Valentine's Day
A day for lovers, candles, roses and chocolates.
A perfect day of perfect romance.
Really?
I'm guessing 90% of the blogs that mention V-Day are going to wax lyrical about the precious moments and blissful memories…..
Well….
They can't all be that good.
Surely someone (other than me) has a funny story about their beloved being allergic to roses and ending up dripping calamine lotion.
Or the romantic dinner ending in the minor disagreement that almost burnt the house down.
Of course, they may not have been funny at the time…. Hindsight and all that….
Anyone care to share?
If you're interested, I thought it would be fun to gather some not-so-romantic or out-right horror Valentine's Day stories (Happy Endings a plus) – to take a bit of the pressure off of the big 'L' day.
I mean, we can't all qualify for Hallmark Moments, now can we?
Leave a comment or a tweet if you want to play – details to follow.
In the meantime, here's the other soup that didn't end up looking like it ought….
Oh, I use dry-cured ham because'm not able to get a ham-bone, which is what I would have used….
Black Bean Soup
8oz (250gr) Prosciutto or other dry-cured ham
4 bay leaves
2 carrots
1 rib celery
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 chili powder
2 tsp oregano
1 tbs tomato paste
5oz (150gr) pink ham
Put
beans in a large pot, cover with water and allow to soak for at least 3
hours. Drain.
Add 8 cups of water to beans and bring to a boil over
medium heat. Roughly chop Prosciutto and add, along with bay leaves. Simmer, covered for 1 1/2 – 2 hours. When beans are tender, remove bay leaves.
Chop onion, carrot, pepper and celery. Mince garlic. Add all vegetables to soup along with herbs and spices. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender.
Cut ham into small pieces, add to soup. Stir in tomato paste. Serve.
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours…..
Sorry, nothing but good, heartwarming stories to share. It’s my birthday, so good things tend to happen for me on that day, even when I was nobody’s Valentine.
Well, Valentines have always been nice. Or at least not memorialized in marital history with trips to the E.R. or due-to-work geographic separations. Like a lot of Christmases. I guess that’s just blind luck. Kind of like that little angel shooting his heart tip-shaped arrow around on Valentines Day. Random. Will have a book (!) to write if you post something similar around Christmas!
Don’t really do Valentines Day,not so big in NZ, We’re Too busy doing nothing on the water,but your soup looks great…will look forward to stories though
When I was in college, I bought chocolates for my dear thinking it was Valentines day. TO be honest I was so worried that I would forget that during the 12th of February a while back ago, I prepared to deliver the chocolates and when I did, my dear responded..it’s not Valentines day YET. So..that concludes my rather..well not horrific but embarrassing enough.. 😉
Zoomie, lucky you! Mine has a happy ending….
BorderPundit – next Christmas! Can’t wait to hear the stories (I like the plural)
Gilli, I’m convinced it’s a promo holiday by Hallmark and the cheap chocolate companies.
Hazel, now that sounds like something mon mari would do – great intentions but not good with dates :-))
My non-sweet Valentine’s story:
When I’d been married about…I think it was a year, I was both working and taking some bridge classes to enter graduate school. We only had one car at the time. My husband had to pick me up from my job, which was near his, and then drop me off at the university, which wasn’t terribly far away but too far to walk in the time I had. Our normal routine was for *me* to pick *him* up, but he said he needed the car.
We didn’t have cell phones at the time (late 80’s).
So I sat through my class, and then went out to the entrance to wait for him. My class was over at 6:30.
It was awful weather; freezing rain. In order for me to see out the door I couldn’t sit down.
I waited until 8:00, when the building closed. So now I was out in the freezing rain which had turned blizzardous, wondering where the heck he was, in office attire when the weather warrented something more like polar gear.
One of the janitors saw me shivering there outside the entry at 8:10 and let me back into the building to use a phone. I tried calling a friend but got no answer. The janitor let me stay there until he was done cleaning that area, and then had to kick me out, after one last phone call. I was able to reach my friend this time. She said she’d be there in about an hour, because she didn’t live close and the weather was making driving bad.
Just then he drove up. It was about 8:30 by this time and I was so upset I was in freezing tears. I told my friend never mind, thanks.
He told me he’d gone to a special store to get a special something, only to have rush hour and the weather hit. He’d been crawling along with no way to reach me for almost the entire time I’d been waiting.
He was extremely sorry, but I was so upset it took me awhile to both warm up and calm down. I just now asked him if he could remember where we went to eat after that, and neither of us remember. I know we did, but it wasn’t a very memorable meal!