A Lovely Valentine's Day...but Woops!

   We spent the late afternoon sipping sparkling wine and watching "The Help." Probably a mistake, since I put way too much lemon in the drawn butter for the lobster tails (we did a 'surf & turf' dinner), AND I OVER-flamed the chocolate creme brulees. The sugar is supposed to be caramelized, not scorched. It was a delicious dinner, anyway. Typical 'Lucy' moments on my part...

   The hub gave me some lovely tulips (one of my favorite cut flowers) from Dragonfly's Garden (our awesome florist & gift shop). They have moved to a new location on Mt. Pinos Way, (the old health food store location),  across from Ace Hardware. Hopefully that will bring them more business. I loooove that shop! The wreath over my bed is from there, plus some other pretty items in my house.

    The night before, I made a lovely dinner of ahi tuna (incredibly, I found a bag of frozen steaks at our local market). I defrosted them, soaked them in a marinade of ginger, soy, a little citrus olive oil & garlic. Rolled in black sesame seeds, pan seared, then finished off in the oven.

   For dessert, I made banana bread with a recipe that calls for smashed Wheat Chex cereal, but I used Special K berries, so it was kind of strawberry banana bread. I served it warm, with strawberry ice cream. Mmmm...For high altitude, I omitted the baking soda, & used only a tsp. or so of baking powder.

Banana Nut Bread

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup of Special K berries cereal, crushed
• 1/2 cup of smashed walnuts
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use olive)
• 2 tbs water
• 4 large bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla (I always use more)\

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a loaf pan. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ceral & nuts. Combine egg, oil, water, mashed banana & vanilla. Add all at once to dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Spread evenly into pan. Bake 50-55 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool 15 minutes before removing from pan.

   I think it would be fun to add some fresh strawberries into the mix...Well, gotta go, monkey is home sick!