February Date Night In: Preparations

Happy February everyone! February is typically the time of year when I want to sleep and read all day long. I’m afraid I’m not usually at my best mid-winter. So far it’s been a relatively mild February for Rochester, and it’s not as hard to fight for sanity. Running and yoga and busy boys bring purpose and peace.

So attempting a bit more of an ambitious Date Night In this month didn’t seem completely out of the question. Tonight’s the night, and I’ve already spent several hours this morning doing some prep work. Here’s our menu:

-Grapefruit 75

-White Salad with Pomegranate

-Braised French Green Lentils with Mushrooms and Kale

-Café au Lait Pudding and Cocoa Nib Florentines

This morning I prepped the lentils with homemade chicken broth, cooked the pudding (I can’t think of a single thing that can’t be improved upon with the addition of heavy cream and butter…except perhaps my waistline), and baked the Florentines.

Which was a disaster. We couldn’t find cocoa nibs anywhere and it would have been too late to order online. So I substituted a chocolate bar that contained nibs. This added too much liquid to the batter and the “cookies” turned into a big flat bubbly mess that is reminiscent of James’ states puzzle or, if you look really closely, the Bills logo. (I kid you not--James looked at it and asked why Owen threw up on my cookie sheet.)

Instead of little round, lacy cookies, I ran my pizza cutter through the mess to try to create some angled shapes. Pictures to come later…

Also, apparently there are no pomegranate seeds in Rochester this time of year. The produce man at Mt. Wegmans informed Roy that they are seasonal. I’m not sure how that jives with a salad you’re supposed to be able to make in the winter, but so be it. It’s going to be challenging to find an appropriate substitution, and I suspect dried cranberries will have to fill in yet again (as they did for dried currants last month).

So anyway, we’re off to mixed beginnings here. A full review, including photos, to come soon.

Today’s 1%:

13/50: Memoirs of a Geisha. I’m afraid I have little to no knowledge of Asian culture and customs. (Eating takeout sesame chicken and hanging out with my Korean sister-in-law who does everything she can to escape Korean culture is about the height of my Asian dealings.) So even though this book was fictional, I learned a lot. I found little that was personally compelling, but the book was well-written and, based on my research, fairly accurate from a historical perspective.