Where did you eat for Valentines Day ?

I cooked for my wife. Braised beef short ribs with a braising liquid reduction sauce served over parm-reg creamy polenta, Tuscan peas on the side, and caesar salad (her favorite). This was paired with a 2005 Cakebread Zinfandel purchased at the winery this summer.

In return for my hard work, she let me watch the 9pm UK vs. Tennesseee game.

[Robin Garr]

I don't know if it counts as romantic Valentine's Day trysts, since Mary and I were out with friends, but we did Wiltshire on Market Thursday night and Baxter Station Friday night and had really splendid dining experiences both times.

Then we stayed home on Amateur Weekend and cooked up our own burgers on Saturday night and a roasting hen last night, digging into our monthly meat CSA haul from Adam Barr.

by Brad Keeton » Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:59 am

I cooked for my wife. Braised beef short ribs with a braising liquid reduction sauce served over parm-reg creamy polenta, Tuscan peas on the side, and caesar salad (her favorite). This was paired with a 2005 Cakebread Zinfandel purchased at the winery this summer.

Brad, are these the ingredients for your Tuscan peas? olive oil, onion, garlic, sugar, chili flakes, tomato paste, green peas, salt If not, would you please share?

by Brad Keeton » Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:59 am

I cooked for my wife. Braised beef short ribs with a braising liquid reduction sauce served over parm-reg creamy polenta, Tuscan peas on the side, and caesar salad (her favorite). This was paired with a 2005 Cakebread Zinfandel purchased at the winery this summer.

Brad, are these the ingredients for your Tuscan peas? olive oil, onion, garlic, sugar, chili flakes, tomato paste, green peas, salt If not, would you please share?

That looks right. It's a Mario Batali recipe - very good and very easy. For some reason, I don't think the one I use calls for garlic, but I could be wrong.

Okay, I'll go ahead and give it a try. The recipe I have is based on a Mario Batali recipe.

Okay, I'll go ahead and give it a try. The recipe I have is based on a Mario Batali recipe.

Here it is: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mari ... index.html

Oh thank you so very much Brad. I'll make it as soon as I get some peas.

We ate at Del Friscos. Excellent food and service!.

thanks for the kind words mike d. and robin! went to the restaurant today to clear the sidewalks( not open, just figured it would be easier today, rather than tomorrow) and thought i would reward myself with the last piece of triple chocolate mousse cake. sadly, it was nowhere to be found. methinks my employees rewarded themselves for working on a sunday night.
sorry i missed you robin. i was actually there, but dealing with a bathroom problem in my newly rebuilt "back house". oh... the glamorous life of the restaurant owner...

p.s. had cereal with a banana when i got home from work... now that is dining at it's finest.

Baked Lay's chips and hummus.

We went to White Oak/Artemisia and had a mixed time. We had never been there before. The place was pretty and the art was cool. The first-courses were not to our tastes--we didn't like the cheese plate at all (we like the ones at palermo viejo, 732 social, and le relais among others) and we thought the lobster seviche was gray and watery, and nothing like the flavorful seviche we've had at Seviche and Mayan Cafe. It made me think that I was going to get sick from it, although I did not. Our salads were pretty good, though, and the meat dishes--duck breast for me, my wife had a filet--were really quite good (the beef in particular was very tender and perfectly cooked and included an awesome dippin' sauce of some kind), although the side dishes did not excite us. Overall it was okay, and I think that fans of this style (upscale southern/comfort food, I guess) would like it more than we did. I wish that we had gone to one of our trusted-favorites instead, especially for such a special night. There's always next V-day (not to mention next week)!

Hubby went all out - Tom and I ate at the Oakroom. They had a 3-course tasting menu with 3 choices for each course. We both had the prawns for starters, with a ragout of mushrooms and root veggies, and purees of tangerine and white bean. Sommelier paired it with a NZ Sauvignon Blanc. For second course, he had lobster with vanilla truffle oil and I had seared sea bass - which while hard to over cook, was mouthwateringly perfect. Mine was paired with a really nice chardonnay. For dessert he had a riff on bananas foster with carmelized banana and a brown sugar ice cream, paired with a late harvest Viognier, and I had a decadent dark chocolate and pistachio torte with what I think might have been a tangerine zest; paired with a glass of - what else - port.

Thought the food was wonderful and service was attentive as usual. While some may have said that the Oakroom has been off it's game of late, we didn't notice it a bit - beautifully presented food, skillfully done with terrific flavors. Wonderful night!

Next year...heart-shaped sushi!

We did Red Lobster with the kids on Friday night. Absolutely NOTHING great about the meal. The cheddar biscuits were the highlight. Once upon a time, we thought Red Lobster was GREAT, especially in our area, dining....now I guess we are food snobs because we just didn't dig it at all.

I made some awesome white pizza (alfredo sauce, grilled chicken, carmalized onions, roasted red peppers, parm, mozzarella, provolone, spinach, kalmata olives, and lots of roasted garlic) for us on Saturday night. Sunday I cooked for my parents (stuffed pork chops with mushrooms and wild rice, roasted asparagus.....flourless chocolate cake with dipped strawberries).

Dinner at home with my wife and mother-in-law.

What did they cook for you

My mother-in-law is in ill health and my wife doesn't cook. I fixed kraut and Polish sausage with mashed potatos. An old Alsation gewurtzraminer elevated the meal to a celebratory level.