Thursday 15 February 2007

Loved Up

Wow, everyone sounds like they had a great Valentines (except Robin, poor Robin!). Mine was great too...

P never does Valentines. Ever. Well, one year he did buy me a Bonsai tree two weeks after the date - which unfortunately didn't survive my tender ministrations, and died after it got hit by an unexpected frost when I wasn't at home... :-( But usually, Valentines Day will see him grumbling about commercialism and cynicism and refusing to participate at all.

This time... I got to his place to find he had laid the table with white linen and scattered the deepest, reddest rose petals all over it, and put some more roses in a bud vase. He'd laid out stemware and silverware and the few matching plates he has, and he'd printed out a menu for the evening's meal - "Valen-Thai-nes Night Chez P" - with all the food and wine he'd planned. He'd lit candles, and he'd made a real effort to put on soft, but not slushy, music. I was overwhelmed, and got a bit teary! It was so lovely.

So, from the menu, we ate

* Thai mushroom cakes
* Lemongrass and mushroom soup
* Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (with red curry paste)
* Tofu and Pepper Green Curry
* Broccoli with ginger and garlic
* Baby Leaf Salad with Smoked Tofu Croutons

We drank Veuve Cliquot and Pazo Senorans Albarino 2003. I'd bought him some vodka with fig in a heart shaped glass bottle and he drank some of that, but I didn't. We drank lots and lots of coffee afterwards, and shared one heart shaped chocolate, and talked until midnight.

It was such a gift from him to me; he is not usually demonstrative in that way. Yes, I drank more than I should have done, but the sharing of good wine is one of the things that binds us together, and so (apart from this morning's rather tender head and a fiendish craving for heavy-raisiny-carby things) I don't regret it. And the food was delicious, and not heavy, and he'd made a real effort to keep it calorie-light (he might not have managed it, but the intention was there!) and I certainly got my B's, and since the mushrooms were shittake, I even got some D. But to enjoy the evening properly, I did switch off the CRON voice in my head, and it was just... a wonderful evening.

Today I have lunch with one friend and dinner with a couple more (cooked at their house), so it will not be a CRON day, I don't think. Oh well, c'est la vie. Will try not to stress; it's not as though I am going to be mainlining fries and stuffing my face with candy and cake.

And on that sour-sweet note, this is a really interesting (and quite scary!) article on sugar.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

rose petals on the white linen table cloth? That sounds so romantic- (in the good way). ♥

Sara said...

I took a picture but it's on my camera phone and I haven't worked out how to get it off yet, or I'd post it. It was *so* lovely of him!

Emi at Project Swatch said...

Thanks for posting the sugar article - really scary! Makes me even more determined to avoid processed foods, and to try and eat heirloom-type veggies whenever possible, rather than supermarket types bred for looks and sweetness rather than real flavor.

April said...

Hi Sara,

What a lovely Valentine's Day! And three cheers for Veuve Cliquot! My dad gave me lovely bottle of it for my thirtieth birthday. Hmmmm...

a