Seriously?: Happy Valentine's Day to us...

What a wonderful day Scott & I had yesterday! The monkeys are spending the weekend in Kansas City with Grandma & Papa, so we have the WHOLE WEEKEND FREE!

YIPPEE!!!!

We slept in, had an awesome brunch at Baileys, ran a to Borsheim's to pick up my ring that was being fixed, shopped at Whole Foods, which was insanely crowded. We thought maybe lots of people were cooking at home last night instead of going out. Scott spent TONS of time in the beer cooler, reading all the labels! We stopped by and said hi to my parents; my dad got out of the hospital yesterday, a great Valentine's Day present for my mom.

After the running about, we came home and took NAPS! Something we never get to do unless we snuggle down with one of the kiddos! Glorious!

A late dinner was next on the agenda. I had been planning the menu in my head all week. We had an awesome bottle of wine picked out and I wanted the meal to totally compliment the 2006 Newton Claret we would be sharing.

I decided to make crab cakes with this delicious Pink Lady Apple & Pear salsa we found at the market as a starter, lamb chops with a cherry & Port wine reduction sauce, sauteed spinach with roasted garlic and oven-roasted potatoes with herbs as our main. We chose a cheesecake with chocolate drizzled raspberries for dessert because I generally don't bake!

The meal was so yummy! I marinated the chops in garlic, rosemary and olive oil, then seared them off in a saute' pan with some really delicious European butter. The herbal cherry flavors of the Newton Claret totally grooved with the lamb...divine! I roasted the potatoes in a combination of the butter and olive oil until they were nice and crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The spinach was sauteed in a a roasted garlic olive oil. My mouth is watering just remembering...MMMMMM.

For dessert, I broke out a bottle of dessert wine I had been cellaring for quite some time. Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium 1999 Falkensteiner Hofberg Riesling Eiswein is a bottle I received when I worked in NYC. 1999 was a stellar year in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region of Germany and this wine could certainly stand up to 10 years in the bottle. It was no disappointment! Gorgeous aromas of honey, crisp sweet apple and zippy acidity had us both swooning. With a wine like this, there was really no need for dessert, but we managed to eat some cheesecake anyway!