Last Valentine’s Day, my sweetheart and I decided to go to a lovely little Italian restaurant in town. I’d been there before with friends and had an amazing meal and wonderful service.
When we arrived, we learned they had overbooked, were short staffed, and most of the wait staff were completely frazzled. We were seated quickly, but things went down hill from there. Fortunately we had a nice bottle of wine; the rest of the meal was forgettable.
So this year, instead of heading out to an overbooked restaurant on Valentine’s Day, we’re making ourselves a gourmet dinner. I’ll prepare as much as possible ahead of time (like salad and dessert) and set up my mise en place. This is just a fancy French way of saying that you have everything ready; vegetables cut, spices out, items measured into bowls and ready for cooking. You can do this in the afternoon so that you don’t spend the entire evening in the kitchen.
Make the meal a leisurely one and do the cooking together. Open a good bottle of wine, play nice music in the background and have dessert under the stars (for those of us in warmer climates) or in front of the fireplace. Leave the dishes till morning, nothing romantic about doing those! It’s all about relaxing and enjoying.
MENU
Appetizer
(Buy these ready-made at your seafood or deli counter to save on prep time)
Shrimp cocktail with fresh lemon and cocktail sauce
OR
Mini skewers
(Marinated mushrooms, marinated mini mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes and olives)
Place 2-3 items on decorative toothpicks or bamboo grilling skewers
Salad
Romaine with shaved parmesan cheese and garlic-cheese croutons, drizzled with raspberry balsamic vinegar
Crusty French or Italian bread
Vegetable
(Sautéed in a small amount of olive oil with a little garlic)
Sautéed asparagus
OR
Sautéed baby zucchini
Main entrée
(Both from Cooking Light)
Seafood risotto
OR
Pan-seared scallops on linguine with tomato-cream sauce
Dessert
Chocolate fondue with fresh berries (recipe below)
OR
Josee’s Pots de Crème with fresh berries
OR
A few simple chocolate covered strawberries.
Chocolate Fondue
8-9 oz of your favorite chocolate, broken into pieces
¾ cup light cream
1 Tbsp liquor (like amaretto or hazelnut flavored) – OPTIONAL
Fresh berries for dipping
Place broken chocolate and ½ cup cream into a saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely melted. Add more cream, 1 TB at a time if you want a thinner fondue.
Transfer mixture to fondue pot and enjoy!
- Renee
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Labels: Healthy Recipes, Renee
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