Home Cooked Romance

Two drink minimum enforced.

This year, my husband and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. Nathan is, like every male I know, just not that into St. Valentine, but he knew that our first married February 14th would be special to me.

"Don't worry about dinner tomorrow," he told me (while we were eating at a nice little French restaurant on Sunday evening), "I've got it." I was all aflutter about my romantic husband-cooked dinner, but then he asked me if the type of potatoes we had at home would make good fries.

Romantic Candlelight Dinner

As I drove home from work (middle school on Valentine's Day is, by the way, the worst thing in the world), I wondered if I would get burgers or fish and chips. It turned out to be delicious burgers. He made me #9, The Gypsy, and he even put candles on the table. We didn't have candles. My husband went to Target after grocery shopping to buy candles to serve me a candlelit dinner. I win.

 I wanted to return the favor and make a nice dinner, so on Wednesday I chilled some wine, made some stuffed mushrooms as appetizers and created a pasta dish out of ingredients we had on hand from our bountiful basket and my currently very well stocked freezer.

Pasta seems like a romantic food when it's done right though I'm not sure why. Maybe pasta conjures up images of Italy, or maybe it's because so many first dates happen at Italian restaurants, or maybe it's because we think of Lady and the Tramp slurping a long spaghetti noodle until their lips touch whenever we eat it. Whatever the reason, something about carbs slathered in herbs and sauce feels like a meal for lovers or I guess athletes.

Our Valentine week bountiful basket included mushrooms, green onions, orange bell peppers and broccoli, and there were plenty of chicken breasts in the freezer. I also had cream cheese (for the stuffed mushrooms) and heavy cream leftover from making cream of celery soup earlier in the week. Also, Nathan had bought a wedge of Parmesan for the burgers meaning I didn't have to shop for a single thing.

Mushrooms stuffed with Italian Sausage

Stuffed mushrooms are super simple to make, but they are delicious and feel fancy. I usually use bacon for stuffed mushrooms, but the closest thing I had on hand was some spicy Italian sausage. No matter, it worked just as well. To make the filling, simply fry up your sausage or bacon. Once it's cooked, add sliced green onions and cream cheese and allow the cheese to melt. I had smallish white mushrooms which are perfect for bite-sized appetizers. Just pull out the stems and stuff the mushrooms with the cream cheese mixture, then bake them at 360 for about 10 minutes.

Real cheese makes everything better.

I presented these little morsels of love to my man while I got to making the main course. First, I sliced the chicken breasts into thin strips and seasoned with a few teaspoons of "Cajun Seasoning" from a jar. The Cajun spice along with cream sauce is a really good combination that makes the meal seem a lot more accomplished than normal chicken alfredo. I sauteed the seasoned chicken with peppers and broccoli (par boil the broccoli before sauteing so it doesn't take forever). For the sauce, I simply added about half a cup of heavy cream and some freshly grated Parmesan cheese during the last few minutes of cooking, then tossed with linguine to serve.



Voila, my version of a romantic dinner at home. I think Nathan's beats mine though. His was thoughtful; mine was "anything you can do, I can do better" proving that growing up and getting married hasn't made me any less of a brat. I am a work in progress.

Nyah Nyah

She's My Tomato Pie

I'm not usually a huge fan of Emeril. His recipes are nice enough, but the whole cooking in front of a cheering live audience thing kind of turns me off. Why do you need an audience, Emeril? Crap, why do I need an audience? Now I'm disturbed.

Roma Ro-Ma-Ma

My aunt Sherrie gave me this beautiful cookbook for Christmas though, and I was immediately tantalized by the recipe for "Cheesy Creole Tomato Pie." There were Roma tomatoes in my Bountiful Basket (which Nathan picked up for us since I have Saturday School for the next 5 weeks - thanks honey!), and I didn't want to make more soup or sauces.

Cheesy Tomato Pie

•  pie crust (I used a frozen pie crust from the grocery store.  Pie crust is pretty easy to make, but meh, I didn't feel like it and my kitchen is too small for extra messes)
• 1 egg, separated

• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes (Creole, Beefsteak and Heirloom were all specified as acceptable by Emeril himself)
• salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp mayo
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced sweet onions
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves
• about 1/2 cup grated fontina cheese (according to wikipedia, Gruyere, Gouda and Edam are all fine substitutes)
• about 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil (fo drizzle)
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. Roll out the pie dough and fit into a 9 or 10 inch deep dish pie plate.
2. Preheat the oven to 375.
3. Line pie shell with aluminum foil and bake for 13 minutes.
4. Remove foil and bake 3 minutes more; let cool.
5. Lightly beat the egg white and use a pastry brush to coat the surface of the pie shell with egg white.
6. Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch rounds.  Season with salt and pepper.
7. Combine the egg yolk with the mayonnaise.
8. Sprinkle 1/3 of the bread crumbs in the bottom of the pie shell. Layer half the sliced tomatoes to cover the bottom of the dish and top with half the onions and fresh herbs. Drizzle half the mayo mixture over the vegetables and top with half of the fontina, mozzarella, and half the remaining bread crumbs.
9. Make a second layer with remaining tomatoes, onions, herbs, mayo, cheese and remaining breadcrumbs.
10. Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
11. Bake the pie for 50 minutes to 1 hour.  Be sure to cover the edges with foil.  Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Some notes:

I thought I had bread crumbs, but I did not.  What I did have was a bag of croutons and a food processor.  Voila, bread crumbs!  I think they taste better than the bread crumbs in an oatmeal can anyway.  Cheesy!

This pie is delicious. We loved it. Even though the recipe didn't specify them, Roma tomatoes were perfect for it, firm and juicy, and I picked up an 8oz wedge of fontina cheese for about $4.  This is the kind of food that makes me feel like a fancy cook.

According to research, images of meat are soothing to men so this picture of the steak Nathan and I shared with our tomato pie is for all the boys. Let it calm you.