After becoming a mom, holidays give me anxiety. Even the little holidays, because I want everything to be perfect. I want my family to have the cute little holiday memories to look back on and say, “Yeah, Mom was super into holidays.” And I am. I want to do the most.
Instead of diamonds and champagne, I go for the cute packs of Valentine’s Day cards that you get from Walmart. Honestly, the more childish the better — extra points if it feels like a vintage illustration. I don’t know if this is kitsch or cozy, but it’s definitely a lane I am comfortable in.
But when it comes to making dinner, I am very much a diamonds-and-champagne kind of girl. Because you can appreciate gold-plated jewelry, but no one appreciates dry steak.
Subsequently, my husband doesn’t want steak. This year, he called for salmon, which we don’t usually have, and so it’s unexpected. And I’m going to be honest, I have stayed up late stressing over this dinner. Because I want to push myself in the kitchen with my cooking. I do not want to make an easy, palatable meal that’s impressive but approachable. No, I want to be experimental. I want to pick recipes that challenge me. Usually, I go for approachable but elevated, like butter noodles with fresh noodles, French butter, and pecorino cheese. But this is diamonds and champagne, food-wise. I want it to be special.
This has taken up the time I would have spent writing my usual content for the blog. And I’m not mad. I graciously accept the diversion. I came up with a Valentine’s Day dinner and included some other aspects of my Valentine’s Day that are not food-related but still applicable to my life. I’ve broken all of this down into three parts:
- Family-friendly gift ideas
- Menu — concepts, recipes, inspirations
- Movies and media
Family-Friendly Gift Ideas
I have been all over Pinterest looking for homemade gift ideas appropriate for a one-year-old. I decided I would do a handprint flower bouquet Valentine’s Day card. I think this will be really cute as a memento for the grandparents to have his fingerprints. I am excited about this one.
The second gift idea I was thinking about was making picture frames. Air-dry clay is having a moment, so I thought I would lean into that. Especially since this was last-minute, there was no way I was getting my pieces fired at a studio in time. It would be easier to get air-dry clay now and then replace it with glazed and fired pieces later.
Menu — Concept, Recipes, Inspiration
The Main
As I’ve said already, my husband asked for salmon, which I don’t mind because we don’t eat a lot of seafood, and I miss it. And while it is the main dish, I don’t want it to be the center of attention. The salmon would support the sides, which would maintain a sense of individuality in the meal. Not basic, just supportive.
The Sides
I have been loving smashed baby potatoes, which I’ve had twice for breakfast this week. They’re easy to make early in the day without losing too much crunch. As long as you don’t smash them too hard, you’ll be fine.
The Star of the Dinner
It’s a salad. I used a recipe from a salad cookbook I got from the library. My in-laws were actually laughing at me because I also checked out The Cake Bible. But that’s another story.
The cookbook I used for this salad recipe was called Very Good Salads. The people who wrote it own a falafel shop in Australia called Very Good Falafel. They make seasonal salads to serve with their falafels. One of the owners is an Iranian Jew and incorporates the history of his people into the food he makes. Reading the history made the food feel real, like someone had eaten it before. I know that goes without saying, but it helps to know that I can connect to another place and time in this way. I would definitely recommend this cookbook for that alone. Not only were the recipes unique, but the history was insightful and gave the book depth.
I made the winter citrus salad with kale, radicchio, and fennel. The dressing was simple enough, but the recipe called for olives. I hate olives. But I was recommended to try the Castelvetrano olive because it has a lighter olive taste. I tried it and fell in love with how buttery they tasted. I loved the olives so much that I used them in chicken salad for the week.
The Dessert
I know that for Valentine’s Day, anything chocolatey or strawberry-coated is obligatory. And I noticed a few of my favorite food creators making mousse this year. But between chocolate and strawberry, strawberry always wins. Although I still wanted to include chocolate somehow. I settled on the chocolate lava cake by Preppy Kitchen with a strawberry mousse instead of chocolate. But I could not find a recipe that I was happy with.
In order to make a fruit mousse, it’s recommended to use whipped cream instead of eggs, which wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted the chocolate mousse consistency and the strawberry flavor. I explored the idea of using strawberry fudge, but I got so overwhelmed with all of my activities. I ended up soaking strawberries in champagne and eating chocolate-covered strawberries with my family, and going to bed.
However, I did not make this for Valentine’s Day, but it is Valentine’s Day-related and a personal win for me. I made a strawberry cake using the cake recipe I developed for my son’s first birthday. I used a strawberry reduction instead of raw strawberries to give it a deeper flavor. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough strawberries to fully color the cake, so I had to use pink food dye.
For the frosting, I made a Neapolitan buttercream recipe that I found in The Cake Bible. The recipe called for egg yolks, which left me with a butter-yellow frosting. This was not the intended vibe of the cake. It looked like butter on a cake, which did not appeal to me. Since then, I’ve been experimenting with egg whites. I stumbled on the concept of using Swiss meringue buttercream while scrolling social media, so I plan to try that for my next cake.
Movies and Media
James and the Giant Peach
A week or two before Valentine’s Day, I saw that a local theater was putting on James and the Giant Peach through their children’s drama troupe. I took my mother and my son. It was my son’s first play, and I was so excited to take him. We got sandwiches and front-row seats. They had a section in the front for kids to lounge on beanbag chairs, which was helpful when my son got wiggly. The play was so cute. Most of the props were household items embellished with insect characteristics. They had various sizes of peach-colored umbrellas and shimmering blue scarves to represent the waves. You can always tell when an actor is really into the performance they are giving, and it always makes for a fun experience.
Wuthering Heights
When I saw the visuals for the Wuthering Heights movie, I knew I wanted to see it. But I had never read the book, and I wanted to know what I was getting into. I started the book at the beginning of February with the deadline of February 15th. By the time we pulled up to the theater, I had an hour left in the book, but in the realm of the movie, that didn’t matter. The book was not the love story promised in the movie and was actually a bit of a struggle for me to get through. The characters were either morbidly sad, childish, unfortunate, or all three. Though I would never entertain him in real life, I have a soft spot for Heathcliff, and I feel so bad for Cathy (Jr.). The movie takes the traumatic themes of the book and either glosses them over in egg white or romanticizes them completely under the guise of self-sacrifice and longing. Again, the visuals were stunning, and I stand by the fact that you can retell a story any way you want as long as you know how.
In the Mood for Love
Another movie my husband and I started watching was In the Mood for Love, which has been on my must-watch list for about two years now. We gushed over the cinematography, storytelling, the usage of the set, and the costumes. We stopped the movie every other scene to gush over the visuals, shot changes, transitions, etc. Before the movie started, there was an intro that talked about what went on during production. Apparently, there would be times when the actors would be acting without a script or directions, and they were told to do whatever felt natural. My husband and I made a little game out of trying to figure out which scenes had directions and which scenes didn’t. And when the two main characters walked down the stairway alley to get rice one at a time — that was sexy.
We got 20 minutes into the movie before our son had eaten the chocolate off his last strawberry and was getting fussy. So we put him to bed with the intention of coming back to it. I’m excited for that.
light & gather 
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