This meal was my big splurge for Valentine’s Day dinner, the night before V-Day.

I only ever tried to cook tuna steaks once before, many years ago. They did not turn out so well because like most fish, I thought it had to be cooked through. I later learned tuna is to be cooked like beef, not FULLY cooked. So this go around, I cooked it medium rare, only searing in extra virgin olive oil for about 4 minutes on each side over medium-high heat. Next time I think I’ll go with 3 minutes. It was just a hair too overdone for my liking and at $19.99 a pound for yellow fin, I want my tuna to be perfect! The caponata relish with eggplant was great! Tangy and sweet and complimented the tuna, which was otherwise mostly unseasoned. Recipe here.

I never made couscous before, and it was very hard to find in the store. Finally located it near the rice in the Middle Eastern food section of Wegman’s. The recipe calls for flavored parmesan or garlic couscous, there was none, I just added about half a teaspoon of salt to the water it was cooked in for some flavor. It was a fresh light pasta salad and the feta cheese really made it delicious. Recipe here.

Now my favorite part, which I don’t have a photo of unfortunately, the chocolate cheesecake. THIS WAS AMAZING! I hate using water baths because I’m always afraid of leakage then my whole cake being ruined. Sometimes I’ll put a pan of water on the rack below. I did nothing here and it cracked a lot while cooking. But, no big deal because I just whipped up a quick ganache with my leftover chocolate chips and some heavy cream and poured over the top, which make it even more chocolatey and much prettier. Very rich, and very good! I even accidentally got Neufchâtel cheese instead of regular cream cheese so was a bit worried but it turned out so great. I definitely recommend this. Recipe here.