Although Valentine's Day is a made-up holiday, it's one that can be a lot of fun. For us it's a very special day, because our daughter was born on Valentines Day. She wasn't due until March, but a very bad fall on the ice gave me a bruised tail bone and early labor, and provided her with a fun birthday. A heart cake every year...
For Valentines Day dinner around our house (now that our special Valentine is married and living in New Hampshire) we usually have seafood, no surprise. We almost always have some oysters, so delicious and fresh tasting. I always think of that wonderful scene in the old film Tom Jones, where Albert Finney and one of his many conquests are slurping down oysters in one of filmdom's most sensuous food scenes. If you've never seen it, you can probably rent it from Netflix. Oysters have all sorts of trace minerals in them, and evidently some of them make you feel sexy. Not making this up, there have been scientific studies.
Then for the main course, I like to do something simple, like a baked salmon dish or maybe a shrimp dish. Everything cooks quickly, so I don't have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen -- a nice green salad and some of chef Jaimie's garlic mashed potatoes round out the meal. This year I might just get some salmon papillotes or cozies - seems like cheating, but they're so good, and no kitchen mess to deal with.
Once upon a time I would make crab legs or even whole lobster one year (reenacting the lobster scene from Annie Hall). Because we were often dealing with a birthday party on Valentine's Day for so many years, it became a real treat to have just us for Valentine's dinner.
When you're cooking for your beloved, it's really nice to set the scene. Put candles on the table, dim the lights, get out the nice china. Some nice music in the background is relaxing for both the chef and the spouse/partner of choice.
And the wine -- sparkling wine sets a celebratory mood, and it's wonderful with oysters, shrimp, smoked salmon, just about any seafood appetizer. With dinner, if I'm serving salmon, we like to pair it with a light red, a pinot noir or a French Cote de Rhone are great with salmon, tuna, any of the more flavorful fish. With shrimp, lobster or lighter fish, we prefer a fume blanc or unoaked chardonnay. Get out the good glasses - there's only two of you, so even if you use all good stuff, there won't be a lot of dirty dishes to do.
Valentine's dessert over the years has tended to be something chocolate -- my sweet hubby even ordered some amazing chocolates from France a couple of years, that came in a little wooden box and were beyond delicious. Today we have great places to get wonderful chocolate right around home. I'm not really supposed to eat chocolate any more, a total bummer, so now we enjoy a Key Lime pie for dessert, delicious, not too heavy, and Jaimie makes them so none of the rest of us have to.
At our house, the person who cooks never has to do the dishes, one of the very best arrangements I ever negotiated in our pre-nup. Our pre-nup did not involve money, only housework allocations. So after your lovely Valentine dinner, if one of you cooked it all, the other should do the dishes. If you cooked together, do the dishes together.
Then if one of you really wants to watch Downton Abbey, which is almost over (ack!) you should watch together, cuddle on the couch, wrap yourselves in a blanket if it's cold. Because Valentine's Day is on Sunday this year, it's a perfect night to stay in - put the kids to bed early if you have little ones, and make it a special night, just for the two of you.
One of the truly wonderful things about eating fish for dinner, because it's so easy to digest, when you go to bed you won't feel over-stuffed, much better for romance. A Hallmark holiday, perhaps, but one that you can turn you into a very creative romantic partner. Everybody likes to feel special occasionally.
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