Valentine's Day dinner
Last Valentine’s Day, I was a four-day newlywed on a plane to Malta for my honeymoon. Unfortunately, I was also battling the worst cold I’d probably ever experienced. I spent at least the first half of our week-and-change trip languishing in our hotel room, sleeping, avoiding food, and staring at the rooftop full of stray cats across the street.
Like clockwork, I once again came down with a cold a few days ago. Luckily, I managed to get in a lovely Valentine’s Day dinner date first. Following on the heels of our fancy anniversary dinner out, we decided we’d stay in for this one. So naturally, I had to get my Pinterest on with a heart-shaped cookie cutter.
It wasn’t my intention to go so starch-crazy, but it almost wound up being the theme of the meal.
Oven-roasted tomatoes and heart-shaped potatoes, marinated in olive oil, paprika, and chili flakes, over forbidden rice with parsley.
Sun-dried tomato and goat cheese ravioli (thanks, Trader Joe’s!) in a homemade sauce (vegetable stock, white wine, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and fresh spinach), topped with Parmesan cheese.
We also finally opened a bottle of wine I brought home from Napa over three years ago that we kept “saving for a special occasion.” It sort of became a running joke the longer we kept it, considering how many special occasions came and went along the way. Poor thing just kept getting overlooked. Happy to say it tasted as good as I remembered.
For dessert, I picked up some traditional Maltese honey date rings from Leli’s Bakery around the corner, to bring our year—forgive the pun—full circle.
And although there was some lovingly home-whipped whipped cream and berries waiting for us in the refrigerator, we were way too full. We each had one strawberry and called it a night. I enjoyed some more in the morning, though!
I hope your Valentine’s Day was as sweet as ours. I’m still working on shaking this cold and we’ll be spending next weekend in Florida for a family wedding, but I’m hoping to get my next posts up soon, including Jon’s atomic hummus recipe (atomic optional) and my February recipe attempt from Notes from the Larder.
