My anniversary dinner... please help??

Question

Whenever we make date night meals, we always eat the same things. Steak and shrimp, ribs, or chicken... We are looking for something different. We were thinking something with lobster but isn't too costly. Tomorrow is our anniversary, and we want to have a nice meal. However, we just had our third baby a week ago and we are on a tight budget. Please, somebody give me some ideas of some romantic meals we can cook together?

Answer 1

Try butter poached lobster, orzo in lobster broth, and molten chocolate cakes. If you have a Chinese community near you, try a grocery store there. Live lobster tends to be a lot cheaper there.

All of these recipes are from the French Laundry cookbook.

For the lobster:
1. Kill the lobster by piercing it behind the eyes with a knife.
2. Remove its claws, and submerse the lobster and claws in a pot of boiling water with the heat turned off.
3. After 8 minutes, remove the meat and hold until ready.
4. When ready, in the smallest pot you have, heat up a couple of tablespoons of water, melt a stick (or two) of butter a chunk at a time, whisking while you do it. Then, keeping it at a bare simmer, immerse the lobster meat in it for about 8 minutes.

The shell is used to make the lobster broth. It has loads of flavor in it. Enrich it with heavy cream or cream cheese.

The molten chocolate cake has barely any flour in it and is very elegant.

If you don't have the cookbook and you want to try it, I'd check it out at a library or just go to a bookstore with a notepad.

A caprese salad, slices of tomato, basil, mozarella (burrata if you can find it), a nice olive oil, and salt (fleur de sel if possible, use the Portuguese version, it's a lot cheaper) would be a great starter.

Sparkling wine would go great with it.

Happy anniversary.

Answer 2

Anything can be romantic depending on the setting. Make a picnic out of it. Toss some lobster tortellini (1 pkg is about $6) with some pesto, top with shredded Parm/asiago/Romano, make some garlic cheese bread, and a green salad with balsamic vinegar and feta. Spread a huge blanket on the living room floor and serve your "picnic" on your good plates. A candle in a jar (so it doesn't tip easily) for ambience. It's fun and a little different!

Answer 3

Tortellini with a white pasta sauce (get the ready made pasta and sauce...with 3 kids, I'm sure time is a hot commodity). Saute some veggies: mushrooms, asparagus, red bell peppers, and onions to put into the pasta. You can get some crab or lobster to mix in with the pasta as well.

For a side dish, cut beef steak tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices. Put mozzarella cheese on top, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and then top with a basil leaf.

For dessert, melt some chocolate chips in a Ziploc bag in the microwave. Snip off a very small piece of the one of the bottom corners (so that it's like a pipping bag), Pipe the melted chocolate onto wax paper in cool designs: your names, hearts, the date, etc. Place the wax paper with the melted chocolate on it into the freezer for about 20 mins, or until the chocolate hardens. Put the chocolate designs on top of vanilla ice cream for a personalized dessert.