Valentine's Day Recap

Call me a cynic, but Valentine’s Day has gotten way out of control. I won’t bore you with my rant on the over-commercialization of this once sweet-and-simple holiday, but let’s just say that I was not one of those rose-buying, dinner-reservation-searching, last-minute-shopping-in-desperation men.

Actually, I spent a large portion of yesterday making arrangements to acquire a new water heater and have it installed, as my old one had ruptured during the night. Not only did I accomplish this mission, I also had time left over to prepare a wonderful Valentine’s Day feast for my sweetheart, Ms. E.

The menu was pretty simple. I grilled a couple of marinated tuna steaks and paired them with my roasted garlic mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. The tuna was a perfect medium rare; the potatoes were creamy and delicious; and the spinach was pretty good considering I can’t cook vegetables to save my life.

My other nod to V-Day is always some really good wine. This year we started out with Roederer Estate Brut Rosé NV, which is always lovely and was a perfect match to the meal.

We moved on to Cellers Scala Dei Cartoixa Reserva 2000 (goes well with dark chocolate), which is from Priorat in Spain. I love the wines from this region, and this wine is a perfect example of why.

It’s a blend of 48% cabernet sauvignon, 47% garnacha and 5% syrah. It’s also round and full-bodied with lots of dark fruit, nuances of chocolate and spice, and a long, silky finish. While it normally retails for around $30 a bottle, a friend in the business got me some at $10 a bottle.

Why? Because the distributor was getting rid of it.

I’m certain that most people who looked at it either didn’t know what it was or thought they could never sell it. Oh well, their loss is my gain.

So I have three pieces of post V-Day advice:

1.) Never buy roses for Valentine’s Day.
2.) If you haven’t already discovered the wines of Priorat, start now.
3.) Try marinating tuna steaks in Stubb’s Pork Marinade (trust me, it’s good).