Happy February 13th

We started celebrating Valentine's Day a little early. Actually my husband does not believe in made-up (aka Hallmark) holidays so he's not big on Valentine's Day — despite the fact that he's given me many lovely presents over the years.

We started the day Saturday with our usual group of friends for Saturday morning coffee. Then I went off to spend the morning with my textile group while he talked with his college-bound nephew about his potential options. We met up again to go to the gym for a brief workout.

And then we went off to our city's original shopping mall which is smaller than is common and was emphatically local until recently. Now it's being redesigned and relaunched with brand names like Kate Spade, Sur la Table and Madewell. What that means is there are a number of empty storefronts at one end of the older mall space. So they set up half a dozen pop up shops for the weekend, including Pleasant Living whose east side shop I still miss.

We bought a set of 1920-30s Sheffield nickel silver flatware for six.The knife handles are celluloid, I believe. It has four serving pieces and two kinds of soup spoons, demitasse and dessert spoons. I know. This is totally against the trend of downsizing and casual entertaining. Two things I think about but am not good at. Also picked up a beautiful Chinese ceramic garden stool, decorated in soft blues on gray. 

Hit the grocery store to pick up everything I wanted to make a couple of the recipes in this week's New York Times food section. We started with Mark Bittman's Champagne cocktails, Hook's Tilson blue cheese and my favorite cranberry and hazelnut Raincoast Crisps while sitting in front of fire, candles lit and the two of us getting slowly lit as we worked on the NYT Sunday crossword.

Dinner (above) was David Tanis' concoction of Seared Sea Scallops with Ginger-Lime butter, sweet potatoes and greens. He used baby bok choy but I subbed a quick saute of arugula. He baked his potatoes and I roasted mine. A superb meal and one to make again.

So we'll be spending Valentine's Day sleeping in and doing what ever we usually do on Sundays . . .

Comments

[Lisa at Greenbow]

You dinner looks divine. What a find of silverware. I don't blame you for succumbing to the purchase. ;) Happy Valentines Day. We are snowed in here. Not even a bird at the feeders it is coming down so fast. It probably won't accumulate much. Happy happy...

[Linda from Each Little World]

Kind of fun to try a fancy new recipe and pull out the stops now and then. Snowed here most of the day. Big fluffy flakes but fairly heavy at times. Is starting up again. I think we're supposed to get about 3 inches total but then get quite warm by the end of the week. I want dry streets but snow insulating my garden!

[Amelia]

Looks divine, the table and the food!

[Peter/Outlaw]

Downsizing and casual entertaining are convenient things but there is certainly something to be said for the enjoyment of a more "formal" style which creates a beautiful framework for entertaining or just enjoying each other's company. We're actually doing a service by keeping cool stuff. Downsizing may be a trend so we're actually doing a service by collecting cool stuff so it'll still be around when the pendulum swings the other way.

[Linda from Each Little World]

​Peter — You are right; the pendulum always swings the other way sooner or later. And buying second-hand is also saving the environment from more landfill items.