Valentine's Day Dinner

Today was day 28 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. Since it was Valentine's Day I decided t make a romantic Valentine's Day Dinner for my hubby and me. I made a Heartthrob Salad, Pepper-Crusted Filet Mignon with Horseradish Cream, Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic-Shallot Butter, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes (not from the cookbook), and Steamed Lobster Tails (also not from the cookbook, which hubby cooked). I had also made some Chocolate lava Cakes with Pistachio Cream, but we were too full after the other dishes that I didn't cook the lava cakes and they're still in the fridge waiting to pop in the oven. I'll review those as soon as have those.

Since there are several recipes here, you can click on each of the links below to review our thoughts about each of them...

HEARTTHROB SALAD
PEPPER-CRUSTED FILET MIGNON WITH HORSERADISH CREAM
ROASTED ASPARAGUS WITH BALSAMIC-SHALLOT BUTTER
CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKES WITH PISTACHIO CREAM

54 recipes down, 493 more to go.

Salad with Hearts of Palm, Heartthrob Salad

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and Day 28 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT so I decided to make a romantic dinner for my hubby and myself. I chose this salad recipe mainly because of the name "Heartthrob Salad" was the perfect name for a romantic dinner in my opinion. Here's what we thought of this particular salad...

HEARTTHROB SALAD, just ok...

This salad included hearts of palm, plum tomatoes, a very small amount of kalamata olives (which I skipped on my hubby's salad since he hates olives of any kind), parsley, some bib lettuce, a dressing made of white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt & pepper and cloves, and sprinkled with a little bit of Parmesan cheese (which I forgot to put on before I took the picture. I did add it onto our salads later, however).

The "dressing" seemed a bit too wet, and splitting each heart of palm down the middle and having it 2 open slices under the lettuce wasn't very practical since you needed to cut it up anyway. I don't think it made a big difference on the presentation (you can barely see them near the top of the picture), and actually think if you had cut the heart of palm into large slices and mixed it in with the tomato mixture and topped the lettuce with the tomato and hearts of palm sliced would have been a better presentation and made it easier to eat.

The flavor was more of a Mediterranean or Greek flavor, which was ok, but wasn't one of our favorites. I probably would not make this salad again. The portion size, however, was very large, as we've noticed with many of the recipes in this book. It said it serves 2, but realistically it would have served 3-4.

Overall, just an ok salad.

51 recipes down, 496 more to go.

Banana Pudding, Pork Tenderloin Medallions, Mozzarella Tomato & Basil Couscous

Today was day 14 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT and I made Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil Couscous Salad; Pork Medallions with Olive-Caper Sauce; and Banana Pudding. Overall good, but it's all relative to people's personal tastes, likes and dislikes. Read on for our thoughts...

FRESH MOZZARELLA, TOMATO, AND BASIL COUSCOUS SALAD, good, not sure that it was the appropriate side for the pork dish though...

I have never had couscous before, have been a little afraid of it for some reason, but my fears have been laid to rest. This was a good salad, and everyone liked it. I used the leftover buffalo mozzarella from last night's pizza in this, and would probably have liked more mozzarella in the salad. The flavors blended well together, and were mild, nothing was overpowering. This was a cold salad and would have been better served with something other than the pork medallions, but it was good, nonetheless.

PORK MEDALLIONS WITH OLIVE-CAPER SAUCE, excellent pork, the olives and capers were either hit or miss...

This dish I personally loved! However, if you don't like olives or capers, as some people in my family don't like, the dish may not be a favorite. The kalamata olives and capers were added in the last 4 minutes of simmering, so they didn't overpower the flavor of the pork. The pork tenderloin was delicious and very tender, everyone loved the pork, even if they scraped off the olives and capers ;) This was definitely a dish I would make again. Hubby's comment about it was it was good, but not one of his favorites, which is his polite way of saying "you don't have to make this one again". I think if it didn't have the olives and capers he would have been fine with it. As for me, and the rest of the family, we all loved it just the way it was. I recommend this recipe, and it was really easy to make :)

BANANA PUDDING, a winner for everyone...

This recipe was good, but I think it would have been better served cold. The recipe says it can be served warm or cold, and I ended up making it this afternoon so it was still warm when we served it. I made the mistake of buying mini vanilla wafers instead of regular sized vanilla wafers, and didn't realize it until I went to create this dish. I don't think I put enough vanilla wafers on the bottom and middle of the dish, and it could have used more. But other than that, everyone was as directed. When we scooped into the pudding to serve it, the pudding/custard was oozing water, but after we scooped out the first serving, it seemed to evaporate or get dissolved, but went away for some reason. Maybe if the pudding were cold it wouldn't have had the watery consistency to it. At any rate, it was still very good and everyone enjoyed it. And the meringue on top really gave it a nice flavor as well. My hubby even said we could make this in small individual dishes and serve it to our Bed and Breakfast guests, which I probably will, but cold, which will be nice because I can make the pudding itself the day before and just add the meringue and brown the top in the morning. Definitely a keeper recipe for sure.

