dinner at eight :: husband's favorites

banner image Irene Suchocki

When Rebekah and I first started talking about doing the Dinner at Eight feature on our blogs, I mostly thought about how fun it would be. Planning the menus and decorations, getting dressed up for my man, quiet cozy nights together in our sweet home. And it has definitely been all those things.

But it has also been so much more. 

When you are intentional with your husband, when you are purposeful in planning your time together, it does some incredible and powerful things to your marriage. When you take the initiative to do special and thoughtful things for him instead of just having a random date at a restaurant, it really can be so much more meaningful.

And it goes way beyond the fun time planning dates and even the dates themselves.

I love my husband. I really truly do. So much. But we have been married almost eleven years and have been parents for the last five and a half. So I would be lying to say that it is always easy and it is always blissful. Since having kids we have talked many times about how much harder we have to work at our marriage, especially when it comes to be intentional with our time together. But saying it is one thing, putting it into practice is another.

Dinner at Eight has completely revolutionized that for me.

I know, I know. I sound a little bit overly dramatic. We are, after all, only two dates in. But I cannot even begin to tell you what this project has already done for my heart. I am finding myself falling in love with my husband in a completely new way. I am so excited to see what else God has in store for the project and my marriage!


Now on to our date...

HUSBAND'S FAVORITES! 

Erik requested steak and roasted potatoes for our dinner- a hearty guy type of meal! I knew I was not going to be able to start the steak until after the kids in bed and that because of that Erik would have to wait a little while for dinner to be ready. So I planned ahead and bought some of his favorite chips and one of his favorite magazines for him to enjoy while he waited. He was really surprised and appreciative!

I suggested adding a salad to our menu, but Erik turned it down. It was a strictly meat + potatoes kind of night!

When I had thought about what else I could include in a night of Erik's favorites, I immediately thought of a fun game my friend Jenny introduced me to recently: 10 Days in Europe. Anyone who knows Erik knows that he loves to travel and is kind of obsessed with maps and geography. This game is absolutely perfect for him!

Here is the game's description on Amazon:

Get packing! You have 10 days in Europe touring by plane, ship, or on foot. Chart your course from start to finish using destination and transportation tiles. With a little luck and clever planning, you just might outmaneuver your fellow travelers. The first traveler to make connections for a ten day journey wins the game. 

Needless to say, even though it was his very first time playing the game, he won by a landslide! 

For round two of the game, I brought out our dessert: my friend Leslie's  Ice Cream Casserole. Insanely easy and super yummy. I served Erik up a ginormous serving- about 1/4 of the entire casserole. He insisted that it was too much, but finished it just the same!

For more details about Dinner at Eight, please see here. 

And don't forget to check out Rebekah's sweet date with her husband! I always love her attention to all the little tiny details and I can't wait to try out her recipe for Irish Cream Chocolate Shakes!

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 Here is my tried and true recipe for roasted potatoes. Really easy to put together and always devoured by my little family. 

ROASTED RED POTATOES

(all of these amounts are estimates because I don't usually measure them!)

as many red potatoes as you need to fill up your pan, diced

 1-2 T. olive oil

1 tsp. oregano

 3-5 cloves of garlic, minced (I think the more the better!)

 salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. 

Dice the potatoes and put them in desired size of pan- I usually use a 9x13 pan or a pie plate.

Add the remaining ingredients- olive oil, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper- and mix together. 

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

These are equally as good for breakfast as for dinner!