last night, we celebrated sean's birthday, so i made him a yummy birthday dinner. we had filet mignon with a marsala cream sauce with mushrooms, mashed potatoes (sean's favie), and brussels sprouts with bacon and garlic. i paired that with robert mondavi meritage (recommended by dr. debs over at good wine under $20) and the always-fantastic taddy porter for sean. for dessert i made the chocolate souffle cupcakes (from deb over at smitten kitchen) except i swapped out the mint in the white chocolate cream for a little blackberry juice that i reduced by about half, and then put a fresh blackberry on top. if i had to do it over though, i'd just leave the white chocolate cream plain and then drizzle some blackberry juice/syrup/whatever over top instead of mixing it into the cream: the tartness from the blackberry juice was lost in the sweetness of the white chocolate. but it did make the cream a pretty pale mauve color, so that's something i guess. sort of valentinesy. and we ate all of it on our wedding china: gotta take advantage of excuses to use that stuff! sometimes i wonder if i should just use it every day. i think it gets lonely packed away in the cabinets.
i have grand plans for some more posts here soon: i want to share my wino-esque expertise of cheap wines with all eight of you, and i know you can't wait! and then there's the long-awaited diy newspaper sculpture how-to! stay tuned...
