Punctuated Heartbeets and Alfredo

It's been wonderful to see KP every weekend since he moved to Chicago in January. We generally don't celebrate Valentine's Day in the traditional commercial sense (flowers, candy, etc.), but we definitely observe it in passing. On Saturday, he surprised me with an early Valentine's Day observance. He loves to cook, so it wasn't really a surprise that he cooked dinner for me. The surprise was in the meal choice, and the lengths he went to in order to prepare it. First, he made Cornish game hens. He started practicing two weeks earlier to figure out the best way to prepare them in his equipment. He settled on roasting them side-by-side on a bed of mirpoix. They looked so cute in the roasting pan. He consumed 3 Cornish game hens over the two weeks before Saturday to make sure he got it just right. I asked if we could roll pasta that weekend, so he had to deviate from his original plan of potatoes au gratin. He had experimented with various types of cheese, ratios of butter to cream, and methods of cooking. He made two batches of potatoes au gratin in preparation for Saturday. Instead, however, we rolled out fettucine and I made his favorite alfredo sauce.

Finally, the part that I loved the most, were the beets. He cut them into cute little hearts and arranged them on the dinner plate around the hens. He saw a picture in San Francisco magazine or something and thought, "I can do that." So he cooked beets four times over the two weeks to practice slicing and cutting the beets into hearts. Do you cut them when they're still hot, or do you let them cool? Do you cut them before cooking them? I think the answer was cook first, then cut, but only after they've cooled enough to touch them, but not cold. I'm not sure, though, because he wouldn't let me into the kitchen during the preparation. So, for Valentine's Day, KP gave me heartbeets. It was very thoughtful and cute the way he practiced for this meal.

When I shared the story with friends, one person immaturely gagged, failing to grasp the significance of the dinner as an honest way to celebrate Valentine's Day. My alfredo sauce pales in comparison to KP's level of effort, but we honored the day in a way that did not cheapen the beloved saint, patron of engaged couples and beekeepers. It was perfect.

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Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cup grated parmesan (use the canned stuff because it actually works better than the deli tub, unless you have an authentic block of aged parmesan, then totally grate and use that)
1/4 tsp salt
dash of pepper
some parsley

Over low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan with the cream until it is hot and steamy, but not boiling. Stir in the salt, pepper and parmesan and continue stirring until the cheese is melted. You can either stir the parsley into the sauce or sprinkle on top of each serving, but only sprinkle it on top if you're using freshly chopped parsley. Toss the sauce with pasta, preferrably sauce-catching noodles like fettucine or gemelli. As if you couldn't tell, this is about as bad for you as you can get. We save it for special occasions, like Valentine's Day.