Every year you have the same holiday dinners. Turkey for this, ham for that. An odd crown roast or duck and maybe cedar plank fish if you have a house in the country. You like the same side dishes to go with these main proteins. With some meals a mixture of sweet and savory gracing the table is important, but sometimes it's all about the salt. Certain holidays are about being American and then there are the ones that remind you of the culture in which you grew up or flavors your grandmother introduced you to.

Each cavity stuffed with a different set of aromatics.

Goose, bound.

You're married or belong to a community or every year you go to a different house for these holidays. Every year is basically the same, except that everyone's a little older, or every other you do what your partner wants. Sometimes you volunteer at your local synagogue or church or soup kitchen and make more food than you thought possible. When you sit down to eat after these days your exhaustion is deeply soul-satisfied with a varied plate of food you let yourself (finally) eat and enjoy.

Elise Bauer makes her famous cranberry-orange relish at the event.

During the year you make dinner parties or bring what the host asks you to make. You shop at the farmers' market differently for these special nights. You pull out your favorite cookbooks and try a new recipe or finesse a favorite from the tried-and-true box. You proudly unfurl your food and wait nervously for people to dig in, hoping beyond hope that what you've made will pass muster and maybe at the end of the night someone asks you for your recipe. You go home feeling warm and full in ways you generally don't after dinner at home.

Basting.

One day you realize you sorely miss a particular holiday dinner you went to year after year. It was German affair complete with goose, red cabbage with chestnuts, a most exquisitely rich pan gravy, lebkuchen and bite-sized marzipan shapes from Berlin. The person who you went with has died, and now every year, at the same time, you miss that goose. Even though you didn't grow up with anyone who ever cooked a goose.

Cookiecrumb and Cranky's bright and tangy sauerkraut crockpot.

Prepping the innards for gravy. (The goose is dense and rich and the gravy begs to be drunk from a glass!)

You have a food blog, or you date someone who has one. You used to cook professionally, or are going to culinary school, or are a professional food writer, or you live in a house the size of a private airplane hanger because you're the most amazing photographer, or you're a meat cooking expert or you have a wine cellar or you're not working right now. You organize a goose making dinner because you realize, in order to satiate this goose-eating-taste-bud appendage you've acquired and now must acknowledge, albeit late in life, you must learn how to cook said animal yourself.

Jessica Wilson taking the temperature of the geese.

You start talking about the possibility of a German Holiday Feast near actual holidays to your food blogging friends. You plant the seed.

A brilliant idea comes to you one night late. February! It's the perfect time for such a dinner. Although you won't get your geese warm from a fresh slaughter as you might near Christmas, you're told all your Bay Area options for goose buying. You're not working much or you're in need of organizing a grand food event. You've recently been to a number of massive community food gathering undertakings for which you only showed up as a guest and now it's your time to kick it into gear. You go to you local meat expert, fellow blogger, someone you refer to sweetly as your personal Meat Angel. You know he's the person to make your first goose with.

You channel the most organized, bossy side of you. You want to eat what you want. You make a list, asking for people to choose from a list and "call" a dish. It reads: "spaetzle, red cabbage with chestnuts, a green salad (for me what constitutes a salad, in, Feb. is head lettuce, cucumbers and radishes), baked potatoes, something sauerkrauty, steamed broccoli or greens or squash something, raw celery root something, something leeky, cranberry sauce/chutney something, chocolate, marzipan tinted dessert and Marc, can you make that Orange Cake?"

Paul Hendry carving with Guy's lucky carving knife.

At the last minute you have to change locations. People you've never met offer their industrial palatial estate. In between dinner and dessert one of the hosts, a distinguished professional photographer, takes portaits of all the guests! The kitchen crew of three gets shot jumping in the air. (All photos from the session will be made public shortly; link will be posted on Eggbeater.)

Molten hazelnut-cocoa nib brittle garnish for pot de creme made on site by Shuna and David Byron.

Marc's orange cakes & caramel sauce plated with David & Shuna's gianduja pot de creme.

"The Kitchen Crew" Jessica Wilson, David Byron, and Shuna Lydon (not pictured) at the head of the table happily eating dessert.

Even though the event tires you out you would do it again. Twenty-four people gather, make the seasonal side dishes you were craving, and bring wine and beverages from all over the map. You make new friends, have a number of inspiring conversations, banter and laugh, navigating a foreign kitchen, and everyone eats the German Holiday Feast of your making, from your heart and imaginings.

