Chef Fabien | Culinary Tryout for Date Night

As some people know, being in the kitchen cooking is something that I am plenty familiar with and I actually even enjoy it. Even though besides making some desserts, I never really touched a frying or sautée pan before I met Rachel and I have to admit that she is doing most of the cooking.

Anyway, this time, I didn't want to cook an everyday meal. Since it's a bit harder for us two to go out at night without the kids, I wanted to make it a special date night dinner (and at the same time celebrating Fiona's 4th month birthday) and make it a fancy one.

So here we go, kids in bed, dining room lights dimmed so I could set everything "restaurant style" and we were both ready to enjoy a great meal:

-> Appetizer: Beet and Feta Salad on a bed of Oranges, topped with fresh mint.

-> Entree: Sauteed Sea- Scallops with a balsamic glaze, Asperagus wrapped in bacon and Mushroom Risotto (with a nice Pinot Grigio to pair with)

-> Dessert: "Chocolate Bread Pudding", served with a (homemade) salted caramel ice-cream and crystalized ginger. Of course I did not forgot a good cappuccino  to end a complete meal.

Here is a picture of the outcome:

We started around 9.30pm and finish just around 1am (oops, I also did not realize that I had to bake the pudding for 35 minutes!). At the same time, it is really not much different than the time we would spend out if we were in an actual restaurant as we like to take our time to enjoy any experience dining out.

A great evening...until the following morning when we wondered why in the world we would want  to stay up this late, knowing that the kiddos would be up before 6am!

Next time we'll do brunch :)