Easy Valentine’s Sweetheart Dinner
Posted on January 31, 2015 by bob in GPlenty
Valentine’s Day usually brings to mind a lovely bouquet of flowers and an expensive dinner at one of the restaurants you rarely visit. Here’s a different idea for a great meal that only requires a little time, and a level of difficulty so low, it’s hard to measure. It’s a great meal for you gentlemen to prepare, and you’ll get rave reviews from your Valentine.
Think of dessert first, since this is Valentine’s. Either purchase or bake a small loaf pound cake, and make this delicious sauce to accompany it. You can make the sauce a couple of days in advance and store in the refrigerator.
Sauce:
Place the following in a saucepan:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can Hershey’s chocolate syrup
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
Heat the saucepan containing all ingredients over low heat till the butter melts, stirring well until everything is well mixed. Remove from heat and serve immediately over the pound cake, or store in the refrigerator and heat in the microwave before serving.
On Valentine’s Day, purchase a whole deli chicken. Place it in the oven at about 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes; just enough to get it warm or keep it warm if it’s purchased and brought straight home. Next, make rice (instant is always a choice), using chicken stock for part or all of the liquid, and add a squeeze of lemon. Lemon gives it a nice flavor and “kicks it up a notch”, as Emeril says. Then make the salad.
Winter Salad:
6 cups of Romaine lettuce, washed and broken in bite-size pieces
3 slices cooked bacon
1 apple chopped
1pear chopped
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
Put salad ingredients together, adding feta at the last along with the dressing. Brianna’s Poppy Seed dressing is a good choice, adding balsamic vinegar to taste. Pour over salad.
Serve the meal in front of a crackling fire, or with candles at the diner table Either way, use pretty dishes and stemware and have flowers at the table. This simple but delicious dinner is a winner. Food and flowers… they’re never out of style for Valentine’s! Enjoy!
Kittie Williams and Ginny Gaines are friends in and out of the kitchen, residing with their families on Signal Mountain, TN.
