Dinner For Valentine’s, Finding Zinfandel.

For Valentine’s Day I decided to use a recipe from Dragon’s Kitchen for Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce. However, upon re-reading it, I decided to use a simpler version of Mousseline sauce. Basically the same thing, but avoiding the necessity of using double boilers, which I no longer have. OK I know I can make one, but this one seemed easier. We used her court bouillon recipe, there isn’t a lot of difference in various court bouillons a leaf here, a herb there, perhaps. For dessert we decided to be lazy and Matt bought a cheesecake for himself and a Lavalicious chocolate cake for me from M & M Meats.

 

 

 

 

 

Matt had to go to the store for some of the dinner ingredients and when he returned he brought me some flowers, unexpected, we had exchanged cards and mostly that’s all we do these days. I just noticed on these pics that my camera is showing the wrong date, so I am going to have to figure out how to alter it, ‘cos I’m damned if I know. Anyway, back to the dinner, I have to say that we were both somewhat disappointed in the Mousseline sauce, didn’t have a lot of flavour at all. Maybe it needed more lemon juice, we couldn’t decide. The salmon was absolutely perfect though and we both enjoyed it. Much to my surprise Matt enjoyed the cheesecake, he is usually so emphatic about only eating plain cheesecake so that was a surprise. As for the Lavalicious, it was good, but not as good as the ones Matt makes. I actually found the cake part a tad dry and if I had not had some whipped cream to eat with it, not sure I would have finished it.

Forgot to say, yes, my legs were aching a bit last night, they are protesting the bowling. Will have to use my treadmill to loosen them up a bit. Another thing I forgot to tell you. Had a call from the LCBO (liquor store) where they had promised to get me some Clos du Val Zinfandel. The girl who was away last week told me she had three cases. I said I would take 3 bottles. Its not cheap, I wish I could afford a case, but…… I don’t now what year, I didn’t bother to ask, we’ll take it anyway. Hopefully with three cases it won’t go too quickly and we can get some more down the line. I asked her about the Rosenblum and she said she would check into it again.

On one of my diabetic emails I came across the following recipe which is right up our street and we will certainly be trying them soon. I also came across a  whole bunch of recipes for Spanish tapas which I will be looking at more carefully, but for now here is the diabetic recipe.

Stuffed Endive Spears

1 whole heads of garlic
4 oz goat cheese, softened
1/4 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)
2 fresh endive, heads , separated into 12 spears
1 pinch fresh thyme (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap garlic cloves in aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes or until tender.

2. Squeeze the pulp from the cloves, discard peels.

3. In medium bowl, combine garlic, goat cheese, and pepper; mix well with fork. (Mixture can be covered and refrigerated up to 48 hours before serving. Let stand at room temperature until softened.)

4. Spoon 2 teaspoons cheese mixture into center of each endive spear; arrange on a colorful serving platter.

5. Garnish with thyme, if desired.

Servings: 12

Have a great day