Baileys Chocolate Espresso Martini
February 9, 2024
Dirty Chai Martini
February 28, 2024
This year, we celebrated a very nice, low-key Valentine’s Day with a dinner at home. I have to be honest – I don’t really view Valentine’s Day as a real holiday worthy of elaborate gifts; however, I do love to use it as an excuse to put together some fun décor and eat a delicious meal.
Personally, I never want to go out to eat on Valentine’s Day. It’s always such a hassle to get a reservation somewhere and restaurants often have a more expensive tasting menu, plus the staff is usually overwhelmed by a packed restaurant. It just seems to me that my dining experiences are always much better when they take place any other day than a busy holiday.
I do totally understand that some people don’t want to have to cook their own meal on Valentine’s Day, but for me it’s a fun reason to get creative and put together a very simple, yet stunning meal.
Dinner Details:
- I was at Trader Joe’s a few days before and found some delicious-looking ready-to-bake pizza dough. I threw it in my cart along with some pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil. It was so easy to assemble a homemade margherita pizza with the ingredients and took about 8 minutes to bake.
- I also wanted to add a salad to the mix to make the meal feel a little healthier. I sauteed my own croutons using roasted tomato and parmesan focaccia from Trader Joe’s and added them to a bed of arugula tossed in salt, pepper, olive oil and parmesan, along with some chopped tomatoes and red onion. To top it off, I mixed up a balsamic vinaigrette using just balsamic vinegar, olive oil and honey.
- To accompany the meal, we enjoyed a bottle of Italian red wine from our latest Wall Street Journal Wine shipment.
Décor Details:
- Over the past few weeks, I held onto a couple empty champagne and wine bottles that I thought would look pretty on the table. My original plan was to put candles in the bottles, but the ones I had did not fit correctly. Instead, I used the roses from the bouquet that Kyle got me (thankfully early) and arranged them in the bottles.
- I recently got these glass candlestick holders from Amazon, as well as these white taper candles. I simply arranged a few candles in the holders around the bottles for a romantic glow.
- My linen table runner is also from Amazon.
- All of my serving and glassware is from Crate and Barrel, including the wine glasses, water glasses, dinner plates, wine decanter and lazy susan.
- My gold utensils and black cloth napkins are from Target.
It doesn’t take much to fill our small space and dining room table! I also made a setup video and IG highlight with all of the details of the dinner and tablescape. I hope this serves as some simple inspiration for a chill V-day celebration!
