Romancing the Plate

Hosting the Perfect Dinner for Two

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Entertaining isn’t always a big party with expensive food and decadent decorations. Creating the perfect dinner for your spouse is the most important party you will ever throw. For Valentine’s Day, I showed my friends Kristin and Max Rose how to create a fabulous dinner for each other.

Kristin and Max spend all day (and quite a few nights) teaching, coaching and mentoring high school students on the Eastside. Who could be more deserving of a lovely dinner together?  

A Little Extra Something
Don’t forget a little gift. Extravagant boxes of jewelry will never be turned away, but a box of really good chocolate won’t, either. I used a gold permanent marker to monogram the top of a box and filled it with my favorite chocolates. Simple, delicious and darling on the table. Mark the top with the initials of your friends or special someone, and use them for place cards. 

Naturally Beautiful
Flowers are synonymous with Valentine’s Day — but can be so expensive. Choose a selection of flowers in pinks and red (even carnations look great scattered through an arrangement). I chose to arrange the flowers in my collection of antique cranberry glass, which I also used for Champagne glasses.

The Color of Love
The color scheme for Valentine’s already is built in and so much fun to plan around. I started with fabric I found at Calico Corners as a tablecloth and added really simple paper decorations.

Sesame Steamed Broccolini
1 bunch broccolini
4 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, crushed
salt and pepper

Directions: Clean and trim broccolini. Toss broccolini with oil, seeds and salt and pepper in a bowl. Place in a steamer basket and cook over boiling water for about 5 minutes — or until broccolini is tender when poked with a fork. 

Herbed Couscous
2 tablespoons butter
¼ sweet onion, chopped
1 tablespoon crushed fennel seed
1 cup couscous
1¾ cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped

Directions: Melt one tablespoon butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and fennel seed and cook until onions are translucent. Add couscous, chicken stock and salt. Cook until all liquid is absorbed (less than five minutes). Remove from heat and stir in herbs with remaining butter. Serve hot.

Rosemary Skewered Scallops
6 to 8 scallops
2 thick branches of rosemary
salt and pepper

Directions: Skin off rosemary leaves leaving the top 2 or so inches on the branch. Pat scallops dry and skewer scallops on rosemary branches. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat and place scallops in the pan. If your pan is not well-seasoned, use spray cooking oil to ensure scallops don’t stick. Cook about 2 minutes on each side until translucency is gone.  If you’re unsure if it is done, cut one open to check.

Bacon-Wrapped Beef Tenderloin
2 tenderloins of beef
4 strips of slab cut bacon
salt and pepper

Directions: Wrap tenderloins with two strips of bacon, securing with butcher’s twine or toothpicks. Sprinkle each side of meat with salt and let stand. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, place meat inside and let it sear. The sear will be complete when the meat does not stick to the pan anymore. Season the raw side with pepper. Flip and sear on the other side. Turn heat down and finish cooking until done to your liking. Use a meat thermometer if you have doubts. 

Resources
Chocolates: Moonstruck Chocolates, moonstruckchocolate.com
Paper: Paper Zone, paperzone.com
Chocolate Boxes: Packaging Specialties, pkgspec.com
Cake Stand: Pottery Barn, potterybarn.com
Apron: Mrs. Cooks, mrscooks.com
Chocolate Cake: Metropolitan Market, metropolitan-market.com

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