Ohio Nights: A Valentine’s Date

So, Ohio Nights.

My best blogging buddy, Lisa, and I decided to start a series. We’re both mid-twenties, living in small apartments with our boyfriends, and on tight budgets. We wanted to share cheap, fun date nights as a way to inspire each other, and hopefully you guys too! We’re not experts on anything, just two girls drunk on love and trying to be creative with their date nights.

I’m not really a huge valentine’s day person. Don’t get me wrong, I love to be loved, and I love to love, but I feel like the whole day puts tons of pressure on couples. Like, if you don’t get your girlfriend a shit ton of candy and flowers, you’re a bad boyfriend. Obviously that’s not how everyone thinks, but I catch myself feeling guilty on most valentine’s days, wondering if I got enough gifts, lit enough candles or said I love you enough times.

HOWEVER, this valentine’s was truly great. We just wanted to enjoy the day, so we kept the gifts light (flowers for me, candy and C.O. Bigelow body wash for him), made a quick dinner and just painted, listened to music, and dreamed about our future.

Our night in photos:

Flowers, flowers, flowers! Sean knows my heart so well. Give me flowers and I’ll be happy forever.

On the way to the grocery. ❤

I was trying to get pictures of the tomatoes on the windowsill, but Stella went ahead and parked it right next to them.

…….what those tomatoes turned into! I made a really basic tomato jam to go on top of toasted baguette with fresh mozzarella and basil. All you have to do is slice 3-4 ripe tomatoes and layer them in a baking pan. Sprinkle 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar on top, along with the juice and zest of one lemon. Sprinkle a bit of sea salt on top of the sugar and place in a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes, or until the tomatoes are totally soft and jam-like. Also, I left the seeds and skin on my tomatoes, but if you don’t want seeds in your jam, just core the tomatoes before you slice.

Sean’s true love.

 

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the first Ohio Nights post! If anyone has any cool date night suggestions, email me! I would love to hear what you think.

I’m headed to Cincinnati this weekend with Casey, my mom and my aunt Lori. My brother and Casey get married in less than 5 weeks (!!!!!!!!!!!), so we’re having a mini-bachelorette party on Saturday.

 I hope you all have the best weekend ever!