So Sunday I began devising my plan on what I'd like to do for Aaron for Valentine's day. We don't really celebrate Valentine's, but usually acknowledge the day. One of my favourite Valentine's gifts from Aaron was actually a box of Captain Crunch with a cut out construction paper heart. He got this for me on our 2nd Valentine's together (Feb 2005) after we went on our first trip to California together. I had never had captain crunch before and Aaron introduced it to me on this trip - which I LOVED! He also woke me up every morning in a different way on that trip - one of which was by throwing captain crunch at me.
My plan for this year was to try and cook a really luxourious, amazing meal for him, that would require lots of planning and multi-tasking! So today I began scouting out receipes to create my deluxe meal. Since I'd been in Chilliwack the evening before for dance competitions, I'd missed dinner last night - and looking at all these amazing foods was making me EXTREMELY hungry!!! My stomach was aching, and my mouth couldn't stop watering over these beautiful steaks, different renditions of garlicy mashed potatoes and the numerous triple chocolate dessert receipes. I needed to break for a snack. Snack done - continue on my mission.
I ended up settling on the meal plan:
Appetizers: Crisp Crab Cakes
Entree: Filet Mignon over lobster Boursin Mashed potatoes w/ Merlot Reduction
Dessert: Truffle tarts w/ raspberry and whipped cream
Beverages: complete with lots of wine, including a bottle of sparkling wine to go with dessert!
SOOOOOOOOOOO Excited!!!
Downfall - Have never cooked any of these receipes (aside from the green beans which is just slightly different than the way I generally do my beans)
Positive - Officially starting to feel more confident in the kitchen, and more often than not the dishes turn out pretty good. (Far better than 3rd year University, when we moved into Townhouses complete with kitchens - burnt plenty of dishes and didn't make much of a variety, and what I cooked was generally very under-seasoned). I tend to try out new dishes every couple of weeks, and while I generally like making tweaks to them for the second try, they're still pretty good the first time. And what's REALLY on my side... My organizational skills!!! I set up my grocery list and timeline complete with how I'll be able to accomplish everything and so as to not end up eating at 9pm!!
So I thought I'd copy/paste my lists below and I'll update how it went after tomorrow night!
Grocery List February 14, 2012
| ||||
Produce
|
Dairy
|
Meat
|
Canned Foods
|
Frozen
|
Garlic (have??)
|
1 cup unsalted butter
|
½ lbs lobster meat
|
Strong beef stock
| |
1 Shallot
|
¼ cup salted butter
|
2 (4oz) beef
Tenderloins (filet
Mignon)
|
Panko (Japanese
Breadcrumbs)
| |
Thyme leaves
|
Herbed Boursin cheese
|
½ lbs crab meat
| ||
Rosemary leaves
|
½ cup heavy cream
| |||
1 bay leaf
|
Whipping cream
| |||
Fresh chives
| ||||
2 med/lrg potatoes
| ||||
Green cabbage
| ||||
2 limes
| ||||
cilantro
| ||||
Red pepper
| ||||
3 carrots
| Dry Food | |||
Red onion
|
Bread/Cereal
| |||
Green beans
|
Baking
| |||
Lemon zest
(2 lemons)
|
1½ C fine chocolate
Wafer crumbs (from
Oreo cookies or
choc wafers)
| |||
Raspberries
|
8oz 70% bittersweet
Chocolate (good quality)
|
Condiments
| ||
Scallions
|
1 cup cocoa powder
|
Grapeseed Oil (sml)
| ||
Wax/parchment paper
|
White pepper
| |||
Kosher salt
| ||||
Old Bay Seasoning
| ||||
Beverages
|
Sweets & Snacks
| |||
Merlot Wine
| ||||
Champagne
| ||||
Thursday, October 11, 2007
| ||||
Ingredients for: Filet Mignon & Mashed potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, chocholate truffle tarts
| ||||
Crab cakes
| ||||
Dinner Menu:
- Appetizer: Crisp Crab Cakes
o Prep: 20min, Inactive: 30min, Cook: 10min
- Side Dish: Green Beans w/ Lemon and Garlic
o Prep: 5min, Cook: 12min
- Dinner: Filet Mignon over Lobster Boursin Mashed Potatoes w/ Merlot reduction
o Prep: 40min, Inactive: 10min, Cook: 1hr5min
- Dessert: Truffle Tarts w/ Raspberry
o Prep: 20min, Inactive: 2hr
Timeline:
- Wake up go to gym and go shopping
o Everything wine: pick up CyT Merlot & bottle of bubbly (or more for wedding)
o Peninsula Village:
§ Try the seafood & meat shop (if not good go to save on area!)
§ Produce Store
§ Safeway/Save-On
- Go Home and start preparation cooking!!
o Dessert Truffle first
§ Set up the muffin tins w/ chocolate wafer crumb mixtures
§ Make truffle mixture and fill all the cups
§ Smooth tops and refrigerate for 2 hours
§ Could attempt to make a raspberry coulis
o Make Crab cakes
§ Make the crab cakes then put them in the fridge until time to fry them up
§ Takes about 10 mins to heat oil and cook the cakes (5:15ish??)
o Make Reduction for Filet Mignon
§ Sauce can take about 20min to make/reduce – once done allow it to rest in a warm place
§ Peel and cut potatoes so they’re ready to go
- Clean up house, clean up myself – put something sexy on!!!
- Go Time!!
o Get Potatoes on and boiling
o Saute up lobster meat for potatoes (potatoes est. total time = 20min?)
o Serve up crab cakes (10 min)
o Start boiling water and getting prepared for green beans
o Cook filet mignon (4-5min stovetop; 6-8min in oven = 15min)
o Add cheese to mashed potoates
o Season green beans as directed
o Serve Dinner
o Make whipped cream and serve w/ dessert
Now the real question - how will my meal end up looking compared to the pictures?!
No comments:
Post a Comment