Valentine's

Valentine's day is kind of like New Year's, total pain trying to go out and total amateur night. Especially with Valentine's being on a Monday, I decided to surprise Ryan with a feast at home. It began with freshly squeezed blood-orange juice mimosas. We had pototoes dauphinois and beef wellington for dinner and a homemade vanilla cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. It was really delicious! It took the three hours Ryan was at the middle school volleyball game to prepare. Here are just a few pictures of our special night. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day!

PS. 2 weeks until we're in Las Vegas!

Superbowl...Go??

Well this is the first time in awhile that I really didn't care who won the Superbowl. I really don't like either team. So instead we focused on spending a fun day (still watched the game of course) and good food. For the actual game we made nachos, guacamole, caramelized onion dip, and chipotle wings with crema fresca.

Date Night at home dinner

With Valentines day on a Monday, we've been celebrating early and cooking some really good meals at home. For this dinner we did a version of surf and turf, with NY strip steaks and crab cakes. I am extremely picky about crab cakes; to the point where I don't even really like ordering them at restaurants because 99% of the time I end up disappointed. When we make them at home, we keep it really simple:
Mix together one container of jumbo lump crab meat, 1/4 of mayo, 1/4 of breadcrumbs, juice of a lemon, 1 teaspoon worchestire sauce, 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon siracha sauce, and 1 teaspoon chopped parsley. Be careful not to over mix, otherwise all the crab will lose its shape. Fry in a large skillet on medium heat (we used canola oil). Cook for about 2 minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Serve with a remoulade of mayo, lemon juice, and siracha.

For the steak, we simply pan-seared some NY strips (seasoned heavily) in canola oil for about 5 minutes per side (for med-rare). To go with it, we sauteed mushrooms in a red wine reduction with fresh chives. Dinner was yummy!

Any good Valentines dinner ideas? Our menu is still undecided.