kismet09

i'm not very good at documenting valentine's day:


2003 cooking of some kind
2004 vespa (federal hill)
2005 nougatine

2008 cambridge brewing

2010 steak, chard, brussels sprouts, chocolate souffle
2011 ny strip, swiss chard with raisins, and a baked potato

2014 dry aged ny strip, green beans with almonds, mashed potatoes, brownies

I settled on clothes that I already owned for going out to dinner - velvety skirt plus black tank top, leather jacket and short boots. It got chillier, so I'm glad that I didn't go with the short dress. We went to Vespa in Federal Hill. It's a cozy little Italian wine bar with a good appetizer and entree list. I had ginger and squash soup (heavy on the ginger, so Tim got to eat about half of it) and a sundried tomato and chicken pesto pizza. Tim had a pizza with asparagus, caramelized onions and three cheeses. We split the antipasto tray (white bean puree, tomato spread, caperberries, eggplant caponata, roasted peppers with raisins, mozzarella and prosciutto), a bottle of red wine, and way too many baskets of bread. All was quite lovely, although some of the antipasti choices seemed to be trying too hard. Dessert was fabulous - I had a vanilla panna cotta with fresh berries, which paired perfectly with my Moscato. Tim had a peanut buttery moussey thing that wasn't nearly as exciting, but also good, and accompanied by a chocolate covered strawberry. The restaurant was busy, but not overly or annoyingly so.

After that, we headed to Nicky and Paul's gathering. Lots of fun, comfortable, geeky people. Funny interpretive dancing. Good food, although I was too full to try anything. Met muhon and lots of other people who probably have livejournals who I don't know. I was overly full and mellow, thanks to the ridiculous amounts of bread and many hours of head scratching, respectively. Plus, I'm much more of a listener and observer at such gatherings than I am a joiner, anyway. It was definitely good people watching.

Home late, slept late, went out for breakfast at noon. Nadine stopped by and sounds like she had a wonderful valentine's/boy's birthday celebration, which included eating at Ten Penh (where they're friends with the chef) and getting monogrammed pillowcases at the Ritz Carlton. Meg and Brian also stopped by and we had a chance to chat for the first time in awhile, which was also quite nice. Tim and I made asparagus and gruyere crepes with a white sauce for dinner, adapted from the Greens cookbook, which were quite spectacular. I made it through to two episodes from the end of the second season of The West Wing, and am excited that there's a season four marathon on Bravo tonight so I can pick up some of the episodes that I missed (or my VCR can, while I'm at Scrabble).

All in all, good weekend, good people, good food.