Lately, my husband and I have been trying to eat at home more and go out less. We are always going out to happy hours or trying new restaurants. While it is fun, we have been trying to scale back to save money and cut a few calories!
Last weekend, we did a date night dinner at home. We usually go out for a nice date night every week, so we wanted to do something similar at home and something more than burgers on the grill (not that burgers are a bad thing!) We also have so much good wine to drink from our wine clubs and we shouldn’t let that go to waste.
I think it feels more special and more like a true date night if you cook something a little fancier. We decided to make a scallop dish with a recipe I found on Pinterest. I did tweak it a bit for some personal preferences, but overall it was a great find!
I don’t really like cooked kale and spinach, so we went with asparagus instead. We simply just put it in a skillet with a little olive oil and tossed it over a medium heat for approximately 10 minutes! For next time, I am going to do these in the oven because we had too many things going on the stove-top at once.
For the risotto, I followed this recipe almost exactly. However, I used only about 1/4 cup of cheese (maybe even a little less!).
For the scallops, we pan seared them with some olive oil for a few minutes on each side.
Last but certainly not least, we poured the brown butter over the top of the dish and garnished our meal with a little fresh parsley….your presentation needs to look good too!
Our wine pairing was one of our favorite white wines, Rombauer Carneros Chardonnay! If you love an oaky, buttery chardonnay, this one is for you. We are in their wine club, but you can find it at most grocery or liquor stores.
Overall, I was happy with the way the meal turned out. It was a fun date night getting to cook together and sit down to our nice meal. We also always play a little Frank Sinatra Pandora in the background during our date nights at home….it adds a nice touch!
Cheers y’all!
Do you ever have a date night in? If so, what are your favorite meals?
-Catheryn
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