V-Day 2010

Happy Valentine's Day to you!   

I celebrated my third Valentine's Day with the BF yesterday.  We do a low-key date at home, so that we don't have to mess with the hassle and expense of going out to eat.  We had another Mollydooker wine, this time Two Left Feet. It was a really nice wine and worth the extra penny we spent on it.  So far I'm a huge fan of their whole line.  We decided to do some recipes out of Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook, which BF got for Christmas.

First was some Blue and Yellow Cornbread Muffins.  My iPhone really doesn't do the color justice.  They looked really good, but ended up tasting kinda dry.  Maybe that's the last time the BF gets put in charge of baking.  We must have done something wrong though, because we couldn't get enough of them when we ate at Mesa Grill Las Vegas.  They're a must if you ever go there.

BF was also in charge of grilling the steaks: Black Pepper Crusted Filet Mignon with Ancho Red Pepper Sauce and Goat Cheese.  We really lucked out at Central Market because the filet mignons were on sale.  And they looked excellent, even raw!  I was in charge of the sauce, which also turned out excellent.  It had a really complex flavor, though perhaps a little too heavy on the tomato.  The goat cheese went on top and then got all gooey and delicious under the broiler.  Overall, it was a really good meal.  Even though mine was a little overdone, the meat was still tender and delicious.  It gave me an excuse to have a bit extra of the sauce, so all was well. 

For dessert, BF insisted on cheesecake, where I insisted on dip-your-own strawberries.  So we both got our way.  I got my strawberries and BF stole some of the dipping chocolate to top his cheesecake.  I must admit, I demolished the whole plate.  The strawberries were really juicy, much better than I would have thought possible for off-season strawberries.

For our date night entertainment, we watched the recorded season finale of Worst Cooks in America, one of my new favorite shows.  Most of the people just want to learn how to cook just so they can better provide for their families.  It is such a humble desire, but so heartening to see how passionate they are about being able to give something back to the people they care about. 

After that, we watched Couple's Retreat.  I have liked Vince Vaughn since I saw him in A Cool Dry Place, though I try to ignore the fact that he was in Old School and Dodgeball   It was awesome to see Jean Reno as the guru-guy considering his previous roles like in Ronin and The Da Vinci Code.  It wasn't the same humor as Old School, thank the movie-making-powers-that-be.  It was very adult humor, with really great writing, and some overall great insights about couples.  The movie was way better than what I was expecting it to be. 

It was a very nice, very low-key Valentines Day for us.  Very similar to our normal days, but just done up a notch.  

Oh, and if anyone still wants to see Valentine's Day, let me know.