My romantic dinner plans

I put together a list of five most romantic restaurants in the area for the Las Cruces Sun-News because Valentine's Day is on Friday. You can see it here. 

As I was writing about these restaurants and taking photos for the feature. I remembered the time my boyfriend and I did a fancy dinner like that 3 years ago. It was a packed house full of young and cheesy couples, our order was backed up and service was slow. Maybe we went to the wrong place (without reservations, of course), but we didn't feel like going out for Valentine's Day dinner after that first crazy experience. Maybe another time and we'll make reservations. 

This year I plan on cooking my heart out and being in the kitchen with him.

Tonight I'm cleaning the heck out of the kitchen and going grocery shopping after work. 

For starters I'll make a quick apple and berry salad with almonds, feta cheese and balsamic salad dressing.

Also for starters I'll have warm and fresh ciabatta bread with olive oil and vinegar. I'll make the dough tonight because it takes 18 hours to rise. Here's the ciabatta bread recipe I use.

For entrees we'll either take the homemade lasagna out of the freezer that he made two weeks ago (he makes the best lasagna). Or we'll make herb-butter salmon with garlic creamy mashed potatoes and some kind of steamed vegetable. Or we'll make Mediterranean chicken with a tangy cucumber sauce and dirty rice. I'm thinking the ciabatta bread goes more with the lasagna. 

For dessert we'll have mini cheesecakes because we don't want to be forced to eat a whole one in one night. I'll make these tonight. I was also talking to him about making chocolate covered strawberries but we never worked with chocolate so we might just stick to the cheesecakes we know and love.

Here's the recipe to my cheesecake. I featured it in the Sun-News holiday recipes from local chefs. The list includes lobster bisque, sopiapilla bread pudding and ginger bread scones.

Everything will be homemade and from scratch. That's how it should be, especially on holidays like these.  

Creating a meal together in our small kitchen is a special thing because we both love cooking. It's not like some cheesy romantic comedy where we make a cute mess with the flour and he stands behind me and massages dough with me. We're very good in the kitchen — although I don't like how he sometimes uses the wrong knives for the wrong foods. We do this all the time, only, on Valentine's Day we'll take out all the stops. And it's nearly free because we keep the kitchen well stocked all the time.

If you're cooking for, or with, your sweetheart, what are you making tomorrow?