Romantic Meals

Mai-Kero

So my girlfriend is coming to visit during her spring break (which is two weeks how is that fair) and I'm looking for some suggestions on awesome meals we can cook together.

So far I'm planning at least one baked pasta dish.

Any ideas for fun things? Stipulation: she doesn't like seafood.

Disrupter

Fondu.

Its fun, its delicious, its romantic. Pop in a good romantic comedy, get some wine (or whatever drinks you prefer, me and my lady usually rock some sparkling grape juice ) and relax and enjoy a simple but delicious meal.

You will ahve to spend like 40 bucks just on the fodu pot and lighter fluid...but if you are anything like me, you will use it often. Chocolate covered strawberries are Gods way of telling us he exists.

Deebaser

Sesame Chicken stir fry. sooo yummy and surprisingly easy to make with limited tools.

PeregrineFalcon

Stuff that's really easy but for some reason gets treated like it's not by those I serve it to:

- Stuffed peppers (soften the peppers by boiling/steaming, cook up beef, rice, diced tomato, cheese, spiced, onions, fill and bake for 20min, grill them for presentation points, then serve on a bed of lettuce or salad)
- Cornmeal-breaded chicken baked in an oven (dredge breasts in buttermilk, coat in cornmeal with cumin/curry/chili spice to taste, BBQ away or cook for 10min a side on a wire rack in the oven if you don't have a grill)
- Pasta with broccoli, cheese sauce, Italian-seasoned chicken (make individual ingredients, assemble)
- Canelloni (there's your baked pasta right there)

For more advanced awesomeness I refer you to the Goons With Spoons wiki. I mean, shit, there's tiramisu on the front page today.

Jeff210

As someone who often cooks with the GF, I find making tacos together is fun (and easy), same with making a pizza (A little more difficult). Both allow you to have some fun and contribute

Noquar

If the romance is to be following by romance stay clear of heavy dishes - like most baked pasta. I've read that heavy meals can influence a mans desire and performance. I don't have sources offhand, but I make it a point to keep the meals light if I know my wife and I are going to be intimate later on as the heavier foods really have an effect on me.

mechaThor

home-made pizzas can be fun to make (nothing wrong with getting dirty in the kitchen) and you can make them as elaborate and fancy as you want. an example of one i've had in the past was brie, pear, and prosciutto, and it turned out really delicious.

jeddy lee

Mai-Kero wrote: »

So my girlfriend is coming to visit during her spring break (which is two weeks how is that fair) and I'm looking for some suggestions on awesome meals we can cook together.

So far I'm planning at least one baked pasta dish.

Any ideas for fun things? Stipulation: she doesn't like seafood.

I advise against baked pasta. No matter how much you eat, pasta tends to give you that carb overload feeling that makes it hard for fun times afterwords.

Veal and lamb are meats that can be dressed up quite well. Chicks dig on filet mignon too.

CrossBuster

I had a lot of fun coming up with creative pizza recipes with my girlfriend (make the crust thin so you can try a few different types without getting that nasty carb overload) and making them together.

One example: cut up a butternut squash into small (around 1 cm) cubes. Toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Arrange them on a nonstick sheet, and cook until they're soft and slightly browned. Put about half of them in a food processor with a little bit of cream and chicken broth, and a few drops of hot sauce. Puree until it's about the consistency of a thick pizza sauce, adding liquid as needed.

Spread a thin layer of the squash puree onto the crust, and top with pieces of Brie cheese, the rest of the squash pieces, and prosciutto. Bake.

VisionOfClarity

One of our favourites is lobster ravioli in a pink vodka cream sauce. I'll usually serve is alone or with homemade garlic bread or maybe some steamed veggies. An appetizer I like with it is bruschetta or mussels fra diavolo. Pair it with the right wine and a molten cake for desert and you've got a restaurant meal at home.

The boy does a really good rosemary lamb that's pretty yummy. I'm not sure what else is involved.

One of his favourites I do is homemade french onion soup and that's really easy to do. Sometimes I'll do a chicken pot pie from scratch.

Forbe!

No seafood VoC.

If you aren't afraid of a little fire, bananas foster is always an impressive desert.

CrossBuster

For dessert, consider a flourless chocolate cake. It's very rich and smooth, and they say chocolate is an aphrodisiac. May be bullshit but it can't hurt.

Also, it's pretty easy to make, provided you have the right equipment.

When I make this cake, I like to grate a little bit of ginger and orange zest into the batter. One time I topped it with a whipped cream flavored with nutmeg, orange zest, vanilla, and bourbon. It was awesome.

VisionOfClarity

Dang, missed that. who doesn't like seafood? For regular meals I'll make spinach ravioli or cheese with the same sauce.

travathian

The baked pasta could be fine if you're only having a small amount of it, and instead make a nice casear salad the focus of the meal. Decent bottle of wine, plus some cheesecake or nice chocolate with strawberries for dessert.

