Dinner at the Millers'

Dessert! My favorite! This is a lava cake, made by Jan, with heart shaped vanilla ice cream.......served on a paper heart doily....on a table with a pink runner sprinkled with confetti shaped in XXX & OOO and Lips. There were hearts hanging from the chandelier too! A definite Valentine theme.

The main meal...beef tenderloin with blue cheese filling, roasted brussel sprouts, barley, and a great green salad with fresh strawberries. The beef is a recipe Jan & Doug found in the newspaper...a little labor intensive, but well worth it. We had a long discussion on what, if anything could have been done in advance. Doug didn't seem up for visiting while he was in meal prep mode. The whole meal was delicious.
Jan even made heart shaped ice cubes. The second batch was red and turned the water red when they melted. The dinner guests all found that thrilling and drank more water. Then someone had to bring up Red dye #2, but we all laughed and kept on drinking. We are easily amused!

My handsome husband Dave doing the honors of opening the wine. Three of the eight were not drinking so the others had to drink more than their share. Not a problem with this bunch. Of course we all had plenty of water with the heart shaped ice cubes. Oh, and Jan had cut up various fruits and placed them in the water for flavoring, and it just looked exotic and great.

This is Doug, reluctantly pausing for a photo op, while slaving away in the kitchen. We all appreciated the fruits of their labor, but it did cut down on visiting time. That's okay, we all stayed until midnight. That's very late for us old folks.

The photo does not do justice to this table. It was absolutely beautiful....beyond Martha Stewart. The orchids were tall and full and healthy, not like the ones at our home. For napkin rings, Jan had tied pink woven hearts around the cloth napkins....which Diane later hung from her ears for earrings, but that's another story. The other big entertainment was opening up the heart shaped Dove chocolates and reading the messages in the foil. That occupied us for a long time.

I should have taken photos of the bathroom....totally hearted out. Even the shower curtain was hearts! And there was a heart waste basket, heart candles, cute hearted fingertip towels, with heart soaps! Just all so Valentine-y.