Valentine’s Dinner (+003 – Toasted Pound Cake)

16Feb08

We decided to have a low-key Valentine’s this year. We’ve never really had normal Valentine’s, so this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Our first V-day together was very shortly after we (finally) got together, so it was lovely and mellow. After that, we’ve celebrated our anniversary and V-day together on a weekend in February that I could get back to Victoria or Adam could come visit me. This V-day was our first together, sharing a home, and it was absolutely perfect.

On the weekend, we came across some sweet deals at IKEA, and decided to that he would gift me bookshelves for our anniversary/V-day, and I would gift him bedside tables. We love our new furniture, and it’s made our apartment feel much more like a home.

Adam decided he would cook me a fun dinner for Valentine’s, and I said I would do dessert. He cheated and also made dessert, so we had my dessert the next night.

Adam made turkey burgers with blue cheese and spices in them (mmm), which we ate between toasted whole wheat bread, with slices of cucumber and a hollandaise sauce. There are lots of leftover patties, perfect for freezing and reheating for lunches. On the side, we had sweet potato fries (my fave!), carrot sticks, and broccoli florets, with blue cheese-mayo dip and chile-mayo dip. Soo yummy and casual and very… us. Casual but delicious, decadent but nutritious.

For dessert, he made chocolate-dipped strawberries, and a delightfully smooth vanilla custard. The strawberries were joyful for me – February is a hard time for me, the worst, greyest part of Vancouver winters, and the strawberries brought me laughter, joy, summer, and sunshine in a juicy little red package.

My dessert for the next night was a twist on Giada di Laurentiis’ Toasted Pound Cake with Mascarpone and Amaretto. Adam’s not big on apricots, so I used blueberry preserves instead – I love the combination of blueberry and amaretto! I’ve been craving mascarpone lately, so this was a nice way to meet that craving without going crazy. Plus, any reason to keep a bottle of Amaretto in the house is fine by me – it’s my favourite liqueur! This was absolutely delicious, and so easy to throw together – it took me less than 10 minutes.

I think these are such great V-day dishes for us because they aren’t anything huge, complicated, overly fancy or fussy. They fit us and our growing approach to food and cooking – sweet, comfortable, experiments.

Filed under: Dessert, Dinner, Freezer-friendly, Fruit: Blueberry, Poultry: Turkey, Seasonal: Holiday   |  Leave a Comment