Mmmm...Italian food!

I wanted to make a fun Italian meal the other night for Valentine's Day. I also did not want to have to go to the store for any special ingredients. We don't make a huge fuss for Valentine's Day and I wanted dinner to reflect that. We do things nicely, but simply on a daily basis just like we love each other on a daily basis. And it works out great.

So I pulled out my Country Italian cookbook and started poring through recipes. I found a few that looked fun and that I could easily adapt to what we had on hand. I made a vegetarian pasta dish with Fusilli and fresh tomato, onion, and garlic. Very yummy by the way. Very easy also. I also noted a recipe which featured a creamy red sauce. So I made a sauce myself using a jar of red sauce and a little cream. Kayla couldn't get enough of it on the seasoned chicken breasts. I believe she loved it even more as leftovers a few days later. The recipe for risotto in the book didn't give direction for cooking with brown rice (which is all we eat anymore), so I turned to the internet.

I was both excited and scared to make my first risotto. It's got such a different texture that I didn't want to mess it up, but I am a big fan of EATING risotto when it's made right so that made me excited. I found a recipe which you can find here for a butternut squash and brown rice risotto. I happened to have a butternut squash that my grandma had given me so I decided to use that recipe. Because of the squash (and how hard it is to cut when it is raw), the risotto was rather labor intensive. The end result was good though so I can't say I minded.

It's a long process cooking down the rice (brown rice takes quite a bit longer) and adding water as needed. It was extra long (as I just noted) because of the amount of time it took to peel and cut up the squash prior to cooking it.

While I worked in the kitchen, my little munchkins were enjoying a snack. Kayla now insists on putting her baby in the other booster chair and "feeding" her as well. The cheerio in her baby's mouth and the food broken up in small enough bits for her baby to eat just shows you that Kayla is a perfect blend of her father and I. Detailed, detailed, and more detailed.

I did take a picture of our meal, but it looks rather bland (because all the food we had on hand was of the yellow or red or brown variety). I am still working on presentation on a budget. It tasted really yummy though, so the presentation isn't nearly so important as all those cooking shows would lead you to believe. Everyone had at least 2nds, some had 3rds, and Elise may have had 5ths....

Kayla made our table decorations