Happy Valentine's Day!

cBrad and I had a great Valentine's Day.  Brad got me these beautiful roses.  He had placed them in a few different vases so I could see them throughout the house.

I made a few valentine's decorations.  The globes weren't hard to make, just time consuming.  You can find the tutorial here.  The hanging heart was an idea from Martha Stewart that was super easy.  It can be found here.  (Side note: Can you guess which picture Brad took and the ones I took?  I'll give you a hint, mine are the ones with terrible lighting and less artistic flair.)

I tried something new for Valentine's dinner.  I attempted homemade ravioli with a lemon basil sauce.  Yumm.  I don't really have a recipe for it since I kind of went off what I thought would work.  The filling in the ravioli was ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan while the sauce was a reduction of cream, butter, lemon juice, basil, and some salt and pepper.  Maybe because there was enough fat in it to make anything taste good, but I think my creativity was actually better than straight browned butter sauces I read about in my cookbooks.

I also made Brad homemade truffles, carmels, and turtles for Valentine's.  I made them secretly while Brad was in class or at his DAT prep course.  He was completely surprised when I brought them out.

The truffles weren't actually that hard to make.  I had the most difficulty while dipping the chocolate, but that was mostly because I couldn't keep the chocolate at a good temperature.  Here's the recipe for them.

Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate (divided)
3 oz milk chocolate
2 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 teas vanilla

Chop the 9 oz of semi-sweet chocolate and all of the milk chocolate finely and put inside a glass bowl.  Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until bubble form around the edge.  Remove from the heat and add a fourth of the chocolate.  Whisk until smooth.  Pour the cream mixture over the remaining chocolate in the bowl and let sit until chocolate melts (about 30 seconds).  Beat with a whisk until all the lumps disappear and the ganache is smooth (you can also use an immersion blender).  Stir in butter until smooth and then add the vanilla.

Line a deep plate or shallow bowl with plastic wrap leaving overhang on one side.  Pour ganache into the plate/bowl and spread evenly.  Fold the plastic wrap over the ganache, pressing directly onto the surface.  Let cool at room temperature at least 4 hours or overnight.

Once ganache has set, use a small cookie scoop or two teaspoons to scoop small mounds of the ganache onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Put in refrigerator for about 15 minutes or until firm enough to roll.  Then place the chocolate mounds between both palms, squeezing slightly and roll into balls.  Refrigerate until ready to coat.

Using the remaining 3 oz of chocolate (you may need more depending on how thick of a shell you want) melt in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted.  Once melted, let the chocolate cool a little bit so the ganache doesn't melt too much when dipped.  One at a time, dip each truffle in the chocolate with a two-prong fork (a plastic fork with the middle tines broken off works great),  lift the truffle and let excess chocolate drip off.  You can let them dry as is or roll them in cocoa powder, coconut or nuts.


I'm sure from this weekend alone I have gained weight from eating chocolate truffles and fattening ravioli cream sauces, but it's back to lighter meals from now on.  Happy Valentine's Day!