Valentine's Day Dinner

[gfweb]

47 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

 

it’s been very enriching except for my liver, who has yet complained

🤞

 

Re liver..don't ask don't tell

[gfweb]

Miso salmon and broccolini for V day dinner with a local wine, Silk by VaLa Vinyards. Gets great reviews. We liked it.

 

 

[gfweb]

47 minutes ago, chromedome said:

Little whosit, name still TBD.

 

 

Looks like a Ralph

[scubadoo97]

14 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

Looks like a Ralph

am laughing because we have a lot of Ralphs in my extended family.  One being my brother 

[heidih]

Bitter sweet but remember "Ralphina?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners  My sis is Christine - supposed to be Christopher.

 

Edited to clarify sitcom reference:

The Kramdens—and later the Nortons when those characters were added—are childless, an issue only occasionally explored, but a condition on which Gleason insisted. Ralph and Alice did legally adopt a baby girl whom they named Ralphina (because he actually wanted a baby boy he could name after himself but fell in love with the baby girl the agency had placed with them). However, the biological mother requested to have her baby returned

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by heidih (log)

[chromedome]

2 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

Looks like a Ralph

 

I'll pass that along, but I think she'd resent you bitterly when she gets to middle school...

[FeChef]

Rack of lamb, Lobster tail stuffed with crab imperial, and a heart shaped velet chocolate chip cream cheese brownie, with a lava cake topped with ice cream ala mode.

 

[heidih]

Interesting to see people's choices even when they would not be mine, Sometimes nostalgia reigns. I even asked the ex and he oddly said your pepperoni pizza. Huh? 

[MetsFan5]

I had a dental cleaning yesterday. My Chinese American dentist is busy and not dealing with paranoid, racist idiots affecting her business. 
 

  That said? We ordered from the local diner. We do live in Northern Nj and diner food was easy on my poor mouth. 

[BeeZee]

Pizza. NJ, particularly where I live, is also replete with excellent pizza. That was what DH wanted. Nice restaurant on Saturday.

[Okanagancook]

My Cornish Game Hen in the air fryer was absolutely delicious.  I cut it in half after cutting out the back and stuffed some herb butter underneath the skin and brushed some over the skin.  It was done in 20 minutes at 400F!!

sorry no picture..camera is down.

[Tri2Cook]

Had cheeseburger for one. Burger and candied jalapenos on a soft pretzel that was toasted and spread with jalapeno cheddar whipped cream cheese. If you're looking for fancy, it wasn't here.  The candied jalapenos wasn't the best decision. They're tasty and spicy but the sweetness was just a little off in this setting. Pickled jalapenos would have been better.

[Porthos]

I did add vanilla ice cream with blackberries and Chambord for dessert. 

[heidih]

I will admit to loving the Chambord bottle shape more than the contents.

[Kim Shook]

@chromedome– congratulations on your precious new little love.  I got all verklempt at the photo (grandma wannabe here – never going to happen, but I still adore babies!). 

 

@gfweb – gorgeous salmon.  I’m always amazed at how miso complements seafood. 

 

@FeChef – no veg?  My kinda meal! 😁

 

As I mentioned before I had a lovely meal all planned out including scallops with miso mustard sauce, an unusual salad, spinach/cheese souffle, etc.  With being sick for a month +, that didn’t happen.  Instead, I went to Wegman’s and bought a bunch of stuff that didn’t need much attention.  Started with crab-stuffed giant pretzel and olive/cheese mix:

I could see what looked like some green pepper flecks in the crab stuffing but was thankful they couldn’t be detected.  I am a serious Eastern shore purist when it comes to blue crab and have a deep-rooted prejudice against cooks who add peppers of any sort to it. 

 

 

Steamed shrimp with saltines and store-made cocktail sauce (which was surprisingly robust):

I added some Old Bay to the shrimp.  They were very good – large and not at all over cooked!  Sourdough and CSO bake/steamed broccoli:

 

Salad bar salad:

 

Coconut mini cake with some chocolate dipped strawberries:

 

I don’t really understand how chocolate dipped strawberries became a Valentine’s day “thing” considering February is hardly prime strawberry season, but I always fall for them and get a few.  Well, they ARE pretty and the chocolate is good. 😉

[heidih]

21 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

@chromedome

 

 

 I don’t really understand how chocolate dipped strawberries became a Valentine’s day “thing” considering February is hardly prime strawberry season, but I always fall for them and get a few.  Well, they ARE pretty and the chocolate is good. 😉

 

I never understood them. Reminds me of Japanese Christmas cake. An interesting explanation on the cake  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-japanese-eat-cake-christmas-180961556/

[Kim Shook]

5 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

I never understood them. Reminds me of Japanese Christmas cake. An interesting explanation on the cake  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-japanese-eat-cake-christmas-180961556/

Interesting article.  Jessica and I make chocolate covered strawberries at church to serve after the Saturday Easter vigil service and the strawberries are usually pretty good then.  But these were pretty tasteless.  

