valentine's day...

michael and i trade off on who is in charge of planning valentine's day. michael came up with the idea about 8 years ago by telling me it was my year to plan valentines :) so, this was my year to plan. but, since we just went to the french laundry restaurant just last week we didn't really need to go out somewhere. but i started feeling like that was kind of a cop out on my turn and decided to plan something else. we have been cooking at home for several weeks now and have really been enjoying it. we've made some wonderful food and it's been fun cooking together. so, i decided to plan a several course meal to cook and have together. then i decided to give it a valentines theme and have all the courses have the same ingredient of chocolate. my own little version of iron chef. except that we weren't competing and there was no way i could do it all in an hour. :) but it turned out so fun and tasted great!

i wanted a soup that was savory, not dessert like. i found a chocolate mexican soup. it was good but not great. i think it just needed more. it wasn't super flavorful, it was just kinda eh.



next course was a baby arugula salad with mangos and a white chocolate sriracha vinaigrette. it was really good! the dressing had great flavor. (recipe here)



the first entree was braised shortribs with homemade tagliatelle and bittersweet chocolate. so so good. our homemade pasta turned out absolutely perfect and the ribs were so tender and wonderful. and the chocolate was a great addition! (recipe here)



the second entree was enchiladas pollo con mole rojo. i'd never had a mole before that i know of and it turned out so amazing. the recipe we used called for the chicken on rice with a side of corn tortillas. michael had the idea of shredding the chicken and crisping up the corn tortillas enchilada style. it was perfect. (recipe here)



the first dessert was a chocolate soufflé. i've always thought that these cakes were hard to make and was surprised at how easy it was! they turned out absoultely perfect. the chocolate was ooozing in the middle. so so yummy. we actually were able to flip it out of the dish but since our ramekins were a little bigger than a normal molten cake size they weren't quite as cute. (recipe here)



the second dessert was homemade profiteroles with coffee chocolate sauce. they were little french ice cream sandwiches. so light and so tasty! (recipe here)



i started the cooking at 5:00 and we didn't finish eating until 1:00am! it was a long time but i was so happy it all turned out so good and was so fun to do. the only thing that wasn't fun was all the dishes. :)

me and my valentine :)