Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Premature, I know, but I need to forward plan and I'd love to hear your ideas for Valentines menus.

I can't afford to buy Mr8 a gift this year so instead I'd love to make him a really nice Valentines meal. I was considering a three course dinner of the following:

Isa's carrot bisque OR Veganbellyful's pate de campagne. Either dish served with toasted ciabatta.
Rustic winter stew over polenta.
Vanilla cheesecake with a mixed berry compote.

similar to your polenta idea there is a "polenta hearts" recipe in the Vegan Table.
basically you make the polenta, put it in the fridge for awhile, then use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out hearts then pan fry those.
there is a roasted red pepper coulis recipe that goes with it that's really good.

the hearts is kinda cheesy but kinda cute if you're into that. the time i made it i didnt have a heart cookie cutter so i used my animal shaped ones. buffalo and squirrel polenta!

I love the polenta hearts idea, I might actually steal that for my own valentines menu! I'm a very cheesey person so it's fine :D

And I love the buffalo and squirrel idea; that is hilarious!

Me too :) I have a T-Rex shaped cutter.

Polenta hearts sounds fantastic! My kiddo was planning out a Valentine's dinner today where everything had red food dye...I was trying to shift her back to something more reasonable and palatable so this should be a great start.

Of course I would rather have animals, but sacrifices for the kid...

Red velvet cake is always a winner, too!

I think I'm going with meatball subs. My husband really loves them, and I was trying to think of one of his favorite foo to make... When I thought of meatball subs! I dont know yet what I'll do for the side dishes. Maybe beets? Or an all-red salad?

We were at Target the other night and in the v-day section there was some 'manly' shaped chocolate themes and cases of beer...The boyfriend was like "ohhh vday for guys!"...I am getting him a case of beer and I am going to try to find a small heart shaped pie tin (4 inches or so) and make him a pb cup to bring out after dinner...

I'm probably baking cupcakes for the crush. I saw something where you can bake hearts into them but I don't know if I have the skill.

Oooh, I hadn't even thought about it, but I totally should do something fun for V-day! I think I still have a heart-shaped cutter somewhere around here I could use somehow.

Also, 8ball's T-rex cookie cutter sounds AWESOME.

We are boring so we don't do anything. I've been cooking a lot lately though so maybe, if my hubby is good, I'll make him some pasta. He loves pasta and I don't care for it so he gets excited when I make it.

I want to make chocolate strawberry cupcakes. CHocolate cupcake, filled with strawberry frosting, topped with a strawberry piece hidden under a pile of chocolate. Yum.

I might conceivably make a heart-shaped cake, if I can find a mould. I could put a layer of carageenan-set coulis in the top so it bleeds when you cut it... this is exciting!

Heart-shaped cake without a special pan: two layer cake with one in an 8x8 square and one in an 8-inch circle. Cut the circle in half, orient the square so it's a diamond, and stick the semi circles so that each cut edge is on the top right or left side of your diamond. A heart! Does that make any sense?! My mom and dad are the exact same age and their birthday is February 10th. In middle school I started baking them heart-shaped cakes decorated with white icing and red hots. I thought it was genius!

my bf's taking me to a vegan japanese restaurant for V-day on Saturday. I had no idea what to get him, so I'm making his favorite thing on the planet: whoopie pies.

Are you going to kajitsu?!

I'm making a midnight snack parade, complete with home-flavored vodka. Jalapeno poppers, deep fried ricotta balls, fried mac n cheese, and spicy bruschetta. Don't tell the boy, though. It's a surprise.
It's a holiday, which means i can pretend the calories don't count.

my meatball sub idea was rejected. Instead, my omni fella has requested Tofu-Watercress Salad (one of his favorite dinners that I sometimes make). Well, it's hard to argue with that!

For breakfast we are going to have a pancake buffet: plain pancake + blueberry pancake + banana-walnut pancake (at least one each). nom nom nom!

Can I be your boyfriend? That all sounds amazing.

We're going to get the chocolate fountain from our wedding out from the back of the cupboard & dip strawberries & marshmallows into it!

My boyfriend is making fettuccini Alfredo and a Caesar salad and I'm in charge of gluten-free breadsticks and dessert. Not sure what I'm making for dessert yet...

I'm thinking of making the Urban Housewife's Jackfruit Carnitas and for dessert a durian chocolate cheesecake! TMI, I'm sure, but durian is a real aphrodisiac...

The manfriend and I just decided to stay in and cook rather than go out - which I'm pretty happy about since I have limited funds - but I don't know what to make yet. I often make him noodles and veggies with spicy peanut sauce and he loves it, but I want to break away from the usual. He's omni (although pretty open-minded with veg stuff) so I'm thinking about a lasagne or something else pasta-y. Hrrmmmm.

Probably going to make some kind of chocolate baked good too.

No joke, I'm seriously contemplating ordering pizza. I might make salad to go with it. We're going out for fancy-ish dinner on the 21st (and we were considering going to Glasgow, but we might not because I'm going the weekend after for the chip crawl), and I always make dinner, so it wouldn't really be that special if I cooked (and I really can't be arsed coming up with something schmancy on a Thursday).

Do it! We ordered pizza (and ice cream) last year & it was awesome!