Valentine's Day

Backtracking a bit. Valentine's Day we celebrated with the Fairbanks, Colburns, and Spencers. The guys organized the whole evening, with most of the work and advance planning done by Tom Fairbanks. My favorite part of the evening was the amazing dinner prepared by the guys.....just kidding...they actually had one of the best chefs on the island cook for us. Apparently he was approached by the food network for a show but his English is not perfect (he's from Uruguay) so he's working with a tutor. I thought he spoke very well. He was a doll and kept chuckling at  our conversations all evening. He was so fun and passionate about food and the meal was incredibly healthy and nourishing. None of the dishes were super complicated, but it's amazing how simple recipes can be extraordinary when made from local, fresh seasonal ingredients. All the ingredients came from Kauai...except the truffle oil used on the fish. Oh my gosh. It was incredible. For appetizers he prepared spinach wraps and this delicious beef and vegetable dish. Usually I'm not a big meat eater, but this was so good. We had a quinoa salad,  cumin roasted sweet potatoes, a salad with all kinds of greens veggies and a cashew dressing. And then there was the locally made chevre. The dish I most would like to learn to re-create at home was the fish. It was young Ahi Tuna, melt in your mouth delicious. I told Zig one of my culinary goals for this year is to master fish. I want to nail it every time...moist perfectly cooked fish, there's nothing better. For dessert, he made this raw dessert with some kind of macadamia nut crust topped with a chocolate mouse and fruit.






After dinner we went to the living room where the guys had gifts for each of us. They were boxes of famous love letters from artists, writers, kings, poets, etc. The guys each read one and it was pretty funny! Not sure it was meant to be but we had a good laugh. Then we played this game that everyone else seemed to know well but Zig and I had never heard of...the hand game. Each of the guys were blindfolded and tried to see if they could pick out their wife's hand. It seems like it would be easy but it must have been tough. Zig was able to pick my hand pretty quickly though. Tom was sure I was Debbie.




Debbie opening her gift.

Tom thought for sure I was Debbie. And they've been married the longest :)

And the guys couldn't resist playing a little joke on Chris!

We played some other games and laughed until our stomachs hurt...at least mine did. Definitely a Valentine's Day to remember.

We didn't get a picture on Valentine's Day, but here is a blurry picture of my Valentine. Love you, Zig!