Valentine's Day Dinner

TL's famous steak -- The Wife's favorite dish -- is prepared by marinating it for several hours in a mix of teryiaki sauce, dry red wine, chopped green onions, garlic, and black pepper, and grilled over fire while cold to sear the outside and keep the middle rare. Always get a cut at least an inch thick, and remove from the grill after the outside starts to char but the meat feels squishy. That means it's rare and juicy inside, and if you've marinated it long enough, it'll be full of flavor.

TL's famous mashed potatoes are first boiled in a broth of garlicky chicken stock, and then mixed with sour cream, chives, butter, bacon bits, and fresh milk.

TL's lemony asparagus is steamed with dill weed and parsley, with a splash of lemon juice.

TL's REAP (Ridiculously Easy Apple Pie) is made using pre-made pie crusts, with apples sliced by mandolin (leave the skins on). Add in some brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel or lemon zest, and ground ginger. Brush the pie tin and the top of the crust with shortening. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour. The mandolin-sliced apples come out thin and layer themselves within the pie, and produce tremendous amounts of juices that carmelize with the sugar and become tender and flavorful. Tonight, The Wife got pie with her favorite kind of apples, Granny Smiths, although I usually use Fuji or Pink Lady apples.

Tonight's red wine was 2002 Dynamite Cabernet, a prince of its mid-range price mark. Our wine graveyard, containing all the soldiers who have given to the cause, is growing thick on top of the kitchen cabinets.

I also dropped off a dozen roses at The Wife's office. She had already gone to lunch, so I left the flowers there, and went to where she was having lunch with a lawyer and another paralegal from her firm.

Other men may have done more, other men may have done less. But that's what I did for my sweetie today.