Happy St. Juliana's Day. Her life, or at least, her martyrdom, sounds much more interesting than St. Valentine's. She got to wrestle with the devil. She got molten metals poured over her naked flesh while tied between two pillars. She even got to act in a high drama courtroom scene in which the devil himself played witness for the prosecution. And she died a virgin. Perhaps that last bit that doesn't market itself well. She is not the patron saint of anything as far as I can tell, but at least she got her own name day. Today. When depicted in art, she is shown leading the devil, or a dragon, around by a chain. Our local bondage mavens, at least the Catholic ones, should stand up and take notice. If they can get up off their Catherine Wheels to do so.

Okay. Enough of St. Juliana. I was just trying to avoid talking about St. Valentine.

I am tired, tired, tired of his Feast Day. I'm not against romance. Not in the least. I am just against the idea of a special day reserved for lovers. I'm not thrilled about the existence of a day where unrealistic expectations of love perfection are foisted upon couples, especially newly formed ones for whom boundaries have not yet been drawn, for whom the depth of feeling towards each other has not been thoroughly examined. Then, of course, there are all those single people out there.

Oh, you single people might tell yourself, "It's just a silly Hallmark holiday. It means nothing to me."and That may be well and true, but I won't believe you.

I used to say the same thing, even on those Valentine's days that coincided with my being in a relationship. That is, until one signal year when I found my boyfriend giggling in the kitchen with a young ballet dancer. At 7:30 in the morning. In the house we had bought together seven days earlier. On Valentine's Day.

Bitter, party of one? Oh, that's me.

Well, not so much any more. Today, it's just a funny/sad story. But it certainly didn't help to cure me of my VD depression.

In an effort to alleviate the above-mentioned funk. I did a bit of research on antidepressant foods. How to self-medicate without, um, medication? Here's what I came up with. A Valentine's Day cure, if you will.

The ingredients are basic and all shown to be very helpful in combating depression. Thank you, Forbes Magazine, for your article on antidepressant foods...

Salmon is very high in omega-3 fatty acids which not only help the body fight against heart disease and some forms of cancer, but are now showing great promise in fighting depression and stress.

Beets contain uridine, which can increase one's levels of cytidine in the brain. Cytidine, in turn, affects the level of dopamine. Dopamine, as you runners might already know, affects mood. In a good way.

Walnuts are a good source of alpha linolenic acid (one of the omegas). You don't need to eat a whole bowlful, either-- an ounce will do nicely. These dear little nuggest also help fight heart disease and, on Valentine's Day, one's heart needs all the protection it can get.

Molasses also containes uridine. Remember my posting last month about molasses? No? Well, I wrote one. I just didn't know why I enjoyed writing it so much. Now I know.

Here's the recipe-- a combination of all four ingredients. It's very easy to make. We'll call it:

Michael's Valentine's Day Plate of Armor

Ingredients:

1 1/3 to 1/2 pound salmon filet. You are eating this alone, aren't you? Chose a really fatty salmon like King. You need all the fatty acids you can get.
4 beets- red, golden, chioggia-- take your pick. Save the green tops, too
1 ounce walnuts-- toasted. I like mine tossed with sugar and salt fresh from the oven.
1 ounce feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon mustard (I used a sweet and hot style)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (champagne or white wine vinegar will work, too.)
1 teaspoon shallot, finely minced
4 tablespoons olive oil for vinaigrette, plus one tablespoon for pan roasting the salmon, one tablespoon for roasting beets.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Roasted Beets:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet or Pyrex baking dish with aluminum foil.
3. Wash beets thoroughly and trim both ends
4. Pat beets dry with paper towels, then lightly coat with olive oil and a little salt.
5. Place beets on baking sheet and roast in oven for 45 minutes or until done. Obviously, smaller beets will take less time than larger ones, so please exercise judgement.
6. Remove beets from oven when done (to test, poke one with a paring knife. If the knife slips in easily, the beets are done).
7. Let cool.
8. To remove skin, gently rub beets (one at a time, of course) between paper towels. If you've roasted them properly, this should be easy. If you haven't, I just don't know what to tell you.
9. Dice beets into your favotie, easy-to-carve shapes and set aside.

