I know it is a little late, but I hope you all had a happy Valentine’s.

My wonderful husband, Deutsch, made me a very special Valentine/Oscar dinner. The reason why it was also an Oscar dinner is due to our annual Oscar Challenge. The Challenge is simple. Before the Academy Awards, we both vote for a winner in each category. At the end of the show, we tally up the numbers and the person with the most predicted wins is the “Dinner Guest”. The person who has the least predicted wins is the “Host/Chef”. The Host is required to serve a several course meal with two rules: 1) Make dinner from scratch; 2) Prepare something that he/she has never attempted before. Unfortunately for Deutsch, he has been the Host more times than the Guest.

This year he out did himself with a fantastic African meal. The menu consisted of three courses. For the appetizer, he started with West African Peanut Soup.

It was so rich and flavourful. A perfect soup for a cold winter night. A meal on it’s own with a smooth blend of peanut butter, tomatoes and rice. He garnished it with some roasted peanuts, that gave it an additional texture. It’s a definite keeper.

For the entree, he prepared a terrific Marrakesh Vegetable Curry served on a bed of couscous.

This dish had so many wonderful vegetables: sweet potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, spinach, zucchini and carrots. It was definitely colorful. It even had some odd (but great) ingredients like cinnamon, raisins and orange juice. He was worried about the success of this dish, but he shouldn’t have been. It was delicious!

His final dish was dessert, Eastern Africa’s Kashata.

It is described as something in between candy and cookie. I found it to be more similar to candy. In fact, I thought was very much like peanut brittle. It is a mixture of sugar, coconut, peanuts and cinnamon. Deutsch was most concerned with this dish, fearing that the final product was a total disaster. Obviously, he did not try it before he made his assumption. It was fantastic. A great little snack to tame that wild beast known as the Sweet Tooth Monster.

The final note is to my Valentine. Thank you for your wonderful gift. I am aware that you were fulfilling your Oscar Challenge duties, but I also know that all your love went into your meal for me. I am a very lucky girl. I love you. My only wish is that on March 5th (Oscar night), I am victorious once again. The challenge is on, baby!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Home Cooked Goodness, Other Crap, The Oscars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.