Valentines Day 2012

We love Valentines Day at the Mullis home! We like to celebrate together, the four of us, and try to plan something fun for dinner. We've never gone out to dinner on Valentines Day, and always fix something special for the whole family. When the boys were little I'd make heart shaped pasta, but now that they're grown we tried something fancier.

When Stan was in college he worked in an Italian restaurant in San Luis Obispo, California. He eventually worked his way up to being a chef, and learned some amazing recipes. Tonight he made for us Shrimp Scampi! It's a special recipe, the sauce is a cream sauce, and it's served over a bed of brown and wild rice. We roasted some asparagus to have with it. It was a big time taste festival!

For dessert I found this super easy recipe that turned out to be off-the-charts incredible! Take a cheesecake (you can purchase a frozen one or make one, it doesn't really matter). sprinkle some toasted pecans over the top. We had caramalized pecans (get them at Honey Baked Ham) that our neighbor gave us at Christmas. Then drizzle caramel sauce and chocolate sauce over the top and -- Voila! -- turtle cheesecake! Sooooo good!

As Stan says, why do we only do this once a year?? Now to digest. Happy Valentines Day!