A Spring Inspired Valentine Dinner, is welcomed in February, with burgers and beer, strawberry shortcakes and lots of candles to feel like sunshine.
Valentine Dinner At Home
A Valentine dinner at home can be an easy fun evening with foods we love in the spring and summer, helping us forget we still have three months of winter ahead.
I love any meal, fireside, in the dead of winter but when I’ve lived in a home without a fireplace, I simply arrange a collage of candles, even remote battery operated candles!
This will be part two, of my four-part series Valentine Dinners At Home, inspiring to create a nook in your home for a memorable Valentine evening.
These are designed to be an evening with friends, for two, or a special night just for you.
Easy Delicious Spring Inspired Recipes Are The Key
- Burger Buns – Any burger of your choice, meat, salmon, vegan, but with homemade burger buns
- Roasted Potato Fries – Oven roasted to a crispy perfection, rosemary and salt
- Mediterranean Lemon Dressing – Drizzled over a refreshing winter salad, inspired by spring
- Strawberry Layer Cake – Strawberries sandwiched between quick shortcakes
- The Love Plate – Conversation starters to make the evening interesting
- Set The Stage – Some quick rearranging of furniture to create the mood
Homemade Springtime Burger Buns
Burgers for Valentines Day? Where I live, it’s freezing on Valentines Day. By the time Valentine day arrives, I am in want of a taste of spring or summer, not snow and stews.
For the burgers, they can be store bought, vegan, lamb, beef, turkey, or whatever you like as your burger. But make sure it doesn’t take more that 10 minutes to have them ready.
To make the burgers feel special, I made these big, fat, cheesy, Homemade Burger Buns, a day earlier. The recipe and preparation couldn’t be easier.
Spring Inspired Valentine Dinner Needs Potato Fries!
Crunchy, rosemary and olive oil oven roasted potato fries, with coarse sea salt. What’s not to love! Rosemary Potato Fries are fast, easy, and oven baked until crunchy.
Check out the easy recipe, which potatoes make the best oven fried potatoes, and why this method is the best, both for taste and for health.
Winter Salad Inspired By Spring
Who doesn’t want a healthy salad in the dead of winter! It whispers ‘spring is not far off’. Alongside the Valentine Dinner prepared here, an easy salad with the best ever Mediterranean Lemon Salad Dressing could cause the salad to steal the show away from the burger.
The salad I prepared was simply spinach, mandarin oranges, blue cheese, and spicy hot Thai cashews with a lemon and olive oil dressing.
Springtime Strawberry Shortcake For Valentine Day
The first fruit that pops out, from the dead of winter’s sleep, is the strawberry. I almost always make a strawberry dessert for Valentine Day; maybe because they’re red or maybe because when sliced they look like hearts!
The fabulous Strawberry Layer Cake is also a fast and easy do-ahead the day before. Pureed strawberries were added to the whipping cream for both color and taste! Recipe is linked above also.
Valentine Games and Conversation Starters
Let’s face it, unless your Valentine Dinner date is with a new friend, conversation sometimes can get a little boring with that ole timer you’ve been hanging with all these years.
For this reason, I created The Love Plate! Conversation starters about new, funny, serious, interesting things. Topics you might not otherwise chat about.
For your Love Plate, I simply created a variety of conversation starters, pertinent for the company that would be dining.
Print them, cut, fold, and place on a cute dish, bowl, or basket to get the evening started.
Valentine Romance Inspired By Spring
At home dining? Same ole dining room, sofa or deck? Nope! I am here to challenge you to ‘set the stage’ right there in your own home. Try a new spot, move a few pieces of furniture, break a few old habits.
The video above will inspire a little recreation in your home to set a new ambience for this Valentine Date Night at Home!
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.