all!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend, and a splendid February 14th whether it was celebrated as Valentines, Galentines, or Anna Howard Shaw Day.

Although R is self proclaimed "anti-vday" I am pretty much a holiday enthusiast, no matter the occasion. To me, Valentine's wasn't actually created by Hallmark and has some pretty neat origins. I also read somewhere that the romanticised version of St. Valentine (patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy) may have been inspired largely by Chaucer. I like that guy, I mean my second favourite party trick is still reciting the first 18 lines of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English (second only to rapping B.O.B. by Outkast). 

Moving on. 

Although I completely agree that the restaurants are overpriced and cards, candy and roses (my least favourite flower) are a bit cliche, I do feel that it's a very nice occasion to do something nice for your significant other or someone you think is super awesome to show they're appreciated. 

As the very wise saying goes, the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I think this year, I completely accomplished my mission. 

First up was dinner, where I made R's favourite dish: pizza with pepperoni and green peppers from SCRATCH*. Well, kind of. I made the dough, and had fresh mozzarella and pepperoni (prosciutto for me) but the sauce was 100% handmade by the lovely chefs at Tesco. It still turned out pretty amazing though. So much better than frozen pizza and much less greasy and chemical filled than Dominos. I call that a win. Actually, it's pretty quick too provided you plan ahead. I used this recipe for the dough which worked superbly. My only word of caution is that when it says to separate into 3 balls, each of these only makes something between a small and medium pizza. So if you're going for a med-large only make 2 balls.

Also- I read a lot of comments saying that the dough was hard to work with and wouldn't roll for them. That's solely because pizza dough isn't meant to be rolled. If your dough does easily roll out then it's not right. It's meant to be elastic and worked with. I worked through my undergrad at a local pizzeria (this one to be exact, go visit if you're ever in Montgomery, Alabama!) so I'm pretty much an expert.

For dessert I found a recipe that combined all of R's favourite desserts: brownies, red velvet cake, and cheesecake. While these could have turned out prettier, they could not have tasted better. The recipe can be found at Sally's Baking Addiction and seriously, that woman is a genius.

As for me? I received some beautiful flowers (and we were out of vases but I think I found a more than suitable replacement) and a lovely day of shopping without complaints and general togetherness. It was a pretty great day, and I even came out of it with a new stovetop coffee maker and coffee which may explain my perkiness the last two days (thanks to Nina for the great tutorial on how to use it!)

So how was your February 14th? Are you pro-celebrating or do you stick it to the man and protest?