Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Full Bellies, Happy Hearts

Hi There! My name is Brian, and this is my first go at writing on Daily-Craft. Last Friday (the 13th), I asked Miss Annette to marry me and she said YES!!!!
Obligatory dorky picture
That night, I told Annette that we were going out to one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Beaujolai in Eagle Rock, but decided to cook dinner myself for the special occasion.
Brian making dinner
Our meal started with tomato basil bisque with grated parmesan and rosemary bread.
The first course
After a recent conversation about how much we
love pork chops and apple sauce, I decided to go on AllRecipes.com to see if anything looked good. One of the first things I came across was "Caramel Apple Pork Chops". I followed the recipe to the letter, but decided to marinate the chops overnight in mixture of apple juice and soy sauce. After frying the chops on each side for about 5 minutes, I baked them with the sauce for an additional 25 minutes at 325 degrees.
Pork Chops!
Pork Chops!
We were definitely pleased... they came out so delicious and moist! I wanted to make this
recipe
for cranberry apple sauce, but couldn't seem to track down any cranberries, so I resorted to a
mixture of half Mott's and half pureed fresh apples and cinnamon, which actually tasted really good! I added french green beans with almonds to complete the main course.
Food with flash
Unlike Annette, I'm not much of a baker. So for dessert, I found a yummy Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix. I topped the warm brownie with Breyer's Chocolate Stripe ice cream, fresh strawberries and a little chocolate sauce.
Desert with too much flash
This simple dessert was ridiculously tasty and provided the perfect ending to our lovely
candlelit dinner.