I've always been a firm believer in "date nights"...but I've also realized that so-called "date nights" aren't always possible, either.
After we got married, we set the goal of having one date night a month. In our minds, we would pack up, head out of town for the night and go do something fun--maybe a concert, festival, a new restaurant, shopping...just something that we could do together.
After the second month, real life set in. We were lucky to have a weekend evening where the both of us were around AND we hadn't already committed to something. Eventually, "date night" started to fall to the wayside and we just started going through the motions of married life.
Finally, by this Spring, we realized we really needed to have date nights again. As mentioned earlier, we were going through the motions but not really, truly enjoying time as just the two of us. We had plenty of time with OTHER people, but as just the two of us??? Not really!
Thankfully, we were in the midst of the Lenten Season when we came to this realization. For most people, that doesn't mean anything to them--but for us, that means we forgo meat on Fridays during Lent. And in order to get my husband to eat a meatless dish, it's gotta be hella good...
And that brought our date nights back to life! We would pick a new meatless, semi-gourmet meal to cook on Friday night...then, we'd spend the evening preparing the meal, plating it up and then just really sitting back and catching up. It was so nice to have a conversation that went beyond who paid the water bill, if the laundry needed switched out and what errands had to be taken care of the next day!
But one thing was still missing.
The music!
Granted, we have music channels on our tv--but you can't control what they play! And you just don't want to risk throwing off the flavor of your food because of bad tunes ;-)
As the months progressed, we tried to make due and use the time in the kitchen to talk and catch-up...but I knew we could still have more fun than that!
The other day, we ran to the movie store and by the door they had the best thing ever--a Crosley all-in-one player!
I have wanted one ever since we bought our bungalow. They look like they're something straight out of the 1930's or 1940's--but rather it has all your modern features, too.
Well, mostly modern.
It has your AM/FM radio, mp3 port, CD player, cassette player AND a record player!
I knew we would like having a radio and cd player in the living room--but I knew we would really, REALLY enjoy having a record player for our date nights!
We picked up the Crosley player, unpacked it and set it up right away. It was a perfect fit for the top of our china cabinet!
The next night was Date Night. After work, we ran to the grocery store to pick up some appetizer stuff (more on that in a moment) and then we stopped in at our local music store in the heart of Aggieville.
We had a BLAST! My parents collected records growing up so it was fun to pull the albums that they used to listen to. They also had a bunch of the music that Justin grew up listening to--and all on vinyl!
Before we knew it, we had already killed an hour just looking at all the different albums available on record. Justin grabbed several records and they were only $6 a piece! I decided to put all my eggs in one basket and went for the new Norah Jones album--on WHITE vinyl, nonetheless! Isn't it a beaut?!
We hurried home and put the first record on--we knew right away that we had found the missing piece to our date nights! Some people would disagree with me, but there's something really great about hearing a song on vinyl, versus CD or mp3. And heck, it's just kinda fun to watch the record go round and round!
Now, I can say our date nights are finally complete! Good grooves, good food and good company--can't get better than that :-)
Oh--and about good food...here's the recipe we tried for our appetizer! It's very inexpensive, super easy and quite filling. We made it again the following night and Justin added pepperoni because, well, he could! For those of you who know your spices, you'll appreciate that it came out of a Penzey's catalog!
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Preheat oven to 500°.
Spread each slice of bread evenly with butter. Sprinkle with GARLIC. Line the
tomato slices down the center of the bread. Note: if using juicy garden
tomatoes, let the slices sit on paper toweling for a minute before using.
Sprinkle with salt, olive oil and OREGANO. Top with cheese slices and place on a
foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 500° until the cheese melts and the bread
begins to toast, about 5-10 minutes. If you wish to brown the cheese, put the
oven on broil for the last minute, and watch carefully. Slice the bread into
4-inch sections and serve. Prep. time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 5-10 minutes Serves: 8 |
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