A Valentine's Day Treat

My husband and I don't normally do something special for Valentine's Day, it's just not our thing. But this year I wanted to do something special. I've been planning to make this menu for a while and thought it appropriate to use it for Valentine's Day this year. Off course, we couldn't dare having a special night alone, as our baby girl reminded us all too well that spending an evening alone is just too much to ask for. In hindsight, the evening was quite special spending it alone with our little girl while the two boys went off to dreamland. 

To start the evening off, I made a delicious Valentine's Day cocktail consisting of cranberry juice, grenadine and vodka, topped off with Prosecco. The recipe calls for one fresh raspberry but I rather used strawberries. This cocktail was absolutely divine, and my husband even liked it, where he normally isn't a fan of sweet drinks. This is definitely a recipe to keep safe!

For starters I made two small appetisers. The first one was roasted cauliflower topped with parmesan cheese and grilled to perfection, served with two dipping sauces, sweet chili sauce and burger mayo sauce. Both went extremely well with the roasted cauliflower. The second starter was mushrooms, hollowed out and filled with tomato and basil pasta sauce, covered with mozzarella cheese, topped with salami slices and baked in the oven. Both appetisers were really delicious, but I quite enjoyed the roasted cauliflower with grilled cheese - easy and on the healthy side!

After the Valentine's Day cocktails were finished, we decided to finish off the bottle of Prosecco, which were really delicious and one of my new favourites. It also went well with the mains I made for our Valentine's Day dinner.

The main meal wasn't too big, with a lot of easy-to-make items on the plate. The meat was beef fillet, wrapped in semi-cooked bacon strips, seared in a pan and baked in the oven. I also made a mushroom sauce to go with the meat. I tried a new recipe but I wasn't a fan, but my husband on the other hand, insisted that I keep the leftovers. Regardless of the mushroom sauce disaster, the meat was delicious and succulently tender.

For the three sides I made baby potato stacks, covered in bacon and parmesan cheese, baked to the crisp in the oven, roasted broccoli florets, grilled as far as it can go - I absolutely love the taste of almost-burnt greens - and finally butternut wheels, roasted in the oven to perfection, topped with pecan nuts, Danish feta cheese and honey. This combination of meat, vegetables and starch was perfect, and an easy and delicious dinner to serve guests. With the little ones seeking a lot of attention during the day and little time to cook a proper meal in our current household, it was the perfect menu, as most things could be prepared beforehand, and just finished off in the oven in time for dinner.  

For dessert I really wanted to make a jellied champagne dessert. To make the dessert is quite easy by heating gelatin, grape juice (to add a bit of sweetness) or sparkling wine and sugar, until dissolved. After combined, pour half of the mixture into glasses with a fresh strawberry (or raspberry), then place in the fridge (not the freezer like I did). The remaining mixture should also be placed in the fridge to chill for an hour. After chilling, the remaining mixture was blended until foamy, then added to the half full glasses. This gave the foamy look on top. Once done, place back in the fridge to chill for about three hours. A very easy dessert and so delicious, almost like eating champagne.

As a second treat, my husband bought one of our regular favourites - lamingtons! It was the perfect chocolate dessert to finish the evening off with.