Valentine Shmalentine 2014

While I took a break last year because I was in Curaçao, I have developed a nice little single gal tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day by preparing a nice meal. Treat. Yo. Self. This year I wasn't single, but I didn't want to let my tradition go. I told Albert my plans would proceed as usual and he could join if he wanted. He said he would love to so I decided then and there that the meal would be spaghetti and meatballs. Why? Because that's what Lady and the Tramp ate and I  think they may be the most lovey dovey animal couple in history. Do we know of any other animal couples?

While past Valentine's dinners have been all about treating myself to an elaborate meal, this year was about treating myself in a different but just as satisfying way: by letting the store do the work. Sure, I boiled the pasta, but Whole Foods made the meatballs that I cooked with jarred pasta sauce and topped with fresh parm. For the vegetable I picked up Brussels sprout salad with bacon and blue cheese. But I can't forget that the whole meal started with a shrimp cocktail. Shrimp cocktail feels very 1960s to me. I'm not sure why, but I feel like it's a very Mad Men dish. Don Draper I considered quite the sex machine in that show so I now correlate shrimp cocktail with 1960s, which I correlate to Mad Men, which I correlate to sexiness. So that's how I thought shrimp cocktail would make a romantic Valentine's Day appetizer. Instead of cocktail sauce, I used remoulade sauce, also store-bought but a little different than the expected. 

No, we did not push the meatball across the plate with our noses like Lady and the Tramp. My single girl tradition may have been hijacked, but it was nice to be able to share a good meal with someone.