Recently, we had another couple over to have a double date sort of thing at home. We are always looking for ways to make the night unique, keeping life fun as we stay in to save $. We decided to have a picnic at home. When our guests arrived, we had the following prepped…

A blanket and pillows spread out on the patio floor with candles. I know, I know it sounds kinky – GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER! In the center we set up the fondu set with meats, veggies, fruits, cheeses and wine. Careful: pillows + candles = good times? My fireman brother-in-law would think – not.

Seriously though, just sitting somewhere other than the dinning room table, not in chairs, under the stars really created a unique magical night just by sitting on the ground.

So the real date night idea here is to eat in another room in your home, outside, on the floor or somewhere different than the ‘usual.’ I think if you mentioned this idea or surprised your loved one with it, they would think it was pretty cool and special.

Here was the menu that night:

• Steak
• Mushrooms
• Chicken *see note below
• Carrots
• Onion
• Raspberries
• Dark Chocolate
• 2 different types of cheese
• Olive Loaf
• Wine

Here is what we learned NOT to do:

Don’t do chicken with fondu – too scary!

What do you think? Will you try it or have you tried this already?

We swear we followed the directions. 

One of our favorite restaurants is in Denver Colorado called Vesta Dipping Grill.  Not only do they have a wide selection of proteins; seared tuna, grilled lamb, smoked duck, of course chicken, and my favorite madras grilled venison.  They have vegetarian choices as well. *suppress yawn* 

What makes Vesta Dipping Grill unique however is, you guessed it, the dipping.  My G’d the dipping.

To accompany your entrée you select three dipping sauces from over 36 dipping sauces (37) in three categories: Sweet, Savory, Spicy with names like Blake St. BBQ, Wasabi Cream Sauce, Steuben’s Chimichurri. 

Each dipping sauce, and they make pairing suggestions for you if you’d like, creates a completely unique experience for every bite. Many times the dipping changes your meal into a completely new dish.

The reason we bring this up is because one dipping sauce stood out from the rest.  The almighty “Black Pepper Aioli.”

Just hand us each a spoon.

And so we set out.  The directions were easy enough.

• six cloves garlic: pressed.  
• two yokes: yoked.  
• olive oil: half cupped.
• pepper
• simple - blend garlic and yokes. drizzle oil.  constant beating until thick.  Add pepper

What’s to mess up?  ’Parently plenty.

All we could taste was the burn of raw garlic swimming in a mess of a mayonaise.  Our Aioli sauce had an outcome that the recipes didn’t mention.  It sucked balls.  We added more oil. Wrong.

We wish we had a better outcome to report. We did try again and simply cut the garlic in half. Nope.  Still sucked.

The only thing we can think of, cuz we’ll be trying this again, is our choice of olive oil.  We think we bought a cheap brand.  Garlic is garlic.  Egg yoke is egg yoke.  But oil… there’s the rub.

We went with Extra Virgin First Cold Press.  For those that make this well (and you’re probably not reading my post about it anyway) you may recognize this as my mistake.  To be determined.  For we are determined.  To make my Black Pepper Aioli Sauce NOT blow.

Wine was good – that’s what’s really important. 

We want to hear from you! Tell us how it went for you on making a restaurant favorite!  

This week’s Date Night Idea: 

Every year we pick out a Christmas ornament that represents a memory, meaning or a place together. We then write on a small card that we attach to the string of the ornament with details on why we picked out the ornament for that year. 

For the night, we get in our pajamas, put on Christmas movies, drink Egg Nog spiked with Brandy and put up our Christmas decorations. We have a lot of fun looking back at our ornaments and reminiscing. Of course, it wouldn’t be a night with putting up lights without a freak out cussing session followed by about 10 minutes of silence when something goes wrong like putting up about 10 stings of lights, plug them in only to find out…you know the rest. Good times. 

I know this is specific to the Christmas holiday. If you are celebrating an upcoming holiday, maybe you can find a way to incorporate the idea. 

Date Night Idea: 

Collect Ornament(s) that represent years in your life together and attach a note card with a little reminder to help you remember why you picked out the ornament. 

Date Night Needs List: 

• Ornament(s) (catch up or make it your first year) 
• Egg Nog (Brandy – if you are crazy like us)  
• Christmas Movies – Jill’s favorite:  ”White Christmas. Jack’s Favorite: “It’s A Wonderful Life”
• Christmas/Holiday Decoration
• String, hole punch, note card, scissors for your memory note card that you attach to your ornament. 

To get an idea and to inspire your ornament tradition, here are our ornaments and the story that goes with each one. 

 Leaf

We picked up this ornament in Estes Park, CO, before we were married at this cute mountain town Christmas store. We were up there around Christmas time because Jack wanted to give me a couch for a weekend for Christmas so we stayed at The Wildwood Inn. We were living in a studio at the time with no couch, so it was a fantastic gift. 

