My Valentine's Supper

My husband is wonderful. He cleans up the house, he plays with the kids, he takes out the garbage. However, he does not make supper. At least not any supper that I would care to eat. The man only makes pasta.... lots and lots and lots of pasta, smothered in Alfredo sauce and melted cheese. (I can't believe he doesn't weigh 300 lbs!) I hate pasta, and I love to cook, so it's worked out quite well that I make supper all the time.

When we were dating, he invited me over for supper one time. I got there in the afternoon (luckily) and he asked me what he should make for supper. There was frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, and that was about it. (He lived with two guys at the time... groceries weren't high on their list of priorities.) So we thawed out the chicken and cooked it (with no seasonings) and he made a Bechamel sauce (which is remarkably bland, despite its fancy-sounding name.)

That was 12 years ago, and he's never made me supper again.

This year for Valentine's Day, he informed me that instead of giving me a present, he was going to make supper. As you can imagine, I was a little hesitant. Grateful, but hesitant.

He found a recipe for an Spicy-Sweet Glazed Salmon, and followed it religiously. Last week I showed him how to make sweet potato fries, so he whipped up some of those to go along with the salmon, and I picked up a bag of Asian salad at the store today. The meal was delicious, and we ended it with some Chocolate Pots de Crème that I made from a recipe in the newspaper the other day. (From the same article as the dreaded Chocolate 'Chips & Salsa'.)

CHOCOLATE POTS DE CRÈME

2 c. whipping cream

6 egg yolks

2 tbsp. sugar

zest of one lime

1 c. dark chocolate, melted

Heat whipping cream over low heat. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and lime, and slowly add a little bit of whipping cream, whisking constantly to temper the egg mixture. Gradually add all the whipping cream, and then transfer the mixture back into the pot where you heated the whipping cream. Hold it over a pot of almost-boiling water (just a couple inches of water) and whisk constantly for 15 minutes, or until mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Stir in chocolate and mix well. Pour into six ramakans and refridgerate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. Garnish with fruit before serving.

I had to heat this a lot longer than the recipe said (10 minutes) before it started to thicken up. I also added the chocolate chips right into the mixture without melting them, because I figured they'd melt in the hot liquid. It was a little grainy when I ate it, so perhaps I should have melted the chocolate first. I also needed to use more chocolate than the recipe said, because it wasn't very chocoaltey looking (and what fun is that?). But they turned out nicely, and the hint of lime with the the chocolate was perfect.

It was a perfect Valentine's Day dinner!!