Game Night - Date Night

Last night Victor and I scheduled a date night to celebrate Valentine's Day early. We don't go out on Valentine's Day anymore. The restaurants are mobbed, many places have a "fixed" menu - so you can't order your favorite thing - and because of the high volume, the food just isn't as good. We went up to "The Hill" -- which is the Italian District here in Providence. We went to a sheeshier place, Siena -- it wasn't outrageously expensive or anything, it was just hoppin' happenin' and had a mood. The place was packed. Of course I thought to myself, "OK, just where is the recession?" Rhode Island has one of the worst unemployment rates  in the country. Anyway, after dinner Victor and I decided we were better off with the local Italian joint we went to last time, Andino's. Nothing fancy, but everything tastes like it was cooked by your friend's Italian grandmother. (Read about it at the bottom of this post.)

We scheduled our date night for 7pm. Before we went out, we spent some time with the kids. I made homemade pizza using the 5 minute bread recipe that I heard about through Kristi's Blog. I have to say, it really is terrific. Especially for speed. You basically make a vat of bread dough, then pull off what you need that day. The rest of the dough just sits in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, ready to be used. Cool eh? Read about how to do it at Plain Old Kristi. I cooked the pizza at 450 degrees F for about 15 minutes. I had frozen a little bit of marinara left over from pasta, so I used that on the pizza. Yum.

We played an air hockey tournament, and a game of Parcheesi. 

As an aside, yesterday I made blueberry yogurt with honey. Yum. Yum. Yum. I just added about one cup of thawed frozen blueberries and some honey to taste, and stir. Wow was it good. Ripley asked after lunch when he'd be able to have more blueberry yogurt. Tomorrow at breakfast, I told him.