Valentine's success

[warning: long and detailed post of the minutiae of our valentine's. proceed at your own risk, and only if you have a bunch of time...]

Valentine's was a rip-roaring success. I had booked reservations at that restaraunt to avoid the anxiety of preparation, but my son chiselled $100.00 out of me for a band trip - and there went the evening. So we ate at my place.

Smitten got tied up and was about 50 minutes late. That bothered her and she phoned me three times during that period (she hates being late, and doesn't like people to be late [i'm trying, but she may eventually be in for a shock...]). I was happy that she was that late because I underestimated my timeline to shop, pick up flowers, shave, change, clear up, and cook... Her timing was perfect from my perspective, and we shared a good laugh about that bit of luck.

Preparation (notice the painful lack of counter space in my @#$%ing apartment. It would be barely enough if I didn't have the microwave taking up a huge chunk of space. Oh well, I've begun looking at houses):





I did things a little different this time. Instead of having everything ready and put on the table at once, I prepared in courses. I had the two starting cold courses ready prior to the meal and had the water ready for the steaming, and the George Foreman grill hot. I had the second course cold and plated in the fridge.

First course, salad: A bed of red leaf lettuce with grape tomatoes, red pepper slices, cold shocked steamed green beans, mushrooms and bean sprouts - topped with low calorie pear and guava salad dressing. Yes, that's a white carnation on the plate. Edible flowers were too expensive, and this was a budget dinner.



Second course, buckwheat tabbouleh: Smitten can't eat wheat (no she's not celiac), so I couldn't use normal bulgur for the tabbouleh. I substituted buckwheat kasha. I make my kasha on the less mushy side, so it worked wonderfully (I knew it would because I often mix my salad and kasha together when I eat it). I couldn't find any fresh mint, so this wasn't truly tabbouleh, but whatever. Note how it's shaped like a heart in the foreground picture. The other plate is too, but the flowers on the plate obscure the shape a little.



The final two courses were served on one plate. Steamed snow peas served on/with nicely colour contrasting steamed red peppers, and grilled marinated salmon steaks. The marinate was pretty simple: a little balsamic vinegar, a little soy sauce, some pepper, some ground thyme. They were beautiful steaks so I wanted as much of the natural flavour to come through. The steaks were very moist after grilling and had problems staying together, so a little extra care was required in plating.




Smitten brought the wine. I followed through with the invitation and the candles and setting as described in the last valentine's post. We both dressed for dinner. She is sooooooooo beautiful. She looked like a dream come true (she is a dream come true).

The entire apartment was candle lit with feng shui compliant candle clusters.



I used a dim fluorescent camping lantern in the kitchen for light when getting the various courses and putting the hot dishes to cook while we ate the second course. I made sure that my plating of the final course was simple and obvious for the lighting conditions.

I did not take a picture of the dessert, which was a strawberry soy ice cream (zero dairy - no dairy for Smitten). I put some roasted cashews at the bottom of the dish with a dribble of frangelico to make the last spoonfuls of dish "clean-up" an interesting taste contrast with the strawberry "ice cream" (more of a sherbet, really - not that "creamy"). I put the ice cream bowl (which was a matching green glass bowl) on it's own plate, with black grapes on the plate around the bowl for further colour contrast. It looked good and tasted fine.

Smitten, who is used to usually getting some kind of pain or abdominal distension when she eats, marvelled at the end of the meal how she felt no discomfort. She good-naturedly blames a little of her weight gain on me because nothing I make hurts her, so she eats more than she otherwise would ;-) Telling me how good she felt and how energised my selection of foods always makes her feel after a meal was perhaps the highest compliment she could have paid me. I like being right, and I like being competent. Those successes and being able to use my skills to make her happy, for me, is a triple play like no other.

Smitten was bowled over by the attention that I paid to her needs and desires. She said I was the only person to have ever done anything like I do for her in her whole life.

---

I would like to thank signgurl, terry, pirate, and pissy for pulling me down from my anxiety perch, and for advising me to tone it down and keep it simple. Less worked fine. I will attempt to remember that for next time. I also remembered to only make enough to feed about 6 people instead of 20 - so there was enough for leftovers and for me to be able to pack both our lunches this morning.

---

Smitten did something very wonderful and touching for me. While we were having some after dinner scotches, she laid a collection of hand made red paper hearts on the coffee table. She told me to pick them up one by one and read them out loud (needed a light on for this one). She had hand written either a message about me, and what she loves about me, or some other cryptic words on the hearts. Each one corresponded to an item she had in a bag with her.

Things like the humourous and teasing "For when you want a suck" - she then gave me a heart shaped valentine's sucker. "For when you want the finer things in life" - a small sample bottle of Courvoisier. And so on. She said that she was sad that they were just little things, but she was kind of broke. I was touched by all the things. To the point I was almost embarrassed to go on. I told her, and she shushed me - and said that she wanted to give me everything she has.

And then the last item. A child's valentine with our names on it. My eyes began to tear. That was the first "valentine" I had ever received from a female. Certainly cards as an adult, but never one of those valentine cards.

In grades 5,6, and 7 I received zero valentines from anyone but myself (I hated how few I got, so I always salted a few extras into the box from "Guess Who" and "It's a secret" and so on, so that I wouldn't be stuck with the very few that I ever got). I had received some from male friends in younger grades, but none through those 3 grades. I had some friends and I always wondered why they didn't give me any cards. Sometimes I wonder if the "popular kids" who were in charge of handing out the cards didn't stash the ones to me, just to hurt me... I hope.

Anyway, my first valentine from a girl.