Written by: Roscoe |  Print this post and share it with your buddies!

Ingredients:

About a dozen good sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 can (8 oz) chopped or diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
a couple shallots, chopped, or 1/2 red onion

1/2 lb whole wheat cappellini

Pecorino Romano cheese

olive oil, Cholula, Worcestershire
Wine (red or white for shrimp)
Italian herbs
Red Wine (for dinner)
Garlic Bread
Ice Cream, berries, chocolate (for dessert)

Cook For Your Babe on Valentine’s Day

Any common fool can take his girl out to eat for Valentine’s Day. But if you really want to impress her, let her know that you really care and want her to know that you’ll always go that extra mile for her (whether you do or not, you’ve at least got to act like it), you’ll get a lot more mileage if you cook the dinner yourself (hey, this isn’t Restaurants With Roscoe, it’s Cookin’ With Roscoe).

Italian Always Works

It’s romantic, of course: simple setting, nice white tablecloth, or maybe the classic Italian red and white checks, candles, good pasta, red wine, sweet dessert. What could be better to get someone in the mood for love? (Besides winning the lottery, but that’s for another blog).

And You Can Do It Yourself

Turn the lights down low, maybe light a candle, put on some good music, Dean or Frank, and whatever you do, don’t use paper plates. You’ll be in like Flint.

Shrimp and Pasta

Don’t tell anyone, but shrimp is easy to cook. Sautee’d for a couple minutes in olive oil and garlic, it’s as simple as it gets. Add some chopped shallot or red onion, then some diced tomatoes, drizzle it with a little honey and sprinkle in some herbs, and let it simmer. If you don’t want to start from scratch, just use your favorite red sauce in a jar, no one’ll ever know (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” doesn’t only work in the Military). And don’t forget, when you boil the pasta (whole wheat cappellini works well here), add a bouillon cube to the water, and some olive oil, Worcestershire, and Cholula, to make it taste good. When everything’s ready, dump the pasta into the sauce, mix well, then serve it up on a nice platter with some shredded Pecorino Romano or Parmesan.

Garlic Bread and Red

Mix some chopped or minced garlic with some room temperature butter, spread it on good bread, wrap it in foil and shove it in the oven on low temp till you’re ready for it. Now remember, even if you can get good wine in a box these days, try to resist that. Not that it’s not good, it’s just not good for romance.

Dessert

Roscoe says go simple here: ice cream and berries. If you want to get fancy you can shred some chocolate on top of it all (a move like this practically guarantees the desired outcome).

What If She Doesn’t Eat Fish?

Yeah, that can happen. So adapt. Make a veggie sauce. Or, hey, just grill up a steak. It’s the act of doing it that counts, you doing the prep and the cooking, and yes, even the cleanup. But if you do it right, she’ll probably volunteer to help, whether you let her or not is up to you. Either way, you’re…

Cookin’ With Roscoe