Last Valentine’s Day, I had just found out I was pregnant, so we decided to skip the hullabaloo in favor of sodas and ravioli at our favorite neighborhood pizzeria, Gino’s.
This year, we had a little one in tow, and, not wanting to add a sprinkling of tiny wails to anyone’s fancy Valentine’s Day dinner, we decided to make Gino’s a tradition. We snuggled in a back corner, chatted with the elderly couple next to us, drank the house red, and ate lots of cheesy pasta.
Oh, and I wore a fancy dress. (That’s a Rebecca Taylor bought during my sophomore year of college – it sat in the back of my closet for a few years because I felt like the split sleeve, mid-calf hem and low neckline looked dated, but now it’s practically vintage and is starting to look stylin’ again. And I was inspired by the 1920s cocktail-party looks at the Erickson Beamon show last week, so silk and lace it was.)
Did I look a little ridiculous sitting in a pizzeria in a black cocktail dress and red lipstick?
Possibly.
But it was our kind of Valentine’s Day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
And then, when we got home, there was Lemon-Chocolate Cake…
…made with homemade lemon curd.
You may recognize this as an old photo. That’s because oh my god, either my stove is out to get me or something is amiss in my cake-handling skills (yes, probably the latter), because I grease and flour those pans to within an inch of their life, and still cannot convince the cakes to come out in one piece. And icing is excellent for patch jobs, but still: what. Is going. On?
Anyway, ugly cake aside, it was all very low-key and lovely, and I hope your Valentine’s Day, whatever you did, was lovely as well.
