Valentines Day!

Once a year, Hallmark celebrates this apparently the most "romantic" day of the year by making loved-up couples buy overpriced flowers and presents to showcase their everlasting love for each other.  Do I sound bitter or what!  :)


To be honest, I have always told myself that this is a meaningless date and showing and proving one's love shouldn't be dictated by a single day in the calendar year.  Maybe this is to make myself feel alot better about myself if I did not receive a single valentines present!  But as I am much older and hopefully wiser now, I now believe that this is in fact true.  As my wonderful husband puts it, "Everyday is Valentines Day".  So hubby... does that mean I get presents every single day? :)


After taking 25 hours to fly back from Kuching to San Francisco, I arrived just in time to celebrate the "actual" Valentines day with Phong.  No presents were exchanged but I did decide to cook a wonderful dinner for the both of us.  On the menu, roasted lamb rack with homemade mushroom sauce with stir fry vegetables and roasted rosemary potatoes.  Dessert was the biggest strawberries I have ever seen!

Long stem strawberries

I have never cooked lamb before and there is nothing worst than eating over cooked lamb as it would feel like chewing through leather shoes.  However, I chose lamb because it's one meat that can be eaten both when undercooked or overcooked!  


After marinating the lamb in olive oil, rosemary and thyme, I proceeded to make the mushroom sauce.  The last time i made gravy was when I roasted the turkey for Christmas.  All that required was taking the drippings from the turkey, and added corn starch to thicken the drippings up and voila!  Gravy!  Taking this concept, I cooked mushrooms in beef stock and added corn starch and surprisingly, the mushroom sauce tasted really good!!  Judge for yourself....

I am glad to report that the lamb was perfectly cooked too!  10 minutes in 180 degrees oven for each side of the lamb.  So there you go..  I can actually cook!!! :)