Valentines Dinner 2014

For Valentines Day 2014, I planned a huge dinner--four courses, wine pairings with each - it was going to be epic.

Unfortunately, my eyes are bigger than my stomach, the first course was way too big to share the stage, so we only made it half-way through.  But it was delicious.

The first part was muscles in a tomato sauce, served with toasted french baguette (brush it with olive oil before toasting for some extra umph).  I basically used this recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/steamed-mussels-with-tomato-and-garlic-broth

[By the way, we had a lot of sauce left after eating the muscles, so I cooked some mushrooms in it, and I would definitely recommend that as a vegetarian option.]

We had a white Rhone wine to go with it, and with the next course.

The second (and, as it turns out, last) course was a fennel and granny smith apple salad.  Fresh fennel and granny smith apple, sliced thin, with fresh lemon juice, a bit of olive oil, salt, and fresh cracked pepper.  I intended it as a palate cleanser course, but there just wasn't room in our stomachs for more food later.  But it is very light and fresh; we have used it as a middle course before at other dinners, and it is ideal in that capacity.

Behold our V-day dinner :)

See the flecks of fennel greens?  There's also sliced bulb in there, of course.