Cheesy Valentines Day

In general Dani and I have an agreement that we flip flop years for who is planning the "big event." Our goal is also to do something that doesn't require money, and this year was my year to do something for Valentines Day. My attempt at "greatness" was to surprise Dani with a mystery meal and cook it all myself. All preparations were going according to plan until I left the recipe tab open on Dani's computer and she found out what I was cooking her before I even started. So with the mystery part of the meal spoiled, all I had now was the chance to actually make it look and taste good. No pressure right!? Well, the meal I decided to cook was Chicken Parmesan. I went to the store to buy all the ingredients and surprisingly came home with more cheese (and different kinds) than I knew what to do with! I spent the next hour or so mixing the ingredients for the sauce, coating the chicken in crushed pretzels, frying the chicken up and then finally putting it all together to bake. I really had no idea what I was doing especially since I took a rather large diversion from the actual recipe online. Fingers crossed! I set the table, invited Dani to come join me, and we ate some cheesy bread while I had to put the food back in the oven for fear of pink chicken. Finally with the noodles cooked, and the Chicken Parmesan "ready", it looked surprisingly better than I had imagined it would and also didn't taste half bad!

The finished product

My larger than life portion size

There was a potential that I was secretly hoping that my time in the kitchen would be somewhat of a disaster, and my reasoning for this came true when Dani told me that I should cook more often because of how well it turned out....grreeeaaat!!! haha. Still definitely a success and a nice evening with my lovely wife!