Monthly Review: February 2025

r.m. allen
Mar 3
3 min read

I’ve never been one for Valentine’s Day until the morning of, when it’s too late to buy a gift or plan a surprise or do much of anything beyond making a good dinner and listening to our wedding playlist all day. I’m not asking for anything—please don’t come home with red roses that cost twice as much as they do the other 364 days of the year (even though they’re my favorite flower) or try to book a table at a nice place (I guarantee you I can make a comparably tasty meal at home).

Maybe I’m cynical, or maybe I’m just cheap. Or maybe this is what happens when it’s your 11th Valentine’s Day together, and you’d rather save your grand gestures for a birthday or anniversary.

But it is our 11th Valentine’s Day together, and it’s snowing like the end of a Christmas movie, and we have a porch swing and a portable speaker for our record player, and we may as well bundle up and watch the storm together while the music plays.

The snow falls thick as the blanket in our laps, and I think about what you said when you first came to Wisconsin, that you didn’t realize how utterly silent a snowfall could seem. Even with Cody Fry on vinyl and our own gentle conversation, the world still seems so quiet.

We rock back and forth, huddled close to each other (and to the dogs, who have both briefly joined us). I remember a Valentine’s Day in 2015 when you brought me a bouquet of roses and a book of the Brownings’ poetry, and one in 2022 when I tried to surprise you with a special dinner but you spotted the Martinelli’s in the fridge, gestures that were no less sweet for their conventionality. At the heart of every Valentine cliche is a truth: that we all want to be adored, considered, romanced in the middle of our mundane lives. Sometimes that happens over lava cakes at a candlelit table, and sometimes it happens on a porch swing in a blizzard. I don’t know what I expected romance to be once we got married, but I suppose it’s this, a love as soft as falling snow.

Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of February.

What I Read

Every Home a Foundation, Phylicia Masonheimer (★★★★★)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Kate DiCamillo (★★★★★)––reread
Scattered Showers, Rainbow Rowell (★★★)

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

Chocolate Whipped Cream

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I decided to make a trifle for a family dinner, following this formula, and I used this as my cream element to accompany my coffee-and-almond sponge and raspberry sauce from Giuseppe's Easy Bakes. My darling husband was kind enough to run to the store 30 minutes before our company arrived since I had underestimated the amount of cream I would need, and I'm so glad he did, because this turned out great.

Shirred Eggs

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I was weirdly desperate for eggs the other day, a craving odd in both its unlikeliness (I don't usually eat eggs unless they're in some kind of dish) and its intensity. I had all the ingredients for these, and they sounded intriguing, so I made them. I definitely overbaked them, but I enjoyed them enough to try again sometime soon.

Chopped Thai Crunch Chicken Salad

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: You know you've got a good one when you're excited to have the leftovers for lunch. I subbed mandarin oranges for the mango. The fried wonton wrappers were worth setting off the smoke detector.