February 14 – Valentine's Dinner
As is often our want, we opted to stay in for Valentine's evening and cook for ourselves. And glad we were for the choice!
We sat in our seldom-used living room, enjoying the art we have slowly collected over the past 42 years, sipping champagne and savoring an amuse-bouche (mille-feuille topped with tomato compote that Pat made from last summer's garden). All the while, love songs emanated from XM 23.
Next, small, sweet and succulent Nova Scotia oysters on the half shell — dunked in a lively mignonette sauce and also accompanied by champagne — were enjoyed at our dining room table, around which have been a lifetime of dinner parties.
To accompany our second shellfish course, clams casino (prepared by Pete from a Lareau family recipe), we opened a bottle of 2002 Pinot Noir (Domaine Alfred Chamisal) grown and produced along a country road we frequently cycled when we lived in San Luis Obispo.
The penultimate offering was foie gras (not paté) obtained from our local purveyor, which Pat lightly floured, then dropped in a bare, searing hot pan for a minute or less on each side, before nesting it in on a bed of Bartlett pears sautéed in way too much butter for our own good. The pinot's cool, moist-evening flavors were a perfect foil to the goose liver's rich sweetness.
After a half-hour intermission, during which we deprived ourselves of all foods of any kind, we spread an Italian Epoisse-styled cheese — recommended by Di Raimondo's Italian Market & Cheese Shop, 822 13th St., Paso Robles — on chunks of baguette. It's oozing ripeness and earthy aroma made us swoon as we relished this delightful finale.
We outlasted the candles. "La vie en rose . . ."
We sat in our seldom-used living room, enjoying the art we have slowly collected over the past 42 years, sipping champagne and savoring an amuse-bouche (mille-feuille topped with tomato compote that Pat made from last summer's garden). All the while, love songs emanated from XM 23.
Next, small, sweet and succulent Nova Scotia oysters on the half shell — dunked in a lively mignonette sauce and also accompanied by champagne — were enjoyed at our dining room table, around which have been a lifetime of dinner parties.
To accompany our second shellfish course, clams casino (prepared by Pete from a Lareau family recipe), we opened a bottle of 2002 Pinot Noir (Domaine Alfred Chamisal) grown and produced along a country road we frequently cycled when we lived in San Luis Obispo.
The penultimate offering was foie gras (not paté) obtained from our local purveyor, which Pat lightly floured, then dropped in a bare, searing hot pan for a minute or less on each side, before nesting it in on a bed of Bartlett pears sautéed in way too much butter for our own good. The pinot's cool, moist-evening flavors were a perfect foil to the goose liver's rich sweetness.
After a half-hour intermission, during which we deprived ourselves of all foods of any kind, we spread an Italian Epoisse-styled cheese — recommended by Di Raimondo's Italian Market & Cheese Shop, 822 13th St., Paso Robles — on chunks of baguette. It's oozing ripeness and earthy aroma made us swoon as we relished this delightful finale.
We outlasted the candles. "La vie en rose . . ."
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