For Molasses Vinaigrette:

1. in a small bowl, add molasses, vinegar, mustard, shallots and salt (as much as you like, to help balance the sweetness of the molasses). Whisk bravely.
2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking as you do so.
3. Adjust flavors to suit your own tastes.
4. Set aside

Salmon:

1. Rub salmon with salt on both sides-- skin and flesh.
2. In a size-appropriate saute pan, heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until very hot, just not quite smoking.
3. Add salmon filet to the pan, skin side down. Cook for about two minutes over the heat. Do not try to move the salmon. Let it stick. It will give in. It will release its grip on the pan.
4. Throw (or place gently, whatever your mood) salmon into the still-425 degree oven for approximately five minutes or as long as you want, depending upon how well done you like your salmon. I like mine a medium rare. Actually, I like my salmon raw, but this recipe calls for a more thorough cooking.

Beet Greens:

1. Throw well-cleaned beet greens into saute pan that has one tablespoon of olive oil already heating in it. Throw in a pinch of salt, too.
2. Cover and steam, moving the greens about now and then, for about 5 to 7 minutes. Many people might argue that greens need to cook for longer, but I don't think that is necessary in this case. We're going for nutrients here, not slow-cooked-with-bacon goodness. They're still good this way. Just try it.

To assemble:

1. While salmon is roasting, warm the already-cooked beets and toss with vinaigrette (Better whisk the dressing again, because it will have separated by now).
2. Shake excess liquid from beet greens and place on a platter. Add vinaigrette-tossed beets, walnuts and feta (I like it with a bit of Feta, but you may leave this out if the whole fish-and-cheese combination makes you squeamish, which it shouldn't, by the way. Think tuna melt.) Grind a little pepper, sprinkle a little salt.
3. Slide salmon on top and drizzle the dish with the vinaigrette. Eat while hot. Actually, the dish is fine (minus the greens) to eat cold, too.
4. Think happy thoughts.

Just think how healthy you'll be after eating this dish. Whether you're now ready for a healthy relationship is another matter entirely. If that thought has suddenly depressed you (again), eat some chocolate. A lot of chocolate-- that's an antidepressant, too.

P.S. Apropos of nothing, there has been a meme flying about the food blogosphere called Five Things About Me. Call it fun. Call it annoying. Whatever you decide to label it, it's ended up a great way for me to find out about other food bloggers out there. Click or don't click, it's up to you.

Love is nothing short of a national sport here in France and the French claim to celebrate it every day of the year, not just on February 14th. It is more beloved than soccer or philosophical debate, though love plays heavily into both. All store fronts are bedecked with Valentine's decorations but regardless of the time of year, people are always kissing.

Sometimes it's charming, like this couple below I spotted smooching after a long lunch at the Palais Royal; other times you want to hurl, like when the couple in line in front of you at the post office are slobbering on each other so much so you feel like you are in the front row of the dolphin show at Marine World. Anyways, back to Valentine's Day...

I got a bit carried away with the heart theme. I bought heart dessert plates, too many red flowers, big red chargers and little porcelain heart dishes for the amuse bouche. We cut hundreds of hearts from a block of foie gras, roasted beets and country bread. The dessert was heart shaped, the foie gras amuse was heart shaped, as were the sliced beets and croutons that topped the soup. Fortunately, my friend Jeff came over for a few hours in the early afternoon and saved the day. I immediately delegated all heart cutting duties to Jeff as I began dicing the tiny mango and beet brunois (1mm x 1mm dice).

There were of course a few disasters. It wouldn't be a normal day in my kitchen without at least one or two things going wrong. This time one was culinary, the other travel. I am beginning to think my kitchen is haunted and I know I am cursed travelwise. First I roasted the parsnips to make the soup. I didn't have much time so I cubed the parsnips to roast as quickly as possible. I put the oven on 300F but the parsnips on the lowest sheet pan still burned on the bottom. I spent the next hour carefully slicing off the burned bottoms as my blood pressure creeped north. I had not factored in an hour to slice off burned parsnip into my timeline. ARGH!

Then, about midway into my mango brunois-ing my stomach did a flip. I forgot to buy my ticket back to SFO in a week and it expired the previous night! AAACK! I dialed up United and was told my flight from Paris to Frankfurt was still there but the leg from Frankfurt to San Francisco was gone. I took a deep breath and tried not to cry, envisioning Seat 53B next to the bathroom as the last remaining seat. Miraculously my same seats were still available and I bought the ticket right there on the spot. Disaster no.2 avoided and another 20 minutes eaten into my timeline.

