Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to tell the special people in your life how much they mean to you. Growing up we always awoke to a lovely basket of goodies from the Valentine's Day Birdie - a fictional character that I'm pretty sure my parents made up. My sisters and I now live all over the country, but my parents still make that special effort to tell us how much they love us. Usually it's a silly card, or a pair of Valentine themed socks. This year my dad really surprised me with a lovely pair of earrings from a local jewelry maker, so lovely!
I love surprises, but Cameron will tell you that I'm nearly impossible to surprise. If I suspect a surprise then I go all detective mode and try to sniff it out. Thing is, I love to be the Surpriser more than I like being the Surprisee. Cameron has class all day on Mondays so I made up my mind weeks ago that I would set up a Valentine's Day celebration for him to come home to. A little help from Michael's, Trader Joe's, and Jamie Oliver and a nice, yet affordable surprise was underway.
I didn't snap as many pictures as I should have, but the spread included a plethora of construction paper hearts and heart mobiles, a lovely cheese plate that included Cam's favorite pâte (which I shaped into a heart), and of course flowers and chocolates. The main course was a spin on Cameron's favorite dish of all-time, Beef Wellington. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook has a recipe for Ground Beef Wellington, which is much more affordable than the classic dish because it replaces the filet mignon with ground beef and doesn't include the pâte, which was okay with me because Cameron prefers it as an appetizer anyway. For dessert I made another favorite, red velvet cake. Everything was delicious and Cameron was completely surprised (and sated). Success!
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| This was only HALF of it, and again, should've snapped a better pic. but you get the idea |
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