Valentines Day Recipes

Normally for Valentine's Day, we do small things for each other.  We write sweet letters, leave hidden notes in places, bring the other one coffee in bed, etc..  If we do buy gifts, they're pretty small.  Sometimes one of us makes dinner for the other one, which varies year to year, and other years we'll go out to celebrate.

Keeping up with our normal Valentine's Day routines, I bought Chris a pair of slippers.  He's been complaining about getting up and walking around with his feet freezing, so I thought it was a cute gift that he didn't necessarily ask for.

And he got me beautiful diamond earrings.

Hmph.

Chris's reasoning was that it's the last time he can go 'big' with these kinds of gifts.  After May, our priorities shift with little Miss Hart coming into the world.

But that's okay...even though our gifts are lopsided, which we never actually care about, I know my husband well enough (and he knows me well enough) to know that for him, the way to his heart is through his stomach, and for me...Diamonds are a girls best friend!

Chris came home from work to this in the making :

Apple Onion Pork Tenderloin with glazed carrots and mashed potatoes.  I really wanted to put this on our fancy china and actually plate it so it was really pretty.  I'm clumsy enough as is though, and adding pregnancy instability to that made me decide to just use our every day plates.  It took me about two hours to make this from start to finish, and it was absolutely delicious.  Not just being arrogant here, it really was!  Recipe at the bottom of this post!

After we ate dinner, we had to rush off to Chris's volleyball game.  So romantic, I know!  It's so hard to sit on the bleachers and just watch and not be able to play!  He won all three games (yay!) and then we headed home for dessert.

And as most of you know, I do not bake.  But I did have something fancy planned for dessert.

Banana Foster (sans foster for my preggo self!) fondue.  Eat your heart out Melting Pot...mine was sooo good!!!  Recipe for that at the bottom of this post too.  This one is simple!

So that's our Valentine's Day in a nutshell.  I tried to fatten Chris up, and he dazzled me with diamonds.  So sweet, right?!

Here's the promised recipes.  Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

RECIPES:


Apple Onion Pork Tenderloin:
Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin, cleaned and divided in half. (I saved the second half and will cook that this week with the left over sauce.  You could cook both though if you'd like a bigger serving).
1 red onion, thinly sliced.
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, seeded, and cut into 8 wedges
2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 1/4 cup reisling wine (any sweet white wine will do)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (cut into small cubes) (I just used spread)
1/2 cup chicken stock
8 whole cloves
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose seasoning (I have no idea what this is...I just used my chicken and poultry seasoning, and it tasted fabulous!!)
1 tablespoon black cracked pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

Directions:
Sauce
Combine apple cider, 1 cup of wine, cloves, cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and chicken stock in 1 1/2 quart sauce pan.  Cook on medium high heat and reduce by half.  Remove from heat and set aside.
Preparation
Coat pork tenderloin with all purpose seasoning and press cracked pepper into meat until it's thoroughly coated.
Pre-heat small skillet on medium heat.  When hot, add oil to coat bottom of the pan.  Place pork in pan, and slowly turn meat as it browns.  When its browned, remove from pan and place in a broiler on 350 degrees and set 10 inches from heat.  Cook until the center is 150 degrees (depending on the thickness of your tenderloin, this can take between 45 - 60 mins).  Remove from broiler and let rest (don't cut into it just yet!).
Finish the sauce by removing cloves from liquid, return pan to heat and whisk briskly.  When mixture just begins to steam, not boil, add apple sauce and remaining brown sugar.  Remove from heat and whisk vigorously to blend completely.
Using the same skillet you cooked the pork in, add butter, apples, and red onion slices and return to heat.  Slowly stire ingredients until apples and onions begin to brown.  Remove from heat, add 1/4 cup wine and stir well to deglaze the pan (I skipped the added wine here since it wouldn't be cooked...so I can't say what that part tastes like, but the apples and onions were surprisingly (to us anyways!) delicious!)
Take pork tenderloins and slice in half-inch medallions.  Pool sauce on service plate and place slices of pork so they slightly overlap each other.  Arrange apple and onion mixture around meat.  Pour sauce around apples and onions as desired.
Enjoy!!!

Bananas Foster Fondue

Ingredients:

4 ounces white chocolate, chopped into small pieces
4 ounces caramel
1/2 banana, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp banana liqueur (I left this out, but would try it if I wasn't pregnant!)
1 tsp spiced rum (ditto here!)
desserts for dipping into fondue (I used pound cake, cheesecake, marshallows, rice krispy treats, bananas, and strawberries)
Directions:
Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments.  Stir inbetween each iteration of the microwave, until its melted.
Place banana slices in the bottom of the fondue bowl.
Pour melting chocolate ontop of bananas.
Blend the caramel with the warm chocolate on top of the bananas.
I just enjoyed this from here, but if you're not pregnant : add banana liqueur and rum to the pot and carefully stir the mixture together.
Enjoy!!

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I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar.  Go check out everyone else's yummy recipes!

Happy 4th of July Pie

Hope everyone has a happy, safe, and fun Fourth of July this weekend!

This is just my white chocolate pie recipe topped with strawberries and blueberries.

Doesn't it look delicious?  Trust me, it is!  We had to start our 4th of July celebrations a little early with a slice last night.  So good!

If you try it out for your celebrations, let me know!  Have a great, long weekend everyone!

I'm linking up to these fun parties...go check them out!

No Fail No Bake White Chocolate Pie Recipe

This recipe is honestly, truly, 100% no fail.

How do I know this? I tried to fail. I tried really really hard, and I couldn't.

