VALENTINE’S DINNER – CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY MARTINI AND CAPRESE SALAD
We started the evening with Chocolate Raspberry Martinis. The recipe (from a Chambord brochure I had) called for 1 part of Chambord, 1 part of Creme de Cocao, and 1 part of Vanilla vodka. Although they tasted great, they were WAY too sweet. I added a nice splash of tonic water and they were perfect. I didn’t get a good photo of this drink, so I won’t post a picture of it (although I did think about making one right now to take a picture of, but thought it might not be a good idea to drink one at 9:45am!)
Our salad was a Caprese salad. I alternated slices of mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil leaves, and drizzled a good olive oil over the top, then sprinkled with Fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper. Served that with a nice crunchy baguette. I won’t go into detail on this post, but I made the mozzarella. It was my first attempt. It was fairly easy to make, and was good, but not as creamy as I was hoping. I absolutely love this salad. You have to have the basil or it’s just not as good. I think I could eat nothing but this everyday for a month, and not tire of it.
Tomorrow, I’ll post the recipe for the Pasta with Rabbit Ragu, and on Thursday I’ll show you the dessert I made.
Cindy Ruth, I love this salad as well and it is esp. impressive that you made your own mozarella..but then why should I be surprised…after all you are amazing in the kitchen!
This is one of my favourite salads but I only ever make it in the summer when I can get ripe tomatoes – at this time of the year so much of the produce we get is tasteless. Bah
Yummy! I am drooling over the photo of your salad. It looks great. I can’t wait to get my supplies and make the cheese.
Jerry-I would agree with you on the tomatoes, but I buy them at Costco and they’re really good. Even in the summer here I can’t get them any better-it doesn’t get hot enough here to grow them outside. I can’t remember the brand I buy right now, but they’re in a clear box, on the vine, and a little larger than cherry tomatoes.
Barb-Thanks for the nice comments.
Candi-good luck with your cheesemaking. When do you get to your place in Hawaii?
You MADE the mozarella!! WOW, I am sooo impressed. I hope you blog about that someday. I feel the same way. I could eat caprese salad every day. I love this photo. Oh how I would love a bite of your salad right now.
Cindy Ruth, that salad is stunning! Sounds delicious and the colours are so vibrant, I feel like I can reach out and grab a bite off the plate. I am SO impressed that you made the mozza, I had no idea homemade mozza was even possible!
I’m amazed at the quality of those tomatoes in winter. I’m going to buy some next time I’m in Costco. Wonderful photo!
Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I’d like to post about making the mozzarella, but since it’s the March “Curds Our Whey” choice I’ll have to wait until the end of March. I will post about it in the thread on SlowTrav though.
Annie-I remembered the brand of the tomato from Costco-it’s Campari. They’re called Campari on the vine. They sometimes have full-size tomatoes, but they never look as good to me as these do. The taste of these is pretty consistent year round. Much better than most hot house tomatoes I’ve tasted. Be sure and pick the pack up and look through the plastic to the bottom and make sure they’re not smashed, molded, etc. Most of the time the quality is good, but sometimes you need to search around for the best package.