Valentine's DayFebruary 14, 2009
Oh, I forgot food, didn’t I?
I should mention that Ruth and I are both foodies. So, food naturally played a part in our Valentine’s Day. Ruth got me some Tazo chai chocolates, Lindt dark chocolate truffles, and Bailey’s Irish Cream truffles. They are fantastic! Chai chocolate is brilliant.
I cooked breakfast on Valentine’s day and served it to Ruth in bed. This is the first time I’ve been able to successfully get up and make breakfast without waking her up. We had omelets with New York sharp cheddar, organic green olives, and Arkansas bacon from the food co-op. Along-side we had orange juice, twelve grain toast with butter and olive oil, and Tanzanian Peaberry coffee that I had roasted that morning. The coffee turned out to be less interesting than the other green coffees we have been roasting, but it was still good.
I also did some cooking on the night before Valentine’s Day. We had roast duck, served with buttered peas and pinot grigio. I smoked the duck lightly with pear smoke before roasting it in a homemade Asian glaze. It turns out that duck is amazing! We also found out that we both love Barefoot’s pinot grigio.
These meals were part of “three Valentine’s days” that I gave to Ruth. The day before the dinner I sent her flowers at her office. She likes this, though sending flowers on Valentine’s Day always makes me feel incredibly lazy. This is the main reason I felt compelled to put in some real work and make dinner and breakfast.
Flowers are sort of the ultimate cop-out for guys, but yet they are always regarded as “so sweeet!” by women. “Yep, that took me all of five minutes to order; could I possibly be more thoughtful?” :)
I have tried getting florists to let me help design them so I feel like I am at least doing something, but generally they ignore these efforts from males. I guess they don’t need some amateur telling them how to do their job.
Anyways, yes, I’m rambling about food, and probably will continue. This is definitely for my own benefit more than yours. Feel free to skip posts in the Food category if you don’t like bragging.
— Alan Henager