Imagine the following scenario, you have an opportunity to cook dinner for a potential date you don’t know. You will be reinbursed up to $75 for ingredients in your dinner. The potential date will be eating dinner at several different houses over several days, and will be judging you primarily on the food- not on your looks, conversational skills, likelihood of long-term romantic compatibility, etc. What do you cook? Please include comments on any items you would serve from boxes,etc. Also please note foods you would serve because “everyone you have ever served it to likes it” or favorite foods you would not serve “because this is a first date and not everyone likes garlic or venison, etc”.
Well, most people like this and it’s really easy:
Pasta. Any kind will do, but I prefer the masticoli-type because it’s not as messy to eat.
Fresh mushrooms. Sliced.
Fresh spinach.
Italian Sausage.
A can of quartered artichoke hearts.
Olive oil, garlic, and spices to taste
Cook everything but the spinach, and combine in a bowl.
At the last minute, you chop the spinach and just cook it until the edges are slightly wilted.
Serve with wine.
Sorry, that’s the only entry I have right now. And sorry for my atrocious spelling in the first post. Odd that I can spell atrocious, but not “that pasta word” that I butchered, huh?
Boboli crust.
Can of tomato paste with salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano mixed in.
Sliced tomatoes.
Sliced sausage.
Some cheese (mix of cheddar & mozarella).
Can of sliced mushrooms.
More cheese.
Can of sliced olives.
More cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour.
Also:
Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss.
Skil saw.
Oh, and the skil saw? If she doesn’t want it, I’ll keep it. I need a new one, and my chances of getting a skil saw out of this are better than my chances of having a successful first date (followed by second & following dates) based purely on what I cook for dinner.
I am not a bachelor, or even a man, but this is what my now-husband (NOTE: I MARRIED THIS MAN!) cooked for me on our first-ever date.
You’ll need:
Pasta – spaghetti, linguine or angel hair
One tub light alfredo sauce (DiGiorno makes a good one)
One large fresh orange
Smoked salmon
Fresh cracked black pepper
Salad fixings (Caesar works well)
Cook the pasta al dente, drain and set aside. Heat the alfredo sauce over low heat. Cut the salmon into small pieces (removing the skin, if it’s on the piece) and toss the bits into the sauce. Add as much as looks good to you, but 4 - 6 oz. works well. When the sauce is heated through, squeeze the juice from the orange into the sauce. Immediately toss the sauce with the pasta and serve. Top with fresh black pepper and parmesan cheese, if desired.
Serve with Caesar salad or a salad with a vineagrette dressing.
Worked for him. 
Well, given those rules, I’d propose we skip dinner and wait for breakfast… 
No? Ok, then. I’d have to know more about the woman and her eating habits.
Is she vegetarian?
What culture does she come from?
Does she like light fare or rich, spicy food?
Does she have any allergies??
It’s really hard to say without knowing the answers to that. But assuming her answers would all be the same as mine, I’d have to go with this recipe.
75 Bucks? I could make a hell of a meal for two with 75 bucks.
starter: Ceasar Salad
Apetizer: Steamed Artichokes
Good steaks, Prime Ribeye from the butchershop.(or a good elk steak if they got one)
grilled medium rare,
on a bed of Späztle(kind of a bastard child between a dumpling and an egg noodle if you haven’t had them) Really simple, but good soaking up meat juice, and uncommon enough to be impressive.
Desert: Fresh berries(strawberries, raspberries, blue berries etc) in heavy cream.
And If she doesnt like it, to hell with her, more for me.
General note: I’m interested in MENUS not RECIPES. I was inspired to start this thread after reading about a contest in my local paper. I have no expectations of cooking dinner for anyone other than myself in the near future. in the contest, the bachelors who competed were alerted to any allergies that the bachelorette had, but otherwise were on their own . I was amused that Bachelor #1 fixed food out of boxes (and didn’t even hide the boxes) and Bachelor #2 fixed venison he’d hunted in his own backyard. Bachelor #3 tried a recipe he’d never tried before and fixed something for dessert with chocolate, even though he doesn’t like chocolate because one should not get in between a lady and her chocolate( or words to that general effect). Bachelor #2 won the contest, with Bachelor#3 coming in second and Bachelor #1 trailing by a wide margin(and was tempted to vote for #2). I thought that numbers 1 and 2 made interesting choices, and wondered what other people might cook under similar circumstances.