For each dinner, I try to cook a different recipe for the main course. I thought about roasting a filet mignon but cooking meat makes me nervous and always involves some sort of drama. This I was desparately trying to avoid. I was flipping through the Canyon Ranch cookbook looking for inspiration when a scallop recipe reminded me of one I made in cooking school.

a recipe from cooking school and my to do list and timeline...

Scallops I can do plus I knew there would be two other cooks at dinner in case things got crazy in the kitchen. I keep forgetting to buy a salad spinner so my dishrack once again saved the day. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say...

I bought rings to stack risotto, then wilted spinach and arugula, topped with sauteed scallops, cut in half crosswise and fanned around in a circle. A drizzle of lemon oil (zest and juice of 3 lemons blended with a cup of olive oil) and some beet and mango brunois on top of the scallops, around the plate and call it a day.

La Fete des Amoureux!
Valentine's Day!
Samedi, 10 Fevrier 2007
chez Laura en Paris

Brut Cuvee Rose, Champagne Veuve Monnier

Pate aux Armignac - Pate with Armignac on Croutons with Cornichons

Endive avec Framboises et Roquefort - Endive with Blue Cheese and Raspberries

Amuse Bouche
Chateau de Rolland Sauterne, Barsac 2000
Petit Coeur de Foie Gras avec Noisettes et Balsamique - Small Heart of Foie Gras with Chopped Roasted Hazelnuts and Balsamic Reduction Drizzle

Pernand-Vergelesses, Bourgogne 2002
Sous le Bois de Noel et les Belles Filles (Under the Christmas Tree and Beautiful Girls)

Potage de Panais avec Couers de Betterave et l'Huile de Truffe - Parsnip Soup with Beet Hearts, Heart Croutons and Truffle Oil Drizzle

Coquille Saint-Jacques, Risotto et Epinard avec l'Huile de Citron - Scallops Stacked with Risotto and Spinach with Lemon Oil Drizzle and Mango and Beet Dice

Domaine de Banneret, Chateauneuf du Pape 2002

Assiette des Fromages - Cheese Plate

Decadence de Chocolat et Glace de la Fruit de Passion Fait Maison - Chocolate Decadence Heart with Homemade Passionfruit Ice Cream with Passionfruit Coulis

Bonne Fete des Amoureaux! Happy Valentine's Day!

Most of my usual posse along with a few new faces... one you might see on the next Top Chef....sssssssh!

---------------------

A RED, RED ROSE
by Robert Burns

O my luve's like a red, red rose.
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my Dear,
Till a'the seas gang dry.

Till a'the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o'life shall run.

And fare thee weel my only Luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

LOVE ME TENDER
by Elvis Presley

Love me tender,
Love me sweet,
Never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
And I love you so.

Love me tender,
Love me true,
All my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin I love you,
And I always will.

Love me tender,
Love me long,
Take me to your heart.
For its there that I belong,
And well never part.

Love me tender,
Love me dear,
Tell me you are mine.
Ill be yours through all the years,
Till the end of time.

When at last my dreams come true
Darling this I know
Happiness will follow you
Everywhere you go.

With only one week left before the Lunar Year 4705 begins, there's still a lot to prepare. I need to finish everything by February 18, the beginning of a particularly auspicious Year of the Boar. Some of the more important items on my TO DO list...

- Scrub, dust, mop, and wash everything from floor to ceiling.

- Invite my first visitor of the year. Alex (my smart, successful, super-nice doctor friend) moved to L.A., so I'll have to find someone else to carry luck and prosperity into my home.

- Prepare banh chung from Andrea's hardcore, traditional recipe in her new cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. It's four pages long and includes instructions on how to make your own mold. We've already exchanged some notes on our favorite techniques and ingredients (remember the pork fat!) as well as some major no-no's (forget the green food coloring). If I'm feeling flush, I might even try making the more difficult shaped banh tet.

- Fill every room with flowers. Stop at the SF Wholesale Flower Mart for good prices on quince blossoms, forsythia boughs, bright red gladioli, narcissus bulbs, and bamboo.

- Call my mom to ask for her recipe for caramel daikon pickles.

- Buy new clothes for the new year.

- Pick up the polymer plates, mix up some pink and red inks, and finish printing our Tet cards.

- Track down one of those mommy pig sweet buns at a Chinatown bakery.

- Relax and enjoy the start of another wonderful year!