Today we’re going to talk about a particular theme for a date night in our family. With our five children, we love to have times where we eat together and have special meals, and we also love to have a date night every week for my hubby and I. The kids know about it; they have their own special meal beforehand, and then they’re upstairs early. We like to go out for it when we can – usually we do that on one night out of four. We also like to have date nights at home when we can because somehow there’s something different and special that you get out of those date nights, something that’s different to when you go out.
So, today I want to talk about having your own personal black and white ball for a date night – a black and white themed date night. Let me tell you some of the details of what this could entail. I’m bringing out a date night recipe book later this year, and this will be one of the date themes in it.
For starters, you can dress in black and white. Your clothes can be completely white with a black item, or it can be half-half. Try to dress formally in fancy black and white as you would for a black and white ball. You can go even further and have a white mask or a black mask that you can wear at the same time. It’s amazing when you dress up for a date night at home, even though it’s just the two of you. It somehow gives it an edge and makes it extra fun and special, so go wild. You can wear a white necklaces, your hubby can wear a black bow tie – see what you can find.
Then there’s setting the table and decorating the room you’re going to be in. You could use a black tablecloth, which is very formal, or a white one with black napkins. You can add all kinds of things to your table. You can put some dice on display, which you can use in one of the activities I’ll mention. You can put a chess board out with the players on it – be creative in the way you decorate your table. Obviously you should use black and white crockery, either one or the other, or a combination for the different courses. That makes it really cool. You can put white flowers, even a single white rose, on the tablecloth.
Here are more ideas for your decor. We’re looking at black and white with little touches of silver or crystal that bring sparkle. You can put black and white feathers in a tall, thin vase. You could have a flat mirror on the table, and put black or white candles on it. It always looks amazing. You can put white roses on the mirror as well, and tea lights – the small candles. You could use an upside down glass with a candle underneath and a white flower on top, or any kind of glass dome with little fairy lights underneath. You could put some black lace underneath that. You can also put a white lace runner over a black tablecloth. You can use black chargers with white plates, and you can even roll up white napkins and wrap black lace or black satin ribbon around them.
You can use a black bow tie as a napkin ring. You can even drape a sheer black fabric over a lamp to give the lighting a sort of moody effect. Silver cutlery works well for this. You can do place names using black cards or white cards with an elegant black script. You could put a couple of masquerade masks on the table as well as wearing them.
For the music, you could put on soft jazz, classical, or waltz music. A good little activity to start with is to put on something like Phantom of the Opera music or jazz music, and do the tango or some version of it; some fun dance together. While wearing your masquerade masks, dim the lights and play the music. You’re dressed up, you’re ready for a bit of a dance, and it’s such fun.
Secretly prepare some romantic facts or memories that you have of each other or of something you did together, and read those out, maybe while sitting together in your living room. Just enjoy chatting about those and laughing. Then you can take some black paper and white gel pens, or white paper and black ink, and write each other a love letter. Maybe you can start with a prompt, like “My favorite memory with you is…” or “If you had to describe me in a black and white movie scene or in a love scene, what would you describe?”
You can play would-you-rather in an elegant way, with romantic, funny would you rather questions, black tie style. “Would you rather dance under a chandelier or kiss under the stars?” “Would you rather attend a Jane Austen style ball or have a date on the rooftop?”
Take turns sketching each other with charcoal or pencil while you pose. It doesn’t have to be serious – even stick figures can be fun. Then if it’s good, frame it. You could also take a selfie of the two of you and try to draw that together using something simple like charcoal.
You could have a mini photo booth, where you have a corner set up with a black and white backdrop or velvet fabric. You can get some photo props like top hats, bowties, pearls, masks, white gloves, or fancy purses. You can use the real thing if you have it. Take some classy photos and some silly couple selfies. Set up your camera on a tripod to get some good ones.
You can each share three ways that you know you’re different to each other and why that works. You could have cards ready to draw with black and white opposites, like “introvert or extrovert”, or “prefer the beach or prefer the forest”, and talk about which one fits you best and why. You can also use black and white napkins to make a checkerboard pattern on your tabletop.
Here are some other games you can play. If you have dice on display, you can play Yahtzee using five dice and a score card. You can play any dice game like Tenzee, or Snakes and Ladders. You can play chess if you enjoy that.
