The Hawthornes' Valentine's Day Dinner.

Now that's just plain pretty. The fact that it's delicious is icing on the cake. We're having seared scallops, a balsamic glaze with pomegranate arils on sliced strawberries, my Miso Sauce, and a pineapple salsa. Let's start with the salsa.

Take one ripe pineapple.

Pineappley!

Mr. Hawthorne sliced the pineapple.

For the salsa, I'm only using one pineapple slice.

Give it a small dice.

A little bit of red pepper. Turn the pepper to the inside to slice or dice.

Small dice.

I'm making this up as I go along. I've got my diced pineapple and red pepper and I've lined up rice vinegar, sugar, cilantro, and red pepper flakes.

Tablespoon each sugar and rice vinegar.

I gave it two of these.

Add in the cayenne.

About a tablespoon of chopped cilantro.

If you're a cilantro hater, use parsley.

Mix well.

Give it some diced red onion love.

That's the ticket. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour to let the flavors meld.

Next, I'm making my balsamic glaze.

1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup sugar

Dissolve sugar in vinegar.

Put Balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and reduce by half. Whenever I'm reducing anything, I use an iron skillet to put my pan in to diffuse the heat. Reductions can go south in a heartbeat, so pay attention.

Next, I turned my attention to the strawberries.

Slice 'em.

I use a dipstick to test my reduction. Not half yet.

Keep reducing.

It's Valentine's Day! Plop a strawberry in your champagne.

Rosie raises her glass in a toast to her readers.

I was so happy to find these today at the Teeter.

Expensive, but getting these out of a pomegranate is a bitch.

I added a few spoonfuls of pomegranate arils to the Balsamic glaze.

Looking good.

Dipstick shows my reduction is halved. Set aside. Next up, the scallops.

We bought four scallops at the Teeter today. $1.75 per scallop. Ouch. But it is Valentine's Day.

Pat dry on paper towels.

We had a little bacon joose saved from breakfast. Mr. Hawthorne heated up a little bacon joose with butter and added the scallops. These were big scallops. Maybe two minutes each side over medium high heat.

Mr. Hawthorne made a Caesar Salad with croutons second only to mine. These are the croutons. They're from Yoder's Amish Market in Blanch, NC. We stop there every time we go back to our roots. He also picked up some pickled beets and I wanted banana flavored coconut oil.

Caesar Salad Dressing: 4-6 cloves garlic 1 tin anchovies, drained and rinsed Juice of 2 lemons Mince and mash garlic, anchovies into paste. Add lemon juice. Add: 2 TB Gray Poupon Dijon 2 TB Lea & Perrins Whisk in: 1 coddled egg (I boil water in the microwave, then let the egg sit in the boiled water for 1 minute) Whisk in a thin stream of olive oil (approx. 1 cup) (I use Extra Light Bertolli) Add ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (I use Il Villaggio.) Serve over shredded Romaine and add croutons (recipe follows) My Croutons: ½ stick butter (I use Land-o-lakes unsalted) ¼ cup olive oil 4-6 cloves garlic, minced Fresh herbs- parsley, oregano, sage, thyme- 1-2 TB each (sometimes I use dried oregano, sage, and thyme, but always fresh parsley) 1 loaf bakery bread, Italian or French Heat butter & olive oil in large skillet. Add garlic and herbs. Do not brown garlic- it’ll get bitter. Tear bread into cubes and toss in butter mixture. Cook for a few minutes. Pour single layer into baking pan. Bake in slow oven (225- 250 degrees) until crispy. Toss occasionally.

I'm alovin' these crouts.

Yes!

I made heart-shaped strawberry slices!

I drizzled the Balsamic reduction over the strawberries.

Add the scallops and the pineapple salsa.

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed.

Just take in the pictures.

Enjoy.

Bon appetit!