Where's the romance?

After almost 32 years of marriage, JD and I have had our fair share of wonderful Valentine's Day romantic dinners.  Tonight, there were no candles, no fancy dinners that either of us had slaved for hours to prepare, no mood music--sound incredibly boring? There are always times of the year (mostly spontaneous evenings) where puttin' on the ritz just seems the right thing to do.  But, the emphasis here is on spontaneity.  I don't need Hallmark, or the Roman Goddess Juno, or anyone else tell me that I need to be romantic tonight. At this stage in our lives, we are probably at the strongest point of our marriage. We've had some turmoil over the past few years with family illness and our young adult children's sturm und drang. But, where many couples' marriages have fallen apart upon becoming empty nesters, JD and I have taken the opportunity to reconnect. We have things to talk about; we laugh, we cry, we get angry, we are joyous.  Passion is still there. We are comfortable, open, honest--no need for facades.  Mostly we just love each other.  As we sit here this evening watching the Olympic games on TV, we take comfort in just being together. I know it's a cliche and sung beautifully by Justin Timberlake and KD Lang recently, but tonight, I say (as Leonard Cohen says) "hallelujah". "Baby I have been here before, I know this room, I've walked this floor. I used to live alone before I knew you."

Today at lunch, I couldn't resist the temptation of oysters at the 5 Seasons Brewery . What could be better than oysters and beer? I have no business admitting this on a veggie blog, but it's my one area of backsliding as a vegetarian. There's just something about these exquisite, quivering, briny bivalve mollusks that reduces my brain to basically a single cell organism (as I pretend they are). Get some damn backbone, will ya? As a result of over-indulging at the midday meal, there was no need for a formal dinner tonight.  White bean and roasted tomato bruschetta paired with a fabulous Willamette Valley Pinot Noir was enough to put the romance into any meal!

Oven-dried tomatoes

I love these tomatoes.  Incredibly easy to prepare, they put the umph back into out-of-season tomatoes.  Such a much more subtle flavor than sun-dried tomatoes. Use in pasta, on bruschetta, or anywhere you would use sun-dried.  Delicious.These can be kept for a week in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 250 deg. (F)

Roma tomatoes (plum)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
minced garlic--go easy here, don't want to overwhelm (optional)
fresh herbs, such as thyme, oregano

Quarter tomatoes, toss lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic and herbs.  Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast for several hours (2-5 hours).  You want to concentrate the flavor, but not overcook.  Low oven temperature practically ensures a perfect product.