valentine's dinner

So last week I went all out for a wonderful Valentine's dinner with my boyfriend. The semi-ambitious menu included parmesan dirty mashed potatoes, oven roasted vegetables, seared lamb combs finished off with poached pears. At one point there was smoke pouring out of the oven, and the fire alarm went off, but thank God that was from some left over oil burning off; I opened all the windows, turned on the fan and the rest of the night went off without a hitch :)

 Here are the recipes : everything is from memory so the measurements are a rough estimate. just remember to taste as you go!

Parmesan Dirty Mashed Potatoes
*serves 3-4*
 6 red potatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper

1. quarter the red potatoes (make sure they are roughly the same size, so cut larger spuds into 6ths or 8ths so that everything cooks evenly)
2. salt and bring a large pot of water to boil, toss in potatoes, boil for about 15 mins or fork tender
3. drain the potatoes, add butter, cream and parmesan
4. mash the potatoes ( I like mine a little chunky)
5. add salt and pepper to taste

Seared lamb chops
*serves 2-3*
6 lamb chops
olive oil
rosemary
thyme
salt & pepper

1. bring lamb chops to room temp. marinate in 2 tbsp olive oil, liberally sprinkled with the herbs and salt and pepper for 30 mins - 1 hr.
2. coat the the bottom of an oven proof skillet with olive oil and bring med-high heat. Sear the lamb about 2-3 minutes each side.
3. transfer pan to oven to finish cooking, about 7 mins, for a medium rare cooked chop
4. remove lamb from oven and let rest 5 mins before serving

Oven roasted vegetables
1/2 onion
2 leeks
1/2 sweet potato
1/2 red pepper
2 carrots
olive oil
salt pepper
rosemary
thyme

1. preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. cut the vegetables so that they are uniform in size. I did mine in long strips
3. lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet, drizzle ample amount of olive oil and sprinkle generously with the herbs, salt and pepper. Toss until everything is coated.
4. roast for 20 minutes, turn the vegetables every 7-8 minutes so they don't burn.

red wine, pellegrino, candles to set the mood.











Dessert: poached pear and his favorite ice cream, graeter's black raspberry chip

\

Poached Pear
*serving 2* adapted from Alton Brown
1/2 bottle Riesling wine
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
2 Bosc pears (peeled with stems in tact)

1. place everything but the pear into a medium sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium high heat
2. core the pears from the bottom, decrease the heat to medium low heat, place pears in the liquid, cover and simmer for 30 mins or until tender
3. remove pears from liquid, place in serving dish to chill in the refrigerator
4. increase the heat to high and reduce liquid to about 1 cup of syrup, about 30 mins, transfer to heat proof container and chill for 1 hour.
5. Serve pear with a scoop of ice cream. You can spoon the sauce over the pear and ice cream but I didn't because the ice cream was already flavored but just save it for later. I've been eating it over my greek yogurt in the morning.

Hope you guys all had a wonderful Valentine's :)

<3 jo