Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Heart-Shaped Food Day

Not everything we eat today will be in the shape of a Valentine, but we've got a few gastro-cardio items on the menu.
To start, I've made a coeur à la crème. Yes, to start. Ordinarily coeur à la crème is made from sweetened cream cheese packed into a heart-shaped mold, and drizzled with raspberries or strawberries. Well I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I do have a heart-shaped mold (with the little perforations in the bottom). So I blended some Point Reyes Farmstead Blue Cheese with a little Cowgirl Creamery crème fraîche. In order to ratchet up the flavor, I briefly heated some fresh sage and bay leaves in the crème fraîche first, and let it cool. The drizzle will be made from red beets. Cranky is baking crackers today (his first try), although we will not be using a heart-shaped cracker cutter. No.
Our next hearty nibble will be steak tartare, shaped into a heart (ohgod, how tedious), and probably served with more of those crackers. Maybe decorated with a cute little arrow made from capers.
Then we'll move on to this pie-cake thingie from Emporio Rulli. I believe it's filled with hazelnuts and cream, and possibly chocolate too.
I've been told there are also more oysters in the fridge. For dessert. That's just the way I am.

13 comments:

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

If it weren't valentine's day, I'd say "I'll be right over" -- that all sounds delicious.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Aw, heart-shaped food? You big softie.

I visited Cowgirl Creamery last year when I was in SF; what a fantastic store!

Beccy said...

I made pink, heart sahped meringues with pink cream and red fruit, unfortunately I can't upload them!

Tea said...

Who knew you two were such sweet saps? I love it!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Happy Heart-Shaped Food Day (or, alternatively, "Valentine's") to you and Cranky! (And of course, Bean Sprout!)

Dagny said...

How cute!

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, cheese. Cranky's one lucky guy.

Sam said...

yeah - i took you for a bah humbug valentine scrooge couple like myself and fred.

Monkey Wrangler said...

Can I PLEASE come work for either of you, for free, as a stomach?

My word CC, this sounds.......ineffable!

Damn! (see it is true: you run out of words and resort to swearing)

JB said...

Do you really drink buttermilk? CB asked me if he could use it in cereal the other day and I had no clue if it would taste good on it's own.

cookiecrumb said...

Aw, Anita. You old romantic. I saved you some.

Susan: I know! Cornball me. (Yuss indeed, Cowgirl Creamery is tha shizzle. White lady rap.)

Beccy: Your meringues are on two blogs now. Beautiful.

Tea: Oh, come on. Wouldn't you think somebody named Cookiecrumb would be a sap? Oh, wait. You know me. (Hey, maybe my wisecrackin' self is all an act. Horrors!)

PE: I spent all morning trying to photograph Bean Sprout in a Valentine pose. Then I gave up and just started shooting food.

Dagny: Thanks, babe.

Jennifer: Ah! You like cheese. :-)

Sam: Snarl, snark, snark. There.

D-Man: Ooh. I'm sorry, our time here has run out for the day. (But to tell the truth, if I could be this confident about making food all the time, I'd probably entertain friends more. It was that effing good.)

JB: Let's all hop over to your blog for the answer to that one. :D

ChrisB said...

looks good and what special little love token did Bean Sprout have!!

cookiecrumb said...

ChrisB: Bean Sprout is happy just for the opportunity to lick human fingers. What a good kid.
By the way, this little doggie came to live with us on Valentine's Day three years ago! He is our sweetheart.