Cooking

Cupid cooking

Sonya Verlaque

Mushroom Cream sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter divided
• 2 cloves fresh minced garlic, or a pinch of garlic salt
• 16 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms (more if you love mushrooms!)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 pound fettuccine
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup reserved pasta water
• 1 tbs salt (more to taste)
• fresh ground black pepper
• parsley for topping

Cooking Instructions: Clean the mushrooms. Add the garlic and mushrooms to a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of the butter. Sauté until the mushrooms are soft with deep brown color – 10-15 minutes. Add the cream and the rest of the butter. Simmer over low heat. Cook your pasta in a large pot according to package directions. Drain, reserving a little bit of the water, and return to pan. Add mushroom sauce to the hot noodles in the pan. Toss with tongs to mix. Add Parmesan and up a small amount of pasta water (start with 1/4 cup) to get the consistency creamy and smooth. You may need a little more, but start small because we are not making soup. Season with salt and pepper.

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

This recipe comes from the Skinnytaste cookbook, Fast and Slow. The great thing about this is at dinner you just have to boil the pasta and you have plenty of time to make the signature cocktail as well. This recipe makes a lot, so if you are having a small casual dinner party its a great idea. You can also freeze the sauce if you don’t use it all.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, smashed slightly
• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak, cut against the grain into 4 pieces
• salt and pepper
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup reduced sodium beef broth
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• Parmesan, ricotta, and parsley for topping

Cooking Instructions: In a small skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until golden and lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Season the beef with 1 tbs salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the tomatoes and broth over the beef and add the garlic from step one, plus carrots, bay leaves, and thyme. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or on low for 8 to 10 hours. Discard the herbs and shred the beef in the pot using 2 forks. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain, return to the pot, and add the sauce from the slow cooker. (If you are serving 2-4 people you will not need all of the sauce), then reheat for a minute and stir to combine. Serve in some beautiful bowls with grated parmesan and parsley.

Winter Rose Cocktail

A romantic and familiar with a drink or two, Ernest Hemingway is the inspiration for romantic cocktail. The Winter Rose is a twist on the Jack Rose, which played a minor role in ‘The Sun Also Rises.’ George, the bartender at the Crillon, makes several for Jake Barnes. This cocktail is a bright red color due to the grenadine. The Jack Rose is apple brandy and citrus (usually lime or lemon) with grenadine. Hemingway is believed to have invented the drink ‘Death in the Afternoon’ sharing the name with another book about bullfighting, is absinthe and champagne, which after drinking you may not make it to desert. So, I will recommend this instead.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Applejack
• 1 oz. Pomegranate Juice
• 1/2 oz. Grenadine
• Ice

Cooking Instructions: Shake Applejack, pomegranate juice and grenadine together until chilled. Strain into chilled coupe glass or a martini glass.

Lemon and Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

After such a sweet cocktail, these tart lemon bars provide a not too sweet desert. Make them on the 13th and store in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

For the Crust

• 1 box Nilla Wafters
• 5 tbsp. butter

For the Cheesecake

• 32 oz. cream cheese
• 4 eggs
• 4 tbsp. lemon juice
• ¾ cup sugar
• 6 tbs whole milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Raspberry Marble

• ½ cup raspberries
• 2 tbs. sugar

Cooking Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a pyrex with butter and set aside. Crush the Nilla Wafers into tiny crumbs - use a food processor or put cookies in a baggie and crush with a rolling pin. Melt 5 tbsp. of butter and mix together with the crumbs in a medium sized bowl until fully incorporated. Pour crumb mixture evenly into a 15x10 inch pyrex, then press with a spatula to pat it tightly down. Bake for 10 minutes, then set aside. Beat together sugar and cream cheese, then add eggs, milk, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix till everything is perfectly smooth. Spread evenly over cooked crust. Blend raspberries in a food processor or blender, then press through a mesh strainer into a bowl to remove any seeds or solids from your puree. Mix the raspberry liquid with 2 tbsp. of sugar. Once sugar is dissolved, dot the cheesecake mixture with little circles of raspberry, then use a toothpick to mix the puree in circles and squiggles until you have a lovely marble pattern. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the edges are slightly brown and the center is a little soft. Cool on a baking rack, then refrigerate for 3-4 hours before cutting into squares.