Valentines Day Menu

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Uncle Bob

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Anyone given it any thought.... It's not to early....It is just around the corner!

Dining In? Dining Out? Menu Plans?

My plans are not finalized...but I'm thinking....:whistling
 

kitchenelf

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Actually, we got into a tradition of what we have for Valentines.

  • Tuna tartare made with shallots and a homemade wasabi mayonnaise topped with caviar, drizzled with more of the wasabi mayo
  • Salad with a blueberry or white wine vinaigrette with some stuffed baby sweet peppers on the side
  • Horseradish crusted thick porkchops
  • Dauphinois
  • roasted asparagus (or Brussels sprouts)

None of us are dessert people but I may make Alix's apple crisp this year - my family will be surprised to even see a dessert and this is GOOD!

But, I may change it up this year - maybe ;)
 

Katie H

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Me, too. I'm thinking and, besides food, I go for atmosphere.

When Buck and I were dating, I made traces of my youngest child's shoe (he, the child, was about 2). I made lots of cutouts of the shoe from red construction paper, wrote instructions/sayings on them and taped them, as if walking, on the hallway carpet from the elevator to my apartment door in my apartment building.

When Buck arrived for dinner, all he had to do was to follow the red footsteps.:whistling
 

kitchenelf

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Here's the dining room (kinda messy at this point but oh well) and the salad - unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the rest lol

img_385885_0_c89ed70fa11069bbc6cebb564ca5bd72.jpg


img_385885_1_a7033a3050ebc2664ec7901b1f27744f.jpg
 

Uncle Bob

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Very pretty table...romantic atmosphere!!!

Now would you please leave a link to those de-lish-us looking stuffed peppers??

Pretty please even!!;)




PS...Thanks for posting Michelemarie's TNT Irish Cream recipe...I made it during Christmas...That stuff just blows me away!!!
 
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kitchenelf

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Well, I really don't have a recipe. My grocery store had several different fresh sausages they were selling - one was a basil, one a cajun, and one something else - I really just get whatever they have which could just be andouille sometimes. I just make sure there is a good bit in the mixture below. More or less there is just enough (and then a bit more for good measure) cream cheese to just hold the sausage together.

I soften the OMG - edited to say - I said cream cheese here, I meant to say GOAT cheese, add some fresh garlic, kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and the crumbled, cooked, well-drained sausage and mix. Slice open one side of the pepper, remove seeds, stuff and cook on my panini maker. I don't let them cook too fast because I want them to be somewhat done and not too crunchy. I just make sure the cut side of the pepper is up. It's nothing fancy and I'm sure there's lots of ways to re-invent this. It's just a nice, simple thing to do that doesn't require a lot of attention.

It was a last-minute decision to make these as they were just too "cute" to pass up in the store :rolleyes:

(and the wasabi mayo in the plastic squirt bottle really set the romantic mood :blush:) I'm glad you didn't mind me adding the link to the Irish Cream - I will have to try some.
 
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pdswife

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We go out either a few nights before or a few nights after to beat the crowds. I'm not sure where we'll go this year yet.
 

kitchenelf

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pdswife said:
We go out either a few nights before or a few nights after to beat the crowds. I'm not sure where we'll go this year yet.

You are so smart to do that! The #1 reason in my book is not having to choose from a MUCH smaller menu. When cooking in a local restaurant Valentine's night was like working as an air traffic controller at the busiest airport on the busiest flying day of the year! Every year I said - I will NOT be here next Valentine's Day. To actually go OUT to eat on Valentine's gives me hives :ermm:
 

jkath

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We never go out on Valentine's Day either, one for the insane amount of people and the other is that our anniv is only a week later.
I'll probably make a nice roast with root veggies. I remember a woman I knew years ago would make a heart shaped meatloaf every year for her hubby on valentine's day. Cute.
 

kitchenelf

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Heart-shaped meatloaf - how cute! I just may do that but still have all the same stuff as sides. I've got a "not your norm" meatloaf - definite possibility!
 

lulu

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We'll eat in too.

I made the cake in my avatar last year....it was good! I really don't know what I'll do this year. Not a cake.....we ate cake and fell asleep early in a carb stupor! Oh dear, nothing springs to mind, thanks for getting me thinking now Uncle Bob.
 

rickell

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We never go out on Valentine's Day either, one for the insane amount of people and the other is that our anniv is only a week later.

Jkath
We never go out either our anniv is 2.22 eight days later. normally
my mil asks to have the kids one night the weekend of our anniv and
we go out. hopefully she will again this year.

I am thankful for this post it will get me thinking. I do have a cookie pan
shaped like a heart, I also have pancake molds in the shape of a heart.
 

boufa06

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Being a DC diehard, I would log in to DC and see what others are doing on Valentine Day before I decide what to do!:LOL:
 

Flourgirl

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Oct 20, 2006
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Norwalk, Connecticut
We don't do anything really "special" for Valentine's Day dinner. I just make a nice, normal dinner, maybe homemade meat ravioli or something.

However, I am teaching a cooking class next week with a romantic Valentine's Day dinner theme. The menu is crispy risotto cakes stuffed with fontina as appetizer and the entree is seafood cioppino with sea scallops, swordfish, clams, mussels, crab and lobster tails with grilled garlic toasts and dark chocolate cappuccino cake for dessert. The class is full.
 

Katie H

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rickell said:
We never go out on Valentine's Day either, one for the insane amount of people and the other is that our anniv is only a week later.

Jkath
We never go out either our anniv is 2.22 eight days later. normally
my mil asks to have the kids one night the weekend of our anniv and
we go out. hopefully she will again this year.

Interesting. What kind of calendar has days like that?:LOL:

As for Valentine's Day, I don't think Buck and I have ever gone out in the 30 years we've been together. Not sure what I'll plan for this year. I won't post because he'll be bound to see it. I'll have to report after the fact.
 
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