I don't bake. I can cook, but I do not bake. I used to try. I had a few good desserts and a whole lotta fails. Shortly after we got married, I asked my husband to tell me his favorite dessert. After he went through a list of his favorite desserts from his Granny, his Mom, his Step-Mom, some family friends, some aunts, etc., I decided that I was taking off my baking hat and letting all of the other women in his life that know how to bake so well take care of that part for me. We both appreciate their efforts more this way.

Besides, it's the 20th century. I don't do laundry either, but I run the lawn mower through the fence mow the yard. It's a give and take world...ya know?

So, back to the recipe. I was on the phone with my MIL the other day and she tells me that she's got this great pie recipe that she's going to send to me. My immediate reaction? "Um, you know I don't bake." I love my hubbies family, and I feel no need to cover up my short comings. They all know all about me...for better or for worse, till death do us part!

After she laughed, she told me it was an easy NO BAKE recipe for a delicious pie, and that's why she thought of me. She is one smart lady, I tell ya!

We went to Publix on Sunday evening.

Chris: "Why are you getting white chocolate and a pie crust?"

Me: "I'm going to make you a pie!"

Chris: "Um, honey, you don't bake."

Me: "I KNOW that, but your Mom sent me a recipe for a NO-BAKE pie. How awesome is that?"

Chris: "I'm not sure yet...I'll tell you after I eat the first piece".

We have a strict honesty policy in our house. Unless I specifically ask Chris to lie to me (for example: Subway Art Sign), he has to tell me what he really thinks about all of my projects and all of my cooking. I don't offend easily.

I was tired Sunday night after dinner, but I really really wanted to make this pie. I had so much faith in my MIL that I bought enough ingredients to make four pies for my neighbors as well.

Ingredients:

4 oz. white chocolate, finely chopped

(I cheated and used morsels)

½ lb. cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup sour cream

½ cup heavy cream, chilled

(this might be too chilled)

1 banana, thinly sliced

one ready-made graham cracker crust (9 inches)

Directions:

1. Warm the chocolate in a bowl set over a pot of lightly simmering water. Remove from heat when only partially melted; stir to melt completely.

2. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the chocolate, then the sour cream.

3. Whip the heavy cream until firm; gently fold into chocolate filling.

4. Put the banana slices on the crust, top with the filling, and chill at least 2 hours. If you’d like, sprinkle with grated dark chocolate before serving.

I initially had everything correct, and then started thinking (that's where I go wrong on a lot of things) about my measurement conversions, and for some reason, thought that 1/2 lb of cream cheese was NOT equal to 8 ounces, instead it was equal to 4 ounces. So I went back and doubled everything else (I was already at the end of step 2 when I had this epiphany, so I just added in the sugar, vanilla, and more chocolate all at once.) After I had completed all of that, I realized that I am indeed a moron every time I think, and that 8 ounces is indeed a half a pound, so I softened 8 more ounces of cream cheese and added that, again, to step two, at the very end.

I told you, I tried to fail.

I also have no clue if my version of firm heavy cream is correct. And I'm not sure the difference between whipping and beating. I basically knew how to do steps 1 and 4 and had an epic fail with step 2 and took my best guess at step 3.

Guess what? It turned out delicious!!!! Chris even thought so!!

I did use non-fat sour cream, low fat cream cheese, and splenda instead of sugar. Seriously, scrumptious, so good! So easy, and there's no way you can mess it up. Now, that is my kind of recipe! If you make it, let me know. Thanks for the great recipe MIL. I'm linking up to these fun parties...go check them out!

Four Year Anniversary

I have pictures to prove it...we did absolutely nothing but fun stuff for an ENTIRE day (can you believe it Steph?!)! We've both decided that we're ready for retirement already. Too bad I'm living until I'm 102.

To start the morning off, I made Chris breakfast in bed (yummy strawberry recipe at the end of this post), and printed out and framed our vows that I said to him four years ago. He wrote me this SUPER sweet letter (which I'm not allowed to post...but trust me, that man loves everything about me...including my "frowey hair"!), and got me roses. The 4th year anniversary gift is supposed to be flowers and fruit, so we stuck to that!

So what else did we do you ask?! We went paddle boarding!! (Err...surf boarding? With a paddle...that makes it paddle boarding, right?!)


We have the worlds greatest neighbors and they offered (we didn't even ASK!) to let us borrow their paddle board. We headed out to the Dunedin Causeway. We initially planned on renting a kayak and one of us kayaking and one of us paddle boarding, but then we both got on the paddle board and decided it was too much fun to go solo.


We headed out to Caledesi Island (the island pictured straight out in front of Chris) and rode around on the waves with the board, did a lot of walking and talking, and just had a great day together.

After we came in, we were super hungry from being out in the bay all day, so we headed over to one of our new favorite places, Ozona Blue. We sat out on the deck and ate and had some drinks while listening to a guy play on his guitar. So perfect...even WITH my frowey hair!!


And to cap off the night, I made Chris some more yummy cream filled strawberries. They were seriously so delicious!!


For those of you that are interested in the recipe, just take strawberries and cut off the tops so they lay flat. Then cut the strawberries in two but not all the way down, so that you have somewhere for the cream to go, like this:


For the cream, mix together 8 ounces of cream cheese (I used the low fat kind, still sooo good), 1 tablespoon vanilla, and 1/4th a cup of powdered sugar. I let the cream cheese sit out for a bit to soften. Beat those 3 ingredients together and then put that in either a pastry bag (yeah right, like I have one of THOSE) or in a zip lock bag and cut a small hole in the corner to squeeze out your 'frosting'. And Viola! Beautiful, delicious strawberries and cream. If you try out the recipe, let me know how you like it!

I am so lucky and blessed to be married to such a great and amazing guy. He's so perfect for me, and I love our life that we've created together!

Next post won't be so sappy, I promise!! Happy Tuesday! I'm linking up to these fun parties...go check them out!


I'm also linking up here for the 4th of July!