Pre V-Day

For the past few years, I've cooked an elaborate meal for Mark on (or around) Valentine's Day.  I knew I had to outdo last year's menu of cornmeal-crusted tilapia with cilantro pesto, caramelized onions and pears, and homemade chocolate truffles.  I figured I'd have a winner with this year's menu...

The local Star Tribune always has great recipes.  I found a couple winners, although I modified the arctic char recipe considerably because the four grocery stores I checked did not carry arctic char.

I also did not include the soba noodles, pine nuts or Meyer lemon.

I needed some type of grain, so I picked a risotto dish.  Sorry, it wasn't homemade!

I set the mood and chose a delicious bottle of wine from our favorite winery, Chateau St. Croix.

A little wine in honor of the Packers winning the Super Bowl, perhaps?

I was able to prep most of the avocado, grapefruit and orange salad on Saturday.

Yum!

Once future hubs arrived at my place after work, it was time to eat!

The tilapia cooked in olive oil, lemon juice and cumin turned out better than I thought.

Everything was delicious.  Success!

For dessert, we ate the lid off of a new product created by the CEO of my company.

Coco Dolce - a chocolate gift box

Dark chocolate is good for you!

These gift boxes are used to present jewelry.  The ring inside is just a display.

The lid contained so much chocolate, but it was worth it! :)

We exchanged gifts after dinner.  Mark enjoyed the Pearls Before Swine book and the watchband for his new iPod nano that I gave him.

My gifts had a theme...

Not quite sure what the 354 means...

Mark knew I was eying the recent blogger giveaways of necklaces from Anne Franklin Designs, and because I'm so unlucky at winning random drawings, he purchased two of my very own.

This wine is my favorite from Glacial Ridge Winery in Spicer, MN (Mark's hometown)

My fiance is so incredibly thoughtful.  I am blessed to be marrying him. :)

The reason why we celebrated V-Day on the eve of the holiday instead of on the actual holiday itself is because we both have to work, with Mark working longer hours.  Even though we didn't celebrate the holiday on its exact day, it was still a perfect day.

The weather was fabulous, too: highs in the 40s.  I took a walk around Lake Calhoun mid-afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and the gobs of people out enjoying the beautiful day.  Made for great people-watching! :)

I also rang in Valentine's Eve by completing my very first triathlon event: the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon.  Expect a race report in the next few days.  The indoor tri was an event I wanted to do this year, and I'm glad that I got 'er done.  Now, I will be focusing on my walking training for the Get Lucky 7K and the We Walk Marathon.

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?  Have you ever done an indoor event before?