29 recipes down, 518 more to go (it doesn't seem like the number to go is really moving much, this will be a long project, hope I can finish in a year!)

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough (Bufalina Pizza), Tomato Basil Soup, Field Green Salad

Today was day 13 of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. My parents are here visiting so I got to cook for them as well as my daughter and son in law. I had planned a 4-course dinner with dessert, but by the time we got back from picking them up from the airport and stopping at the grocery store we didn't get home until after 5:00 so I ended up skipping dessert for tonight. We'll save that for tomorrow.

Today I made a Field Salad with Roasted Leeks, Mushrooms, and Feta; Tomato Basil Soup; and Whole Wheat Pizza (Bufalina Pizza, more about that later on).

FIELD SALAD WITH ROASTED LEEKS, MUSHROOMS, AND FETA, a good salad...

This salad was easy to make. You actually roasted the sliced leeks in a tiny amount of olive oil in the oven to brown them. I had a problem with some of them burning and others not browning. Stirring them halfway through the roasting process would have been a good idea. However, they really added a good flavor to the salad. And my Dad, who is not a spinach fan, liked this salad, and didn't realize there was spinach in the salad until I told him. The salad has spinach and arugula in it, as well as mushrooms, leeks, and feta cheese (the picture shown here does not include the feta, I forgot to add it to the salad bowl, so we added it to our plates after we dished it up). I did have a problem finding the dressing the recipe called for. It called for light dill-mustard dressing, which I could not find anywhere. I ended up using a honey-mustard dressing and adding some dill weed to it. It more more heavy on the honey mustard and less of the dill. Wish I could have found the appropriate dressing so I could have tasted it how it was meant, but it was a good salad, and my daughter's favorite of the 3 dishes I served.

TOMATO-BASIL SOUP, a good homemade tomato soup with good flavors...

Almost everyone liked this soup. My daughter is not much of a tomato soup fan so this wasn't her favorite dish. My Dad, who says tomato soup is his favorite soup, liked it a lot. The recipe calls for low sodium tomato juice. I could find tomato juice butn ot low sodium tomato juice. The only thing I could find that was low sodium was V-8 juice. Since V-8 juice is more tomato than any over vegetable, that's what I ended up using. The flavor of the basil isn't overpowering. There is cream cheese in this, and try as I might, I could not get all the tiny little pieces to melt, so my picture is not as pretty as the picture in the cookbook. But this is a good tomato basil soup recipe.

WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA DOUGH (Bufalina Pizza, as I made), a hit with everyone!

The recipe in the cookbook is for Whole Wheat Pizza Dough, just the dough. You can make whatever you want for the pizza itself. There are not instructions in the cookbook on what to do with the dough, how to cook it, what to top it with, etc. There is another recipe in the cookbook for Caramelized Onion Pizza with Gorgonzola and Arugula, which uses this dough, and I'll make that another day in the future.

I made the Bufalina pizza for my husband. We went to Italy this past summer and when we were in Venice we ordered Bufalina pizza (Buffalo pizza). It was the best pizza and best mozzarella cheese we'd ever had. We liked it so much we went back the next day to get it again for lunch. It didn't turn out so well the 2nd time. Long story short... different cook, different pizza. Same ingredients, but you're going to get it however that particular cook decides it should be served, and it was not the same as the previous day. It was good, but not nearly as good since it was prepared completely different.

A little information on what Buffalo mozzarella is... it is mozzarella cheese made from water buffalo milk rather than cow milk, and is officially called Mozzarella di Bufala. It is pictured here, and is softer than regular mozzarella that we've had here in America. When the pizza was cooking the mozzarella was oozing a bit of juices and making the top seem watery, but it ended up evaporating through the cooking process.

Anyway, when my hubby was at Costco the other day he found the Buffalo Mozzarella cheese, imported from Italy, and bought it. I tried to replicate the pizza like we had it in Venice. It had the crust, tomato sauce, whole basil leaves, sliced tomato and the buffalo mozzarella. It was good. We really liked the flavor of the mozzarella, and it is by far the best mozzarella you can ever get. Everyone liked it, and it was a big hit with everyone.

As for the whole wheat pizza dough recipe in the cookbook, it was good. I have another pizza dough recipe that I usually make that we really like (not whole wheat, however), so I was interested to try this one. The crust is more of a medium crust, not thin, but not really thick either. I think I'd make it a little more on the thin side next time. But it was good, definitely worth the little effort it took to make it.

