Romantic Valentine's Dinner Or Breakfast

Today I read that over 70 million people will go to a restaurant for Valentine's Day.

I'm not going to be one of those people. You may think me a cynic for it or an old married woman but I'm just tired and being on the go so much I really crave the comfort of my home. In fact the notion of being tired is actually what brought me to the idea of having a romantic dinner at home but in actuality it's breakfast. I love having breakfast for dinner. I love the idea of chocolate pancakes and scones along with thick-cut bacon and scrambled eggs. I also love the idea of getting dressed in my PJ's to go along with the kitchy theme and have a fun time of it. But hey, if you don't like the idea of doing it for dinner, it becomes a great Valentine's Brunch idea.

You decide

Orange Creamsicle

2 oz vanilla vodka
8 oz orange juice

Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker and serve...

Chocolate Scones
2 cups self rising flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick (1/4 lb) unsalted butter cut into cubes
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients together and and incorporate butter with a biscuit cutter or your hands into the dry ingredients so it resembles coarse sand.  Add buttermilk until mixture comes together into a moist dough. On a cocoa floured surface (I learned this the hard way) roll out the biscuits and cut little heart shapes. Put them on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Serve with strawberry jam.

Chocolate Cardamom Pancakes with Orange Glaze

2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

5 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cardamom

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups whole milk

Orange Glaze

1 cup orange juice

1 cup sugar

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar  and cardamom in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and milk and whisk. Take a large cookie scoop (or just a ladle if you don't care about how uniform they are) and pour batter in a preheated pan/skillet on medium to medium high heat. Garnish pancakes with fresh mandarin orange slices and orange glaze.

For the orange glaze combine the sugar and the orange juice in a sauce pan on medium high heat. Reduce down until the sugar is dissolved and the consistency is syrup-like. Let cool slightly before pouring over the pancakes.