On Wednesday, Mr. Handsome and I celebrated our fifth Valentine’s Day as a couple. (We started our relationship in April, so we’re just two months short of having spent six Valentine’s Days together.)For our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, Mr. Handsome planned a fun-filled weekend trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We drove to the top of Lookout Mountain, visited Ruby Falls, walked through the Tennessee Aquarium, and stayed in an old Pullman railroad car at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel.
Last year and this year, Valentine’s Day fell on a weekday, so we celebrated at home. This year, Mr. Handsome randomly had the day off (his work schedule can be a bit wonky), so we were able to spend the entire day together.
After stopping by a lumber yard to pick up wood for a bookshelf that he is going to make for me, we went for a short drive through the beautiful, rolling, Tennessee hills. Then we came home for lunch, and he did a painting, while I started refinishing our kitchen table.
At dinnertime, he gave me roses, we exchanged valentines, and we enjoyed a delicious meal of oven-barbecued ribs with one of my homemade BBQ sauces. Our dessert was very last minute. I finally got around to asking Mr. Handsome for some ideas around 4pm, and he suggested crème brûlée. Having heard from many people how complicated it is to make, I happily accepted the challenge and headed over to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients.
You know what I discovered? Making delicious, rich, and creamy crème brûlée is actually quite simple! Rather than purchase a kitchen torch, I used the broiler setting on my oven, and it worked well. (I still might invest in a torch at some point, just to make myself feel official.) Mr. Handsome said it was on par with the crème brûlée he had at a fancy restaurant a while back, which made me feel like a real pro.
