The Potential of VD

Shoveling would do my body good. Luckily I’ll have the chance to get a little exercise in later today and tomorrow. I have been falling short of my weekly goals to get sweaty in front of the Kinect. Maybe I need to give up on the actual exercise “games” and just dance. Moving is moving.

In terms of my new and improved healthy diet, I’ve adopted a bizarre dessert that is supposed to help in this regard. However, I’m not entirely convinced. It’s a chia seed coconut milk “pudding”. The pudding part happens when the chia seeds become gelatinous in the hardening fat of the coconut milk as it rests in the refrigerator for the better part of an hour (mixed with a little bit of something sweet – I’ve been using the vanilla sugar from TC Bakery). This seems wrong on many levels, but I kind of like it.

You know what else I kind of like? Valentine’s day. I do. It may be hard to believe, but deep down I’m a big softie. And this weekend is the last chance you will have to think of something special. VD hits on Thursday. School night celebrations are especially rough when you’ve got a couple of rug rats and a spouse with a demanding job.

There is really only one solution.

Feed the kids an early dinner made of something simple that they love, and send them up to bed early with some kind of bonus incentive for not coming down and interrupting mommy and daddy. You know, like ice cream for breakfast.

So it looks like macaroni and cheese from a box for the kiddos. But what to do for the adults.

The choices are kind of endless. We could go classic and boil up another couple of lobsters with some more sparkling wine to wash them down. But as delicious, decadent, and intimate as that meal can be, it also takes a while to eat it. And Mrs. Fussy will have to go to bed at a reasonable hour herself.

One of her favorite meals is chana masala. But the kids love it too, and it may be hard for them to smell the pungent spices in the house and still be satisfied with their junk in a box. Although I could probably spare some for the kids, especially if I made a special lamb shoulder curry to accompany the chickpeas.

While South Asian food isn’t typical for VD, I think it works especially well up here in the great white north, where it’s freezing cold. The food is deeply warming, the spices are invigorating, and the meal pairs surprisingly well with an off-dry sparkling wine.

Bubbles go with everything.

I do still have the lamb hearts in my freezer. And while thematically that would be a fantastic meal, I don’t see any way that Mrs. Fussy would go for it. Perhaps I can sneak one into the lamb curry sauce, though. It could be my little secret.

Sadly, we still haven’t gotten our chimney swept out, nor do we have any firewood. But perhaps we can light some candles in the fireplace and have some chocolate before going to bed. One of these days, dammit, we’ll get our act together and manage to have a real fire.

Hey, as long as we’re talking about VD, there are a couple of themed giveaways on the subject around the interwebs. First, Albany Jane is giving away some pasta. To enter, she just wants you to tell her what you’re doing for VD. And my friends at TC Bakery are giving away a sleeve of 10 macarons to someone who tells them about their favorite VD experience.

Stay safe and warm out there.