Confessions of the Heart

It's late in the day, but I wanted to get this one up before too many days slip by and the magic wears off.  My kinda magic anyway.  I'll be honest:  I'm not much of a valentine-r.  We usually don't do much but wander around in public sarcastically calling one another 'Valentine' all day long (and sometimes for a few days in advance) much to the chagrin of anyone within ear shot.  It's actually mildly hilarious.  And of course there's always the chocolate, but let's face it - there's always the chocolate.

This year the Chef didn't work and this was all he said:  

'Be here at 7.  You're going to pee your pants.  And don't bother asking - I'm not telling you.  Oh, and don't bother guessing because you've never had it before.'

I knew it would be food, but what could it be?  A chocolate covered chicken?  And on top of that something weird started to happen.  I started to get nervous.  Like it was a real date in the old days.  I mean we still go on dates, but they're usually pre-discussed types of dates so this was kind of fun. To get even palm sweatier, when I called to ask what I could bring he said nothing...that he had the menus printed up.  He printed menus.

Exhibit A:  The Menu

Without going on and on like a sentimental fool (and for the record I don't think those could possibly even exist) he came up with a menu that consisted of twists on several of our favorite dishes from some of the restaurants we've been visiting since even before we started dating.  Because we did dinner and a movie every Sunday night for about a year before he finally got the nerve to tell me he liked me.  The whole thing was really special and suddenly I feel like I understand Valentine's Day.

I'm not here to throw sand in anyone's eyes.  Believe me I've spent many of these alone - and while it really didn't bother me, some of my close friends did get kind of down so I do understand.  All I can say is consider this evidence that there are normal, good, decent guys still left out there...and some of them can cook!!  

Tangerineade - made with tangerines from the backyard.

A version of my absolute favorite Luke's lemonade.

Grilled shrimp - we ate it with a curry aioli.

This one is a twist on curry infused shrimp tempura that is a total contraband weakness of mine.

I'd been requesting salmon so he did a version of one of my favorite salads:

heirloom tomato and watermelon, but placed the various ingredients 

atop smoked salmon.  I may or may not have teared up.

Kale - I basically love kale in any form or fashion.  

Here's the kale and gnocchi recipe from last year that people still send emails about.

Here it is sans the gnocchi.

And there's the Chef.  Yes 2 days in a row and I promised him I'd stop it now.

Midway through I said, "hey you're wearing the shirt from the first time you tried

to tell me you liked me."  He nodded and we both kind of laughed.  
He's so sentimental-it's really kind of wonderful!  

Oh and fyi - he's housesitting for his parents.  He does not have pink walls.

So that's about where the pictures ended because let's face it:  enough is enough and we had to get down to watching The Bachelor and laughing our heads off while continuing to consume course after course.  At the end of the day, Valentine's Day is really about doing something special with the person you love - even if it's your cat :).  Oh and p.s. - to anyone who thinks we have a kum bah yah...uh, we totally work each other's nerves on a regular basis.  It's the real world over here baby!