Cookin for Two

Saucyman, I want to make [my sweetie] something for the Valentine’s Day rather than attempt to enjoy ourselves in a crowded restaurant. What should I make her? - Love her; hate crowds.

Valentine’s Day dinners along with Mother’s Day and Easter brunches are restaurant situations to avoid. I would rather have my theoretical sweetie serve soup from a can cold - than fight the horde of couples vying to eat hastily rushed food and endure the poor service at an over-crowded/over-booked restaurant on Valentine’s Day.

Well that and there is a certain power in doing. Taking the time and energy to please someone is worth far more than participating in some hackneyed cultural cliché about cards, flowers, chocolate, diamond jewelry and ordering a lobster ala carte. Not that there is anything wrong with flowers, chocolate or lobster but if you have decided you don’t have to go out to dinner to prove your love, you probably aren’t buying into the rest of it, which is good you aren’t trying to please the editorial board of Cosmo, only your sweetie.

Let simplicity and seasonality guide your cooking choices and you will be fine. The difficulty is that simplicity isn’t always simple; it takes confidence and acumen to serve food that hasn’t been turbo charged with cheese & meat & booze & habanero cream sauce & 18 cloves of garlic. Trust the ingredients and rest assured, the basic skills are there – the boil, grill, bake, steam – the aptitude and desire is there, have faith in your ability.

Seasonality can be difficult too. Sure tulips and daffodils are both colorful and more natural than hothouse roses, but the middle of February doesn’t offer a multitude of seasonal food choices. But if you think optimistically rather than literally you will have plenty of options. Think outside the cabbage and potato, spring is just around the corner – lamb chops, baby artichokes, asparagus and cauliflower are all in the stores and only a little ahead of the curve. For dessert - fresh strawberries: Even if those big, overpriced, cotton-ball strawberries that don’t taste like anything are so full of color they carry the promise of springtime. Besides even the worst strawberry can be enhanced by marinating it in either a straight brandy or flavored one like kirsch, Grand Mariner or framboise then dipped in chocolate, clotted cream, Sauce Romanoff and still retain the promise of longer days and warmer nights.

Ultimately you have to choose your menu: While lamb might be good, it really isn’t if she is a vegetarian…Just keep in mind this meal isn’t about you; so be prepared to drink wine instead of beer, eat fish instead of beef, serve green veg instead of potatoes and do so happily. If you can’t take pleasure in the meal yourself, enjoy the fact someone is loving the food, the thought and the effort you have put into Valentine’s dinner.