Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Story Time!

Yeah, guys, I've been recalcitrant, but I've had good intentions. I take pictures, and then I wait forever to get them off my camera and blog about them... so...

Once upon a time, The Pink Shoe wanted to make a special dinner for her husband for Valentine's Day. She searched the internet far and wide for something slightly romantic and not that hard (because new jobs are hard enough!), and came up with Martha Stewart's Coq au Vin made with chicken breasts instead of a whole old rooster.

So, first I boiled the pearl onions, then drained and peeled them. At this point, a lot of people would go to frozen, pre-peeled pearl onions... but on a special day like this, I like to go the extra mile.

Pearl Onions

After that, you cook some diced bacon (I like to start a lot of these things with bacon instead of olive oil or butter... it adds a lot of flavor, and um, it's bacon.), then add the pearl onions and some quartered mushrooms, and saute them until browned. Then remove the bacon, onions, and mushrooms from the hot pan.

Onions, Mushrooms, Bacon

Next, wine and chicken breasts, with a lot of herbs thrown in:

Chicken, Wine, Herbs

At the end, the sauce is reduced, the veggies are added back, and the stem-y herbs are removed.

While all this was going on, I cut up some potatoes, tossed them with garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Potatoes, Pre-Roasting

After an hour at 400, they're golden brown and gorgeous, and it's hard to resist eating a few when you're placing them on the platter.

I also made some petit pois with butter, and we had a fabulous bottle of French wine.

And... You know how I love a good presentation:

Valentine's Dinner!

Just looking at the thyme on that plate is making me hungry!

Anyway, back to the story. Marcia and Matt ate all that up, and it was delicious, and they lived happily ever after, the end.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made coq au vin for Valentine's Day 2 years ago. It took forever and didn't look half as good as yours.

Unknown said...

tres romantic!

Holly said...

Um, yum! Looks delicious! You are such a good wife-y!