A Very Special Night...And a Recipe

Last week I mentioned that hubby and I were celebrating our fifth anniversary and shared...oh...a hundred or so wedding pictures with you.
 It was fun taking a little trip down memory lane and recalling some of the humorous situations and moments!

Since we've moved to a new town (when am I going to stop saying "new"? It's been almost a year already!), we don't tend to go out much as couple, mainly due to not knowing any babysitters and having no family nearby. I'm one of those freaky parents that has to know the sitter better than my right hand before I will trust them with my children, so...we don't go out much.

When we were trying to come up with some ideas on how to celebrate our anniversary, we decided that instead of going to a nice restaurant as we have done in years past, we would bring the restaurant home and create our own special meal for each other.

We both love to cook for special occasions, but through our long five years together (haha), we have discovered we do NOT, under any circumstances, work well in the kitchen together!

So in order to keep things peaceful and lovely, we each created three courses and essentially stayed out of the other person's way while he/I cooked.
 It worked out fantastically.

In fact, I would say this has been the most enjoyable anniversary yet!!

And because we're dorks, of course we had to take pictures of everything.

We set up a little round table in our room, complete with freshly ironed black and white linens.

 Our bedroom is the only room in the house we've renovated and actually really like, so it seemed like a great choice.  

And, have I mentioned, our bedroom is the only room in the house with a fireplace?

A decorated Christmas tree added some nice ambiance...

...together with some candlelight and pretty, glittery flowers...

 Hubs wanted to create an amuse buche, so he whipped up some scallop ceviche.

It. was. amazing. Bite sized yumminess.

I made parmesan tuile cones filled with a mixture of ricotta, crispy prosciutto, melon and green onion.

They were surprisingly easy to put together!

I'll add the recipe at the end of this post, so can try them yourself.

Hubs wanted to have a deconstructed salad of some sort, so he deconstructed a Greek salad.

It was sooo good.

He said his motivation was the sticks of feta.

Hubby loves feta, and that, my friend, is quite an understatement! 

When I read about Karen from The Art of Doing Stuff making her Smoked Tomato and Roasted Pepper Soup, I knew right away that I was going to make it for this course.

Let me just say this...if you like a bit of kick to your soup, you must try this recipe!!! 

The cilantro cream dollop and chipotle tortilla crisps absolutely MAKE the soup.

Hubs working away in our teeny tiny kitchen, getting ready for the piece de resistance...

Lobster ravioli with crab cream sauce.

Oh my. It was so AMAZING.

He cooked the lobster and make the pasta from scratch...and that sauce...oh my.

Even three days later, the leftovers were incredible.

Why were there leftovers, you ask?

Well, in spite of the fact that we ate slowly and dinner last three hours or so...after five courses, you do tend to get a little full.

 Oddly enough.

Eventually we found room to finish everything off with a light dessert of Raspberry Truffles drizzled with a raspberry lime sauce, and chocolate cream filled strawberries. 

It was dee-lightful. 

It was definitely an evening to remember!

If you have a special occasion coming up and are wondering what to do...hopefully we have sparked some creative ideas for you!

Here is the recipe for the Parmesan Tuile Cones 

slightly adapted from The Essential Fingerfood Cookbook.

5 oz. Parmesan, finely grated

pinch of paprika

5 oz. ricotta cheese

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 1/2 Tbsp. milk

3 Tbsp. fresh, thinly sliced green onions,

 3 slices prosciutto

1/4 cantaloupe cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Use a 2 3/4 in. circle cutter as a guide, by placing on baking paper.

Spread 3 tsp. parmesan and a touch of paprika around evenly within the cutter, then carefully lift the cutter off, making sure to keep the parmesan round in tact.

Repeat for each tuile.

Bake only 3 -4 at a time, for 3 minutes or until the parmesan is melted and golden.

Carefully remove from baking sheet with a spatula, and wrap around the end of a cream horn mould to form a cone shape. Cool.

If the rounds start to harden too quickly, return to the oven for a few seconds to soften again.

Beat the ricotta cheese, lemon juice and milk in a bowl until smooth.

Stir in most of the green onions, salt and cracked black pepper.

Grill the prosciutto until crisp, allow to cool and then break into small pieces.

Spoon the cheese filling into a small ziplock bag and squeeze into a corner.

Twist the top of the bag and cut off the corner tip to form a piping bag.

Carefully fill the cones with the ricotta filling, then garnish with melon, green onion and crispy prosciutto.

Savor slowly and enjoy!!