For our romantic Valentine's Dinner last night, DH prepared a special meal. He did pretty well on sticking close to my Ultrametabolism rules. I had asked him to only make one dish with cream, as he tends to go overboard with that one ingredient when he gets to cooking.
He opened with a pear and mache salad with some amazing cheese from Idon'tknowwhat country. He then served grilled lamb chops topped with shitake mushrooms in a red wine reduction. On the side was some steamed broccoli rabe and some roasted pearl potatoes tossed with grilled orange bell pepper. Very pretty. For dessert he made a sponge cake from scratch, which he soaked in some marsala wine. This he layered with fresh berries and whipped cream.
What was so funny were the portions. Since he was serving, they were ginormous! He put an entire pear on my salad. Then when he served the main course, the food was falling off the side of the plate! Honestly it was enough for three people.
"These fancy plates you bought are so small!" he remarked. "Or," I replied. "You've just forgotten what a normal plate looks like!" Dessert was similar. It was something like 7 inches wide and five inches tall. I think I ate a third of it and felt like I was going to explode despite the fact it was so light.
Am I crazy or are plates bigger now? Fine china stays the same throughout time, so our casual dinnerware must be 30% larger. "When did they start making plates so large?" I asked him. His answer was on the money: "The same time they started making people so large."
Posted By: ashleyb
Comments to this post:
02/15/2007 10:41
Ahhhh what a perfect Valentine's Day
Wow..that all sound so amazing. Yet you felt so loved and cared for and extremely special! I think that is what Valentine's is truly about...making that special someone feel extra special.
The dinner sounds totally amazing! I just look into the plan you are following.
Lucky...lucky woman...being so pampered with special treats from your someone! I am sure you enjoyed it last night...and today...and may the memories always remind you of how special you are!
That's a great meal, and decently healthy except for the amounts--bravo, Ashley's DH! And the astute response to the big-plate question is wonderful.
I might start eating on the fine china all the time. Right now I've been using the "salad" plates from our casual dinnerware and they're just a teensy bit too small for a meal that will fill me up. Plus our china was my parents' and it's seen pitifully few meals in its 37 years of existence--probably fewer than a dozen--so it's about time someone appreciated those silver-rimmed plates as something more than decoration.
Not that I eat at home that much. A different problem . . .
sounds absolutely lovely, you're blessed to have a dh that even knows how to reduce anything. Plate sizes. yes, this does seem to have increased from years of yore.
All I can say is how lucky you are to have such a great chef in the house. When I got married DH could barely boil water. He has gotten better over time but nothing like you just got for dinner. You are so lucky. I hope you thanked him greatly
