Valentine's Day dinner, 2-14-22

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buckytom

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What are all of you love bugs making for dinner for your sweetie, family, or just loving being you today?

I stopped off in our old neighborhood to pick up some V-Day gifts for my fragrant wife. We can't easily keep flowers in the house (many are poisonous to cats), and she didn't want chocolate, so I picked up some fresh Polish rye bread, Polish potato salad, a Seven Sisters (a type of sweet pull-apart bread), and some kind of Polish blueberry and cheese crepes.

When I gave them as her V-day gift this morning, she smiled and said "Only you. You know me too well."
That smile was worth more than I can say. My heart swelled.

So, I'm making ham steaks tonight for dinner, to go with the rye and potato salad. The Sisters and crepes will be for dessert.

As I went up to bed just now, my wife growled and warned me that our son is on his own. Lol. She loves her artisnal, authentic rye bread and pastries.

My boy's girlfriend is coming over for dinner tonight. Like a chip off the old block, he's making her dinner. So far he's making pasta from scratch for Cacio e Pepe, and "some kind of protein". The latter should be interesting.

I told him that whatever mess he makes, he's cleaning it up, including the dishes. Or they will all be piled on his bed. Lol.

So, whether you are in love, or you think love stinks, what's on your menu?
 
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Tonight's menu is dictated by favorites and requests with a little surprise thrown in.

SO's favorite meal is stuffed flank steak. I'll be making that along with asparagus. Dessert will be cheesecake with wild blueberry topping. The little surprise is dark chocolate raspberry truffles rolled in cocoa powder.

Last night for the Super Bowl I made her favorite appetizer, pigs in blankets.
 
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Tonight's menu is dictated by favorites and requests with a little surprise thrown in.

SO's favorite meal is stuffed flank steak. I'll be making that along with asparagus. Dessert will be cheesecake with wild blueberry topping. The little surprise is dark chocolate raspberry truffles rolled in cocoa powder.


Can I be your valentine, Andy? (The Chief is gonna be so jealous)

Stuffed flank? Like a rouladen?

And I hate to keep asking, but could you please post a recipe for it? Flank has becone dearly expensive, so stuffing would stretch it out.

And you are lucky up there where the best wild blueberries are found . They are native to the Northeast, but are exceptional in Massachusetts (why do you guys sound plural? Oh, wait. Does that means that we are singular in Jersey? I am no Snookie, or Situation, or other shore meathead, just so ya know).

I've brought my canoe upstate N.Y. and picked wild blueberry bushes that overhang lakes much like Native Americans in Minnesota would harvest wild rice. We'd pull the canoe up under an ovehanging bush, while one person held the canoe, another pushed the blueberry bush down and beat the top with a paddle.

After a trip around the lake, we'd come back to the take-out, with feet, hands, and mouths stained blue. And a bunch more to take home.
 
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BT, the stuffed flank steak is simple.

I tenderize the steak and use a meat mallet to flatten it out a bit (it doesn't like to cooperate). Then the stuffing of your choice. Tie it up with string, sear to brown and finish in the oven. The problem with the dish is that the flank cooks so fast, you get past medium rare before the stuffing gets hot. My solution to that is to heat the stuffing before I tie it up in the steak.

Blueberries are my favorite! I always make a pie when the price of blueberries cooperates.
 
When I got back from my morning walk with my sister, I found a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates, as well as breakfast waiting. For dinner DH grilled ribeye's, I baked some potatoes and fixed a spinach salad. I was stuffed but DH still wanted his chocolate lava cake.
 

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BT, the stuffed flank steak is simple.

I tenderize the steak and use a meat mallet to flatten it out a bit (it doesn't like to cooperate). Then the stuffing of your choice. Tie it up with string, sear to brown and finish in the oven. The problem with the dish is that the flank cooks so fast, you get past medium rare before the stuffing gets hot. My solution to that is to heat the stuffing before I tie it up in the steak.

Blueberries are my favorite! I always make a pie when the price of blueberries cooperates.

And now the proof.


1456AB52-6D72-44B4-88ED-8C921EDE6870_1_201_a.jpg
 
Change of plans here. My son decided to cook for everyone , so he made pasta and sauce from scratch, then made chicken parm. He said he wanted to make the same thing for his girlfriend that I made for his mother the first time that I cooked for her. I don't recall that really, but OK. I went with it.

Everything was great. Not bad for a teenager.
 

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Fruit wheat berry salad with strawberry/cranberry/apple and honey.
Roasted carrots, steamed asparagus.
Energy balls, date paste, pear butter, squash, w/ cinnamon, ginger, cloves, anise, star anise, white pepper, and thick cut oats to hold them together, then refrigerate.
Lastly a blast of anti-oxidants, cocoa, cinnamon, honey, hot water.
 
Desserts

Per SO's request, cheesecake with blueberry topping.


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Also, dark chocolate raspberry truffles coated with cocoa. I know, they're supposed to be round. But I was going for a more realistic presentation. After all, these are supposed to mimic real truffles that grow underground.



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Going with the theme of making a favorite for my valentine, I made a small pot of chili just for Himself. More often than not, chill gives me a nasty bought of indigestion. There was enough of the pork chop and apple dinner from the other night, so I planned on having that along with asparagus - something Himself can usually do without. However, today started out cold and only got colder. I ended up making a bigger pot of what was to be Italian sausage and bean soup for me, with a meal's worth of leftovers. Except I added lots and lots of veggies. By the time I was done making it, it ended up being more of a minestrone with pieces of sausage. Still very good!
 
Not a Valentine's day dinner, but last night I did a one dish meal in the IP - an Italian style, like I make jambalaya, but with Italian sausage, instead of shrimp and ham, and some Italian herbs. Also, some brown basmati, plus some oat groats, for the starch (looks like all rice). And a can of cannellini beans, rinsed, added at the end, along with some chopped fresh basil and parsley, cooked briefly. Had it again, for lunch today - needed some water added, but that's normal, for these types of foods.
Italian style rice dish, with sausage, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and herbs, with pecorino on top. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

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