Valentine's Day from Far Away

It's Valentine's Day! Yay!

It's Valentine's Day, my husband lives in Tennessee, and I live in New Jersey! NOT yay! The OPPOSITE of yay! Booooooooo!

Luckily I've never been much of a huge Valentine's Day fan. In college I used to get kind of depressed and wear all black (granted, I was usually single at the time). It's a pretty silly commercial holiday. It makes single people feel extra alone, and makes couples feel the need to spend money on tacky junk.

It also falls quite soon after both Christmas and our anniversary, so I'm kind of on candy-and-gifts overload by February 14. I know, I know, who knew this could happen to me, but it does. Granted, I still love receiving my annual Valentine's Day package from Mom and Dad (and this years contained a USA Hockey shirt signed by Jinelle! Now I'm a real fan!), but I feel no pressure to celebrate this holiday to its fullest. So I'm not as sad today as I would be if I was alone on my birthday. Birthdays are SERIOUS. In fact, I'm not really sad at all. But I do miss Daryl a bit more today than I do on normal days... Tennessee is just so darned FAR.

Still, if this year has taught us anything, it's that staying maritally close when we're geographically far does take work but it's infinitely worth it. So we've learned to be creative.

Therefore, we planned a Valentine's Day together even though we're far apart. What can I say? I have a really sweet, wonderful husband. Our Valentine's Day celebration consisted of the following:

1. Going to church (1st Pres., Moorestown - me, The Village, Nashville - Daryl)
2. Watching Team USA Women's Hockey annihilate the Chinese team 12-1 (me).
3. Napping (Daryl - who didn't get the hockey channel).
4. Cooking the same dinner in two different states.
5. Skyping during our romantic dinner.
6. Opening sweet Anniversary/Valentine's Day cards we wrote to one another.
7. Looking forward to seeing one another on Thursday for a long weekend. Looking soooo forward to it. Last time I saw Daryl I was still suffering from the February death-virus, and our visit looked a lot like this:

Daryl: Morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?
Me: (Grrrraarrrrrppphhh, sniffle.)

(later)

Daryl: Are you going to get up? It's almost one in the afternoon.
Me: (Mrrrrph, sniffle. Groan.) Yes, I'll get up.
Daryl: Great! What do you want to do?
Me: Take some Tylenol Cold and go back to bed.
Daryl: Okay...
Me: No, wait!
Daryl: (hopeful) What?
Me: Can you turn on a movie for me?

(much later)

Daryl: Do you want anything to eat? I'm going to make dinner.
Me: (Sniffle, sniffle). Sure.
Daryl: What sounds good?
Me: Sprite.
Daryl: Sprite? Anything else?
Me: More Tylenol.

Nothing like traveling hundreds of miles to see my dearest love and not even being able to have a conversation with him, I was so out of it. It was really sad.

But now I am well and I am only five days away from seeing him again and proving that I am more than just a sniffly, snuffly, Kleenex-toting entity. It will be sweet indeed.

Since I haven't posted a recipe in awhile, here's our tasty (and gluten-ous free-ous) Valentine's Day Dinner:

Cabernet Beef Roast (pre-marinated from Trader Joe's)
* Pan sear in a frying pan on each side with a little olive oil.
* Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour
Mashed Sweet Potatoes 
 * Bake 4 sweet potatoes for 1 hour
 * Remove potatoes, peel and mash
 * Mix in 1/4 c. butter, 1/2 c. milk, 1/3 c. maple syrup, and 1 t. salt
 * Bake in a small casserole dish for 45 minutes
Roasted Broccoli
 * Toss broccoli in 2 t. olive oil
 * Add 1/2 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper
 * Bake in oven at 400 degrees until broccoli is slightly tender (15ish minutes)
  *Sprinkle with lemon juice (optional)
 Corn Bread
 * Courtesy of Pamela's oh-so-helpful baking and pancake mix. The recipe is here.


Dessert was going to be Trader Joe's flourless chocolate cake, which is completely amazing and supposedly doesn't contain gluten ingredients (or at least didn't back in August...). I was overeager and ate a small slice yesterday. BIG mistake. Enormous tummy aches followed. So dessert is probably the sorbet I still have in my freezer from the February illness-of-death...
 
So happy Valentine's Day all you married folks. And all you engaged folks. And all you single folks. Eat some chocolate, give someone a hug, and start looking forward to Easter. Now there's a holiday!