# Valentines dinner



## Woofa (Dec 23, 2014)

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's day.

Surf and Turf at the Woofa household:

New York strip steak
Lamb Chops
Chicken
Shrimp
Salmon
Mussels and clams in a white wine sauce
Scallops
Baked potato
Special Asparagus made by Ms. woofa

Taking a break now before home made chocolate mouse.








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Lets hear about some of your yummy holiday meals.


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## BillyB (Feb 14, 2015)

You had me at "Lamb Chops"



Went out to dinner with the Girlfriend.

Caesar Salad, French Onion Soup.

Chateaubriand for two. 

Bananas Foster for desert prepared table side.

Simple but elegant and delicious.


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## Woofa (Dec 23, 2014)

I am a big fan of bananas foster. Great choice.


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## BillyB (Feb 14, 2015)

Woofa said:


> I am a big fan of bananas foster. Great choice.


Thanks. I agree. I was first introduced to it at "Brennan's" (the creator of the dish) in the French Quarter, New Orleans. Been a fan ever since.

Lamb chops or Rack of Lamb with Mint Jelly is my all time favorite meat dish. By far. Not sure why. I just happen to absolutely love the taste of Lamb. It's probably why one of my favorite restaurants happens to be Turkish. It's heaven on a plate for me.


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## LordSmoke (Dec 25, 2012)

Wow, Woofa. Just Wow.

To provide contrast...

prepared-to-order Jersey Mike's Club Supreme and Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches
a hand-opened bag of crispy Cheetos 
a 2015 diet Coke
Freshly made Donut Kingdom donuts carefully aged 36 hours

For a touch of romance to recognize this special day, a dozen yellow roses picked up when I got the Cheetos and subs.

Back to the kitchen today for Mrs Smoke, when she gets to try out the new convection double oven I bought her for V-day. No more cutting kindling and stoking the old stove!


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

LOL. Ya know, it's threads like this that cause me to pause and reflect on the inhereant wisdom of my perennial New Year's resolution to lose a few pounds. Don't you just hate New Year's resolutions? Woofa, I envy you and presently find myself drooling all over my keyboard!


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## drlivingston (Jun 21, 2012)

Bananas Foster at Brennan's should be on every foodies culinary bucket list. The atmosphere and the dessert combine to form a most satisfying experience!
By the way, nice sear on those scallops, Woofa... most people make the mistake of putting the scallops in before the pan is hot enough.

EDIT: Bananas Foster trivia: Brennan's goes through 35,000 lbs of bananas each year preparing Bananas Foster.


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## MaxBuck (Apr 4, 2013)

Our V-Day feast, as per usual, was many shrimps briefly boiled in white wine. Key to delicious shrimps IMO is boiling the shells first for about 10 minutes to extract the flavor, filtering out the shells, adding the white wine and the shrimps to the filtered liquor and boiling for not more than two minutes. Accompanied by sparkling wine (in this case NOT Gruet, which was too bad, as Gruet is as good as it gets at pricing in double figures per 750-mL bottle). My homemade cocktail sauce comprised 3 parts fresh grated horseradish, 3 parts Heinz ketchup, and 1 part Sriracha.

Added some carrots and sauteed asparagus for finger food.


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## FJW (Jan 25, 2012)

Actually Thursday night--At Blend in Manasquan NJ-

*Me*
Butternut Squash Soup
Baked Cod

Right out of the fryer --Warm Donuts with Raspberry Jelly on the side

*Her*
Misto
Coq au Vin

Chocolate Cake


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## dks202 (Jun 20, 2008)

Beer and pizza, I was home sick....We both enjoyed it just as much as a nice restaurant.


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## BillyB (Feb 14, 2015)

drlivingston said:


> Bananas Foster at Brennan's should be on every foodies culinary bucket list. The atmosphere and the dessert combine to form a most satisfying experience!
> By the way, nice sear on those scallops, Woofa... most people make the mistake of putting the scallops in before the pan is hot enough.
> 
> EDIT: Bananas Foster trivia: Brennan's goes through 35,000 lbs of bananas each year preparing Bananas Foster.