[FeChef]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

@FeChef – no veg?  My kinda meal! 😁

Look again, green onion.

 

Jokes aside, i made roasted asparagus but it never got plated.

[Katie Meadow]

A great strawberry is not an everyday thing. Even in summer at the farmers' markets they are not guaranteed to be tasty. When we visit relatives in Davis we sometimes stop at the strawberry stand; they are often quite good, but unfortunately not organic. And since strawbs are one the most sprayed fruits it is a good policy to buy organic, so I'm torn every time we buy them there.

 

I've never understood the combo of chocolate and strawberry. It just never appealed to me, whether dipped or paired with cake.  Strawberries with creme fraiche or whipped cream? Yum.  Now that I think about it, really I prefer most all fruits to be eaten separately from chocolate. Although I will allow that poached pears in white wine are pretty good with a chocolate biscotti on the side. 

[FeChef]

21 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

A great strawberry is not an everyday thing. Even in summer at the farmers' markets they are not guaranteed to be tasty. When we visit relatives in Davis we sometimes stop at the strawberry stand; they are often quite good, but unfortunately not organic. And since strawbs are one the most sprayed fruits it is a good policy to buy organic, so I'm torn every time we buy them there.

 

I've never understood the combo of chocolate and strawberry. It just never appealed to me, whether dipped or paired with cake.  Strawberries with creme fraiche or whipped cream? Yum.  Now that I think about it, really I prefer most all fruits to be eaten separately from chocolate. Although I will allow that poached pears in white wine are pretty good with a chocolate biscotti on the side. 

Not a fan of chocolate strawberries either, but strawberries are one of my least favorite fruits, mainly because of the reasons you mentioned, and also because i am grossed out by bruised fruit and stawberries are easily bruised.

 

One fruit i will say goes well with chocolate is banana.

[chileheadmike]

No pics but we had; deviled eggs, spinach salad with warm bacon vinaigrette, lasagna Bolognese,  and chocolate mousse for dessert. 

A lot to eat, we had the eggs and salad then took a break before the lasagna, and then another break before dessert. 

[kayb]

4 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

A great strawberry is not an everyday thing. Even in summer at the farmers' markets they are not guaranteed to be tasty. When we visit relatives in Davis we sometimes stop at the strawberry stand; they are often quite good, but unfortunately not organic. And since strawbs are one the most sprayed fruits it is a good policy to buy organic, so I'm torn every time we buy them there.

 

I've never understood the combo of chocolate and strawberry. It just never appealed to me, whether dipped or paired with cake.  Strawberries with creme fraiche or whipped cream? Yum.  Now that I think about it, really I prefer most all fruits to be eaten separately from chocolate. Although I will allow that poached pears in white wine are pretty good with a chocolate biscotti on the side. 

I love just about anything you can do with a strawberry. Even those shipped-in out of season ones

 But by far my favorite is to skim a plate with a layer of sour cream, cover it with strawberries,  and sprinkle with brown sugar.

[Katie Meadow]

13 hours ago, kayb said:

I love just about anything you can do with a strawberry. Even those shipped-in out of season ones

 But by far my favorite is to skim a plate with a layer of sour cream, cover it with strawberries,  and sprinkle with brown sugar.

My mother used to do sour cream and brown sugar with grapes. I do it when I get nostalgic, but I prefer creme fraiche to sour cream. Always surprises me how good it is!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 minute ago, Katie Meadow said:

My mother used to do sour cream and brown sugar with grapes. I do it when I get nostalgic, but I prefer creme fraiche to sour cream. Always surprises me how good it is!

We love BOTH strawberries and grapes with brown sugar and sour cream/creme fraiche.    Or peaches for that matter

Regarding sour cream vs creme fraiche, we have found Mexican or Salvadorian sour cream much closer to creme fraiche at a fraction of the price.   Salvadorian contains salt which gives it a distinctive but intriguing taste.

[Katie Meadow]

5 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

We love BOTH strawberries and grapes with brown sugar and sour cream/creme fraiche.    Or peaches for that matter

Regarding sour cream vs creme fraiche, we have found Mexican or Salvadorian sour cream much closer to creme fraiche at a fraction of the price.   Salvadorian contains salt which gives it a distinctive but intriguing taste.

I too love Mexican crema. Since Mi Puebla grocery in the East Bay closed I've been missing many of my favorite items. They used to sell crema in bulk, and you could get it with salt or without. I will look out for the above product. I often approximate a traditional crema by mixing creme fraiche with a little mayo or some Greek yogurt to tart it up a bit.