Dinner last night

We had a lovely dinner last night!  While fixing the rest of the meal, I made a quick app of mascarpone-stuffed dates cooked for 4 minutes at 400° and then sprinkled with Maldon. Dates are ugly as balls; I mean, they just DO look like some sort of bug. But they love mascarpone and salt, and although we couldn't really look at them as we ate, the taste was divine! Then, we used Em-i-lis' Super Duper steak rub -which is just that- for the filets, alongside them served pink greens, a very good recipe I found on food52, and some great bread, and washed it all down with a delicious bottle of Napa Cab. Lastly, dessert: the "nutella" pudding. For whatever reason, it didn't set and so was more like a thick sauce. The taste was excellent, but I don't know that I'd make it again. The recipe is fairly precious, and in the process of crafting the pudding, you dirty about 9 bowls. Nonetheless, a tasty finale. At this point, Jack was still up obsessing about his Beyblade (he gave T one for V-day so that they could battle; they are actually kinda fun), so we brought him down for dessert and a few Beyblade sessions. He thought the pudding was "AWESOME." If you celebrated in some fashion last night, I hope it was lovely.

I am exceedingly glad that the boys are both at school today, and O is staying for Lunch Bunch which means an extra hour for me. I finally took the dog for the darn walk and am going to alternately clean and read the paper now. Fantastic!