Valentine's Day

Every year, we decide last minute that we want to try to get away on Valentine's Day and make a feeble attempt at finding a good deal on a B&B within a couple hours of the DC Metro area. Needless to say, it usually falls through due to our lack of planning (note: it did work out excellently once, when we spent the weekend in a B&B near Luray, VA). Anyway, we inevitably end up staying in and cooking a delicious fancy meal. To be honest, cooking in is so much less stressful than planning a weekend away and ends up being more romantic!

Clockwise from left: roasted cauliflower, flowers from my honey, crab legs, and filet mignon

On this year's menu were Alaskan king crab legs, grilled filet mignon, and roasted cauliflower with dates. To start, we made a warm almond-crusted manchego cheese appetizer. Decadent, nutty, and unhealthy, it was the perfect way to start a romantic evening. I bought the king crab legs from Cameron's, a seafood market near my office. Don picked out the filets and decided to wrap his with bacon, obviously. The crab legs were steamed in beer, lemon, and garlic then served with melted garlic butter though they really didn't need anything. The filets were rubbed with a simple salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and olive oil mixture then grilled to medium-rare perfection.

For the appetizer recipe and meal pictures, see below.

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Woodberry Kitchen

My sister took us to this awesome restaurant last weekend when my parents were in town, so I thought it would be great if she were the one to post the review, having been there several times. Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy her fabulous review of Baltimore's Woodberry Kitchen.

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Mozzarella Asparagus Crostinis

I had unexpected company come over one night, so had to make an appetizer from ingredients that were already in the fridge, since planning and shopping wasn't an option. Everyone has mozzarella cheese in some fashion or another, lemons, and bread. Add a vegetable and - voila! - crostinis! I used asparagus but really any tasty vegetable you like can be used (broccoli, spinach, or eggplant are some ideas).

For the simple recipe, see below:

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Avocado Henge

(a.k.a. Don's food art)


While we were waiting for a delicious Tex-Mex casserole thing to bake last night, Don cut the avocados for us and decided to really take his food art to the next level.

I almost didn't want to eat them! .....almost.

Mussels in Thai Red Curry Sauce

I love Thai curries, especially when mussels are slowly cooked in them and I have tons of crusty bread to use as a sauce vehicle. To satisfy one of these cravings a few weeks ago, I found a simple recipe on Epicurious and went with it. Mussels are cheap, seem fancy, and are ridiculously easy to cook, so it's a triple bonus!

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Ciabatta (Take 2)

I finally procured another jar of yeast from the store and, learning from my previous mistakes, immediately put it in the fridge. Those little buggers won't die on me this time!

First up with my KitchenAid is my favorite kind of bread for sandwiches: ciabatta. Having used my KitchenAid, I can't even imagine those dark ages when I actually had to knead the bread by hand for 10 minutes. The horror! All joking aside though, the KitchenAid is amazing! You literally just turn it on and walk away (keeping an eye on it of course). I think that housewives of the 1600s would have literally imploded upon hearing of this.

The ciabatta didn't come out exactly as I would have liked it; it was a bit thicker with less air pockets than in previous times. I probably need to get used to making bread in the KitchenAid.

Keep in mind that this bread starts with a sponge, so it takes over a day to make. Start ahead of time. It's super easy though, even without a KitchenAid.

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Ribollita

Ribollita is a Tuscan soup that is loaded with veggies and thickened with bread. There are three different kinds of greens. Three! Not to mention the rest of the vegetables - perfect for a cold wintry night at home.

The soup has to simmer for a few hours to really blend all the flavors, so it's more of a weekend soup than a weeknight one. One recipe makes 8-10 servings, so we froze much of it. I had some of the frozen leftovers for lunch today (2 weeks later) and it was still great!

If you follow the recipe exactly, it calls for dried beans which adds another day to the cooking process; if you want to cheat like me, just use 2 cans of beans instead.

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