By the time this posts, I hope that I have seedlings of tomatoes and peppers popping up in the green house.   I cannot wait to get out and garden especially after the two weeks of snow and below average temperatures here.  (We were below freezing from February 9 to February 19.)

We had ten days below freezing which was, of course, a new record.

I don’t want to dwell on the state of February.  Thank goodness it was the shortest month of the year.  I am grateful that we did not lose power or water so I need to quit griping because I know a lot of people endured much worse.

 

Let’s start off  by talking about Valentine’s Day.  Of course, we stayed in and I wanted to cook an unforgettable dinner.   I revisited a memory from long ago.

In 1992 or 1993, I made Champagne Chicken for my new boyfriend.   I believe it was one of the first meals I cooked for him.  I was teaching HS English at the time and I went to the Home Ec. teacher (now called the Family and Consumer Science teacher) for some ideas.  She handed me a Southern Living cookbook and told me that she was sure I could find something romantic in it.  I went to the “February” section and found “A Champagne Dinner for Two.”  (Confession, I apparently never returned the book because I recently found it again during a cookbook organizing day.   Sorry ’bout that.)

Here’s the full menu from our Valentine’s dinner.  Most recipes were taken from Southern Living 1986 Annual Recipes.

Chicken with Champagne Sauce

Almond Wild Rice

Steamed Green Beans with Butter

Ciabatta Rolls

Amaretto-Chocolate Mousse

OK–to sum up, this meal was OK but was not as I remembered.   First of all, the instructions for the chicken dish were a bit convoluted.  By the time the chicken was done, the mushrooms were cold.  I started the rice too early and it was a bit on the chilly side as well.  Honestly, the best dish was the “steam in the bag” green beans that I tossed with butter and balsamic vinegar.  Ooh, and those ciabatta rolls.  They were delicious.   

This photo shows a terrible messy plating.   I was just uninspired by the time the meal was done.

I started the Amaretto-Chocolate Mousse recipe before realizing it contained totally raw eggs.  I stopped and morphed the melted chocolate into Amaretto-Molten Lava cakes.

All in all, The Hubs was a good sport and he did state that he remembered the long ago meal.   I do want to revisit the chicken recipe and get it right.  And, those lava cakes deserve a posting at some point.

 

My BFF sends a care package on most holidays and Valentine’s Day is no exception.  We’ve been mailing books back and forth since last March and she returned some to me and sent me some new reads.   Stuffed among the books was this lovely tea towel set.  

She is the best!

Look what I scored recently.  Our local grocery store had them.  

Do you know how hard these are to get?   I am stocking up for summer preserving.

I’ve been participating in a lot of virtual Yelp events.  I’ve been introduced to some great people, places and products, the latest being The Té Spa.   This small company out of Boston focuses on inventive herbal teas made with the very best and freshest ingredients.  I was lucky enough to win a $100 gift card to Té  and I ordered up some delicious brews.

I received their Golden Chai (a totally herbal blend that contains chamomile and bay along with some more traditional spices), Lavender Té  (lemon balm, lavender, hibiscus, jasmine flower, and ginger),  BeauTé (lemon grass, lemon balm, peppermint, lavender, rosemary, hibiscus, rose hips, chili flakes and stevia), some butterfly pea flowers, and mint tea.  The coolest thing is that Alexis, the owner, not only gave great tips on brewing tea, but she also made cocktails.    Here’s the Double Mint Mojito she presented:

I had no fresh mint and no fresh limes to garnish.  🙁  This was still a very refreshing drink.  I think it will make a great mocktail for summer.The coolest thing she showed us was a cocktail using the butterfly pea flower.   When you add lemon juice to butterfly pea tea it turns purple!   (Did you know that matcha and Butterfly Pea flowers are in the same family?)

If you’re a tea aficionado, I hope you check out The Té Spa.

 

Recently, I found out that for $35 you could order a $50 Penzey gift card.  As soon as I found out, I bought one.  The strange thing was that they actually mailed you the card—kinda’ retro.  As soon as I got the card, I went shopping on their website.  Someone had given us a Penzey gift box when we got married and I have sporadically shopped their site (but it’s been a LONG time).  The most exciting thing was they had their Justice spice blend on sale for $1!!!!   I also ordered hot chocolate mix, epazote, tandoori seasoning, dried shallots, California sweet basil, Pico Fruta, sandwich sprinkle and pasta sprinkle.  I have been wanting to try epazote in beans for a long time.  I thought I might have to wait until another trip to NM to pick some up.

BTW, that Justice spice is amazing.  It’s a powdered blend of shallots, garlic, onion, green peppercorns, chives, and green onion.  I used some last night in some guacamole.  I used it on scrambled eggs this morning.   I’ve also topped baked sweet potatoes with it.   I will be sprinkling it on everything!  We can always use more Justice in the world.

 

For my curve ball today, I wanted to post this photo from our recent snow storm.

 

Be safe and well!  See you in April!

 

“In My Kitchen” is hosted by Sherry’s Pickings.   Please hop on over there and check out what’s happening in kitchens around the world.