Sweet Love and Ginger

Romance

Valentines Dinner for Two

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So as it turns out Chuck and I may or may not have waited too
long to get reservations anywhere for valentines (read: I am super indecisive).
So we are probably going to just stay in. Don’t worry I will talk him into taking
me out another night, since I have an amazing new dress sitting unworn in my closet.

Over the years I have written about a number of our “date
night menus”, there is this in depth one from 2013, and this compilation of 5 recipes (Gluten free, chicken main course, beef main course, Seafood, and
Vegetarian) just from Valentines. This time around I went a little lighter. I just
chose recipes that we are loving/craving right now and went with those. Now all
that needs to be done is to find a nice bottle of wine and some candles.
Salad: Greens w/ Honey Mustard Dressing
Soup: Roasted Red Pepper Soup
Main: Scallop & Bacon Carbonara

Desert: Homemade Icecream & Brownies

Penne Con Finochietto: Fennel Sausage & Sun dried Tomato Pasta

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Fennel Sausage & Sun dried Tomato Pasta

This is from one of my many favorite restaurants in Downtown Saratoga Springs. This is where Chuck took me for my Birthday Dinner, the sweetie.

It’s one of those sultry, dark little places that’s always has light jazzy music in the background and is full of the sounds of clinking glasses. It’s perfectly romantic and the food is to die for. Every time we go there is something different on the menu or in the specials that makes our little hearts just flutter, whether it be a braised rabbit, hydroponic lettuce, homemade pasta, quail stuffed with sausage & herbs, a bowl of pasta piled high with seafood or even just the bread they put on every table. It’s all so good.
Also if it happens to be your birthday, be prepared for one of those impeccably dressed waiters to feed you your first bite of desert after a whole group of them sings to you in Italian. It’s totally embarrassing, you’ll be red, but it’s ok even the free lemon gelato they give you if you don’t order desert is amazing, so just go with it.
This dish is my own take/imitation on one of their dishes, the one in fact that I had on my birthday. It was pretty amazing, and seemed so simple I had to give it a try in my own kitchen.
I did in fact buy a full pound of sausage, but the rest was popped into some breakfast burritos for us to finish out the week, since I’m trying really, really hard to actually eat a full healthy breakfast, and something more than a granola bar and tea.

Fennel Sausage & Sun dried Tomato Pasta

 

All in all I think I was able to successfully recreate their dish, it was as easy as I thought, and absolutely delicious. I think it may become another one of those staple meals I make around these parts.
Penne Con Finochietto: Fennel Sausage & Sun dried Tomato Pasta
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 Servings
Ingredients
  • ½ lb mild Italian sausage
  • 1 small fennel bulb, chopped
  • 1/3 cup diced oil packed sun dried tomatoes
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 ½ cups cooked pasta (aldente)
  • Fresh grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish)
Instructions
  1. In a large skillet cook the sausage until browned.
  2. Drain well and add fennel. You may need to add a touch of oil to stop the fennel from
  3. sticking. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the fennel begins to brown, stirring and
  4. breaking up the sausage.
  5. Add the sun dried tomatoes, rosemary, and cook for an additional minute.
  6. Add the wine and cook for another 2-3 minutes until it has reduced to half.
  7. Adjust seasoning and add pasta to the pan; cooking for just a few seconds, while tossing all the ingredients together.
  8. Serve immediately topped with Parmesan cheese. (Serves 2)

5 Awesome Valentines Day Menus to Prepare at Home

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Valentine ’s Day is a day
for love.

It’s also a day that makes
card stores, candy companies, restaurants and jewelry stores million of
dollars.

I don’t mean to be a Negative
Nancy about the whole thing. Having an extra day to celebrate love is pretty awesome;
I just hate how it’s all about spending money (isn’t everything?).

