Date Night, vacation style!

Long, long ago, vacations had a complete and different meaning than they do today. ~smile~ Once upon a time, we would travel to the beach or the mountains, we would eat out fancy dinners, we would sleep late in the mornings, and we would relax all day long.

picks self up off the floor from a fit of laughter

These days, vacations include early mornings, lots of laundry, and relaxing of a different, non-laying around nature.

It's so much more fun.

But, we still like the folks we were way back when. We might not get those late sleeping mornings for many years, but we can recreate some of the fancy dinners. So, for Friday night, we exhausted our children, put them to bed at 6:30, and we had a fabulous, fancy, at-home date night.

A splurge of a drink. These come shrink wrapped in a 6 pack, with fancy paper wrappers over the top. So much more than a normal coke. Admittedly, this drink is all about my husband. They taste good, but not that good.

Our favorite salad. Tomatoes, basil, and Italian salad dressing. I could (and often do) eat it every single day. Never gets old.

This. Well, this, I could not eat every day. Unless I wanted to weigh 500 pounds. Which might not be a bad thing. This sauce will make you rise up and slap yo' mama. This stuff is so good. You could bathe in it. You could slather it on as face cream. You get the idea. You need to make this.

I served the steak and blue cheese sauce (so good!) with spanish green beans (minus the bacon and made with fresh ingredients). They are a side dish worthy of the steak. Even if you don't make the blue cheese sauce, try these green beans.

Add in some good music, some good conversation, and we could feel ourselves totally in vacation mode. All at home, all on the cheap, and all with our babies sleeping upstairs.

Now that's my kind of vacation.