My husband, who is not a cook, decided to save us some $$ this Valentine's Day, and concocted a gourmet feast for us last night. Incredibly, it was one of the best homecooked dinners we'd ever eaten! I'm compelled to share a recipe we kind of made up together for the vegetable (when I say "we", he cooked while I supervised. ) because it was simple yet just so delicious. And pretty too! I'm naming it:

Valentine's Asparagus Pine Nut Saute
One bunch fresh asparagus spears
red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. salted butter
2 tbsp. pine nuts
salt & pepper to taste

Cut asparagus spears into thirds, discarding the woody ends. Bring some salted water to a rolling boil in a big pan (he used the wok). Throw in the asparagus along with about a tbsp. of the red wine vinegar. Cook 3 minutes, then drain into a colander. Put the pan back on the burner and add the butter; turn down to medium. Toss the pine nuts into the melted butter and saute them for about 5 minutes until they are starting to brown nicely. Return the drained asparagus to the pan, and cook about another 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in some more salt and some pepper to taste as you're stirring everything. After the four minutes, test a piece. It should be crisp-tender. Cook longer if you want softer asparagus.

Absolutely wonderful!!! I would've been happy just eating a big bowl of this for dinner.


Did anyone else make anything fun for dinner last night, or go out any place special? Any recommendations for next year?

Sounds good...AND low-carb friendly!

We took the kids and headed to Cracker Barrel, not the most romantic dinner, but their spicy catfish is to die for and I just came back from a week away, so it was nice to eat with the whole family where NOBODY had to cook/clean up.

well ... a disasterous day ended with buffalo wild wings... in martinsburg! haha.

a stellar attempt at culinary delight ( very thoughtful of him... but... the man calls parmesean cheese "shakey cheese"...so...) ended with me realizing i DID replace the batteries in the smoke detectors last year ( go me!) and eating dinner at buffalo wild wings.... in.. martinsburg. bwhahahahha.

i also got a rifle.

so, he bought me a gun and took me to west virginia for dinner.

thought that counts....

OMG Burn, I'm already predicting that your Valentine's Day fiasco is going to win the H-M Forum award for most entertaining story. "Shakey Cheese" indeed! did he also refer to the rifle as a "shooty stick"?

Jels, we've been doing low-carb for a year now and you're right, the asparagus would be a great treat if you're trying to abstain from naughty stuff like sugars and starches. not sure how healthy all that butter was, but you've gotta live a LITTLE!

I think I can top them all!

Had planned to shop, leisurely, after work since hubby gets home around 7pm. But, first I have to run home to get teenage son and drive him back to work.

Get home, he can't find his shirt. Just started work and only has one "correct" shirt. I'm lecturing on being prepared way ahead of time instead of last minute as teen is looking all over house. Finally, finds shirt in washing machine.

At least this is close to being in the right direction! So, in the dryer it goes while I'm still lecturing on the virtues of getting your clothes ready the night before.

Get a call that babysitting plans have not worked out and could I babysit. No sweat, so far! Drive teen to work, home in time for baby to come by.

But, on top of all this the furnace is being repaired and needs a part that has to be bought. So, no heat from furnace. Propane fireplace is used. So, me and grandaughter are sitting by fireplace but it runs out! Have been using too much propane since furnace is being repaired. (Now, I start lecturing myself on the virtues of getting propane regularly instead of when we make the call!) \

But, I have back up plans. Thank God for electricity! Two nice heaters do the job for the downstairs. So, me and baby are happy. I call hubby and he gets Chinese.

Luckily I had already gotten him a card and gift. Ironically, his gift was a nice celtic plague with the Serenity Prayer on it!!!! No kidding!

I don't like holidays too much! sigh!

I hope the Chinese food was good, Checks!

Aside from the surprise of how great my husband's cooking skills were last night, we had a couple of other unexpected events that weren't so fantastic. The main course was two large NY strip steaks with a homemade port wine sauce (the sauce was wonderful). He did the steaks on our George Foreman grill, set up on the kitchen counter. He was in a little bit of a frantic state of mind because of having to multitask all the stuff he had cooking, so when he tried to take a steak off of the grill too quickly, it slid off his fork and onto the floor. I was standing on the other side of him and didn't see it land, but I knew the dog was laying right there, in the corner! He gasped and took three stabs at the meat on the floor before he got it back on the fork, and hastily put it back on the grill, saying, "this one's gonna be mine". I said "well, at least the heat's going to kill any floor germs you got on it", to which he replied, "well, it actually landed ON the dog." So, my dog had a tasty treat to lick off of his flank! And my husband's steak was dog-tacular!

Then later on when we went to turn in, my husband noticed a gigantic wet spot on the bed -- turns out that one of our cats decided to pee all over my side of the bed, which they have never done before. We have four, so it's a mystery as to which one did the dirty deed. What a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine's night, cleaning the mattress, flipping it, and putting new bedding on. Woo hoo! How ROMANTIC! We laughed the whole time about how only on Valentine's Day would such a thing happen.

LMAO.

our kitties were no help yesterday either.

i walked into my daughter's room and it was ABSOLUTELY wrecked... i'm talking looks like a pack of thieves heard she was hording the hope diamond in her diaper drawer sort of wrecked... and just as i'm about to accuse my husband of ransacking it on a quest for her footy pajamas( he never knows where anything is!) i see a tail hanging off the ceiling fan... tempted as i was to turn the fan ON ... i reached up and removed Horrible Beast #2 ( aka daughter's kitty raina) only to find that her loving owner had bestowed her with a GIANT sticker ( shiny pink lips ) right over her face.

the steak on the dog is PRICELESS. men always say that ... "that one will be mine"... but you KNOW they're givin' it to you.... lol.

Bless his heart! He sounds wonderful!!

I watched him like a hawk to make sure he didn't pull the old switcheroo The steaks were so big I offered to just split my hairless one with him, but he had no problem whatsover with the fact that his meat was covered with fur, dog oil, and miscellaneous debris from the lawn... that's a MANLY man right there!

thanks Checks, my man is definitely a keeper <3 -- 23 years and counting!

Clevername, I just bought some baby asparagus yesterday, and I am SO trying your recipe!

My Valentine's dinner consisted of pizza with my kids because my husband had to work late. We did split a bottle of champagne later while we watched "Lost," however.

I hope your asparagus comes out as tasty as ours did -- depending on how skinny your stalks are, you might want to shave a minute or two off the cook time. I'd classify our stalks as medium diameter. Not to be too anal about it.

Oh, it's killing me that you watched "Lost" already, and your head is full of knowledge about what happened...we TiVo'ed it, and I'm going to watch it tonight. Hubby was impressed with my restraint at not tuning in last evening, instead partaking in the romantic festivities ... I hope it was a good episode! (Sorry, improper thread for Lost comments)