Valentine's Day - Part 2...and A Tutorial

Valentine's Day, as I mentioned on my last post, was quite a day for the Crosby household. In review, for the first part of the day, I made Trevor heart shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast and he was super excited, as seen on my last post, found here. But....

I had the opportunity to surprise him since he had to work that day. So, I built him a fort!!! I know, we're like, five years old. But seriously, who DOESN'T love forts!?! Come on...

Anyways, the fort was really simple to build and I was able to use supplies that I had around the house. I'll give the tutorial after I tell the rest of the day :)

So he got home, roses and chocolate in hand (and I know you're thinking...WOW, cliche. But he's never gotten me chocolate and red roses before so I think that's allowed...once!) and I made him close is eyes and led him into the living room where the fort was.

 

My favorites chocolates!

 

I spread candles and decorations all over the coffee table and had his card and his other present sitting there waiting for him.

Yes, I will be posting a tutorial on the yard bottles featured in this picture. Soon, my friends, very soon!

Trevor's other present. I know, I'm so adorable. Ha!

Even Millie loved the fort!

Once I showed him, we got dinner going. The menu:

Ugly Steaks from a local Deli
Fresh Asparagus, grilled with butter and garlic salt, then topped with freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Grilled "Baked" Potatoes
Lemonade with heart shaped Ice Cubes

 All I did for the red ice cubes is take a little Lemonade and add red food coloring and poured that into the heart ice cube trays.

The food was delicious, the lemonade was awesome and then we got into our jammies and crawled into the fort for the rest of the evening. We grabbed Trevor's iPad and watched one of our favorite shows, Psych, and relaxed. It was perfect. And cheaper than going out! Score.

View from the Fort.

Happy couple. :)

ALRIGHT! The fort idea came from...you'll never guess....Pinterest...from another blog, found here. They do an awesome job of explaining how to built the fort. But essentially you will need:

Hooks
Rope or Broom Stick
Large sheets, Blankets, or large pieces of fabric
Pillows
Decorations
String
Straight Pins
Safety Pins
Thumb Tacs

How I did mine:

I used those screw in hooks and placed two in the ceiling. I took a rope and tied it between the two hooks with the access hanging behind the fort. Then I took two large sheets and draped them over the rope; one on each side of the rope. I used some straight pins to secure the sheets to the rope. Then I took some string, safety pins and thumb tacs and opened up the sides of the fort. Fill with blankets and pillows, decorate and that's it!

(I realize that my explanation is not great, but I would visit the original blog and maybe mine will make a little more sense. I also realize that my pictures of the actual fort kinda stink. That's because my husband tore it down before I could capture awesome pictures to post. Learning curve.)

I hope all of you guys had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day - Part 1...and A Recipe

Well, I don't know about you guys, but our Valentine's Day was pretty awesome. First one married and with a house. It rocked.

I was fortunate enough to have the day off which was even better. Trevor and I decided to stay home and make dinner instead of going out to save money, which opened up the opportunity for me to surprise him when he got home! First off though, I wanted to make him breakfast since I don't do so well with the dinner foods and figured he would end up doing the majority of the cooking that evening. So, I made him heart shaped cinnamon rolls. Mmmmmm...delish :)

The recipe for these is pretty simple, and the best part is that you do them overnight so that you don't have to spend two hours before breakfast cooking! Bueno.

 They turned out really cute.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Original Recipe from Allrecipes.com 

DOUGH:
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/2 cup white sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted

FILLING:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Add the butter and stir until melted; let cool until lukewarm.
2. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the milk mixture. Add the sugar, 3 cups of flour, salt and eggs; stir well to combine. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 8 minutes.
3. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 10x 14 inch rectangle. Lightly brush the melted butter all over the top of the dough. In a small bowl combine the cinnamon and 3/4 cup brown sugar and sprinkle over the rectangles. Roll up the dough into a log and seal the seam. OR a heart if you want to be uber cute. 
5. Cut the dough into 12 equal pieces; place the pieces in a greased 9x13 inch baking pan, or 12 inch deep dish pizza pan. (I used two 9" round pans). Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to rise overnight.
6. The next morning, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Take the rolls out of the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
7. Bake the rolls for 25 minutes or until golden.

FROSTING:
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 
1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
1/8 tsp salt 

1. Beat it all together!
2. Spread on freshly-baked cinnamon rolls. 

THAT'S IT! They were awesome. 

Happy husband!! Cinnamon Rolls are his favorite.

Ok, and I just thought that was really funny. I'm Russian and my brother in law always calls me Communist, Commie, Comrade, Russian, and other various random Russian names. So, this was very fitting.

I'll post the rest of Valentine's Day tomorrow....

Tata for now!!