Valentine's at PaSu farms

For our first anniversary, Aaron's mother gave us a gift certificate to PaSu Sheep Farms (www.pasu.com) to attend the Valentine's dinner. Seven amazing courses of incredibly prepared food. Quite the memorable night.

To start we had muscles. A first for both of us. While at school Aaron had broken out in a rash the week they handled muscles and oysters, so we suspected he was allergic. He took a chance and tasted them anyway, with no reaction. We both enjoyed them and were excited for something new.

And then there were the oysters! Two things we'd never tried! And they were raw too, to enhance their aphrodisiacal properties I guess. I was quite nervous. They smelled like the ocean, even with the tangy Japanese sauce they were served with. I managed to eat two of them, but wasn't a fan. Aaron enjoyed them a bit more, and ate the other four.

Magical yam soup. Quite similar to our curried butternut squash soup. Not as sweet, but warmer because of additional spices. Presented very nicely with a heart shaped pastry and dots of cream and red pepper sauce.

Next came the delicately placed shrimp and salmon mousse. A much milder course, served with toasted baguette slices and micro greens. Smoked salmon is delicious.

An incredible sorbet to cleanse the palette. Prickly pear and passion fruit. One very sweet, the other more fruity, but perfectly combined for maximum enjoyment. A single gooseberry and a mint leaf to top it off.

And then my favorite. The main dish. The most amazing beef tenderloin I have EVER eaten. The most amazing beef EVER. Cooked to perfection, rolled with spinach and mushrooms, topped with herbed mashed potatoes and hollandaise sauce. Ah. May. Zing. Seriously the best meat I've ever had. And to make it better, served with lightly roasted zucchini. Zucchini may be one of my favorite vegetables after that. Everyone would love zucchini if prepared like that! And pairing it with the beef just seemed to enhance the flavors of both foods. The best plate of the night, hands down.

Time for coffee and tea, followed quickly by dessert. Cream puffs, a wafer roll with almond paste, strawberries and what they called strawberry cheesecake, but was more of a mousse. (Aaron doesn't like cheesecake flavor or texture, but really enjoyed this stuff.) Everything was lightly drizzled in chocolate to complete the look. They sent us off with two homemade chocolates that I enjoyed the next day.

Wow. What an amazing night. We were even able to browse through their little store, filled with cozy wool sweaters and fur lined gloves. I found the sweetest little baby jacket made of super soft lamb's wool. It had cute little lamb ears on the hood, and even a tiny tail on the back! It's on my wish list when the time comes.