Celebrating V-Day with a Pot and a Knife

Julia Child once said that all you need is a pot and a knife to be able to cook great meals.

As a person whose kitchen, utility room, and even my crawlspace is full of cooking tools and accessories, I sometimes wish I had followed that dictum. I do love my food processor and Kitchenaid mixer, though. Life is fuller and more interesting as a result of some of the convenience items I have used over my years in the kitchen. And, based on what I have seen of Julia's kitchen, which you can now view in the Smithsonian, she didn't follow it either.

I'm going to go one step further and say that maybe all you need is a pot, a knife, and a partner who cooks.

Actually, it is my husband who loves the Kitchenaid mixer. We inherited one from his mother's estate, and it has rarely gone unused for more than a week since we first got it. We even had a special storage shrine built for the mixer in our remodeled kitchen. Our carpenter found a piece of butcher block that was strong enough not to warp from the weight of the mixer and installed it on drawer gliders. The only hard part is lifting it up from the shelf to the counter. The husband makes batter breads for all occasions, and is often found baking well into the night after I have gone to bed. It's one of the ways he gives of himself to others. Just this weekend he baked loaves of bread to take to the homeless shelter at our church where he volunteers on the 3:00 - 7:00 AM shift.

That brings me to our celebration of 27 years years of marriage. To honor Valentine's Day this year, the husband outdid himself. First, he found the rare bottle of perfume that I still love -- Ombre Rose in the Lalique-style bottle. He hates to buy things on the Internet, but for me, he bit the bullet. That demonstrates true love.

Then, he carefully planned and shopped for a special meal designed to support my weight loss goals and our closer-to-the-ground food lifestyle. Finally, he decided to recreate his specialty dish that he used to sweep me off my feet when we were younger.

He made the salad that has become our go-to-under-all-occasions salad. We use spinach, red onions, and whatever fruit we have available. This time we used strawberries and mandarin oranges. You could toast some nuts to make this even more special and use any lettuce you like. We've also used Bibb lettuce and mixed baby greens. We always serve it on plain white plates that make the bright colors stand out.

The husband went to the butcher shop and bought perfect sirloin steaks; this is out of his comfort zone but we're trying to be more cognizant of where our meat comes from. He was very careful to start his steak first so that mine was still rare when he poured in the Courvoisier cognac and lit it on fire. We haven't done this in years, and it was delicious!











We closed our meal with a beautiful fruit salad. This has become a signature dessert for our family and the combination of fruit on a clear glass plate is elegant and healthy at the same time. I feel like I'm a very lucky woman. Flowers, perfume and a thoughtful meal. For those of you who want to spoil your partner, this meal was simple, relatively inexpensive, and easy to make, yet it sent the Valentine's Day message loud and clear.

Really, all you need in life is a pan, a knife, and a fire in the pot. How you make your fire is up to you.