Valentine's Day dinner

Hooooooweee, did we have one. Handyman can be a master in the kitchen. We got our Costco rebate check and decided to blow some of it on real meat, as opposed to what we eat most of the time, chicken, chicken, Laura's lean, but low-flavor, ground beef and the occasional fish thing. So he picked up some slabs of beef tenderloin and we yanked out a Fine Cooking magazine from Christmas that we had lusted after.

We roasted a whole head of garlic for garlic-mashed potatoes (from Pioneer Woman this week); he marinated some shrimp in red wine vinegar, olive oil and cajun seasoning and then grilled them for an appetizer. I found some asparagus in the drawer, that was still good! and I broiled them with a little olive oil and kosher salt. There was our usual salad, which was certainly the least important part of the meal, and a bottle of Dancing Bull red zinfandel. I confess, I had planned to make Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake, but didn't get back from the grocery and barn soon enough to make that happen. Fortunately for me, we were too stuffed anyway.

I don't have a picture of the shrimp because they were gone VERY quickly. Here is the magazine from which we took our recipe:

and here is an actual un-retouched (because I haven't learned Photoshop yet) picture of Handyman's dinner plate:

The pool of white next to the steak is a creme fraiche-dijon (fresh cream for those of you in Rio Linda) sauce that was AWESOME. The meat had a crust of fennel seed and rosemary. Yum, yum. I dipped my asparagus in the sauce, and my potatoes, oh, and my fingers. Way too good. The kids liked the meat, as long as it wasn't too pink and we didn't use the word "cow". They loved the asparagus, especially #3, who pretends she is a rabbit. And mashed potatoes are always a hit--Thank you pressure cooker!

My man, he can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never, never, never forget he's a man!