I Can Cook! Who Knew…

*note – A month later, I have finally added the pictures in to this post…I suck, I know, you don’t have to remind me!

It’s no surprise with the cost of gas and food right now that money is a bit tight over here. Thursday was hubby’s birthday and there wasn’t much money leftover this week for gifts or dinner out, so I decided to make a really nice dinner at home for him.

Generally, dinner at our house is tacos, chicken, burgers or pork chops. We played out spaghetti to the point that neither of us can stand to look at it, for the moment. I wanted this dinner to be special, so I decided to try some new things that I had never cooked before.

I tried to come up with some things that would have some kind of meaning, but when your life revolves around kids – let’s face it – the most romantic dinners we get these days are at McDonalds. I did remember that on our honeymoon, the best dinner that we had was at the Italian restaurant at the resort we went to in Jamaica, so I snagged some ideas from there.

I made homemade tomato soup, which was surprisingly easy. After making it, I wondered why anyone ever ate the stuff in a can. I used the recipe that I saw Michael Chiarello make on the Food Network, awhile back. I did make a small change in roasting the tomatoes, since my oven is broken. I won’t mention that it’s been broken for 2 months now and hubby, who is in restaurant maintenance and fixes ovens for a LIVING hasn’t touched it. Anyways, I just roasted them in a pan, until they started to caramelize. I also used a regular blender to get the soup smooth enough.

For the main course, I made Pasta Carbonara, using Emeril’s recipe. (yeah, I watch too much FoodTV) This was a dish that I had heard much about, but had never tried, but everyone seemed to love it. I was even getting mmm’s from the little ones. Pancetta is hard to come by around here and is way more expensive than my budget can handle, so I just got the thickest bacon slices that I could find and used that. Absolutely delicious! I threw together a small Caesar salad, just so we had something green in the mix, too.

The crowning jewel of the dinner was the dessert. Hubby isn’t a cake and ice cream kind of guy, so I wanted to come up with something that he would really enjoy. A couple weeks back, one of my blogging idols, A Cowboy’s Wife, posted a recipe for Very Berry Poundcake at her cooking blog, My Wooden Spoon. That recipe was the answer to my prayers! I was really disappointed that I had to cheat on the poundcake itself (see previous comment on broken oven) but the berry sauce itself is to DIE for! The little hint of cinnamon gives it this pie filling flavor that makes you want to eat it right out of the pan. To help make up for the store bought poundcake, I made vanilla pudding, which I spread between two thin slices of the cake, then spooned the berries and sauce overtop it all. Hubby is still raving about it today! I had taken pictures of my delicious creation, but someone has hidden my USB cord and I can’t upload the pics. A month later, here are the pics! I was born 2 weeks late…some things never change!

I must admit, that this made me realize how much I missed cooking big, creative dinners and I have a feeling that I’ll be making a habit of cooking bigger meals on a regular basis. I’m hoping that he is appreciative enough to do something nice for my birthday on Tuesday…stay tuned!