Valentine's Challenge revisited

{Valentine's flowers}

     After a little break in our Valentine's challenge with the trip to Milan, we are finally finished. Yes, we are a few days late but sprinkle in a trip to Milan and I dare anyone to complain. I decided to go first for what I thought was to set the bar high, but little did I know Shaun was pulling his inner 'Bobby Flay' out of his arse. I went with one of our favorite meals back in Atlanta, a goat cheese ravioli with apples and walnuts in a brown butter/sage sauce. For an appetizer, I did the trusty cheese platter with assorted meats and bread then finished the meal off with chocolate covered strawberries (where half of the chocolate went straight into my mouth, on my finger, my shirt, the counter etc...). I was feeling good about my chances and Shaun seemed to be a happy customer. Fast forward a few days and it was his turn. Now, our only requirements were that we could not make something that is already in heavy rotation. I hadn't noticed him doing much research so I assumed he had searched through our recipe box and found an oldie but goody that we hadn't used in a while but boy was I wrong. For the appetizer, Shaun served greens topped with fried goat cheese (we love our goat cheese around here) and for the main....this is where it gets interesting. Shaun chose honey roasted duck, potato slices and buttered green beans. And he made it all. from. scratch. Well, he didn't raise the duck himself but he sure as hell roasted it nicely. He sliced up the potatoes, seasoned them and baked them along with par boiling the green beans then sautéed them in butter. Get this though, he apologized because he was going to roast the potatoes in the duck fat but decided against it because there wasn't that much fat rendered from the duck. Many a times during the dinner I touched him just to make sure this wasn't a mirage I was seeing. Then I thought, who am I married to??? And why has he been sand bagging it these last 12 years? Now this girl can accept defeat when needed (not very well I might add) and I admit, this was a big L in the loss column but I can't help but think that I might have had a little bit of a victory in that I now know Shaun is a capable cook. And for that, I will take this defeat gracefully.