Valentine's dinner

With Mom & Dad visiting I wanted to do something really fun and special for Valentine's dinner. So I decided to go all red and pink and heart healthy for dinner. We even splurged and had dessert.

Beet risotto

3 medium red beets (reserve the greens for another use)
3 cloves garlic, choppped
4 C chicken broth
1 1/2 C arborio rice

Start about 2 hours before dinner by cleaning the beets and wrapping them in foil along with a drizzle of olive oil. Roast in a 425 oven for 45 minutes to an hour until very tender. Remove from oven, open foil, and let beets cool until they can be easily handled.

When beets have cooled, use your hands or the side of a fork to remove the skins. Either pulse in a food processor or run through a ricer to extract juices and get the beets into very small pieces. In a large fry pan over medium heat add 2 T olive oil. Add garlic and beets and beet juices and cook until garlic is fragrant. Meanwhile, heat the broth (I like to do about 4 minutes in the microwave). Add the rice and cook about 5 minutes to allow the rice to toast lightly and absorb the beet juices. Add 1/2 C broth and continue stirring the rice nearly constantly. Continue cooking adding the broth in 1/4 to 1/2 C increments until rice is creamy and has is no longer "sucking in" the liquid. You can test the doneness by tasting a few grains, it should be very smooth and creamy on the outside with just the slightest resistance as you bite through. It takes about 25 minutes. This is so thick, once its done you can turn off the heat and just leave it on the warm burner to hold while you finish the rest of your dinner, it won't cool much at all.

Salmon with dilly yogurt sauce

1/4 C plain yogurt
2 T fresh dill, chopped
splash of dill pickle juice
fresh ground pepper

At least a few hours before dinner, mix all 4 ingredients in a bowl until smooth, cover and refrigerate until dinner time.

4 4oz. salmon fillets
dried herbs (I have "fish mix" of garlic, salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary that I like to use)

Season salmon well and bake in 325 oven until cooked to your desired doneness. I did about 15 minutes for ours, they were cooked just perfect. My rule of thumb with salmon when they have a nice white liquid sqeezing out of them, they are done just right.

Top the salmon with the dill sauce and some fresh dill to serve.

Steamed spinach

On the plates I had the beet risotto, steamed spinach, and the salmon with the dill sauce garnished with fresh dill. I then served some toasted fresh baked break slices rubbed with garlic on the side.


Drunken raspberries
2 C fresh or frozen red raspberries
1 shot of chambord

Combine in bowl and mix well, cover and set aside at room temperature 2 - 3 hours.
Serve over vanilla ice cream or by themselves. I love to top these with some dark chocolate that I grate over it using my lemon zesting grater.

Blood orange mimosas

6 - 10 blood oranges juiced and strained
1 bottle brut sparkling wine

In champagne glass, fill 1/4 full with blood orange juice, top with champagne.