Friday night, Brian and I had our February Date Night.

For Christmas, I gave Brian 12 planned and paid for dates.  At the beginning of each month, we open the envelope together and plan when we will have our date.  This date was a little more low-key than our January Date Night, but still a ton of fun!

Our Date:  purchasing gifts for each other on a $20 each budget, and cooking dinner together.

The date started at the grocery store.  The envelope included a grocery store gift card to cover the dinner ingredients.  I let Brian pick our special meal, and he chose crab cakes.  A good choice in my book 🙂

We then headed to Target.  We each received a $20 bill and had a 30 minute time limit to purchase our gifts for each other.  I made it very clear that we could purchase anything for the other person with this $20.  It could be one big thing, or 20 small things.  Anything goes!

I honestly felt like I was on the amazing race or something.  I was trying to use my time efficiently and spend the $20 to it’s full potential without being spotted by Brian.  It was so fun!

Of course, Brian was finished very quickly.  I, on the other hand, took exactly 29 minutes to get my gift figured out.  Either way, I think we both did an excellent job of shopping within our budget and time limit.

Brian got me a set of pairing knives for veggies, fruit, and tomatoes along with a pack of gum (I am a gum-chewing maniac!), and an icing decorating set.

I got Brian his favorite movie, Love Actually, a workout top, workout socks (because I always steal his!!), and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

After our little gift exchange, it was time to start cooking.

I decided to use this recipe for crab cakes from Cooking Light magazine, and we were both completely impressed with the finished product of this dish.  I was in charge of the crab cakes and steamed asparagus and Brian was in charge of the spicy remoulade.

All I can say is that if you are planning a date night, stay in and cook this meal!! Brian and I literally could eat this just about every single day.  It was that good 🙂  These were honestly restaurant quality, delicious, and it was so fun to be working in the kitchen together.

We then baked chocolate chip cookies.  Sorry, no pics, but they were goood!! 🙂

Can’t wait to see what our March Date Night will be!

Do you enjoy cooking with other people?  

If you do enjoy cooking with others, are you typically the “head chef” or the one helping out?