Surprised My Wife With A Four Course Meal
Happy Valentine’s Day! I love my wife, even more than the television program Lost and the San Francisco Giants. Although the naysayers will call Valentine’s Day a Hallmark holiday, I don’t care. It’s an excuse to treat each other extra special, and if you want to, you can make it really fun.
I keep a calendar for the things I plan to do for this project, and on the calendar for today, it says “Cook Lobster Newburg”, but instead of making just one thing I’d never made before, I made four. My whole plan was to surprise J with a dinner of several of her favorite foods.
For the first time ever, I made a French Onion Soup. I cut and cooked the onions. My eyes were burning when I was cutting them because there were so many. I put in some broth and wine, threw in some spices and brought it to a boil. Then, I simmered it for twenty minutes. I toasted bread and grated some Gruyere.
I topped a bowl of the soup with the toast and cheese, and after a few minutes in the oven, it looked good enough to eat.
To complement the soup, I prepared a Caesar salad. I had never made Caesar salad dressing before. I excluded anchovies and mustard because J is not a fan of those things.
Next, I made the Lobster Newburg. I steamed the lobster much like I did last month. I removed the meat and shredded it.
The sauce was simpler than I thought it would be. It was basically butter, cream, eggs, and madiera (with a few spices thrown in as well).
I know the lobster itself would’ve been sufficient as the main course, but I decided to go even bigger with it by making it surf and turf. I cooked a filet mignon and mushrooms plus added a side of asparagus. Then I put the lobster on top of puff pastry.
After the main course, I also used the extra puff pastry I had to make apple turnovers. I added vanilla ice cream on the side.
I felt like this was a very successful dinner, and J was surprised, which in the past has been very difficult to pull off. I have to admit that I thought all the food turned out well. It was fun to make, and I think I could easily make any of these again.
I hope you all had as great a Valentine’s Day as I did.
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