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VDay Followup: What Did You Have For Dinner Last Night?

2008_02_15-Dinner.jpgSo, what did you have for dinner last night? Did you stay in, or go out? Did you take some tips from our Valentine's Dinner for Dummies, or maybe some menu ideas from all those Dreamy Valentine's Meal contest entries? Maybe you broiled a good steak?

We had quite a feast - pictures later. But for now we're curious about what you ate last night. Did your meal acknowledge Valentine's - or ignore it?

Either way, tell us! Curious minds want to know what was on your plate and in your kitchen last night.

 
 

(Image credit: Celebrations by Sallie)

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Surveys, Holidays - Valentine's Day

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Comments (27)

When I came home from work, my husband was in the kitchen making us lobster tail, broiled salmon, a mix of veggies, and au gratin potatoes. For dessert, we simply shared some mocha almond fudge ice cream. It was absolutely delicious and an unexpected surprise!

posted by Lorena in SD on 2008-02-15 11:27:23
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I had falafel with a couple of friends at the local falafel joint. It was pretty good, but not fabulous. And I made some delicious hot chocolate when I got home, from Droste cocoa & powdered sugar.

Um, I guess this question wasn't really for single people.

posted by viola on 2008-02-15 11:35:35
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I was in the kitchen all afternoon---loved it! We had the following:
*filet mignon with garlic proscuitto sauce
*brussel sprouts sauteed in butter & garlic
*hasselback potatoes
*pumpkin spice creme brulee

!!Dreamy!!

posted by pronetowonder on 2008-02-15 11:37:07
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My boyfriend and I stayed in and cooked an amazing dinner.

Poached oysters and artichokes with champagne cream:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/236391

Blue cheese crusted filet mignon:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/108816

And (on someones suggestion from AT, thanks!) I made a molten chocolate cakes w/kahlua flavored whipped cream.

posted by alyssazor on 2008-02-15 11:37:35
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Since we never eat fast food, we celebrated by making turkey burgers with melted cheddar, over-fried onion rings and chocolate shakes.

posted by mlt43 on 2008-02-15 11:42:33
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viola! don't let us singles get pushed aside by valentines day tyranny! I'm chiming in b/c I cooked myself a nice lonely hearts valentines dinner last night: I had a red onion, garlic (lots of garlic-- I'm not kissing anyone), tomato and portabella mushroom omelet with a nice sharp cheddar cheese, and some steamed broccoli. I paired this with a nice slightly sparkly vino verde that goes wonderfully with omelets. And for dessert I ate 2 pieces of chocolate that my mom sent me.

posted by FromTheFuture on 2008-02-15 11:49:23
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With my sweetheart in OKC and a wedding cake to bake and build for a friend’s Saturday wedding, I maybe should've stayed at home, a lonely mess. Luckily, my good friend Mario decided to celebrate his birthday last night, six weeks after the fact. He was busy moving during his actual birthday, so he decided V-Day would be the next best day. Every year, Mario cooks a huge feast for 30-50 people and hosts it at a friend’s art gallery in downtown Phoenix. He’s Navajo and a chef at a contemporary Irish restaurant with a deep-seeded love for local produce, and his menus always reflect his range of abilities and varied sense of taste. Following his tradition, he opened the dinner with a hypnotic prayer in Diné, a Navajo dialect, and prayed over a water offering to all his guests, making sure we all get a sip. His menu included spicy chicken, stewed pork tenderloin with potatoes, mushroom paté, a whole slew of tapenades, baguettes, cornbread, fry bread, rice, asparagus, a huge salad with soy vinaigrette, fresh mozzarella salad, spicy mango salsa, octopus salad, dried fruit and nuts, a beautiful cheese board, and his famous vegan chocolate cake—the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had, as well as the first food of his I ever tried. All-in-all, a wonderful night with both old and new friends to celebrate a great person.

posted by OneWallKitchen on 2008-02-15 11:54:47
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Oh, sorry about the funny symbols! I typed this up in Word and attempted to cut and paste!

posted by OneWallKitchen on 2008-02-15 11:55:53
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crab cakes w/mesclun salad dressed w/meyer lemon vinigrette
pasta w/oven roasted asparagus and tomatoes w/goat cheese
vanilla ice cream w/warm banana compote
champagne&chambord

posted by luigilly on 2008-02-15 12:18:25
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Cooked steak au poivre with tenderloin in the dutch oven on the stove and it turned out marvelous! We also had roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes, and little lemon meringue pots (I wasn't going to mess with pie dough on a Thursday morning). And we ate some dark chocolates that I'd been hoarding from the last trip to Belgium.

posted by cakekick on 2008-02-15 12:29:06
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Wild Alaskan salmon with a tangerine sauce
Roasted asparagus with pomegranate vinegar
Spelt bread

OK... we're dieting, so we kept it small!
Desert? It wasn't food. :) But that's ok after 20 years.

posted by Snow Gurl on 2008-02-15 12:43:17
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I pan seared duck breast (first time cooking duck at home). It was absolutely devine. Got air-chilled breasts from Whole-Paycheck market, seasoned it with chinese five spice blend, made some polenta, and sauteed some baby carrots, sugar snap peas and baby zuchinni in the duck fat! Soo good. For dessert, I made a classic coeur la creme floated it in a strawberry coulis.

