Of Lemongrass & Pirates & Love

The daddy & I had our Dinner at Eight date night last night.

Gillian was my little helper.  

While I was preparing in the kitchen & the other kids napped, 

she was my "remembering chef".

That pretty much means, she was pointing to a recipe 

& telling me what to do.

She also acted as the helping chef, though.

She put chopped veggies into the salad bowl 

& into the soup pot, too.

She was also the table decorator.  

She loved that job.

She picked bouquets of mint & thyme.  Her own idea.  

They looked smashing.

This morning she asked me why we couldn't just leave it like this forever.

Truth be told, I forgot about our plan for date night, until late the night before.

Scott had been bringing home tons of very ripe raspberries, 

so I had thought I would try my hand at making jam on Wednesday.

Instead I made raspberry sauce for our dessert.

I had planned on just making Asian Beef Salad for dinner.

But, when I remembered about the date, 

I pumped up the excitement with some Coconut Chicken Soup.

(I'm an awful food stylist/photographer.  

So, I chose the yellowed photo editing look, to make it look even worse, I guess.)

The soup was a little gift of love to my husband.

One reason - it has mushrooms.  

I hate mushrooms & he loves them.

He also loves Thai soups & brothy soups in general, 

I am generally steer away.

And, his latest plant love is his new lemongrass.

He has been babying her along & he's really proud of little lemongrass.

I harvested from the plant to make the soup.

He said it was a dream come true.

(I'm not kidding.  He really did say that.)

Dessert - Chocolate Profiteroles with Raspberry Sauce

They tasted good. 

But, Scott thought they looked a bit like buns of poop in the photo.

Which reminds me, when we were outside working this last weekend,

Gillian invited us to eat at her restaurant, where all they serve is poop.

And they use hand trowels for spoons, so you can eat a lot .

All this time, during our date meal, the kids were talking & making a ruckus in their room.

Not total peace & quiet.  But, partial is better than nothing.

They were asleep around when dinner was over.

But, our date wasn't over!

Scott had brought home a date night activity.

Back in the days before we had kids, 

and we spent loads of time just lazing about,

we used to play this Pirate video game together.  

We also used to play the Star Wars lego game together.

So, this new game was like the good ole days.

(Note to my childhood pals who wondered what I learned "for" my husband.  Video games.  

But, I don't speak the gaming language all that well.  I just make an effort.  

Scott is very affirming of my "skills".  

And, I have even come to enjoy listening to these gaming videos he watches.  

True.  It's true.  Gootecks has a great laugh.  

I don't watch them.  I haven't gone that far.  I just hear it, while I go about my own thing.)