Overall, it was a good dinner, with great company!

26 recipes down, 521 more to go.

Caesar Potato Salad, Chicken with Rosemary Sauce

Today completes my first week of cooking from THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT. I made a Caesar Potato Salad and Chicken with Rosemary Sauce tonight. Here's our thoughts on these dishes...

CAESAR POTATO SALAD, robust flavors!

The dressing in this salad was really strong, and a bit too much of it for my liking. I think if I had marinated the potatoes in it longer (I only had about 1/2 hour of marinading time) the dressing may have been able to absorb a little more into the potatoes and not been so strong, and so much of it, on the actual salad. I would have also liked more lettuce in the salad. I added a little more than what the recipe called for, but would have liked even more. I think shredded Parmesan cheese would also be better than the shaved pieces. It was good, but could have been a little milder. Maybe next time I'd add a little less anchovy paste (yes, you read right... anchovy paste, which is what makes it "Caesar", it has 1 tsp. in the recipe), and a little less balsamic vinegar as well might have toned the flavors down a little bit.

CHICKEN WITH ROSEMARY SAUCE, also good, and worthy of making again...

This recipe was pretty easy to make. It seemed a little on the salty side, but maybe I sprinkled a little too much salt on the chicken breasts before I cooked them. The chicken also took about twice as long to cook as the recipe said, and the sauce cooked down too much. I added an extra tablespoon of chicken broth at the end to bring some of the sauce back, which may have also accounted for the slightly salty flavor, even though it was low sodium chicken broth.

Brian liked both of these recipes. He agreed the chicken was a little too salty, but he liked the flavors, and it was his suggestion to cut down on the balsamic vinegar and the anchovy paste next time, a good suggestion I think I'll try.

16 recipes down, 531 more to go.

Carrot Ginger Soup, Onion Bread Pudding, Spinach Pear Salad

So, today was my first day cooking out of "THE BEST OF COOKING LIGHT". I made 3 recipes tonight... Spinach-Pear Salad, Carrot-Ginger Soup, and Onion Bread Pudding (a meatless main dish according to the cookbook category). Since I was just cooking for 2 of us, I cut all the recipes in half. Here are my comments on all of the recipes...

The SPINACH PEAR SALAD was my favorite...

This was super easy to make, and took less than 10 minutes from start to finish, including making the dressing. I made the dressing while the other dishes were cooking and let it rest to allow the flavors to blend. I thought it had too much dressing so when I plated the salad I didn't add the rest of the dressing from bowl. I loved the flavors of the pears when you ate them with the salad, and they went well with the dressing. But, the recipe was supposed to include red onion pieces and I forgot to add them at the end. Since I'm not a big fan of raw onions I was ok with forgetting them, but it make the recipe not 100% accurate. I would definitely  make this recipe again, and Brian like it as well.

The CARROT-GINGER SOUP, it was good, but a LOT of work...

This soup took an hour of prep work, and then an hour of simmer time, and then a few more minutes at the end to add the final ingredients and puree the soup. The thing I hated the most was having to make ginger juice from ginger root... a total pain... peel the ginger, dice it up, put it in the food processor with some water and puree it. Because it was such a small amount you had to keep stopping every couple pulses and scrape down the sides. Then once you got it pureed you had to put it in a cheesecloth and squeeze out the juices to get ginger juice. The results, however, were absolutely tremendous and the flavors were delicious. It was very good and we liked it quite a bit, but I'm not sure it was worth all the work and effort. But, I guess all good things come at a price, right?

ONION BREAD PUDDING, Brian's favorite...

This was a really easy recipe to make, it only took about 15 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes to bake.

I made these in 2 small individual pie dishes and thought the portions were still a little big, even though according to the recipe this amount would serve two. Brian ate all of his and I ate about two thirds of mine. I really liked the onion flavor on this and thought a little more onion on top would have been nicer. The onions were sweet onions so the flavor was really nice. And there was also some Gruyere cheese in it as well, which I really love. I would definitely make this again, and add a little more onion to it.

We also had some Beringer Chenin Blanc white wine with this meal. We are not wine connoisseurs by any means, and really don't know how to pair wines with our foods, but hopefully we'll learn a little bit. We can usually tell if it should be a red or white wine, but that's about as far as our expertise goes. When we go to our favorite Restaurant, the Black Bear Restaurant in Green Mountain Falls, we usually split a wine pairing with our Chef's Table and we love it when a good glass of wine compliments a meal, but we just don't know how to do that. This was probably the first time we actually 'guessed' right! The Chenin Blanc went perfectly with this meal, we were pleasantly surprised.

So, 3 recipes down, 544 more to go. Will be back tomorrow night with results from tomorrow's dinner.

Bon Appetit!