Well, do we know anything about what the woman likes to eat, or food restrictions?
If we do not know anything, I would go for something which she may well not like, but is likely to win if she does like it.
Starter:Mixed sliced smoked and raw samon, with lime juice black pepper and capers. Served with sliced crusty full grain bread, and a dry white (Poulle Fume probably)
Main: Duck l’Orange on a celleriac and potatoe rosti, with well reduced port and orange sauce containing sliced kumquat. Vegitable sid of french green beans steamed with butter and thin sliced crisp bacon.
Served with a hearty red wine (probably Cote d Rhone, or Chateau Neuf du’Pape if money is enough)
Desert: Hagen Daaz vanilla ice cream served in coctail glasses with Cointrou (sp?) liquer, Kumquat juice and shaved valhrona chocolate.
an option of cheese and biscuits after with Traider Joe’s Port (which is cheap but good), the cheeses would be dependent on money left over (unless we can chose to spend our own money beyond the price limit) pwobably a soft goat cheese with herbs, a blue cheese (the raw Gorgonzolla from Whole Foods shops comes to mind), and Cheddar (UK Farmhouse) with plain and sesame flat crisp biscuits.
Since the starter can be made ahead of time, and the disert is simple, I could concentrate on cooking the main meal which would require three pans and a warm heated oven, so is not to difficult. The rosti’s could be cooked in the fat that comes off the duck during cooking. There is a citrus link throughout which should make the whole meal work together, with the cheese as a casual endin to the meal to be eaten after moving from the dining table to the living room and whilst watching a romantic movie.
OK do I get a date
Holy wow…
Bippy, you had me at smoked and raw salmon. That sounds divine.
Too bad I’m married.
Elsewhere on the 'net I’ve won two Iron Chef contests, but I think it takes a certain kind of chef to make a “romantic” dinner. I’ve tried it before, and I’ve failed. I think I’d only succeed if the woman in question liked Indian food 
Fortunately, my GF does :), and so this is what I’d make:
Starter: Anglo-Indian shrimp cocktail. Cliched, but a guilty pleasure. Add a pinch or two of chili powder and garam masala to the regular receipe.
First course: Chicken Tikka with chutneys, pickles, cachumber salad, and Peshawari naan. I could make the mango and ginger chutney and chili pickle myself, at a pinch. I would probably flub the naan bread.
Second course: Lamb biryiani. An understated dish, I think.
Dessert: Kesari Shrikand, a kind of saffron-flavored mousse. Embarrassingly easy to make, actually.
Well, this would likely leave several dollars left over, but I would at least have a margin to get the best ingredients–tiger shrimp, spring lamb, real saffron, etc. The whole dish may actually be considered low-fat, if made with low-fat substitutes for mayonnaise and cream.
Finally, I can’t let this one go without this, uh, “joke” courtesy of Fark, on what to cook a date. It’s evil, misogynistic, terrible, gross…ah, better put it in a spoiler box:
Roofie pie
I warned you…
I’m surprised nobody’s said fried chicken yet. All those death row inmates can’t be wrong.
Just a menu?
Start with a nice salad, with the freshest ingredients I could find.
Balsamic and Rosemary Glazed Chicken Breast
Yellow and Green Squash sauteed in Olive Oil with just the faintest hint of Garlic
Toasted Almond Rice Pilaf
Served with a nice wine, perhaps something a little off-beat just to keep her guessing.
For dessert, a nice slice of Guinness Chocolate Cake. mmmm…so rich, so chocolatey…I may have to go make one just for mentioning it.