It is always time to celebrate your love by making food together. Certain foods excite our senses through a combination of taste, texture and appearance.   Some images that come to mind are chocolate, caviar, strawberries, champagne, oysters, flowers, asparagus, Cupid and a candlelit romantic dinner.  

If you are the cook, try to get prepared early in the day, so you have little preparation and work during the dinner.  These selected recipes are perfect for making the meal in advance and leaving you to enjoy the dinner instead of being in the kitchen. Serving sizes should be smaller, so the food excites and arouses you, rather than leaving you feeling overly full and tired.

My menu will please all the senses, since it uses an exciting combination of colors, aromas and textures.  Drink just enough wine or champagne to lower your inhibitions, but not enough to put you to sleep or worse behave in a way that you may be embarrassed about the next morning!

Start with small lighter appetizers of your choice making sure you don’t overindulge. Caviar, oysters on the shell and a glass of champagne are perfect before this meal.  The first course is the sweet Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Soup that looks fantastic and has a delicate sweet flavor that won’t overpower your meal.  Prime Veal Chop with Pesto and Feta Cheese is an elegant choice for your romantic dinner. The prime (French cut) veal chop is one of the most delicious and sophisticated cuts of meat.  Both the pesto and feta cheese enhance this tender beef.  Keep it moist by not overcooking and using a thermometer.  The best flavour comes when it is cooked to a medium temperature of about 135 ° F.

The side dish of Wild Mushroom and Asparagus Risotto with freshly grated parmesan cheese is the perfect accompaniment to the veal and you’ll love my simple technique of preparing the risotto. No more standing over the risotto and stirring it for what seems like endless minutes.    

And finally Valentines Day could not be complete without chocolate.  Women have intuitively known for years that chocolate and pleasure work well together.  Chocolate has a chemical that provides a euphoric feeling and a sedative, which relaxes and lowers inhibitions.  These Chocolate Mud Pies with a side of fresh strawberries are the perfect finale to this romantic and delicious dinner.

Enjoy!

Rose

Dinner Menu

Red and Yellow Bell Pepper Soup

Prime Veal Chop with Pesto and Feta Cheese

Wild Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan and Asparagus (New from Rose Reisman Family Favourites)

Chocolate Mud Pies