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This year my husband and I will not be exchanging Valentine’s Day gifts. The decision was mostly his. He doesn’t believe in the Hallmark holiday and would prefer to save our joint income than spend it on jewelry for me. It’s not that he doesn’t love me or that he is particularly frugal. We show our affection for one another daily, and when we go shopping together, he hardly ever denies me the things that I “need.” I think it’s the idea that a token gift on a particular day of the year is supposed to mean something more than it would on any other day.

Although I understand the reason behind his decision, I can’t help but feel disappointed. I would be happy with a simple bouquet of flowers, or even a card, but sadly I don’t I’m going to receive either. Me, the lover of paper, who already has several cards picked out for him! Yes, I do tell him everyday that I love him, but I enjoy having the opportunity to really let my thoughts loose on paper. My husband has stood by me during a number of challenges this past year, and I want to thoroughly thank him for his patience and his love. It may not be reciprocated, but I’m still going to give him a card (or three!).

I suppose I should feel a bit relieved that we aren’t exchanging gifts for Valentine’s Day because surprising your significant other with a present is difficult when you are married to somebody who checks the credit card statements nearly every day. When I know I want to buy my husband a gift, I need to be sneaky. Sometimes I’ll plan ahead and take a little bit of extra cash out of the ATM for a couple of weeks before I actually need it. If I want to buy him a gift online, I’ve been forced to ask my parents if I can use their credit card and pay them back after the gift has been given. When it comes to gift giving, having a separate credit card or separate bank accounts would be ideal.

I know I covered a bunch of topics in the post, but I’m very curious to hear from you. Will you be exchanging Valentine’s Day presents with your hubby? How do you go about buying gifts without him finding out? Do you have a separate credit card for that purpose?

One of the perks of writing a blog is that we are constantly plied with free offers. We get almost daily emails asking us to try a product and review it. Our answer, 90% of the time, is an automatic no. Until we were offered chocolate. Jonathan from See’s Candies emailed us and asked us if we would be kind enough to sample and review their chocolate mix

Can you say absolutely?! I did.

Jonathan sent over a box of milk chocolate and we were all in heaven.  I shared with a few friends, and they all loved it.  The only problem was that the chocolates didn’t come with a guide, so we had to cut in half to make sure we didn’t get anything we hated.

I’m thinking about ordering a box of the peppermints for our office Easter basket.

Apparently we do have a price, lots and lots of chocolate!

There are a plethora of recipes for roasted chicken. I loosely followed this Double Herb Roasted Chicken recipe from MyRecipes.com.  Roasting chicken is very easy and economical.  One chicken provides two meals for two (perfect for newlyweds) or one meal for four (perfect for two couples).  You can also use the leftovers to make homemade chicken noodle soup!

A few tips for a the perfectly roasted chicken:

• Before seasoning, rinse the chicken and then pat dry.  Dry skin equals better roasting.
• Don’t be afraid to season (outside, under the skin, in the cavity).
• Cook at 450 degrees for the first 30 minutes, and then reduce to 350 for the remainder of the time.  This seals in the flavor and creates a crispier outside.
• Remove the skin equals removing fat.
• Use a broiling pan for crispier potatoes and a lower fat dinner.

Any other chicken roasters out there?

Prepare thyselves!  This recipe is seriously coma inducing, even for the most prepared chocolate consumer out there.  I was all “Two ounce ramekins are so small.  They’ll never satisfy the beast.” Then I ate 1/3 of the much larger ramekin size and realized there was no way to finish.

I give you Chocolate Decadence, from MyRecipes.

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1/2  cup  plus 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4  cup  2% reduced-fat milk
• 2  tablespoons  plus 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  butter
• 1/2  ounce  unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 5  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1  large egg white
• 8  teaspoons  semisweet chocolate chips

Lightly coat 4 (2-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray, and sprinkle 3/4 teaspoon sugar into each of the ramekins, shaking and turning to coat. Set prepared ramekins aside.

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What did I do for our Valentines Dinner?

I moved the laptop to the kitchen to chat with E while cooking.

Mr. Keiller also kept me company while Frank worked on a logo.

I roasted chicken and potatoes.

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