Foods That Say I Love You
Marry Me -- or I am So Glad I Married You -- Menu

by Karen Tripson

Lobster, crab, caviar, filet mignon or veal chops. These words create an instant flush of feeling appreciated, of being indulged, any time of year. Give the gift of food whenever you want someone to know you care.

My favorite small gift to make and package myself is spiced pecans. Luxury class; quick and easy to cook; joyful response, and nice things will be said about you when they are consumed. If you don’t want to cook it yourself, the choices are staggering in the grocery store or online and you probably won’t even have to add a ribbon. A few ideas for store bought treasures that don’t require refrigeration: pistachios, porcini, or the hottest new condiment for cooks, truffled salt.

If you want to say I love you in a big, long-term commitment way, dinner at home beats dinner out any time. If you don’t want to cook it's easy to buy some glorious food or have it delivered to serve at home. The advantages are sweet privacy and taking all the time you want with each course. The after dinner entertainment is limited only by your imagination and the gratitude inspired by the meal.

Marry Me or I am So Glad I Married You Menu

Dungeness Crab Cocktail with Kavli Toasts
Hogue Cellars Genesis Riesling

Individual Beef Wellingtons with Asparagus
Cave B Estate Cuvee de Soleil

Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Garnish
Silvan Ridge Semi-Sparkling Early Muscat

Elegant Beef Wellington stays on the celebratory food list because the concept is carefully conceived for flavor, texture and presentation. If dealing with the puff pastry, seems too much of a stretch for your skill set, even though the quality of the frozen sheets is excellent these days, skip the pastry. Bake the filet mignon with the mushroom duxelles on top. The presentation will suffer without the golden puff pastry with decorative cutouts only if the guest is expecting it to be there. With or without pastry, the flavor power of the mushrooms combined with the fork tender beef is still amazing.

For two servings, ask the butcher to cut two equal filets of 6 to 8 ounces. Your market may very well offer the service to wrap them in bacon or other special treatment that would add flavor to substitute for the mushroom duxelles. It is key to add major flavor as the meat, while extremely tender, has little flavor. Baking, pan-frying or broiling 6 to 8 ounce filets in the oven to your preference does not take very long at all, probably less than 20 minutes. But that is long enough to roast or reheat the asparagus in the oven -- and enjoy the crab cocktail.

Local Sources for Gift Food Beyond the Market Near You

DeLaurenti

The Seattle Caviar Company (shop in the store on online)

The Chef Shop (shop in the store on online)

Uwajimaya

Recipe Ideas

Beef Wellington (Adopted from the Julia Child classic by Gourmet Magazine a.k.a. Sarah Moulton who worked with Julia. This serves eight and requires 31/2 pounds of tenderloin. The recipe is well worth studying for the 64 reader comments, mostly raves and lots of suggestions.)

Individual Beef Wellingtons (This is from a UK site that translates all the necessary stuff for you and is for two servings.)

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