Anniversary Dinner Stories!

My parents got married in 1977 on February 12th. When I was in my late teens, I thought it would be fun to create special anniversary dinners for them. Since I had been in 7th grade, I had developed a love for baking and cooking and loved any opportunity to create a fancy meal. I had even purchased some French and Italian gourmet cookbooks then of course, struggled to find the ingredients in Watertown, SD! 

There were several anniversary dinners. For the first one, I made liver and onions I believe. Whatever I created, I had them watch Anne of Green Gables in the living room while I prepped the dinner. If I remember correcly, I think they watched the whole thing before I was ready! They ate in the kitchen and because it was supposed to be a romantic dinner, I was going to leave the kitchen. However, Josh, had a sudden urge for a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich and insisted on eating with mom and dad. Of course, they didn't mind. It makes a sweet memory. 

Another year, our youth group had made some puppets and I had made one and I think Nathan also made one. I made them a spaghetti dinner and hung a red bedspread for a curtain and put on a puppet show. I don't remember if Nathan helped or what the show consisted of! I think this was also the year that Daniel put on every necklace that mom had on top of his dressy white shirt. I forced Daniel and Josh to help serve. ;)

The last year (I think there were at least 4) I made them an anniversary dinner was the most comical, crazy time! I planned an Italian meal. There was Maria Luisa's salad out of a 1950's cookbook that had anchovies in it. I don't remember the main meal, maybe a minestrone soup? For dessert, I made two: an apple and cheese compote with a liquor on top (kept the alcohol part a secret) and a berry finger dessert. Joanie had come for a visit and wanted to help out. She was in charge of making the homemade ice cream. 

In years past, I had cooked up a storm in the kitchen, then sat them at the kitchen table and shooed everyone out for their dinner. This time, I had shopped at a local dollar store for some Valentine's decorations and borrowed a long table from church. I set up their dining area in the living room just off the kitchen and even hung a bedspread between the kitchen and living room for a barrier. I showed Joanie how to make the homemade ice cream and got to work cooking their dinner. 

As I shared above, I loved cooking for my family. I usually didn't bother about timing things (Sarah Z knows about my 3 hour cake!) and would just have fun and when it was ready, it was ready! I had my parents in the living room to eagerly await their dinner. Joanie was making the homemade ice cream and there was a lovely 'whirring' machine noise from the electric ice cream maker. It was similar to the hand crank version, just add the electrical. Made lots of noise! 

I brought out the first course which was this Maria Luisa's salad with anchovies. I had never done anything with anchovies before and didn't know to rinse them off and chop them up so just laid them on top of the salad. If you knew my dad, he ate everything and never complained! Wasting food was not an option. He would not eat those anchovies! 

The rest of the meal went off without a hitch, at least that I remember. I coaxed Daniel and Josh to be waiters. Nathan probably escaped and hung out with Jen (girlfriend and future wife) for all I knew! While I could get Daniel and Josh to do almost anything, Nathan was a different story! 

When serving dessert, I realized that Joanie was still manning the ice cream maker. This meant that she was putting ice and snow in the machine around the canister. The canister held the homemade ice cream. Then she would sprinkle salt aaround on top of the ice or snow. These layers were repeated while also punching the snow and ice down with some sort of mallet. It usually only took 45 minutes and once it was frozen enough, the machine would quit and then we would remove the ice cream, put it in a container and put it in the freezer to finish freezing. Well, I think this machine was going for close to 2 hours so we unplugged the machine. We removed the motor from the top and took out the canister. We opened it up and I removed the stirring plastic inside and gave it a good lick. Full of salt! I realized that I had failed to share that the layers of snow or ice and salt need to stay below the canister. The salt had leaked in and that ice cream was NOT going to freeze! Just to make sure, we put it in the freezer anyway and nope, it would not freeze. 

I was working at a childcare center in Watertown at the time, so I brought the salty ice cream in and fed it to my 2-year-olds, but that's another story! 

As you scroll through the photos, you will see my parents and Josh. I was behind the camera and somehow never took a photo of Joanie with the ice cream machine or Daniel. You will see all of the fun Valentine's decorations though! Enjoy!

My parents like to hold onto things and struggled to throw things away. When my dad was gone on overnight or week work trips, I would sometimes take initiative and go through things. My parents had a nice set of brand name knives that needed to be sharpened. I did not know the value of the knives and sent them off to a thrift store. When I found out that they were actually good knives, I felt bad and purchased a knife set for my parents. It was probably from Walmart and not as good as the knives they originally had. I learned to be more careful in my tossing. 

Dad, like his mother, was constantly moving and working on something. When he sat down (like during a family movie night), he would promptly fall asleep. 

So many precious memories here! I am so thankful for my family and these crazy stories of anniversary dinners with lots of zing! I am so thankful that they let me make a disaster of the kitchen to create something special for their day.