For the first time in nearly 30 years, I am with a man who not only loves to celebrate Valentine's Day, but actually deserves all the affection I can possibly lavish upon him. We are nauseatingly in love. Our friends start passing around barf bags and industrial-sized bottles of Emetrol when we enter a room....
Oh. Since this post will eventually lead to food, I should probably get off the subject of vomit. Good thinking.
This was our first official Valentine's Day living together, so of course I had to go all-out. I spent weeks planning.
I bought gifts...
For those of you who wonder, THIS is how you buy chocolate for your man on Valentine's Day-
I decorated...
(the roses were from him to me, of course... he also bought ME gifts that were so incredibly thoughtful... )
(smokehouse almonds and software... I ADORE THIS MAN!!!... and yes, red roses... )
We had briefly contemplated going out for dinner, but really... even getting a reservation at a decent place is problematic for that night. He had to work that day, I'm a damn fine cook, and I figured I could make a restaurant quality meal at home for less than half the price. More money to spend on gifts and wine!! I'm down with that!
Fortunately, the child was going out to dinner with her dad that night, so we could have a nice, quiet, romantic dinner all alone.
We started off with an appetizer of gambas al ajillo... Spanish shrimp in garlic... it was heavenly...
For the main course, I made filet mignon with a shitake, red wine, and shallot sauce, hassleback potatoes, and balsamic roasted asparagus. Oh-my-frikkin'-god YUMMMMM!!!!
Then, to top it all off, I made from-scratch chocolate molten lava cakes...
Since I made several changes to the original recipe for these, I will type out my version here. For everything else I made, I followed the recipes almost exactly so I just linked them to give credit where it is due. Take a few minutes to read the blog that has the steak recipe, Mouth From the South. Kristina is a hoot!
Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes
1 C. (two cubes) butter (yes, salted butter)
1 HEAPING cup Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips (not quite ALL of the bag... leave some to munch on later)
5 large eggs
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour
powdered sugar for garnish
Place butter and chocolate chips in a medium glass bowl. Microwave on high for one minute; stir well. Continue to microwave and stir at 15 second intervals until chips are ALMOST completely melted (about another 30 seconds)... a few small lumps are okay. Don't worry... they'll melt. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Beat chocolate mixture into egg mixture until smooth. Add flour and beat until completely combined. Refrigerate batter for 1-6 hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease four 10 ounce ramekins (or other oven-proof dishes that size) with cooking spray. Divide batter equally. Place ramekins on baking sheet and bake until side are just done and cracked, but center is still sunken and jiggly... about 18 minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK! You'll still have an amazing chocolate cake, but you won't have the insane molten center, which is the whole point of this dessert. Remove and cool on rack for about 15 minutes (or just until they're cool enough so you don't burn your mouth... however long you can wait). Dust with powdered sugar just before serving and serve warm. Die happy.
If you want to get really schmancy, a nice VERY lightly sweetened raspberry sauce would be good to drizzle over, but it really doesn't need it. This recipe is entirely too easy. You'll find yourself thinking about making it on a regular basis. If you're concerned about your caloric intake, just remember one thing...
There is half a cube of butter in EACH cake.
I'm saving this one for special occasions only.
No comments:
Post a Comment