labor of love

Ohhh how I love Valentine's Day! Always have, always will...as a little kid I loved the chocolate-filled hearts and arts and crafts projects that came with making your own Valentines, and as a single twentysomething I love having an excuse to eat sweets, drink wine, and cook our annual Valentine's Day Dinner with Miel and Cherry Cupcake.

Recipes and more after the jump!

Before heading out to a party at Kings Head Tavern (which is, might I add, a pretty trusty low-key neighborhood spot), we cooked up something delicious!

Here are the recipes we used:

First, to go with the red wine we absolutely needed to drink, we cooked beef - very simple, salt, pepper and seasoned salt in the grill pan. We topped this with a red wine sauce, paired it with the Barefoot Contessa's parmesan roasted asparagus (I used to hate asparagus but together Ina Garten and my mother turned me into an asparagus LOVER with this recipe!), and Miel's family recipe for sweet potato mash:

-Around one potato/person, choose smaller potatoes (about 2.5" in diamater, 7" long)
-1-2 T butter
-Brown sugar to taste
Preheat oven to 350. In a large pot, boil enough water to cover the potatoes. Once water has come to a boil, add potatoes and boil until soft (30-40 minutes). Pierce them with a fork or knife to check them. Halve lengthwise, then horizontally. Heat butter on medium heat in a pan and place potatoes, skin side down in butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cook for 5 minutes, flip, and repeat. Flip-flop the potatoes a few more times, careful not to burn the sugar! Place in a baking dish, mash 'em up (but not too much), bake for 25 mins.

Here's the finished product:

We were too hungry to set up a fancy photo shoot, but you get the idea! This made for a great VDay dinner with my two most important Valentines :o) And a perfect starter for the amazing Pinisi cupcakes Miel brought home. Maybe next time we won't wait a full year before cooking this up again!

xx

Cannelle