Lucky Thirteen

It was the boyfriend and my 13th anniversary on Sunday. The week before we decided we would celebrate by going out to dinner at Aqua Riva. We had a $50 gift certificate (that we had won at a Christmas party -- we don't get out much) and thought it would be nice to finally use it. We figured the total for dinner for two with wine would come in around $150 - $200 so $50 would take a bit of the bite out of the cost.

Saturday morning, while in the shower, I decided that I didn't really feel up to the hassle of finding my "going out" lipstick, driving 10 minutes to get downtown, using the free parking the boyfriend has, having someone pull out my chair for me, cooking and serving me dinner, then walking around the beautiful Vancouver waterfront, hand-in-hand with the boyfriend. Just too much effort. So I said to the boyfriend:

Me: How would you feel about not going out to dinner tonight?
BF: How do you feel about not going out to dinner tonight?

(This is why the boyfriend and I have been together for 13 years.)

I cancelled the reservations.

It was a beautiful day. We grabbed the dog and headed down to the wharf at Granville Island. The shrimp boat was in.

It is Spot Prawn season in British Columbia at the moment. We got 10 live beauties (very much in the eye of the beholder) for $8. We then headed into the Market and bought a pound of fresh halibut, some yellow and orange peppers, Yukon Gold potatoes and a bottle of Sandhill Pinot Gris.

Grand total: $56

Home we went to warm up the barbie and prepare our feast.

I only squealed once when I opened the bag of prawns and they all tried to jump out (really, not kidding -- friggin freaky).


If you read my earlier post about cooking lobster, you'll know that I am a seasoned killing machine. I tossed the lot of them in a big pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, drained them and put them on the table. That simple.


The halibut went on the barbeque with a fantastic marinade of dijon mustard, tarragon, lemon zest, and olive oil.


And the table was set.


It was amazing. The halibut was absolute perfection and the Spot Prawns? Unbelievable. They were a bit messy to de-shell, but worth the effort. They tasted of the ocean, of sun, of West Coast breezes. We didn't put anything on them either -- no garlic butter, no cocktail sauce (OMG that would be like putting ketchup on -- well anything).

Finishing with drinks on the balcony, gazing at our beautiful city, we raised our glasses.


Here's to 13 years of love and laughter. Here's to the ocean, sun and West Coast breezes. Here's to finding joy and perfection in the little things (even if they jump out of a bag and freak you out).

Hugs and kisses.