romantic dinner

I'm particularly proud of the dinner I made tonight! I cleared all the junk off my little table I had until a few weeks ago been using as a homework desk, piled it up on the floor and pulled it out into the living room. I set up a proper table with place setting and candle holders and all that (first time use for some of these wedding gifts!) and had romantic dinner with my husband. Well, as romantic as it can be in our little apartment, but since we normally eat dinner on the couch for lack of a dining room, it was a considerable step up).

Appetizer: crusty homemade flax bread with blood orange olive oil/fig-infused balsamic vinagrette
(My favorite homemade bread so far-mixed white/whole wheat flour with ground flax mixed in- it rose beautifully and got all poofy. Yea! It even has a crust, which is a first for me.)

Main course: mixed greens with red onion, capers, and bacon bits (this is a bit out of character but it made Erich laugh because I usually fight bacon bits tooth and nail) drizzled with olive oil and a raspberry vinagrette reduction sauce. I had fun drizzling it on the plate and pretending I ran my own restaurant, except it didn't look nearly as cool.

Salad was topped with sauteed tilapia and herb-encrusted goat cheese medallions, as Erich named them. This involved chilling the goat cheese, slicing it into little flat discs, coating with herbed bread crumbs, and chilling some more until frying in a pan. I'm trying to recreate something I had in a restaurant, and while it didn't really turn out (as you can imagine they got a little mooshy in the frying pan) they still tasted damn good on the salad after I scooped them out of the pan. Next time I will try baking them, I think.

Dessert: white chocolate creme brulee, which we made from a little box mix, and of course we had to have a competition over who could use the tiny kitchen torch to melt the topping sugar the best. It was a tie! (Not really). He tends to burn the sugar but he gets a better crackle when he breaks it, so it evens out. (Not really).

The best part about this meal was almost all of it was already in the house today; we pick up these little things like creme brulee mixes and then save them for special occasions. Then we forget they are in the cupboard and buy more. And so forth. Since we're moving soon, I've been trying to use up things in the house. All I had to get today was the salad mix, cheese, and heavy cream for the dessert.

Oh, also, a glass each of the most excellent St. Nick's Port from our honeymoon. Perfect.