Happy Valentine's Day(s)

Since Valentine's Day fell on a Monday this year, Alan and I decided that we would celebrate by making dinner Sunday. Our menu: roasted lamb, potato and cauliflower dauphinois, steamed broccolini, and Samoa ice cream.

The dauphonois is a recipe by Alan's long time favorite chef, Jamie Oliver, and was so delicious! You begin by simmering heavy cream, milk, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves of sliced garlic, and some nutmeg for five minutes. Just this made the kitchen smell wonderful and I instantly wanted to turn this recipe into a version of mac and cheese. Then in a casserole dish, you layer slices of potato and cauliflower, pour the cream over top, and bake for 40 minutes. After the first bout of baking, you press down on the mixture (use a kitchen towel, it's hot!) and top with Parmesan cheese and bake again for 10-15 minutes until browned. Delicious!

Then came time for ice cream, my favorite! I made Samoa ice cream this year with an entire box of cookies mixed into a coconut ice cream with caramel swirls. By the way, this is NOT Somona approved. :) Alan and I had the best time cooking together in the kitchen, even though it took dinner longer than expected. Monday rolled around and Alan went to work leaving me with a few household things to do and one babysitting job when he tries to figure out when exactly I would be home. Then he kept checking making sure that I was home. I had a pretty good idea of what he was trying to do. So I got home and waited... and waited.... and waited some more. Several hours later I asked Alan if someone was supposed to be coming by and he seemed surprised that no one had yet. So I waited some more. And finally,

The best hubby ever. :)