My husband and I love having our date nights at home. In fact, until recently almost all of our date nights have been at home since our second child was born four years ago. We treasure our time together and view the nights as being about us just being together and doing something a little different than an average night.
I am always on the lookout for new ideas, or new restaurant-style recipes that I can recreate, to make our date nights fun and special. Here’s a short list of some things we like to do.
1. The obvious—dinner and a movie. Sometimes we will rent a movie (library or video store), sometimes we’ll just watch TV., and sometimes we’ll find something fun on Hulu.
2. Game night. In the past we’ve had my brother-in-law and his girlfriend over for this. Some games just can’t be played with only two people. I’d like to see us do this more, just the two of us. An all-night Monopoly or Scrabble marathon would be so much fun!
3. “Breakfast” in bed. Sleeping in on Sunday mornings, lingering over coffee, and breakfast in bed while watching the news used to be a favorite activity of ours. While we can’t do that anymore, we can recreate the situation by having some special breakfast foods for dinner in bed while watching the news.
4. Just plain old good food and good conversation. This is probably our most popular date night. We sit together and enjoy some restaurant-style treats while just talking without any distractions. It’s not that much different that going out to a restaurant for a nice dinner.
5. Sometimes we’ll have dinner with the kids and then have a special dessert together, with some freshly-brewed coffee. Throw in either a movie, talking, or a game, and you have a perfect night.
6. Take-out is a fun option too, although it’s not as frugal as some of the others. But this is about treating ourselves and a little extra is so worth it sometimes.
Eric and I are both big fans of appetizers when we go to restaurants, so that is what I try to recreate at home most of the time. Here are a few of my favorite restaurant-style recreations that are perfect for date-nights at home.
Cream Cheese Wontons
Ingredients:
1 8-ounce block cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup tahini
6 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 package wonton wrappers
Oil for frying
Directions:
1. Blend the cream cheese, tahini, green onions, salt, and garlic powder together.
2. Heat one inch of oil in a deep-sided skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add about one tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Dip your finger in cold water, rub around the edges of wonton wrapper to moisten, and seal.
4. Cook between four to six at a time, depending on the size of your pan. Cook on one side until lightly browned, flip, and brown the other side. (Sorry I don’t have exact times for these. I always just wing it until they look right, and turn down the heat if they start browning too quickly.)
5. Drain on a towel and keep warm in the oven.
Chicken & Vegetable Wontons
Ingredients:
1/2 cup diced or shredded chicken
1/2 onion, minced
2 stalks celery, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
4 carrots, grated
1 cup finely sliced/grated cabbage
4 green onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
5 mushrooms, diced
Dipping sauce (recipe below)
Wonton wrappers
Oil for frying
Directions:
1. Combine the first eight ingredients. Stir in two tablespoons dipping sauce.
2. Heat one inch of oil in a deep-sided skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add about one tablespoon of filling to the center of the wrapper. Dip your finger in water to moisten the edges of the wrapper and seal.
4. Cook about four to six at a time, depending on the size of your pan. Cook on one side until lightly browned, flip, and brown the other side. Serve with dipping sauce.
