Birthday Boy!

Yesterday was the Main Squeeze's birthday, but of course he had to work the entire day. And friday. And Sunday. Which means there really isn't that much you can do for fun. I also was having a really difficult time figuring out what to get him as a gift, since he's one of those people who pretty much has all he wants... unless it's prohibitively expensive. I told him that I would pay for his dinner if he wanted to go out to eat, but he asked me if I could cook dinner, instead. Never one to let possible culinary flattery go to waste, I agreed. Here's what he requested and what I made:




Appetizer: Spinach-Artichoke Dip. My roommate introduced me to the glory of this appetizer Way Back When, and I in turn convinced the (rather more skeptical) boy to try it a while ago as well. How did it go over? Well...

like that! It's really easy to make. I chopped up a whole big bag of spinach and let it wilt down in a deep saucepan with a little garlic and butter. I added a little jar of marinated quartered artichoke hearts, chopped because the pieces were pretty big, once the spinach seemed pretty cooked through. Next come the cheeses. First was a block of cream cheese. Once that was melted, a half cup of riccotta. After that, a few good chunks of provelone for proper stringiness! It was salted and peppered for taste at the end, and voila! Spinach Artichoke dip, eaten with nice blue corn tortilla chips. (And yes there are leftovers from this!)

Entree:

Seafood Fettuccine Alfredo. I cheated here, since the sauce was jarred. Still, though, I marinated the shrimp and scallops in sherry-lemon-EVOO and grilled them, and steamed the broccoli, so there's plenty in it that is hand done. It's topped with a little shaved parmesan, the scallops, a little paprika, and lemon for squeezing. It was really good.

Dessert: We took a break between dinner and desert because we were already awfully full. The boy's major gift from family was funds for a Blue Ray drive for his computer, so after some tinkering he got that installed and we watched the first half of Up. Then...

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes! Served with whipped cream, home-made caramel sauce (which kind of separated, I don't know how that happened), and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I made these in muffin pans; the dark part you see in the picture is a gingersnap crumb crust, which got pressed in first, and then I just ladled in the cheesecake part until the cups were full (they don't really rise). I let them cool in the pans for the most part, just using a paring knife to release them from the edges. Since cheesecake always shrinks a little upon cooling, all they took was being flipped over and tapped once to slide right out. No cracks and no tears! They only took probably 3 hours of refrigeration to be the right temperature, too.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful venture :).