Agreed. Brennan's is bordering on absurd for breakfast. Absurd meaning over the top fantastic to the point of ridiculous pleasure. 

It is interesting but not surprising that Brennan's goes through over 35k of Bananas every year. That's a dish that the Gods on Mount Olympus send out for when they tire of eating Ambrosia.

It's also interesting that the French Quarter in Louisiana holds two incredible, albeit unusual, dining experiences for me.

The Bananas Foster at Brennan's and the Beignets and Coffee at Cafe du Monde. Double header.

Next Valentine's Day, I just may put that location down for dinner. I'll run a Marathon a few days before preparing for the calorie splurge.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

Reservations for sit-down service at White Castle. I had a slider, a bacon cheese slider, a jalapeno cheese slider, a savory grilled chicken slider, and fries with root beer. And a brownie on a stick. I really wasn't paying attention to what she had beyond the loaded fries.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Whole lobster and potato chips.


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## MaxBuck (Apr 4, 2013)

WouldaShoulda said:


> Whole lobster and potato chips.


Winner, winner, lobster dinner!


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## 32rollandrock (May 1, 2008)

MaxBuck said:


> Winner, winner, lobster dinner!


Our was, unfortunately, disappointing. Mrs. 32 disapproves of the proper way of cooking lobster--which is to say, use live ones--so we went with pre-killed. That had been frozen. It came out resembling crustacean mush. Thinking that this might end up the case, we also had grilled venison, which was perfect. Regardless of the food, it was a fabulous evening at fireside.


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Frozen whole lobster?? I've never seen such a thing.

Tails only, yes.


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## MaxBuck (Apr 4, 2013)

32rollandrock said:


> Mrs. 32 disapproves of the proper way of cooking lobster--which is to say, use live ones


If you're not willing to listen to the lobster squeal, you shouldn't be eating lobster.

Seriously, though, it's amazing how few people are willing to think about the animal they're eating in its live state, and what is required to put it onto one's plate. We've become immensely squeamish over the past few decades. My parents' generation had to chop the heads off their own chickens; now most folks seem to think chickens run around in the nude, bereft of feathers, because of how they look in the meat case.

I suspect a few hours in a kosher slaughterhouse would make many people into vegetarians ...


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

All this talking of lamb makes me want to recommend my local butcher, who sells local Suffolk lamb, identified by farm, so that if I want to see the raw material, as it were, I can do so. I must say that, when I was in the US, I never saw lamb, or mutton, anywhere, whether in restaurants or in shops.


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## justonemore (Jul 2, 2009)

Chouan said:


> All this talking of lamb makes me want to recommend my local butcher, who sells local Suffolk lamb, identified by farm, so that if I want to see the raw material, as it were, I can do so. I must say that, when I was in the US, I never saw lamb, or mutton, anywhere, whether in restaurants or in shops.


Last time I was back home I wanted to make lamb steaks for my family. Not even large dedicated butcheries had what I was looking for (although one offered to cut them if I bought half a lamb).

For valentine's we had another dish which is a rarity in the U.S. ... Duck.

A few other meats etc. that we have here that one rarely finds in U.S. shops.... Rabbit. Horse. Deer. Goose. Quail. Partridge. Ostrich. Snail.


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## pleasehelp (Sep 8, 2005)

justonemore said:


> Last time I was back home I wanted to make lamb steaks for my family. Not even large dedicated butcheries had what I was looking for (although one offered to cut them if I bought half a lamb).
> 
> For valentine's we had another dish which is a rarity in the U.S. ... Duck.
> 
> A few other meats etc. that we have here that one rarely finds in U.S. shops.... Rabbit. Horse. Deer. Goose. Quail. Partridge. Ostrich. Snail.


Where in the US have you been spending time? Some of those meats are pretty easy to find in certain regions.


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