Recipe #16 & #17: Portobello Gratins & Creamy Peanut Slaw

Ms. Boyardee and I tried to plan a dinner outing for Valentine's day....and then with all the closed menu's and overbooked restaurants we decided why not just make our own Valentines day dinner so I KNOW the food will be good and I KNOW I won't break the bank with the amount of wine we consume. It also allows us to used two different recipes which makes for an obviously nail-biting blog read....calm down...we'll get through this together.

Lets start with the Portobello Gratins...which I have decided, based on this recipe...will now be my middle name. Portobello mushrooms have really become my main "meat" substitute. Friends of mine can recall BBQs last summer and while they had juice double cheeseburgers I was content with my Portobello Burger (this term used loosely) with goat cheese. Now this recipe is basically shrooms on shrooms on shrooms...and not the kind that gives you hallucinations ....although the wine consumed that night could have had similar impacts.

You bake portobello mushrooms in a little oil for 25 minutes after removing the stems from the caps. Meanwhile you cut up shiitake, cremini, and portobello stems and then cook them down with some chives, parsley, shallots, wine (which was difficult to find), and heavy (whipping) cream. Just an fyi....anything with whipping cream in it...is going to taste amazing....its non-whipped whipped cream I mean...come on. You then remove the portobello caps from the oven, fill the caps with the delicious non-whipped cream/wine mushroom mixture and top it with bread crumbs, parmesan and more parsley. Broil for 2 minutes and make SURE you're seated when you take a bite...it's that good.

Ms. B: 9.9/10

J: 9.91/10

We decided to make a side of slaw and we got this wicked vegan recipe from another vegetarian cookbook "Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Guve a F*ck". Well sir....I believe I do give some f*cks...and so we have to include recipes from this book from time to time too. This slaw portion is made up of red (looks purple to me) and green cabbage, carrots cut into matchsticks (ugh...again), and green onions. The delicious sauce is made up of peanut butter (extra smooth), rice vinegar, lime juice, fresh ginger, soy sauce and Sriracha. The result was the creamy sauce that started out tasting like peanuts, then got tangy and finished with some spice. We made a double batch and I have had it for breakfast and lunch today so far....and its even better the second day.

Tonight we plan to go out for dinner for valentines day round 2....but I expect I may be disappointed unless portobello gratins are a special.

Ms. B: 7/10

J: 8/10