Valentine's Day

I am a sucker, but I love Valentine's Day. I don't care if it is commercial or that people say it is stupid, I love it. What is wrong with showing people that you love them? I hope that we don't do it just one day a year, but I don't want to miss out on that one day.


I have toned down Valentine's Day a little. I used to buy all of the kids presents. This year, I just bought them for the little girls and sent cards to my big kids. I know that Justin "loved" getting a pink envelope with hearts all over it mailed to his office. I bet he got a little teasing about that, but hey, at least he knows I love him.


Pops is so good to me. I think I got a card in the mail almost everyday last week. I even got two this week. He made dinner reservations 4 weeks in advance. I love that. It is great to know that someone loves you and thinks about you all the time. He loves to surprise me with little things. He bought a Motown Valentine CD and had it playing in the car when I got in Saturday night.


We went to Blue Canyon in Rockwall. We had to park a mile away and I got horrible blisters on the bottom of my feet (3 inch heels are not made for hiking). Pops ordered his steak well done and it came out mooing, and he got it back after I had finished my meal. The waiter spilled Dr. Pepper in my lap. I stood in the rain waiting for him to pick me up since my now bare feet couldn't make it another mile back to the car.

But it was a great night in spite of it all.

I Really Did It

Last week, I said I was going to work on publishing a cookbook. I have most of my recipes already typed. The big challenge is that I want to have a picture with every recipe. So, one week has passed and I actually have made two things.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Cinnamon Sugar Amish Friendship Cake

I am making progress. Only about 98 more to go.

For GiGi & Jennifer

This is for GiGi, because I know she loves to see any pictures of her girls.

This is for Jennifer, because bedtime with Karsyn is SO frustrating for her. Lots of getting out of bed over and over again and lots of spankings.

Karsyn was at my house on Monday. Around 12:30, her regular nap time, she went upstairs, got her blanket, came back downstairs and laid down on the sofa and went to sleep.

Jennifer, it is SO easy, I don't know what the problem is. I didn't do anything. :)

If only bed time was this easy.

Sushi Is Deadly

Jordan is really sick. She has a double ear infection, ruptured ear drum and bronchitis. She doesn't know how she got so sick. I DO. Eating raw fish and eel will make you sick every time. That is why I don't eat sushi. You shouldn't either!

RA

Strange title, I know.

Thursday, I got to spend the day with my FAVORITE middle daughter Jordan. She had the day off from work, so we decided to go to Dallas. About a month ago, she was trying to win tickets to "Fleetwood Mac" on the radio, 100.3 Jack FM. She didn't win the tickets, but she won a $50 gift certificate to RA in "The Shops at Legacy".

Since sushi is one of her favorite foods, she was so excited and she invited me to go along. Let me give a small disclaimer here, I am NOT a fan of sushi, but I am a fan of Jordan. I was excited just to spend time with her. We headed to Plano after stopping in Dallas a couple of times.

I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at RA. I had no idea what it would be like, and I just assumed it was another restaurant tucked into a strip center. Wrong. It was beautiful and had a great patio. We sat outside since it was a great day.

We started off with "lobster spring rolls" and "crab cakes". They were great and I would go back just to get them. Most importantly, they were both cooked. I like my food cooked.

Jordan was thrilled with her salmon and scallop sushi and unaagi (eel). I have texture issues was not about to try any of them, even though the eel was cooked. It looked just like you had taken a eel and sliced through it, skin and all. It all looked very "rubbery" to me. She said it was great.

I had a "chicken teriyaki bento box". Not too impressive.

I am glad that we went at lunch. When reading other reviews, it looks like it is a "hot singles bar". I would definitely go back for the lobster roll and the crab cake. The price was great.

We had a $50 gift certificate and our meal totaled $50.61. A day with Jordan, priceless.

Goal For This Year - Cookbook

About 7 years ago, I made cookbooks for my family with all of my favorite recipes. I gave them to my sister, mother, sister-in-law, etc. for Christmas. It was good for me to have all of my favorites in one place so I didn't have to search my shelf of cookbooks for a certain recipe.

I have decided that I want to become just like Bree Van de Kamp (Desperate Housewives) and publish a cookbook. This weekend, I was reading a magazine and found a neat website that will publish your cookbook in a professional looking book. I am going to try to do this. I told myself that if I put in 5 recipes a day, I could get it done within at least a month. I'm not starting off very good. I have put 1 in since Saturday. Oh well.

The only glitch is that you can have a picture published with each recipe. That means, I have to cook each dish and take a picture. That is where the challenge comes in.

I think it will be fun, but it will probably take me til Christmas to finish. I think my family will enjoy the benefits of the cooking the most.

Nick & Sam's

I have been wanting to try Nick and Sam's for a long time, but I never think about it. I need to get a list going of all the restaurants I want to try. When I get in the mood for something new, my brain cops out and I can't think of anything. That is why when I read about a new place, we go that night.

I have to say that Nick and Sam's had the best steak I have had in a long time! The only other place that even comes close is Smith and Wollensky's, and they are several hundreds of miles away in Las Vegas.

I had the ribeye and it was so juicy, but the outside was charred with a nice crust and seasoned perfectly. They serve their steaks with their homemade steak sauce that was also great. For a girl that loves ketchup with her steak, that is saying a lot. There were a lot of steak choices with a huge price range. Their most expensive was $32 an ounce, with a 4 ounce minimum. I figure that is about $16 a bite. I can't imagine any steak worth that, but it would be interesting to try it.

The fun part is that we were with four other people, so we got to try lots of sides. We had the wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon. I would probably try a different salad next time. Their Nick and Sam's chopped salad has lobster in it. Yum!

Between courses, they brought out some caviar that was actually pretty good. We had broccoli, french fries, awesome creamed corn and lobster mac and cheese. It was all good, especially the fries. For dessert we had a molten chocolate cake and peach bread pudding with cinnamon ice cream.

I will definitely add this one to the special occasion list. We had a reservation at 7:00 and it was not very crowded. By the time we left around 9:30, the place was packed. The parking lot was full of Bentley's, Rolls' and Maserati's. I guess Dallas is not having a problem with the economic crisis.