Eating for 2

Saucydood, with the holiday of love coming up, what is a good thing to eat with your true love?

Because 93.5% of all coupled people will go to a restaurant on or near Valentine's Day, perhaps it would be more apt if the day were dedicated to St Thomas, the doubting one, who according to his hagiography, is the patron saint of cooks.

A person can express their affection with a thoughtful gift, words of love or action. My idea of a gift is a book, usually one that I liked and even though I am a born and bred Midwesterner, I still do pretty okay with expressing emotions, but when I really want state declaratively how I feel about someone, I opt for the simple act of doing and that usually means heading into the kitchen.

The peril of cooking for the sole purpose of expressing yourself for someone is that you have to make something for them. If your sweetie doesn’t like tomatoes and you are cook marinara; or your BBQ is famous in 2 time zones and you are hooking up with a vegetarian, you run the danger of glorifying yourself, not your love for another.

While I would love to tell you champagne, lobster and a chocolate dessert are the perfect foods for a Valentine dinner, it really depends on the person. If you don’t like Thai food, try going out for Thai. Better yet, try going out for Thai because your sweetie enjoys it, not because you are performing a noble (and noticeable) sacrifice. Remember it was St. Valentine who was martyred, not your personal idea of what’s for dinner.

Chocolate, flowers and champagne don’t have to be cliché, but they will be if you use them together. Instead try sharing something for your true love – it could be anything from a slow-cooked soup and fresh baked bread; Mac and Cheese for the person who loves the dish but claims to hate the carbs; sharing a bottle of wine when you are more of a beer person. Who knows maybe sending the kids to grandma and taking a bowlful of peanuts into the bedroom for some “couple-time” might be the right answer to the food-holiday riddle.

For me, I do the majority of cooking when I am coupled, so making a special meal, would be all that special but if I were to do something out of the ordinary – I would even do the unthinkable, brunch. Pay $9 for 2 eggs and do it happily because it makes someone else happy. In turn, if someone were to place a bottle of brown liquor and two nice, hefty old fashioned glasses under the Valentine’s Day tree, I’d check my ass to see if Cupid’s arrow were sticking out of it.  


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