Valentine's Day

[MarkV]

Dear friends:

Happy Valentines Day to everyone.

This is my first Valentine's Day with my new wife. I'm waiting for her to come home to take her out for dinner. Here's the link for the Valentine's menu of the restaurant we're going to tonight:

http://www.uppercrustnj.com/events.asp

I'm going with the braised short ribs.

I hope you're all either spending the day with the man/woman of your dreams, or on your way to finding that person.

Mark

[chrose]

Same to ya big fella
Tonight is a family night at home. Staying in with my "old bride" Coq Au Vin and Hershey bars! (With Almonds even!!!)
Hope everybody has a good evening!

Burgundy braised short ribs over crab-mashed potatoes
with French beans

That sounds sort of odd. Let us know (me anyway) how it was.

[blueschef]

Back at ya!
My first Valentines day with my wife as well, mellow nite though, we are waiting for the weekend for dinner. Just some snacks and beverages at the local saloon this evening.
Everyone, have a peacefull evening!
Sincerely,
Chef Tom

[MarkV]

Chrose:

Yeah I don't know about those "crab" mashed potatoes. But I have had his short ribs before and they are exquisite.

The coq au vin sounds wonderful. One of my favorites. What kind of wine do you use?

I just called my honey and she's stuck in traffic

Tom: Congratulations on your first Valentines with your wife. May you have many more.

Mark

[cape chef]

This will be our 25th valentines day together,but my wife is a floral designer so i'm keeping the home warm awaiting her return.Jills favorite is king crab simple steamed over a court bouillon with drawn butter and lemon. I have a couple of bottles of grand cru chabis in the fridge to sip as we throw shells in the bowl.A basic chocolate mousse that I serve with a berry consomme. I made four spun sugar baskets to dome over the mousse.Mark, what to drink and cook with coq au vin? ;-) Red burgundy of course. Happy Valentines day to all, young and old.

[chrose]

Originally Posted by MarkV

The coq au vin sounds wonderful. One of my favorites. What kind of wine do you use?

Honestly much though I hate to admit it, I went cheap. I wanted to use a nice Pinot Noir, but it was more than I wanted to spend. Instead I opted for a less expensive (shoot, I'll have to get back to you on that one, I forgot!)
But it was a George DeBouef wine and when it comes to Vin de Table wines, I trust him. They're inexpensive for obvious reasons, but they are almost always top end of the cheap section!
But while the Crab potatoes sound odd, crab does go nicely with almost anything, so I imagine it will work just fine.

[Squee]

I didn't get a chance to spend Valentines day with my girlfriend. I had to work.

This was my first Valentines Day in the kitchen. I honestly though It would have gone smooth. But about 45 minutes into it, our computers had an error and sent back a lot of orders twice. In the midst of the confusion, Servers took orders without paying attention, people didn't get theri food on time and some even walked out.

*shrug* Poor planning I guess was to blame. Everyone in the kitchen, Which is HIGHLY understaffed becasue the owners too cheap to shell out for a few more cooks, There were 4 people (Yes, Even counting the dishwasher) and 5 servers for the front working for 159 reservations from 6:30 to 8:30. I understand that my plight wasn't nearly as bad as some other places But I'm new at this!

Anyone suffer any bad experiences at work yesterday?

As We were closing up, the head chef asked me if tonight being so psycho and hectic, if it had changed my view on going into the culinary world. Honestly, I enjoyed it. A lot. If things had gone a bit easier (Computers not screwing up, running almost out of food and angry servers) It would have been better. But alas, The world, From what I've seen anyway, is unpredictable.

Happy Valentines day to everyone. Hope you spent it with loved ones.

[Plongeur]

We did 62 covers last night, a €60/6 course menu plus amuse bouche plus coffee/mignardises. Went well, sent the last desserts out at 1206, Chef plus two 'extras' in the kitchen, me in the plonge. I spent all day beforehand doing prep with him which was great; millefeuilles of choux confits was a real highlight for me, easy to make and tasted great; also the confited sliced radishes (actually confited in a 15% sugar syrup) which went well with the pheasant/foie gras terrine.

[Andrew Hope]

I spent Valentines Day working my first night at a new job... I had a good time, My girlfriend is away in university so msn is as close as we can get during the school terms... *sniffle sniffle*

[MarkV]

Originally Posted by cape chef

Mark, what to drink and cook with coq au vin? ;-) Red burgundy of course. Happy Valentines day to all, young and old.

Yes, yes, of course since the dish is Burgundian in origin. However, I have seen some chefs use Bordeaux.

Mark