Valentine's Dinner - Part 1

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Steve and I decided we wanted to put our newly owned culinary skills to use for Valentines Day. We decided awhile ago that we would create a meal of new recipes we had not yet tried at home (we did try one recipe at a cooking class before) and we would do this on the Saturday before Valentines Day (knowing that we could not realistically create this meal on a Tuesday night after work). The results were great and this post and the following post will provide the recipes and photos from our great creations.

To start off our Valentines Day meal we decided to pick up a bottle of red wine. We choose 'Queen of Hearts'. This is a Pinot Noir from California's Santa Barbara County. This was a first-time-purchase for us (NSLC) but we did try it recently at the Decadence event at Casino Nova Scotia on February 2, 2012. This red is silky and has strawberry, raspberry and cola aromas - we highly recommend it!

Now onto the preparation of the meal. We decided to make 3-Cheese Ravioli with Cherry Tomatoes for our appetizer, and have Chicken Tarragon with Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes for our main course.

The next post will feature making the 3-Cheese Ravioli with Cherry Tomatoes, and the post following that will feature the Chicken Tarragon with Garlic and Herb Mashed Potatoes.