fun times gift from the heart,...

i'm the regular cook around these parts. but regular cooking often only involves one main dish, one side and some veggies, er, sometimes. though some of those regular dishes are somewhat labor intensive, we're usually talking about a maximum of 1 hour preparation not counting the amount of time it takes to marinate meat when called for. it never gets more intense than that.

a few valentine's day ago i went hardcore with a roast and some other stuff. it was a multi course meal that took me a good day to prepare with a few hours spent on previous days to get other things prepped.

this year i'm doing it again. we're having a multi course romantic valentine day dinner the day after valentine's day so it doesn't cut into our mikey time and i can enlist the help of a relative to clear the house out of mother and children. dinner will be for two this sunday.

we're going italian and this is going to be way more labor intensive than the previously mentioned roast dinner.

on the menu...

1. amuse-bouche: bruschetta - a toasted round of italian bread topped with tomatoes marinated with garlic and basil. crispy pancetta and fresh shredded parmesan cheese

2. salad: caesar salad with rommaine lettuce, garlic croutons and a parmesan crisp.

3. appetizer: polenta round topped with gnocchi in a prosciutto and pea olive oil sauce.

4. main course: chicken parmigiana - crisp, breaded chicken breast in a marinara sauce smothered in mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

5. side dish: spaghetti in a sun dried tomato, basil and garlic infused olive oil dressing.

6. dessert: chocolate cherry cheesecake

i was going to make tiramisu for dinner but finding lady fingers here is just a bitch. and there's no way in hell i'm going to make my own. besides, my "best friend" loves cheesecake.

the list of ingredients, those not already existing in the house, are as follows:

- potatoes
- nutmeg
- frozen peas
- prosciutto
- shallots
- ricotta cheese
- canned tomatoes
- bread crumbs
- parsley
- mozzarella cheese
- spaghetti
- french bread
- tomatoes
- pancetta
- basil
- fresh parmesan
- caesar dressing
- romaine lettuce
- croutons
- sun dried tomatoes
- olives
- chocolate cookies
- cream cheese
- cherries
- bittersweet chocolate chips

good lord, what am i getting myself into.

and sorry for another deviation. this is supposed to be about the non-wife things. so it's not. it's just a looooooooooove thing.