Snow Flake 

Jack took me back to the Wildwood Inn the next year to ask me to marry him. He asked me on a hike in the mountains and it started to snow. We were amazed at the intricacy of the snowflakes natural designs. Later in the day, we found this snowflake ornament at the same Christmas store where we picked up the Leaf the previous year. 

Star

We returned to Estes Park, CO to the same Christmas Store again to pick up our ornament. The star was just pretty, the special part was the tradition of picking out the ornament at the same store. 

How did this get in here? Spot found the Snow Man that Jack’s Mom gave us years ago. He has now claimed it and is giving it love. I think he is the only labrador retriever that will not destroy stuffed animals to pieces. He’s a lover not a fighter.

And yes, he is in a t-shirt. It’s hilarious how much he loves wearing clothes. I’ll hold open the neck hole of a shirt and he wags his tail and sticks his head through himself. 

I heart NY

We picked up this magnet and made it into an ornament to represent the year we moved to New York City. 

Door 

This ornament represents the year we bought our first home in Denver, CO. Nuff Said

Labrador

I bet you can’t guess what this one is about. Yes, it is the year we adopted our Spot. 

Pickle

We found this I think at Target. A little different from the first three ornaments, but we just loved the story so much and wanted to play. It has to have some kind of purpose because why the heck would you ever get a pickle for your tree? On our card for this one we have that it was our first ‘real’ tree purchase. Prior years involved mini trees that you could use as a center piece for your kitchen table. 

The story of the pickle goes: 

“Miniature Gurken. Long Ago when parents decorated the Christmas tree, they hung the pickle ornament last, hiding it in the green boughs. When the children were allowed to view the tree, they would begin searching for the pickle ornament because they knew they would receive an extra gift for being the most observant.” 

The Pig

The glass pig we picked up in Sherman Oaks, CA at the cutest store called Handmade Galleries. The reason we connected with a pig…get ready for you veggies out there…you all are going to think we are total HICKS…we had a pig roast at our rehearsal dinner. Hold on now! Hold up! Listen! Pig roasts were something we both grew up with and it spoke to both of our childhoods. My uncle roasted the pig in the driveway just like he did every summer growing up.  

Acorn

Years ago, we had this brilliant idea to make ornaments out of acorns. We gathered acorns and made a business plan. We were so original and on our way to millions. Then we did a little research and discovered we were far from original. Thus, our dreams were shattered.

Recently, we were shopping for our ornament for this year and came across this very well done acorn ornament. We were so impressed…and pissed. Jerks. 

For some reason, I am really craving a pickle right now. Happy Holidays! 

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No secret here who we voted for! As we have with every single debate, we are going over to a friend’s house for the election today. Being big on “theme night,” I looked into what Obama likes to eat. Now, there wasn’t too much out there, so what I found could have been all lies. Anywho, here is what I found: favorite restaurant is “Italian Fiesta Pizzeria” in Chicago and his favorite food to ‘make’ was chili. 

So, it was pizza or chili for us. From the title, you can see the final vote on food was CHILI. We slow cooked it in the crock-pot for 8 hours and served with cheese and sour cream. 

It was yummy. I usually will post a picture of the dish we make, but Chili is never a pretty picture. It just is not. I won’t say what I think it looks like, but it is the reason you hold a girlfriends hair back for her. 

Now Barack Obama on the other hand is very easy on the eyes to say the least and makes for a great picture. Don’t even go there and say that I am voting for him to gaze at his hunk-ish mug for four years. It is just the cherry on top of the white house. Mmmmm…cherries

We are huge Monster’s Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles fans. I thought Ratatouille was okay. We have no kids yet, but own them all and frequently watch them. For our 5 year wedding anniversary last month, we took a picture with Sully at Disneyland. Disneyland rocks! But that is a different post.

I love Ratatouille for a different reason – a date night theme night we did awhile back.

It has stuck in my mind as such a FUN date night. The food sucked and the movie was ‘eh,’ BUT what a memorable night! I am really selling huh?

I pretty much spilled the beans here, but we MADE Ratatouille and then watched Ratatouille. We are big on staying in and saving money, but the fun factor shouldn’t suffer. You need to make date night special…somehow. Not only making great food (or trying) and drinks, but also creating your atmosphere.

We always make sure the house is clean. We light candles. Pick a movie, activity or just eat dinner at the table. We listen to records or a new album. Recently, we purchased some French music.

Back to Rataouille, the food. It is a peasant’s dish and making the traditional recipe is just not very good. I won’t say anything about the movie, but there are modified recipes to try.

It was so fun just cooking the Ratatouille, eating the Ratatouille and then watch the movie where they are cooking and eating Ratatouille. We drank wine and listened to French music, and learned about another culture’s dish. So fun!