A Tuesday Valentine’s Day is an inconvenient time for celebrating, but still, it’s Valentine’s Day and I’m going to have a menu of fun little nibbles that are easy to assemble and enjoy with a glass of champagne. Having established that we will give the day a nod, I do believe the problems with Valentine’s Day to be numerous. First, it does usually come on a weekday when we are all busy and have to fit in a small celebration. As a former school counselor, I assure you it can cause a school day to come to a total gridlock, swamped by the gleeful cheers of the happy ones and the tears of the ones who have been overlooked. If you have ever been a teenager (you have) then you know the feeling. Having been on both sides, it can definitely rock your boat just a little bit even if those teenage years are long gone! Not everyone has a person they want to celebrate with and even if you have that person, you may just not have the time. I’m suggesting that, if you do anything at all make it simple and fun for yourself too, in fact if you aren’t celebrating a thing, make this for yourself and just enjoy! Our simple menu is really just a bunch of little things a mini menu I guess, little potatoes with sour cream and chives, country ham biscuits, and something chocolate.
The starter for that, is actually a mini salad that is indeed a pretty little bite of endive – I love that it’s shaped like a spoon – with our favorite cheese, Cambozola, delicious toasted pistachios, and because it’s Valentine’s Day pomegranate seeds for crunch and a gorgeous red color.
I used to think you had to by a whole pomegranate and attack it to get those beautiful seeds, but now you can buy little containers of them right in the produce isle. It’s so easy – I use them all the time now. It’s just an added perk that they are really good for you. The potatoes can be baked in 30 minutes with no attention required and a dollop of sour cream and chives will only take a second. I’m making the biscuits from the cookbook and a friend gave me some beautiful country ham. The chocolate part better involve ice cream (are you listening Sammy?) and there you go. It’s a dinner in a dash! Now, about that champagne cocktail. It’s going to be just as pretty with a squeeze of pink grapefruit juice, a sugared rim and, of course a pop of pomegranate seeds.
Valentine’s Day may be a “Hallmark Holiday” but with your own little mini menu including this tasty treat your dinner doesn’t have to be a dreaded disaster. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 Belgium endives
2 oz Cambazola
2 Tbsp toasted roughly chopped almonds
1 container pomegranate seeds
Directions
Wash and separate endive leaves.
Put a small spoonful of cheese in the base of each.
Top with almonds
Serve with Champagne Cocktail
Dip glass rims grapefruit juice and then in sugar.
Add to 2 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice to each glass of champagne.
Float several pomegranate seeds in each glass.
