Filed under: cake recipes
Although the holiday may have been invented by Hallmark, Valentine’s day is still the best opportunity of the year to spend some time with your significant other. While many people go out to celebrate this most romantic of days, still more stay in and cook for their lovers. This will generally end in two ways, either you’ll pull off the ambitious recipes you’re attempting (or she’ll care about you enough to appreciate the attempt), or it will result in catastrophic failure.
Typically, the latter will happen if you’re trying to cook something complex and generally beyond your ability. My advice? Make something easy, but delicious, and leave the complicated stuff to the bakeries.
So, here’s a few recipes that have worked out really well for me in the past. Bon appétit.
Valentine’s Day Salad
- 1 Avocado
- 1 Mango
- Pine nuts
- Goat Cheese
- Spring Mix Greens
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Olive Oil
- Garlic Clove
Salads are a great way to make something simple, healthy, pretty, and chock full of aphrodisiacs (avocado, in this case). The directions are dead easy. Dice and combine the first 3 ingredients in a large bowl with the Greens. Depending on how much salad you’re making you may not want to use all of the Mango or Avocado. Add as much crumbled Goat Cheese as you want. It’s hard to go wrong here. Next, dice up a couple of garlic cloves and toss them into a 50/50 mixture of the vinegar and the oil. Add more, or less, garlic depending on taste. Finally, add the dressing immediately before serving.
Heart-Shaped Pizza
- Uncooked pizza/bread dough
- Toppings are up to you. Tailor it to your date’s tastes.
This is a great recipe for several reasons. Firstly, it works for anyone that doesn’t have an allergy to gluten. Secondly, it’s really, really easy but still a little impressive for someone who’s not that handy in the kitchen. Thirdly, as long as you cover the dough in a little bit of olive oil and let it rise for an hour or two it should only take about 45 minutes to make.
Peppercorn Crusted Roast Beef
- Black Peppercorns
- White Peppercorns
- Green peppercorns
- Inside Round Roast
- Your favourite root vegetables (potatoes, onions, yams, sweet potatoes, etc)
I love cooking roasts. A well-made roast is just… well, it’s just great. Anyways, roasts are also a good choice for a romantic meal. Just make sure you leave enough time for them to bake. Remember that it takes a half hour of baking time per pound of meat. First, set the oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then combine the peppercorns in a small bowl and cover the roast in them. The easiest way to do this is to dust the the roast, and then firmly press the peppercorns in with your hands. Next, sear the roast by heating up a frying pan for few minutes on high and then frying each side of the roast for about a minute. Then toss put the roast in a roasting pan and surround it with your favourite root vegetables, cut to bite-size. You can also throw some blobs of butter in with them to help them along their journey to awesomeness. Finally, check on the roast every hour, depending on the size of the roast you bought this could take a few. Use a meat thermometer to gauge how done it is, if you don’t have one of these you can stab the roast (make sure you go down into the center of it) with a knife and check the color of the juices that come out of it. When the juices are clear, your roast is well-done.
Now, for dessert I would recommend picking something up from a bakery. But, if you want to try something on your own, check out this link for Better than Sex Cake.
About Author
Jonathan Meier is the Marketing and Social Media Coordinator for O Hotel Suites. He has received a degree in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary and is now, miraculously, employed in a related field. When he’s not at the Hotel dealing with the daily dose of craziness he’s usually out in the mountains near his hometown of Canmore where he can be seen climbing, skiing, or doing anything at all that doesn’t involve computers.