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I'm at my mother's house this weekend, and my mother's friend Anne is also visiting. On the way here earlier in the week, Anne had a brilliant idea.
I wasn't involved in the earliest stages because they didn't know for sure that I was coming home this weekend. But here's how it came together.
Anne's brainstorm was that Nanny and Granddaddy need a little something different to spice up their lives. And what would be better than a romantic, candlelight, catered dinner, to order?
They made menus for them and had them pick the meat and vegetables that they wanted. They had great fun with it, and true to their natures, picked a bunch of veggies and one meat. :) Granddaddy decided that he would have chilled, boiled shrimp, home fries, green beans, cabbage, and cole slaw. Nanny decided she would have the orange roughy, home fries, cabbage, baby carrots, cole slaw, and English peas. They've been anticipating it for a day or two at least.
Today, my mother and Anne and I went to Tuscaloosa (the nearest "large city," which—as everyone knows—is where you have to go in the south to get whatever you need :) to get all the ingredients.
I'll spare you the details of that. We shopped. :) When we got back, I called Granddaddy and told him we'd have the food there by 5:30, and not to snack or start doing anything that would take a long time. He told me that he'd been preparing by "getting romantic." To which Nanny quipped, "It looked to me like you were asleep." (He'd taken a nap.) :)
Anne went over with all the decorations we found and transformed their "flower room" (an enclosed patio) into a romantic restaurant. White tablecloth on the table; two single roses in bud vases; pink votive candles with a garland of fake, pink berries and leaves; pink plates; pink napkins bound with homemade napkin rings; wine glasses; and soft, romantic music.1
Meanwhile, my mother and I prepared the repast. We got the shrimp ready and chilling, then fixed all the veggies, then I fixed the fish fillet and a nice dill & caper sauce to go over it. We drove it out there and they were sitting at the table, waiting. :)
It took us only a few minutes to get all the food on the table, and to pour the wine, turn on the music, light the candles, turn off the television, take the phone off the hook, and reveal the pièce de résistance: the chocolate ganache bistro cake.
Granddaddy was crying so hard (he's very sentimental, when he wants to be), he could hardly start eating. I snapped a couple of quick pictures to commemorate the occasion, then we turned off the lights, left them in the flickering glow of the candlelight (with strict instructions not to let Nanny have too much of the chocolate cake and even stricter instructions not to do the dishes), and slipped out.
That was at 5:30.
By 7:00 or so, they had just finished dessert, and called us to say how much they enjoyed it. We assume they took a long stroll down memory lane as they ate. Normally, we're done eating in 20 to 30 minutes. :)
Then their phone was busy for the next hour and a half or so. We presume Granddaddy called everyone they knew and bragged about the romantic candlelight dinner. :)
My mother and Anne and I had at least as much fun fixing the dinner (and shopping for all the stuff) as they had eating it. I can't recommend it enough as a way to do something really special for someone you care about that isn't all that expensive (unless you just want to make it so), but makes a big impact. It doesn't have to be anything special or require hours of preparation (we got it all ready in about one hour). But I think it's something they'll both remember for quite a while. The sly little smile on Nanny's face was worth all the time and effort we put into it.
1 Nanny's favorite color is pink. Lest you think Granddaddy got nothing out of it, we didn't mention the pink. He's red/green colorblind, so to him it was kind of grayish. :) Yeah, we cheated. :)
I wasn't involved in the earliest stages because they didn't know for sure that I was coming home this weekend. But here's how it came together.
Anne's brainstorm was that Nanny and Granddaddy need a little something different to spice up their lives. And what would be better than a romantic, candlelight, catered dinner, to order?
They made menus for them and had them pick the meat and vegetables that they wanted. They had great fun with it, and true to their natures, picked a bunch of veggies and one meat. :) Granddaddy decided that he would have chilled, boiled shrimp, home fries, green beans, cabbage, and cole slaw. Nanny decided she would have the orange roughy, home fries, cabbage, baby carrots, cole slaw, and English peas. They've been anticipating it for a day or two at least.
Today, my mother and Anne and I went to Tuscaloosa (the nearest "large city," which—as everyone knows—is where you have to go in the south to get whatever you need :) to get all the ingredients.
I'll spare you the details of that. We shopped. :) When we got back, I called Granddaddy and told him we'd have the food there by 5:30, and not to snack or start doing anything that would take a long time. He told me that he'd been preparing by "getting romantic." To which Nanny quipped, "It looked to me like you were asleep." (He'd taken a nap.) :)
Anne went over with all the decorations we found and transformed their "flower room" (an enclosed patio) into a romantic restaurant. White tablecloth on the table; two single roses in bud vases; pink votive candles with a garland of fake, pink berries and leaves; pink plates; pink napkins bound with homemade napkin rings; wine glasses; and soft, romantic music.1
Meanwhile, my mother and I prepared the repast. We got the shrimp ready and chilling, then fixed all the veggies, then I fixed the fish fillet and a nice dill & caper sauce to go over it. We drove it out there and they were sitting at the table, waiting. :)
It took us only a few minutes to get all the food on the table, and to pour the wine, turn on the music, light the candles, turn off the television, take the phone off the hook, and reveal the pièce de résistance: the chocolate ganache bistro cake.
Granddaddy was crying so hard (he's very sentimental, when he wants to be), he could hardly start eating. I snapped a couple of quick pictures to commemorate the occasion, then we turned off the lights, left them in the flickering glow of the candlelight (with strict instructions not to let Nanny have too much of the chocolate cake and even stricter instructions not to do the dishes), and slipped out.
That was at 5:30.
By 7:00 or so, they had just finished dessert, and called us to say how much they enjoyed it. We assume they took a long stroll down memory lane as they ate. Normally, we're done eating in 20 to 30 minutes. :)
Then their phone was busy for the next hour and a half or so. We presume Granddaddy called everyone they knew and bragged about the romantic candlelight dinner. :)
My mother and Anne and I had at least as much fun fixing the dinner (and shopping for all the stuff) as they had eating it. I can't recommend it enough as a way to do something really special for someone you care about that isn't all that expensive (unless you just want to make it so), but makes a big impact. It doesn't have to be anything special or require hours of preparation (we got it all ready in about one hour). But I think it's something they'll both remember for quite a while. The sly little smile on Nanny's face was worth all the time and effort we put into it.
1 Nanny's favorite color is pink. Lest you think Granddaddy got nothing out of it, we didn't mention the pink. He's red/green colorblind, so to him it was kind of grayish. :) Yeah, we cheated. :)
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