posted by foodiegirl on 2008-02-15 12:57:18
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I had planned to make slow cooker chicken provencal last night, but my husband and I decided to make tacos instead because they seemed more festive. I made the great taco filling recipe in America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook and we did our own toppings. For dessert we had ice cream and the chocolates that we traditionally exchange. We don't care all that much about Valentine's Day (we figure that we should show each other how much we love each other all the time), but any holiday in which chocolate figures prominently is good by us.

posted by phoneill on 2008-02-15 12:57:50
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My husband made cornish game hens with a spicy-sweet glaze, adorable mini-cauliflowers and wild rice. I made the spicy chocolate mousse recipe from this site. I never make dessert, I'm kind of afraid of it, but wanted to contribute to the feast so gave it a shot. Seemed hard to go wrong with all of that chocolate and cream. It was a total hit!

posted by jbhansen on 2008-02-15 13:11:16
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Yesterday was my boyfriend's birthday as well, so I wanted to make his favorites, or at least recipe he'd really like. So dinner was buffalo sausage over spinach fettuccine with tomato & roasted red pepper sauce, and ginger cake with lemon icing for dessert. We never go out for dinner on with 14th anymore... it's way too much fun to stay in!

Any chance of sharing that recipe for the pumpkin spice creme brulee? :)

posted by SisterRae on 2008-02-15 13:15:58
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We had broiled Salmon with a tangy chipotle BBQ sauce, garlic and parmesan mashed potatoes, and prosciutto wrapped roasted asparagus. We planned on chocolate fondue, but we were too full after dinner!

posted by kent on 2008-02-15 13:22:28
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We like to keep Valentine's Day simple, so we had homemade pizza covered with my husband's favorite toppings: pepperoni, pineapple, & extra garlic. We ate it while watching a DVD of the first season of Black Adder. Unconventional? You bet! That's the way we like it. :)

posted by Nougat on 2008-02-15 13:26:43
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I made dinner for the bf - all of this will be posted on my blog at some point in the near future :)

* Sanguine Salad - roasted beets, blood oranges, red onion, pomegranate, dressing of pomegranate molasses, balsamic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper.
* Meyer Lemon French gnocchi with fresh ricotta - Thomas Keller's recipe for French gnocchi reworked to feature Meyer lemons and basil; I made my own ricotta to go with it. - I admit that the gnocchi didn't come out great because I was getting a little carried away with the experimentalism of it...oh well.
* Elizabeth Falkner's deconstructed blueberry cheesecake - from her book "Demolition Desserts" - Sour cream sorbet, cheesecake custard (contains both cream cheese and fresh ricotta, it's SO good), graham cracker powder, blueberry paper, fresh blueberries

We had all of this with Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc and raspberry bellinis.

posted by raspberry eggplant on 2008-02-15 13:44:55
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You wouldn't catch us going OUT on Valentine's Day. The truth is, we don't really observe the holiday -- at least not with cards, gifts or flowers. But, we do use it as an excuse to eat some pretty good food.

This year, we feasted on seared sea scallops over braised truffle-scented wild mushrooms & arugula, with rosemary mozzarella skewers. Absolutely delish.

HOWEVER, we almost didn't get to dinner because of a fiasco of a kitchen disaster. You can read about the Valentine's Day Dinner that almost WASN'T on the P&L blog.

posted by Lo! on 2008-02-15 14:18:18
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Hey FromTheFuture - sounds tasty!

*bats eyelashes*

Won't you be (male and) mine?

posted by viola on 2008-02-15 15:47:58
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We went to the Slow Club and split a delicious black sea bass with white beans, and I had the Bicyclette cocktail - champagne with St. Germain Elderflower liqueur. Delicious!

posted by Kathryn Hill on 2008-02-15 16:18:34
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Breaded shrimp with garlic-sauteed cannellini beans and spinach. We chopped up rosemary into the breadcrumbs which gave an awesome flavor to it. Took 20 minutes to cook and was super inexpensive - will be cooking this one again!!

posted by JMara1207 on 2008-02-15 16:27:20
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I got some beautiful steaks from Whole Foods and broiled them as suggested in a post from yesterday, and they came out perfect. We also had lobster claws drizzled with butter, sauteed spinich, and a rose brut champagne. For dessert, I tried the double shot chocolate cake from the bittersweet challenge, which turned out great, and served it with whipped cream. The best part was that everything was so simple, that I wasn't stressing at all! Thanks for the inspiration!

posted by kris116 on 2008-02-15 16:30:21
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We made meyer lemon and celery rissoto and chocolate croissant bread pudding for dessert. Both recipes were mostly original creations, and I'm so glad they turned out!

posted by pierrot on 2008-02-15 16:55:49
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Our last two weeks came completely unglued, with unplanned work projects, unexpected household disasters, and unscheduled family visitors. So we scrapped our plans for making an involved dinner together and just threw some steaks and asparagus on the grill. (I did make a compound blue cheese butter to put on the steaks, which took all of five minutes in the morning.)

We rounded out the meal with some rolls and molten chocolate cakes from the bakery, plus a stunning bottle of wine that we've been storing for the last five years. It was honestly one of the best Valentines meals I've had in years, because it gave us something we desperately needed: hassle-free quiet time together.

posted by chowbella on 2008-02-16 14:09:08
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we went to the newly-opened akasha restaurant in culver city- the eco-friendly eatery opened by akasha richmond. we found it to be pretty.. meh!

posted by greengelato on 2008-02-17 19:51:30
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well since I am single i ate peanut butter out of a jar in my Spring apartments. But Its better than being single in my old houston tx apartments

posted by Apartment High Rise on 2008-10-07 19:56:34
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