[Sca-cooks] Valentine's Dinner

[Elaine Koogler]

I thought I would share this with you folks, as it turned out so 
wonderfully.  Phillip was out of town this past week (in Birmingham, 
AL...where he could find no restaurants that struck his fancy), so we 
didn't get reservations at one of our local establishments...all of them 
were booked solid (unless we wanted to eat at 4:30 in the afternoon or 
9:00 at night).  So we decided to explore one of our many cookbooks and 
do something at home.

My sister had given me a Provencal cookbook last year...one of those 
lovely coffee-table  books with lots of wonderful pictures, etc.  I was 
a little uncertain as to how good the recipes would be, so we hadn't 
tried it.  But we decided to experiment with it today.  Oh my!  The 
results were incredible.  We had Beef Birds Provencal, Stuffed Onions 
(ham, ricotta, spinach, etc. with a home made tomato sauce) and Sauteed 
Mushrooms Provencal.  The dishes, except for the mushrooms, were fairly 
complex, but oh, so good.  We had a 23 year old Pinot Noir from the 
Mirassou Winery in California with the meal.  I doubt we could have done 
any better at any of the local restaurants...and yes, I'm braggin on our 
results.  For dessert, we're having a pumpkin creme brulee from Four and 
Twenty Blackbirds in NYC. 

What did anyone else do for Valentine's Day?

Kiri