A few years ago (after many cocktails with a couple friend of ours) I took to calling Valentine's Day our "Day of Love". Totally ridiculous but still so much less commercial than V-Day! Typically we don't really do anything big for this holiday... we seem to buy things when we want them and lets be honest... shouldn't you show that you love others every time you see them? I mean a daily supply of diamond earrings and bracelets would be nice but not exactly fiscally responsible (if diamonds are your thing). But this year I really wanted to something sweet for my love. And the quickest way to a mans heart is his stomach right? So I planned a fantastic dinner.
I had informed Mr. D of our dinner plans but he didn't know the menu. It was planned for Monday, February 14th but like you read earlier... something came up and my time was a bit consumed with other things. And cooking all day long wasn't exactly possible. The menu was as follows...
Handcrafted Mushroom Ravioli with a Roasted Tomato Coulis
Roasted Asparagus with a Pistachio Yogurt Sauce (I served the asparagus warm...)
Buttery Bread Sticks and Aioli (Totally skeptical of eating raw eggs... YUM... and no food poisoning!)
and for desert
Gingerbread Whoopie Pies
Chocolate Gelato
Can I just say that it was fantastic!!!! Everything was made from scratch and I will also say that it took for freaking ever! I think I cooked from 8:00 in the morning to close to 8:00 at night. I took a mini break to eat a hot dog for lunch and I did forget one crucial desert ingredient at the store so we took a break to walk to the market. Mr. D was on kitty patrol keeping them occupied so he was pretty clueless as to what was going on. I think at one point he guessed I was making some sort of Indian dish... so it was fun I was able to keep him guessing. By the time I needed to make the ravioli I had printed off the recipe and he was super hungry! We were both ready to eat the food as we had been smelling all of the yummy flavors all day. It really was so good and we even had some left overs to munch on the next day. And we have desert for the rest of the week for sure... the gelato is TO DIE FOR! It has the best recipe so if you are looking for a chocolate sweet treat and you have an ice cream maker... this is the recipe to try.
SUCCESS!
I wish I could have taken process photos of the whole thing but that would have just been way too much to handle!
So when you cook all day... do you want to eat the goodness or are you just sick of looking at it?
XOXO
