Romance is…a Husband Who Cooks
In last week’s relish I suggested some ideas for a cheapskate Valentine’s meal out.
Of course an alternative is to cook dinner at home (you can go out for a cheaper lunch, or brunch), which is what we’ll be doing. Maybe. My husband is being sort of mum. We pretty much hate heart-shaped boxes and the like - I think he’s given me tulips instead of roses in years past - but one reason Feb. 14 is special to us is because we met at a friend’s party on that day five years ago (for the record, she didn’t like Valentine’s Day much either - she dubbed her party the “Heart of Darkness” party, and all the food we brought was dark, e.g. chocolate cake). So here we are, cynics sentenced to a link with this most Hallmark of days.
Last year, my husband bought home white Burgundy and live lobsters, clacking around in cardboard boxes that reminded us all too much of pet carriers. We like lobster, sure, but since we don’t exactly cook it very often (try, never) we were unprepared for how much, uh, thrashing went on when we lowered our dinner into the pot of boiling water. Next time, we’ll try another way.
This year, I’d like to repeat the white Burgundy theme. White Burgundy was the wine that cured me of my “anything but Chardonnay” attitude - it’s Chardonnay-based, but heavens, it’s a whole other wine than some of the cloying, cheap, mass-produced New World Chardonnays. I’m a sucker for white Burgundy, and the Wall Street Journal’s wine column, Tastings, reminded me of that, even if I don’t exactly have Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher’s budget (they focus on Meursault, one appellation that is known for white Burgundy, but there are others). And I really like their idea of cooking a whole fish, perhaps a red snapper…. It’s a little less dramatic than live lobster, but still far from everyday.
