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You know we have our priorities set and we know what they are supposed to be but sometimes they don’t look in the same order to others as the way we think we have them. For some of us it’s our number two priority that often doesn’t seem to get the same attention. Okay, and maybe number one sometimes too, but for today I’m thinking about the number two.
For us fair week (and the week before fair) is always REALLY busy getting all the kids projects done, washing our birds and then of course being at fair all week showing and taking care of animals. With all of that going on my house tends to get neglected along with other normal life things. Normal gets kind of suspended.
With all the busyness with the kids things my husband can sometimes get left out for these weeks so I decided to do something the Friday night before fair to focus on HIM! To start out with I sent him an evite inviting him to a private dinner on our deck. Now if you decide to do something like this be sure it’s okay for your husband to receive emails at work. It’s okay to use “flirty” talk in your invite, it’s your husband! I asked him to RSVP.
My daughters really got into helping with this which was an added bonus. Why an added bonus? They are learning by example. I am teaching them about a relationship between husband and wife by what I do. Taking time and care in planning this and treating their Daddy special gives them an example to follow in their marriages someday. My original goal had not been for them to serve dinner but they wanted to so I let them. You should have seen the grins on their faces, they were so excited! I had to tell them to set the timer between courses or our dinner would have been served in 5 minutes or less I’m sure. They really did a very nice job of plating everything up.
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To get ready for the night I made some pillows for our deck chairs. Our white wicker furniture had really needed replaced so when I found the black metal ones on sale I bought them. The only thing is the bar kind of digs into your back after awhile and I wanted us to be comfortable. It only took probably twenty minutes to take some leftover fabric I had in the sewing room and machine stitch them. My daughters did the stuffing and hand sewed them shut.
The table cloth is actually our beach sheet I tie dyed years ago and the shells I used to put in a ring during the summer on the dinning room table around a candle but hadn’t this year so I used them here. Just look around and find what you have to use. The candle came from the master bath. Now, to bring a little reality in case you’re thinking I’m perfect, I had to really wash that candle holder it must have had ¼ inch of dust! Yikes! Better add “clean candles” to somebody’s chore list!
For the dinner I went a little fancier than our regular every night fare. Figured if we were going out for a nice dinner we’d spend $30-40 easily so I think I spent about $35. It was a splurge. I must add here however the $35 did include fish sticks and tater tots for the kids (a treat for them) and I made regular size portions of what we ate so there were lots of leftovers for the kids or Chris for lunches.
For our salad we had Calico Salad. I had made it years ago once or twice and written in my cook notebook “Chris likes” so here it is. And yes, he did like it again very much!
; Calico Salad
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
2 cups califlowerets
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (these were from our garden!)
½ cup chopped red onion
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup sour cream
2 T. milk
1 tsp. ranch salad dressing mix
¼ cup sunflower seeds
3 bacons strips cooked and crumbled.
Combine sour cream milk and salad dressing mix. Pour over first 5 ingredients listed and mix. Just before serving stir in the sunflower seeds and crumbled bacon. Enjoy!
The main course was a new recipe I tried, Walnut Pesto with Scallops. Chris liked it and said he’s order it out but I thought it was just okay (but I say that about lots of things I get at restaurants too so I guess I’m a food critic!) Personally, I like my recipe for Scallops St. Jacque much better but you have to try new things, right?
; Walnut Pesto with Scallops
1 cup walnuts
¾ cup parsley leaves
¼ cup parmesan
3T. olive oil
1 T. garlic
1t. lemon juice
¾ t. salt
¼ t. pepper
Original recipe says put in processor until chopped and combined. I used my quick chef from Tupperware which I love to do this! Next melt butter (I used ¼ stick) and cook 1 ½ lbs of scallops in butter for 3 minutes. Add ½ cup white wine and cook 1 more minute. In a large bowl toss scallops with pan liquid with walnut pesto and cooked linguini.
Now the dessert was a recipe I created years ago to mimic on at one of my favorite restaurants. The restaurant version is called Frangelica Mouse but I call mine Cream Cheese Mousse.
; Cream Cheese Mousse
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 tub (8oz I think) cool whip (I use lite)
2-3 T. powdered sugar to taste
1 tsp. almond flavoring
Mix room temperature cream cheese with powdered sugar and almond flavoring in mixer till fluffy. Add cool whip and whip slightly. Put into pastry bag and pipe into goblets. Freeze. To serve remove from freezer about an hour before serving time. Enjoy.
After dinner I had said on the invitation we’d either have some reading or games. My husband loves games and I’m not particularly a big fan. There are a few I’ll play but it’s not my first choice. So I put out on the deck the book we’ve started but not found time to get through, The Dream Giver for Couples and a deck of cards with instructions I printed off the internet for two player Euchre . We used to play Euchre in college when we were first dating and even when we were first married but somehow through 20 years and 4 kids we even forgot how so I printed the instructions. He chose Euchre (I knew he would!) and we played 4 or 5 rounds. It came back surprisingly well.
We decided then to leave the deck and take a walk like we do together most evenings. It was a good date!
So I hope this will inspire you to do something special to show your #2 priority that he is a priority in your life! Leave a comment and let me know.
Gina | 
