Strawberry Kiwi Lobster

That's right. Strawberry kiwi lobster. Problem? Yeah, its gross. Let me tell you how it happened.

We didn't have anything planned for Valentine's Day. I had to work, Josh had to work (liar), it was just going to be another day. We already talked about gifts and such. We weren't going to get each other anything, we were going to go to Hale Centre Theatre in March when the Phantom of the Opera is playing. That would be our Valentine Date.

Apparently I was the only one who got the message. I went out to my car to go to work and the whole thing was turned into a giant Valentine. There were window stickers all over, balloons, chocolates, flowers, a big gaudy card. It was really sweet. I told him I almost cried and that the one thing that would have put me over the edge would have been if he had actually written in the card. Guys.

So I go to work, planning to stop somewhere on my way home and grab him something. I'd already got him a card, but it was looking pretty cheap comparatively. I was scheduled to get off at 9, but they made me stay later. So late that Josh was calling me, telling me to come home. I didn't get out of work until 11, and I THOUGHT Josh had to go to work at 2:30, so I decided he'd rather spend a little time with me on Valentine's Day than have me go searching for something befitting such a wonderful husband.

I drive home, hoping to get a few precious moments with my family. When I get there, he surprises me by announcing that he has the day off. I was happy, but feeling bad that I didn't get him anything, so I go in the kitchen and grab a piece of jerky, left over from Clara's snack the other day, and a reese's. That was my gift to him. Economically savvy, I like to call it.

We still didn't do much of anything the whole day, just kind of cleaned and hung out. Oh yeah. The nap. We took a family nap. It was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me. Nolan went to bed, CLARA went to bed (never happens), Josh slept on the couch and I had a peaceful siesta in my own bed. 2 hours. Nice. Then we went to my Grandma's house for her birthday. She gave us her delicious caramel apple cake. I don't know why she feels the need to make her own birthday cake, but I'm glad she did. It was delicious.

Then more sugar at my mom's house where she had a bunch of gluten free sugar cookies for us to eat and the kids to decorate. They were good and reminded me of the old days when I used to decorate Valentine cookies for my friends.

We toyed around with the idea of going out to eat as a family, but decided it was too risky with sick kids and the potentially massive lines. Home cooked meal it was. We went to Harmons to get some ingredients, but I forgot my recipes at home. I'd wanted shrimp scampi, but Josh wanted lobster and we've never made lobster before so I said we could just use that in place of the shrimp. $28! That stuff is expensive and it was on SALE! It would have normally been $40.

It was fun figuring out how to cook it. We ended up steaming it and then shredding it up for the spaghetti. The only bad part was the (I assume) lobster poop. That stuff was nasty. I got it all out though, I think. Then I made the sauce. It was a moment of complete moronism. The recipe called for white wine. When something calls for white wine, I usually just put in apple juice (for a sweeter recipe) or chicken broth ( for something more savory). Don't ask me why I didn't have chicken broth pop into my head. Lobster spaghetti isn't exactly a sweet dish. But for some reason, I was stuck on subbing in apple juice. Only I didn't have any. All I had was orange juice and kiwi strawberry juice. The first ingredient in kiwi strawberry juice is apple juice. So I figured it would be okay. So I dumped it in. 3 minutes later, the lobster was bright pink and all fruity smelling. Not so good with butter, garlic and lemon. No. Not so good.

Josh was sweet and choked it down, I gobbled mine right up and am eating the leftovers as I type. Its still gross. Clara would only eat the noodles and Nolan wasn't having any of it. Ah well. Now I know that strawberry kiwi lobster spaghetti is not something I want to make again. The salad was good though. New ingredients there too. It had fennel, which smells fabulously like black licorice, and pancetta (Italian bacon). It all worked together really well, so I'm glad something turned out.

After the whole dinner mess, we decided to dip strawberries in chocolate as a family. Clara had a ton of fun and they were to die for. I ate almost a whole pan myself. So good! And then we watched our DVR'd episodes of Monk and Psych. Funny stuff. We put Clara to bed, Josh flipped to the travel channel, and I spent the rest of the night decorating a Wall-E cake. It was a good day.

And now for some random pictures. These are pictures of Clara by Tina. She decided to redo Clara's pics after we had our family pictures taken. They turned out cute!

Cakes I made this weekend. The first one is R2D2, made out of fondant and the second is a Wall-E cake, also molded out of fondant. They were fun!

And finally, my first scrapbook page in literally at least a year and a half. This is the debut of Nolan into my scrapbook. First page with him ever. Not my favorite page, it has my ugly handwriting on it and its too florally, but I'm glad I finally did one. Hopefully I can keep it up.