The last few years Chuck
and I have opted for something a little lower key for the big day. We don’t
bother trying to get reservations; we would have to know what we felt like
eating about 2 months in advance which is simply not possible. We choose not to
do gifts, we have so much already. Instead of all of those things we usually
have a quiet night in with a somewhat fancy homemade dinner, a bottle of wine,
and snuggling on our couch. 

In honor of the holiday I’ve put together a few easy dinner menus, including
the links to all of the recipes on My Recipe Magic. I chose to use My Recipe Magic for a couple reasons. Mainly because of the Menu feature. At the bottom of each recipe is an “add to menu” button, which allows you to collect a group of recipes into one list. Once you have all of your recipes
chosen you can then click on the menu tab at the top, and see them all in one place. From here you can click on the “make a shopping list” button to get a PDF shopping list of everything you will need to prepare your chosen recipes. If your interested you can also see the nutrition values, and points. I mean how convenient is this?

Each of the menu’s below is meant to be a four course meal with a little something for everyone. I know that a lot of people are afraid to put together a meal with all these courses, but there are a lot of ways to make it easy. For starters I tried to choose recipes that were easy to prepare, and quite a few that can be prepared in advance. Give it a shot, and definitely mix and match to create your perfect menu.

Glutten Free

Insalata Caprese // Easy Cheesy Potato Soup // Butternut Squash & Spinach Risotto // Cheese Cake bites

  Chicken

Garlic Soup // Spinach & Apple Salad with Sweet Italian Dressing // Spinach & Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken with Rice // Basil & Strawberry Meringues

Beef

Simple Salad w/ Dijon Vinaigrette // Carrot & Ginger Soup // Blue Cheese Stuffed Steak with Roasted Potatoes** // Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

Seafood

Crab & Red Pepper Crostini // Spinach Soup // Linguine with Clam Sauce // Triple Chocolate Biscotti & Tea



Vegetarian
Carrot & Beet Salad with Spicy Mustard Dressing // Irish Roasted Shallots // Tortellini with Pesto Cream Sauce // Maple Creme Brulee

Simple Summer Date Night

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When I think of summer, I think simple, and that was the
theme for this date night.

I didn’t bother with a table cloth, or a flower arrangement.
We ate outside, because it was cooler than inside, and then I didn’t have to
clean the house. I put a fat candle on a plate in the middle of the table and
put a few daisies from the yard around its base. I put our regular dinner
plates down, mainly because I’m not fancy enough to have china, some homemade
cloth napkins, and a carafe of chilled white wine. Then I served dinner.

Summer is a time for little sleep, hard work (for those of
us in construction in the northeast), and lots of playing outside. I wanted
just one special night to share with Chuck, after weeks of dinners on the road,
quick grilled, or over the fire, and looking at my generally un-groomed
stressed out self I wanted to show him how appreciative I am that I don’t
always have to be perfectly manicured, cleaned, and coiffed for him to tell me I’m
beautiful. I did take the time to actually shave my legs, put on some make up
and (gasp) straighten my hair, for the evening, along with cook him a dinner
especially suited to his tastes.

I’m sorry I have no pictures of the night, it was a blog/work
free zone, but I thought that you might like to see what I served to my very
special man on our date night in.

 

Soup: Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Salad: Fresh Garden Greens with Creamy Pesto Dressing

Entre: Shrimp & Parsley Ravioli with Red Pepper Scampi Sauce

Desert: Strawberry & Ginger Sorbet: 2 Cups fresh
Strawberries, 1 tsp ground ginger, splash of lime juice, blended and frozen.  

Virtually everything but the ravioli was made ahead of time
so it was a pretty easy dinner to piece together, and with the sun setting
behind us, and little Brody happily chewing on a bone at our feet it was a
pretty perfect night.

Valentine’s Day Table settings

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I am getting excited for Valentine’s Day. We are planning on a simple evening at home, but I still want to make it a little special with a romantic table setting. I am using these as my inspiration.
I like the rose petals and the chalk board paper in this one.

I like the idea of strawberry dipping. That could be very romantic.

I just love this idea.