Food & Love

Our home-cooked Valentine dinner menu:

*Garlic bread
*Kalabasa soup
*Popeye & Olive Oyl Salad (Spinach w/ green apples & feta cheese with olive oil & balsamic vinegar dressing; I know, ang corny ng pangalan! Haha!
*Pasta Carlyn (Shrimps with sun-dried tomatoes, & parsley in lemon-butter sauce; named after Kara kasi favorite nya ang hipon)
*Pasta Paolo (Tuna with red pepper, mushrooms, & parsley in white sauce; created for Powie kasi allergic sya sa hipon)
*Dulce de leche ice cream with coffee jelly
*Sparkling red grape juice

========================================================

     It has been a tradition in our family that we celebrate dinner on Valentine's day as a family. As a young couple, we braved the Valentine crowd and traffic the first years of our relationship. In some years, we would celebrate with our friends in fancy restaurants. But as the romantic flavor of the day begun to wear off for us, we thought of expanding our idea of what should be celebrated on this day. It should be about love & boy, did we love a lot of people so why not include them all in the celebration! I remember the first one we had was done in the deck of our new home. In addition to our kids, we had Mama and Papa over with their whole household which included cousins and in-laws. My friends who were all single were invited to the festivities. Anyone who was dateless on that day was welcome to join us. With food that we cooked and wine to make all of us (who were not allergic to alcohol) a little giddy, I could say that these parties were quite enjoyable! 

With each passing year, with family members and friends either moving on or moving away, the number of people would dwindle. This year, I thought that the tradition had died. There was a tinge of sadness that Papa and Mama could no longer be with us. 

But as we still have each other, the reasons remain for celebrating! And what better way to do that than with a home-cooked meal prepared with much love!