I'll second the fondu. In addition to strawberries you can add bananas, mini marshmellows, make small balls of peanut butter and refrigerate them, cut up a few pieces of pound/sponge cake, all sorts of cool stuff you can dip in chocolate.

Disrupter

Right, with fondu you can do 3 courses. The cheese course, the main (oil or wine) course and the dessert (chocolate).

Seriously, its amazing. Every single course is as good as the last. Like I can never decide if I like cheese, dessert or main better.

I paid 80 bucks to go out and do fondu once, and it was worth it. Its a much better expeirence at home with a good romantic comedy, and depending on what you cook it could range from 10-30.

I heart fondu.

Xaquin

Roast a chicken with quartered apples and leeks and serve with mashed potatoes and french cut green beans!

Usagi

Roast rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic, super simple and it tastes like a restaurant dish, pair it with some creamy risotto or crash hot potatoes and a green salad and mmmm

Appleberry crumble (frozen blueberries/berry mix and sliced applies tossed with a little bit of flour, topped with an oatmeal/brown sugar crumble) with strawberry gelato for dessert, bonus points if you use individual serving ramekins

Scalfin

Falafel could be fun to make together.

DirtyDirtyVagrant

A baked ravioli. Or you guys could assemble a lasagna together. I'd give you my grandma's meatball recipe if I had it here. It's too complex to remember. (They're so awesome though - let me see if I can find it)

eatmosushi

Step One: Cut a hole in a box

Step Two: Have food delivered

Step Three: Winnnnn

(Having food delivered is not too expensive either! delivermefood.com is great)

DeathPrawn

Disrupter wrote: »

Right, with fondu you can do 3 courses. The cheese course, the main (oil or wine) course and the dessert (chocolate).

Seriously, its amazing. Every single course is as good as the last. Like I can never decide if I like cheese, dessert or main better.

I paid 80 bucks to go out and do fondu once, and it was worth it. Its a much better expeirence at home with a good romantic comedy, and depending on what you cook it could range from 10-30.

I heart fondu.

Fondu is a fantastic idea. However, doing a 3-course fondu at home doesn't sound like much fun - you'll either need three fondu pots ($$$) or some serious cleaning time between courses, which doesn't sound particularly romantic.

DragonPup

I can't help you with the meal, but chocolate covered fruit is suprisingly easy to make and requires a microwave, a bowl, a plate, and some parchment(or wax) paper.

First, cut the fruit because the chocolate hardens in less than 5 minutes. Take a bar of cooking chocolate (I highly recommand Green and Black's Organic 72%), break it into small pieces and place in microwave safe bowl. Nuke on 60% power for 45 seconds. Mix, then renuke at 60% for 40 seconds. Mix again and renuke at 50% power for 35 seconds. Mix, and nuke one more time at 50% for 30 seconds. The chocolate should be completely melted and should be completely liquid. Now start covering that fruit! When done, place the plate in the fridge for an hour or so.

I've personally had a lot of sucess with strawberries, bananas, red delicious, granny smith, and gala apples. As for chocolates, dark works best. Milk and white are very difficult to work without a fondu set.

celandine

If you have a grill or broiler I'd go for kebabs.
You'll want to avoid anything that stinks too much. (Garlic etc.)

beavotron

i think romantic meals have more to do with the setting and mood than with what you're actually eating
buy some nice new table settings (placemats, napkins, table cloth) and some candles and stuff
that impresses ladies
(warning: i am easily impressed)

darkmayo

Mai-Kero wrote: »

So my girlfriend is coming to visit during her spring break (which is two weeks how is that fair) and I'm looking for some suggestions on awesome meals we can cook together.

So far I'm planning at least one baked pasta dish.

Any ideas for fun things? Stipulation: she doesn't like seafood.

no seafood.. man thats a deal breaker with me, can never figure out why some people cant eat it.


Anyways someone mentioned fondue.. thats good stuff, pastas are pretty traditional, I dont suggest something too heavy, you dont want to be all stuffed before you start making with bow chicka wow wow.

Dman

Salad of awesome

Leafy green of your choice (lettuce etc)
red pepper
green onion
celery
pecans
flaked/shredded sharp cheese
oranges, peeled (mandarin/cuties)
raspberries
tomatoes (the tiny ones, cut)
raspberry vinaigrette dressing

You can pair this salad with almost anything but my favorite is to buy a whole fresh (hot) cooked chicken and just rip little chunks of meat off it and toss them into the salad.

It's a nice light meal that's simple and delicious.

SniperGuy

http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/2009/08/13/crown-roast-of-pork-with-tart-tomato-stuffing-and-juniper-pan-gravy/

Make one of these. Alton Brown I believe talks about it on one of the Good Eats episodes. Because seriously, how badass is that?