Happy Valentine’s Day! Okay, I know it’s a couple days early, but I wanted to share some romantic Valentines Day dinner recipes for you in time to get your ingredients ready. Guys, if you’re looking for easy romantic recipes for your loved one, this is the place! She’ll be amazed at your prowess in the kitchen. Oh yeah, and it’s CHEAP! But she won’t think you’re skimping out if you make her a meal like this.
3 keys to wowing your gal with a romantic dinner: Read more
Imagine a buttery chocolate pastry crust so crisp you hear it snap as you cut into it with the side of a fork. It’s filled with sweet yet tangy homemade raspberry jam that’s smothered in a rich chocolate ganache filling tasting like the most expensive chocolate pudding in the world. The creamy chocolate goodness is topped with plump and juicy raspberries that spurt juice into your mouth with every bite, and finished with the finest dusting of powdered sugar, like the sprinkling of the last snow of the season.
Now stop imagining, because I promise, you can make this!
I was asked to try making a Safeway holiday recipe of my choice this weekend. I decided to try out three of their recipes! I love our local Safeway, and not just because my husband used to work there 
(Yesterday was his last day! Woo-hoo!) Although I’m getting reimbursed for my ingredients for these three posts, I am only doing this because I shop at Safeway and Eric and I both enjoyed these dishes. Check out Lemon Dill Marinated Shrimp and Gingerbread Cookies.
The next recipe I made was the fudge ring…that’s right…FUDGE RING!!!!
How could I not make this beautiful bounty of chocolate sweetness? You’ve got milk chocolate, butterscotch chips, m&ms and Oreos. Sign me up!
Would you vote for me to get to demo my recipe at the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival? Just click Buzz It for my Shrimp Alfredo Baskets.
I’ve been wanting a Vietnamese coffee pot or press for about 10 years and never bought one for some reason. But as I mentioned in my sushi post, I got a giftcard to AsianFoodGrocer and was thrilled when I saw their Vietnamese coffee set. In fact it was the first thing I put in my virtual shopping cart. If you’ve never had Thai coffee, or had it but never made your own, don’t be silly like me and wait 10 years to get a pot! In case you’re unsure, let me show you how to make Thai Coffee, and then I’ll give you not one but TWO recipes using Vietnamese Coffee, because I can’t stop at just coffee.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
Okay, that’s the required text that the DB team uses to see if we completed the challenge. Our challenge was to make a Chocolate Valentino cake (Valentino cakes are traditionally heart shaped) which is a flourless cake. Then we were supposed to pair it with homemade ice cream, yum! Instead of doing vanilla, I made our absolute favorite ice cream recipe by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. It’s Thai Coffee Ice Cream and I can’t share the exact recipe until her cookbook is out, but it has espresso and cardamom and sweetened condensed milk and is incredibly amazing! I also paired it with a raspberry sauce.
I had a huge blessing when making this challenge that we were staying at Eric’s parents. They have a REALLY nice kitchen and his mother has tons of cooking equipment. It was like Christmas! There was a big gas stove, two ovens, a perfect glass bowl with handle so I didn’t get burned, a food mill and more. It made preparing our Valentine’s Day dinner a breeze. It’s also great for having Eric help me cook, there’s tons of prep space.
For this cake it was very important to pick a chocolate you really like the taste of, so I went with my favorite dark chocolate that I use for everything now. It’s from Trader Joe’s and the bar is over a pound and very affordable. One thing I didn’t think about is it’s not very sweet, so even though I can eat a chunk of it plain, you don’t add sugar to this so it wasn’t sweet on its own. Fortunately that was made up for by the ice cream, raspberry sauce and powdered sugar.
This challenge may have been my most fun so far! The recipe we had to use was only 3 simple ingredients: chocolate, butter and eggs. The creativity was in how you serve it and that was really fun for me. I knew I wanted to do the coffee ice cream, but I didn’t want it to be all brown, so I was inspired once again by my days as a Starbucks Barista (funny how much that’s influenced my cooking lately and I think there’s more to come of it) and the Raspberry Mochas that so many of my customers couldn’t live without. The powdered sugar was because I wanted to make the heart stencil on top, and to add sweetness to the rich dark chocolate. I only did a half recipe which made 8 cupcakes and what you see pictured is just one cupcake cut in half. Oh and didn’t the yolks mixing into the chocolate look so cool?
Chocolate Valentino
makes 16 cupcakes
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
16 ounces (1 pound) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated
Instructions
Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling, butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two large bowls. Whip the egg whites in a large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will have crumbs.
Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
Raspberry Syrup
Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a sauce pan on medium-high. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Separate syrup from seeds (If you’re like my mother in law and have one of those handy food mills hand crank things, use it! If not press through a mesh strainer).
