Dinner at Home on February 14th.

Large Clock served as the Table for this special Night !

Friends in Japan are asking me what I did for Valentine's Day. 
We do things so much different from Japan for Valentine's Day. 
Here we give gifts to everybody who you love, over there only Girls to Boys. 
They give nothing but Chocolate. 
Maybe that is the only thing we have in common. 
Since we are expecting friends from Germany next week and the 3rd week of March will be celebrating my friend from West-Coast's Birthday in New York.
I believe, we will be dinning out a lot in coming month. So, for Valentine's Day I decided to make "Dinner for Two". 
I did not want to cook Chicken or Turkey, or Pasta. I wanted to do something more special for the occasion.  Maybe a Rose for the Table.
I've got Pork Tenderloin. Of course Watermelon-Radish, and lots of Fruits. 
And I did not forgot Chocolate. You must have the Chocolate !
By the way, "Doughnut Plant" of the Lower East Side opened Second Shop here in Chelsea. Its a few blocks away on the ground floor of the Chelsea Hotel, so I had to have Doughnuts from there along with doughnuts from "Dunkin Doughnuts", 
Remember I don't bake. There were no homemade cakes for the table.

   Cucumber, Jicama, Roasted Corn, Watermelon-Radish Salad, 

with Meyer-Lemon Vinaigrette.

The dinner started with Salad.
I made colorful and crunchy salad. Bite came from Jicama and Cucumber, color came from corn and watermelon-radish. My new favorite "Roasted Corn" was adding extra flavor to the salad, along with Meyer-Lemon juice in a Vinaigrette.
The Main Course, Pork Tenderloin was simply rubbed with my favorite Spice "Sunny Paris" from "Penzeys Spices". 
I had to have some side dishes for the Pork, I though that something sweet and sour will go with it very well. Some Sweet Potato with Pomegranate-Molasses would be the one. 
I can sometime find "Japanese Sweet Potato" at "Whole Foods". 
They are so different from Yam or Sweet Potato. They have Red Skin and White Flesh.
It goes with Chestnut very well, but not for that night.
In Japan in the winter, you can find "Ishi Yakiimo" (means Roasted Sweet Potato over heated Stones, sometimes you can see push carts in town selling those sweet delicacies.) 
I added one more simple Vegetable dish to make the dinner a more balanced meal.

    Sweet Potato was roasted in the oven before made into a side-dish.

    Chopped Scallions were sprinkled at last. 

    Green Beans & Red Pepper were sautéed with Garlic and Olive-Oil.

Then Desserts. We had to have Chocolate for that dinner.
Dessert Course is my weakest part for preparing dinner.
For that night, I got "Belgium Chocolate Pudding" from "Trader Joe".  
And I sliced Kiwi Fruit, Mango, and of course Strawberry to scoop up Chocolate !  
OH one more thing, somebody was saying that "Nuts" were the other thing you to have for the Valentine's Day.  So I roasted Almonds to dip into Chocolate.....

      We felt a little bit healthier. 
Because we had chocolate with lots of Fruit?