Happy Valentine's Day!!!

In grocery stores, convenient stores, and restaurants across the nation, bros everywhere are attempting to make up for a year of forgotten dates, pointless arguments, and a general lack of character. With flowers, balloons, cards, and a dinner, all can be forgiven and forgotten. At least this is what the bros want to believe or somehow unfortunately do believe. Not being like these bros (hopefully), I didn't feel the need to make up for any past transgressions, for I try my hardest to make amends immediately upon said transgressions. Besides, it's kind of nice not having a year's worth of screw ups to sappily attempt to make up for hanging overhead. In this way, Valentine's Day can be treated more or less like any other day of the year.

That being said, I am a (probably overly) sentimental person. This occasionally equates to me putting excess emphasis on "special" dates (i.e. Valentine's Day). Thus, even though I don't prescribe to the day as a make-up for a year of failure, and even though I believe that thoughtfulness should exist daily throughout the year, I still wanted to somehow signify the occasion of Valentine's Day.

It started with a distantly recent trip to a convenience store. While there on unrelated business, I happened across the perfect "gift" for my fiancée. Her and I have succumbed to the social pressures of using overly graphic emoticons. One of our personal favorites is the "blowing a kiss and winky" face. It just so happened that at this store, near the registers among the other impulse buys, there was a bin containing plush pillows in the shape of a few popular emojis, including the one of personal interest.

And her, being the incredibly sweet person she is, reciprocated with a personal gift of her own. It really was the perfect gift for me.

It was accompanied by an incredibly thoughtful and hand-drawn card. She is incredibly capable of transferring her mental imagery to physical existence. In so many words, she is a very sweet and thoughtful artist.

I couldn't ask for anything more, and I'm incredibly thankful, on a daily basis, for her.

And now, on to the food. Yes, we patronized the construction of Valentine's Day dinner. But really, this was merely an opportunity taken advantage of as an excuse for us to have a really nice dinner. Probably a little too nice, but it was well worth it for the food and company.

Side note: We went to a long-standing Kansas City tradition. For Italian cuisine, there aren't many restaurants that rival Cascone's. Johnny Cascone's, in Overland Park, has an extra-special place in both Sidney's heart as well as in mine. It was a year and two months ago, almost to the day, that, after leaving a jewelry store faced with the prospect of losing the engagement ring she really wanted, that we first dined at Johnny Cascone's. Little did she know that I was capable of the scheme I had prepared for later that night. As the check came and we planned to rush back to the jewelry store to check on the ring's availability, I, in all of my clichéd but thoughtful brilliance, got down on one knee, revealed the ring that I had secretly picked up while in the store earlier that night, and proposed to her. Needless to say, she said yes. But, perhaps more importantly, I achieved my one goal of catching her off guard. It was truly a special night, but, unfortunately wrought with unnecessary nerves, I could barely eat my food.

So, this second visit to Johnny Cascone's was doubly special. It brought back the intense joy from that night previous, and it brought the present joy of me being able to eat all the food that was placed in front of me.

Now, on to the food, and for real this time.

Before anything else, a basket with bread appeared at our table. On that note, this restaurant does it right. There is bowl filled with butter pats already on the table. This way, one can use as much butter as is desired and not run out.

We each had a couple slices, each of mine piled high with butter.

This was some of the best bread that I had ever had, to the point of leading me to question my love of sourdough. I no longer have a clear-cut favorite. It's that good. So, it went bye-bye quickly. Upon observing our empty bread basket, our waiter inquired about our desire for more bread. A quick rule of thumb: never decline additional bread at a restaurant. With that rule in mind, we quickly agreed to more bread. Our waiter did not disappoint!

With our appetizers, salads, and entrées inbound, we did not get through all of this bread by dinner's end, but fear not! It was taken home with us for later enjoyment.

For our appetizer, we got the Calamari Fritti. It has become quite the tradition for us to order calamari any time it is on the menu.

It was a relatively big portion, and, being only the two of us, we indulged in large quantities of squid as food. Also making an appearance is one of my many slices of butter-topped bread.

Up next were our house Italian salads. I opted to keep it authentic with an Italian vinaigrette dressing.

The salad was actually larger than it looks in the picture. I wasn't finished when our entrées arrived, yet I persevered to finish as much of the salad as I could before my willpower was broken. Sure enough, the sights and smells of the food sitting before were too much for me to resist.

What you're looking at is one of their combination dinners, termed the "Italian Flag." On the left is their Famous Lasagna.

In the middle is their Chicken Parmigiana.

And on the right is their Fettuccini Alfredo.

All three were incredibly delicious in their own unique ways. The lasagna was thick and rich, the chicken was seasoned perfectly and combined perfectly with the cheese and sauce, and the fettuccini Alfredo was super rich and creamy.

After this food was so enjoyed, it was time for dessert. I really wanted to keep with Italian theme, so I ordered the cannoli.

In this case, it would actually be called a cannolo, but it was delicious, so I'm not complaining!


Note: Earlier in the day, before I headed off to work at the cafeteria, I had a brotein bar. After work, I took advantage of the complimentary meal offered to employees on the day of their shift. I got fairly lucky with the selection. I had a slice of macaroni and cheese pizza, of which I just previously helped prepare, and a crispy chicken sandwich with a breakfast sausage patty and two slices of pepper jack cheese.