What did I cook for Valentine's Day? Well, I started with a run to (a very busy) Dirk's this morning for a lovely red snapper. Myles immediately wanted to hold it and recreate
a classic LTHForum photo here:

The preparation was atop some blanched fennel with lemon, thyme and olives (this, like most of the following, was from The Balthazar Cookbook):

I liked some golden beets I saw at Whole Foods and eventually found
a blog post which gave me an idea of what to do with them: roast them, blanch the greens, sprinkle with oil and balsamic vinegar, and top with a bread-crumb-rolled slice of hot goat cheese:

The fish was served with some pan-roasted carrots, parsnips and celery root, fried in goose lard:

And we concluded with two desserts: the chocolate pot-de-creme from The Balthazar Cookbook, and Nigella Lawson's flourless (it uses ground almonds)
clementine cake. A very satisfying version of the classic orange-chocolate combo; Myles' comment on it was "I am at one with the universe."

Afterwards I was pleased to learn that my restaurant, Dad's Diner, had won this major food award. The dogs in the picture (one of whom is a dog we actually have; not sure where that gray one came from) seem very excited about it too.

Happy Valentine's Day!