Downton Abbey ("Her Choice" Date Night)

Do you watch Downton Abbey?  I had heard about it over and over again and I was intrigued, but I was never in the mood for what I assumed it would be so I stuck it on my Netflix queue and several months went by.  This show is NOTHING like what I assumed it would be.  Why am I so late to this party?!  Last Monday I had a splitting headache, and Aaron was gone to his men's Bible study, so I took a hot bath, made a cup of peppermint tea, and curled up in front of the TV.  12 minutes, folks.  That's how long it took for the show to completely, totally suck me in.  I know it was 12 minutes because I had to pause it when my bat-eared dog heard a distant siren and decided to tell the entire neighborhood about it.  And I was seriously irritated with that dog for interrupting me.  12 minutes.  So Wednesday when we drew from our date jar and it said "Her Choice" (meaning I got to pick what we did) I knew that Downton Abbey was going to be involved.

I decided we'd have a "fancy" dinner and then watch my new obsession.  I pulled down my fine china (for the second time in 10 years).  A trip to Dollar Tree netted me two "linen" placemats, two "crystal" taper holders and tapers, and a little tin of shortbread butter cookies.  I made one of our favorite dinners Lemon Thyme Chicken with Garlic Rice Pilaf (from Annie's Eats) and served it with a chopped salad full of fruit with a balsamic poppyseed dressing.  Yum!  We dressed up for dinner (he was such a good sport, he even put on his suit jacket!), and sat in candlelight at the table.

The best part, though, was dessert.  My original plan was to have "tea and biscuits" with the butter cookies I bought at Dollar Tree, but then I saw some semisweet baking chocolate in my pantry and I had a brainstorm.  I melted the chocolate with butter and milk to make a fondue and served it with the butter cookies and some fresh strawberries.  We put it all on our laptop desk and set it between us on the bed while we watched Downton Abbey.

I thought it was a great date night, and Aaron enjoyed it, too.  I think he is now as addicted to the show as I am!  Just a few more episodes and then we're caught up to what is currently airing!

Coming Up:  Game & Movie Night (details to be revealed at a later date)