First Date Dinners

[Claire]

I can't recall if we've done this before, but what did you fix for your beloved the first time? What did S/He fix for you? How did it turn out?

 

[Claire]

I made Christmas dinner. I had never cooked a duck before, and I don't think that my mother had ever either. But I was always a fairly confident cook, so didn't think much about it. I don't tremember what else was a part of the meal except for an outrageously (for me, then) expensive appetizer of a shrimp cocktail served in avocado halves. I marinaded the duck in red wine & spices, then roasted it. I was in tears when I saw that the duck turned purple. PURPLE. Now-Hubby comforted me and assured me that it would look fine once roasted (it did). And luckily my apartment must have had a good exhaust fan, because I don't remember smoke (I now have an old kitchen w/no exhaust fan, and you couldn't pay me to do a whole duck because of the smoke!).

Hubby made me beef stroganof. It was very good, but since then he's decided he likes mine better ... hmmm ... no, it reallly isn't an excuse not to cook for me, at that point I'd already perfected beef stroganof (to my taste and that of my friends and family)(of course I didn't let him know that for years after!). Of course HE had no disasters! Another very early made for me was his "middle eastern specail" that we've both perfected over the following 25 years. I think the outstanding thing about the first meals he made for me was that he had crystal, china, and sterling. Which now graces our table.

 

[amber]

Wow Claire, I'm too old to remember that It was probably a pasta dish. I wasnt much of a cook back in my teens.

 

[Bangbang]

My wife made german style chicken and dumplings and I made fried tacos. It was great. Then she introduced me to Lebanese food and I was hooked.

 

[Chef_Jen]

Well I made Lasagna Salad fresh garlic bread and Strawberry-misu for dessert

He well he tried making pasta for me once.. had more water on the plate then in the pot!

 

[ChefScotty]

My first Xmas dinner involved considerable reading up and then in a food magazine Delia Smith kindly laid it all out for me from 7:00 am put the turkey in to 2:00 pm eat that puppy, so I had the recipes and timelines. I bought the most expensive free ranger I could find when they weren't that easy to get, a bottle of champagne, some orange juice and a lovely bottle of white.

So we cracked the champagne and I got on with the cooking, turning the turkey every 30 minutes as directed for the juciest moistest turkey ever, I had been promised.

Once we were about half way through the wine I got my new carving knife out and went to work. After ten minutes I've got about four ounces of white meat on a plate and I'm getting nowhere fast, so I check the carving diagram, and I'm not as stupid as I thought. I was doing the right things in the right bits so now I'm just angry and going to beat my butcher to death with this dud of a turkey he sold me. Got some leg meat though, and we ate.

And I nap, and when I wake up I see two huge platters of turkey and ask whether my mother-in-law had come around with some for us, only to be told someone not as well oiled as myself had turned the turkey one more time so it was the right side up, and apparently things got considerably easier that way. I swear to God I got more meat out of the bottom end of a turkey than anyone else in history - ever. The next Xmas, I go to get the turkey out of the fridge to cook it and rugrat #1 has stuck a label on the breast - 'this side up.'

 

[buckytom]

the first dinner that i'd ever cooked for a girlfriend was when i was in college.

i made shrimp parm with angel hair. i cooked the shrimp in the sauce for about a half hour or more; long enough to make them nearly indestructable rubber. then i shelled them an topped them with a thick layer of melted mozarella, so you practically couldn't taste anything but cheese.

my sauce was good, however, having been flavored by the shrimp. so we got by on the pasta, sauce, and wine. my dog ate the shrimp and cheese, and then proceeded to fart all night. there's only so many times you can blame the dog, even when it really is his fault.

 

[corazon]

I don't remember what I made but I do remember that for a long time I wouldn't make anything without a recipe. "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." That is a lot of pressure!

 

[mudbug]

Spent some time this afternoon trying to find the recipe for it, but couldn't. It was pork chops smeared with dijon mustard and baked, but there was also some kind of fruit chutney or something that you put on top of the chops after they had baked awhile. Don't think I've made it since.

HH probably fixed me a drink instead of cooking something. We went out to eat a lot in those days.

 

[ironchef]

If your date enjoys eating it, going to a sushi bar and sitting at the counter makes a great first date. I don't like cooking on the first few dates because of the clean up. For me, the cooking can come later. I'd rather spend more time getting to know the person without the added stress of preparing a meal. Washing dishes together isn't my idea of that, especially not at first.

 

[buckytom]

yeah, well, i'd like to see you fix a computer on a first date!!!!

so there....

 

[Claire]

Ironchef, I would never, ever cook for a first date. This was well into our relationship, when we already knew that we both liked to cook & eat. I didn't mean what I titled this. I meant the first date that you (or your other) fixed dinner.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Since I've always loved to cook (& he doesn't), I cooked so many things for him when we first started dating (27 years ago!!!), that I'd never remember what the "first" was.

I do, however, remember the first thing he cooked for me: "Shrimp in Champagne Sauce". Not only was it very ambitious for someone who "didn't cook", but it was delicious, if I remember correctly - although that also could easily have been the stars in my eyes - lol!!!

Since wedding (we celebrated our 17th anniversary on 8/11), I've really done all the cooking, except for during several times of incapacitation on my part. He does have a few specialties - absolutely perfect turkey burgers out on the grill, which for whatever reason I've never mastered as well as he has & a wonderfully delicious lower-fat Fettucine Alfredo made with yogurt come to mind as his top dishes.

 

[princessfooh]

big surprize

The first time I had dinner at my now ex-husband's I walked in to find paper plates, napkins and cups, and he had just run out that day to buy real silverware - so you can imagine my reaction when I looked over and saw flames shooting out of the pan...Turns out he had actually gone to culinary school and was deglazing the sauce. He made chicken breast in a cream sauce with sun dried tomatoes and raisins over linguine. Still one of the best meals I have ever had.

 

[CookSource]

First time I cooked, I made a chicken dish with like some mrs dash on it it was funny with some garlic mash potatos and I think she made me beef stragenaff or how ever you spell that lol ..
but now we are both more advanced making all kinds of good eats now

 

[lulu]

First meal together: a late night Crispy aromatic duck in Gerard Street on the day we met. Then we had a couple of dates without eating anything, then we went on holiday (I know, I know, what was I thinking? lol) and I made a picnic to have at the airport....he was coming straight from a gig and our flight was before morning Public Transport in London, so we agreed to a few hours in airport. I made a pork and apricot stuffed pastry thing that we had to cut with a plastic knife, a little pot of chicken liver pate, some homemade bread, paper cups full of my heart stopping chocolate mousse, fruit tarts and a selection of fresh fruit, and added to the basket bought smoked meats (duck and lamb I think). He was amazed and impressed! That was actually our fourth date...we are married now.

First thing he cooked for me was an amazing pizza, the day we got back from the holiday!

Our romance is charted in meals we've cooked together or for each other.