Saturday, February 21, 2009

Dinner Menu for Two

Yesterday, I decided to surprise my guy with a dinner. It was a long week, and I haven't made dinner like this in a long time. It turned out to be a good plan, and a good dinner. He insisted that I blog about it, so here it is. Here's the menu and links to the recipes, plus a few pictures (no laughing at my cake decorating skills (or lack thereof) please).

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip
Quick recipe, but tasty. I try to make it or something like it whenever I bake bread.

Easy, No Knead Crusty Bread
This had a lot of rest time but the time it took to actually do things were pretty small. It actually turned out like those at the stores. We were impressed.



Coq Au Vin
This was quite tasty. I've never had it before, so I don't know if the taste was right, but I heard no complaints, so I guess it doesn't matter at that point.

Pan Fried Asparagus
These were excellent. I used less butter than the recipe called, and added the garlic mid way of cooking the asparagus. I also took it out just after it turns bright green. We like Asparagus sorta crisp.

Roasted New Red Potatoes
Excellent potatoes. Easy and tasty. Definitely will do it again.



Black Forest Cake
Wow... that stuff is strong! At least to me. E actually enjoyed it quite well. So, when you don't account for the fact that I can't decorate a cake at all... this turned out pretty good. Once the cake was finished and cooled, I poured the kirschwasser on them and let them sit for about 5 hours before assembling. If it were for me, I'd like it with less kirsch, but I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to that stuff.


[Update: 2.22.2009] I had some more cake last night, and the kirsch eased up in the cake itself, but was still strong in the icing.

Anyway, thanks for riding the day with me thru twitter. :-)

9 comments:

Gregorio said...

Way to go! Those all look amazing.

I'll send you pics of my creations tomorrow :-)

Captain Monkeypants said...

Rad Linc Crafts...you realize that whenever you blog about food, you make me really, really hungry...right? Seriously- this looks like an amazing spread. I'd say that I'm amazed that your guy could eat all this but, well, I've met him. Seriously though- I'm going to try all of these at some point. I love your coq au vin recipe- I usually cheat and use a packet mix that I get from the UK- I like yours more. I will say that if you ever make it again, parsnips add a tasty yet surprising note of flavour. Awesome post!

Fe said...

Thanks you guys! Can't wait to see those pictures Greg. And thanks for the tip, Captain Monkeypants. I've never tried parsnips before. I'll have to give that a shot sometime soon.

Anonymous said...

it all looks freaking great... but what do I expect from you? ^__^

Cokoy

Fe said...

Awww... shucks! Thanks Cokoy!

Emily said...

Ok, so did you have a dutch oven for the bread, or did you use another type of pot? I don't think any of my current pans are heavy enough to qualify as a dutch oven...an excuse for a new purchase? :-) Emily

Fe said...

I believe what I used was a dutch oven. I actually don't know what constitutes a dutch oven but the one I used was super heavy. Ceramic maybe? I think we got ours from a salvation army store a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

I can testify that cake was sooo good!!! Thank you for sharing.
Sorry I go you in trouble... now Rachel want you to make desert

Fe said...

I'm glad you like it. It's no trouble at all. :-)

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