Now let’s get to the food, the most important part. Here are some ideas for black and white themed food for a date night. I’ll mention a three course meal, and then I’ll give you some more ideas for any of the courses for a black and white meal. You could start with stuffed mushrooms, using large mushrooms that are black underneath. You can fill them with ricotta or a cream cheese and Parmesan filling. There’s a recipe for these in our Elegant, Easy Appetizers cookbook; stuffed mushrooms for your appetizer.
Then you could have a pale pasta; any kind of pasta as long as it’s very pale, with some white sauce like cream sauce or creamy mushroom sauce. Then you can add pieces of mushrooms or pieces of blackened steak to it, just small bits. You should get most of the texture and the flavor from that well-cooked pasta that you’ve seasoned with a bit of olive oil and salt. The white cream sauce is rich, and you just add a few little pops of cooked mushroom or steak to make it black and white.
Then for your dessert, you could use meringues. Those are great because you don’t have to make them. You can just buy some little white meringues and put blackberries and whipped cream on them. If you’re feeling fancy, you can make your own pavlova base out of meringue. Also, you can often buy a pavlova base. It’s a big meringue base that you put whipped cream in, and then you can top it with blackberries to make your black and white dessert.
Here are some more ideas that you can do on the side or as your main. You can do a black and white cheeseboard with black olives and white cheeses like brie, mozzarella, or goats cheese. If you can find them, you can add charcoal crackers, squid crackers, or even white crackers. You can do white grapes, and peel apples, although those are a bit more yellow. You can make sandwiches with white bread or black bread like pumpernickel. You can cut them into little cubes or squares, and use layers for a checkerboard effect. You can make cheese balls with goats’ cheese or cream cheese that you roll into a ball. Then you can roll them in black sesame seeds. They look very cool.
You can make black and white skewers with cubes of feta and black olives alternating. You can do a nice, white, roasted piece of cauliflower with a white sauce over it. Black olive tapenade can go with white crackers or bread pieces, maybe toasted a little bit. You can have rice balls wrapped in black seaweed or rolled in black sesame seeds. They can be filled with white chicken. You can have black beans or lentils tossed with crumbled feta and a lemon vinaigrette.
You can have charcoal tortilla chips with a white ghost cheese dip. Popcorn is a great white snack to go on the table, or you can have some popcorn and some black gummies while you watch a movie. You could have a fun little game station where you have dice and trays labeled from one to six with any kind of black and white foods on them. There can be olives on one, cubes of cheese on one, black gummy bears, pieces of popcorn, etc. Whatever number you roll, you have to eat something from that tray.
You can have a sushi platter with white sushi and black seaweed. As one of your courses, you can have a bread basket with different kinds of bread, but all white colored.
Here are some more dessert ideas – white or black cake pops and brownie cubes. Licorice is a lovely black sweet that you can find. You can have oreos with condensed milk pudding on top. Condensed milk pudding is very easy to make; it just uses gelatin, a tin of condensed milk, and a bit of water. I’ll put the recipe at the bottom of this post. You can have cheesecake with an oreo base, or swirls of dark chocolate and vanilla in a cheesecake. You can cover pretzels with white chocolate.
Then for drinks, you can vanilla milkshakes or chocolate milkshakes, or swirl them together, and top them with black and white sprinkles. You can have black jello; like black current flavored, alternating with white jello; coconut or vanilla flavored. Use anything you can find that’s black and white and that you enjoy, and it’s pretty easy to make it a hit.
I hope you try our black and white date night evening, or adapt it to make it a family fun evening together; a black and white meal. Get your kids to be creative and find good decor and good food. The most important thing is that you have fun doing it, and that you connect with each other; with your family.
Let me know if you do something. I’d love to have a photo of it if you feel like it. You can email me at karyn@familyfoodformoms.com.
Condensed Milk Pudding
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 tin sweetened condensed milk
- Gelatin power
- 4 oreos or chocolate sandwich cookies
Instructions:
- Add ½ cup cold water to a small bowl, then sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Leave it to bloom for 5 minutes.
- Add the condensed milk to a large bowl, and add 1 cup of boiling water. Mix well.
- Add the swollen-up gelatin and mix until combined. Add another ½ cup of boiling water and mix.
- Divide the mixture into individual glass dishes or ramekins. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until set.
- While it’s setting, put the oreos into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Mix it up so the cookie filling is combined with the crumbs to make a crumbly topping.
- Just before you serve the puddings, sprinkle the oreo crumble over the top.
