Valentines Dinner

You've never cooked a steak? and you call yourself a man? hahaha

but seriously, I'm going to give you some good advice.

Hmm... you said she likes seafood...

If you want to impress her you should make

Wild Salmon and Asparagus Bowtie Pasta

1. Grill the Salmon over open flame with olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper, lemon and a little garlic until medium-well

2. Cook the bowtie pasta

3. BBQ the Asparagus with salt, freshly ground pepper, garlic, cayenne pepper, olive oil. Careful not to burn the Asparagus. Taste it to make sure it's done right.

4. Flake the salmon and add it to a big bowl with the pasta, chop the asparagus into 1.5 inch pieces and add, and add storebought fresh pesto sauce (unless you're handy at sauces). You're probably going to want to make a lot of this so you have leftovers.

5. You can consider adding a tiny bit of chopped sundried tomatoes or walnuts or both, but this is optional and should be suited to your tastes.

6. You're going to want garlic bread as a side, and you should seriously consider making an appetizer to make it a 3-course meal with your desert. You could go in a lot of different ways for the appetizer, anything from calimari (which might be over your head, but that's ok) to a light antipasta to mozzerella sticks to a fancy greens salad. Prosciutto wrapped around melon is clutch. You couldn't go wrong with a good ceaser, either. Oysters are known to have certain aphrodisical properties ;). For Desert, I like Birdgirl's strawberries or you could go to a good local bakery and get a fruit tart, which is rich but won't leave you overwhelmed.

The pasta can be paired with a lot of different types of wine; Salmon does not have to be paired with white wine anymore. A merlot, pinot noir or zinfandel will work well. If you want to go with white wine, go Chardonnay. A lot of people like Riesling with Salmon, but Riesling is too sweet IMO. If this is too much for you to choose from, go Merlot. Break out the bubbly for desert.

The Pasta tastes really good and all the individual ingredients can be made way in advance and added together at the last minute and heated up. It tastes amazing and is very pleasing to the eyes, very romantic. It's a well balanced meal that will more than satisfy you, but will leave you with some energy for extracurricular activities.. I've made this exact meal for girls on more than a few occasions and it's always a winner.

...Too bad (for the girls out there) that I don't have a real Valentine this year ;)...