Jack & Jill Put Up A Blog

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?

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!

I did a search recently for “sear oven steak.” (Wow. Fascinate me.) Top Chef made me hungry for a thickass cut of steak that I just couldn’t shake. I’m not a huge fan of reality shows per se, but watching people revel in their element… always captivating and inspiring to me. Anyway, this past season one contestant, we’ll call him Spike, made this incredible looking tomahawk steak, so called. I’d never heard of a tomahawk steak prior but now its forever branded on me brain.

As I remember he prepared it over an open flame. We’re in a condo so… open flame not really an option. But some of the others put a rippin’ pan sear on their cuts of beef and placed it in the oven. I’d never seen that technique before. I’d always thought the best way to cook a steak was open flame grill style. Maybe it is, but without that as an option, I recalled the top cheffers.

So, “sear oven steak” turned up CHOW.com Food. Drink. Fun. I gotta say, I liked it right out of the gate. We’ve got big print. Big illustrations. Short. Sweet. Exactly what you need when you’re under the gun time-wise. Or adult A.D.D..

I also found another great blog post “How to Turn Cheap ‘Choice’ Steaks into Gucci ‘Prime’ Steaks.” from the very funny SteamyKitchen.com. I found it to be a terrific method to use during the “before you grill remove the chill” time when you let the cut sit at room temp for a bit before you actually cook it.

The hybrid of these two ideas made for a great meal and I didn’t have to shell out for a pricey Dry Aged Long- Bone Ribeye aka tomahawk steak.