This past week I surprised my husband with a romantic dinner at home for Valentine’s Day. He is usually the one who takes me out for a date night during Valentine’s Day week, but I wanted to do something he wouldn’t expect: a steak dinner for two, completed with dessert and Starbucks coffee.
Compared to some couples, we aren’t big on the whole Valentine’s Day holiday, but there is always a few things that are certain. We have a Valentine themed dinner during the week with the kids, my husband takes me out for a date night (preferably not on Valentine’s Day), and we buy the kids a box of chocolates.
This year, I decided to do something completely unexpected for my husband: a romantic dinner at home.
To be the ultimate for my husband, it had to include three things that I knew he would love:
- Expensive Steaks: Well, more expensive than what we usually buy. He suggests buy nice steaks for just the two of us fairly often when we are grocery shopping and I generally ignore his request because it’s not in the budget.
- Our Patio: my husband LOVES our patio and feels we don’t spend enough time out on it.
- Dessert and Coffee: My husband *loves* to have both dessert and coffee after dinner, but we do this rarely and usually only if we are having dessert at a restaurant or if we have company over.
To get our romantic dinner at home started, I first did some shopping for everything we needed:
- Steaks
- Toppings for the steaks: blue cheese, mushrooms and onions
- Potatoes for Hasselback Potatoes
- Cauliflower for Oven Roasted Cauliflower
- Starbucks Caffè Verona: we’ve bought before and we would consider it to be one of our top favorites when it comes to Starbucks Dark coffees
- Turtle Iced Brownies: I wanted a dessert that would compliment the Caffè Verona perfectly and according to Starbucks, their dark coffee pairs with roasted nuts, caramelized sugar, and milk & dark chocolate flavors. This looked like a great match.
Back at home, I worked on creating a romantic table for our evening.
I typed up a short version of our love story and inserted the pages into a very mini photo album, which I found on clearance after Christmas. This Love Story book was tied closed with some white ribbon, which was then placed in the middle of the plates.
My tablecloth was fabric that I had on hand (bought on clearance at a fabric store) and the Valentine place mats and fabric napkins were bought at a thrift store. Even the Ikea silverware was also bought at a thrift store.
I thought my husband’s sweet tooth would appreciate some candy on the table…plus it looks pretty. I put the candies in my favorite Starbucks Ceramic Stacking Bowls that my daughter bought me for Christmas (when you stack them, they look just like a Starbucks hot cup).
My husband was so happy when he learned of our romantic dinner at home. He was extremely impressed with all the details, especially that it was being held on our patio.
He thought dinner was all I had planned, but you should have seen the guys face light up when I told him I had dessert AND coffee too. Seriously…he was excited. He loves to have coffee in the evening, but I’m usually not up for it because I don’t want the caffeine at night, so he tends to skip it too.
I made my husband and I both a cup of coffee — we both take our coffee with cream and sweetener (usually Splenda) — my husband drank his coffee in his Starbucks Valentine’s Day coffee mug I picked up for him a couple years ago.
It was a interesting experience pairing the Caffè Verona with the Turtle Iced Brownies. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the flavors of each item really complimented each other. Caffè Verona has a smooth sweetness and dark cocoa notes on it’s own without the brownie, so the rich chocolate brownie increased that flavor.
It was a special evening that we both enjoyed. We enjoyed our private time on the patio (with the kids tucked inside the house), chatted about the best love story ever (ours) and, most of all, created a new memory that I know we’ll always remember.
Do you ever have romantic dinners at home?
Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This #DeliciousPairings shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #cbias #SocialFabric
Patricia Cook says
I absolutely love this post!! How sweet and romantic your table looks, and what a great way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I am a big Starbucks lover too, and like the darker roast. I will have to try it with those yummy looking brownies 🙂
brandie says
Thank you, Patricia!
Jayna says
Wow, Your dinner looks amazing! Always wanted to try making a baked potato like that… Great job on the table setting, It looked awesome!