Forget You Not Valentine

I hope you all enjoyed the day of love!  I know I did. :)  I love receiving valentines in the mail and even more so love sending them.  I am a little frustrated though with the postal system as I have heard not all of my valentines made it to their recipients in time.  Oh well...hopefully they will be there today. 

So this year I told B instead of buying each other gifts, let's make something homemade (I was secretly hoping he would write me a song.  How vain am I?).  I saw the perfect idea for him in a magazine and was so excited to execute. 

He loved it!  I filled it with trinkets from different trips and pictures from way back when as well as a gift card.  Sadly, my husband did not stick to our deal, so no new song.  Fortunately though he got me a little something I have been eyeing for some time now, so he did good. :)  After our little gift exchange it was time for a little bubbly!  We had the Sofia when we visited Coppola this summer. Yum!

Next up, the meal.  I was a little nervous trying two new recipes, but they were fabulous!  I should have known you can never go wrong with recipes from Claire Robinson.  Love her!  Check out the recipes below.

HERB CRUSTED SALMON

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh dill
• 3 to 4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon
• 4 to 6 (6-ounce) center-cut salmon fillets

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Blend the tarragon with bread crumbs, salt and pepper, to taste, in a food processor, pulsing in the dill last. Remove and stir in just enough melted butter to create the consistency of wet sand.

Pat the salmon dry and season on all sides with salt and pepper, to taste. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a large saute pan and sear the salmon, flesh side down, over medium- high heat, about 2 minutes. Do not crowd pan. Flip and top each fillet with the herb/crumb mixture. Put the pan in the oven and bake until the fish flakes with a fork. About 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer the fish to a platter and serve immediately.

Twice Baked Rosemary Blue Potato Mash

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 6 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• Kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups crumbled blue cheese (recommended: Shropshire blue)

Directions

Butter a 6 to 8 cup shallow baking dish.

In a small saucepan, heat the butter, garlic, rosemary and pepper, to taste, until the butter is melted. Allow it to sit over very low heat to infuse flavors and keep hot while cooking the potatoes.

In a large pot, add the potatoes, cover with water and add a heavy pinch of salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat and simmer the potatoes until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Immediately drain the potatoes and then put them back into hot pot over very low heat, to dry thoroughly. Next, pass them through a food mill over a bowl. If you don't have a food mill, you can hand mash or use a ricer.

Preheat the oven broiler.

Remove the smashed garlic from warm butter and whisk in about 1 cup of the blue cheese. By hand, mix the cheese sauce into the potatoes and season with a little salt and pepper, to taste. Spread into the prepared baking dish and top with remaining cheese. Broil until the cheese is golden and melting, about 3 minutes. Remove the potatoes from the oven and serve.

So all in all, a fabulous Valentine's Day.  As good as the food, libations and giftage were, the highlight for me was afterwards just sitting around singing and listening to the man I love play the guitar.  I don't know if our neighbors would agree though. :)  Our rendition of Cee Lo Green and Gwyenth's Forget You did get a little loud...