Valentine's Day

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's day. It was pretty low key on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

We did actually exchange gifts.

I got my husband candy (what else) and this hilarious, very German bottle of cherry schnapps.

We had shots after our run. In Swedish glasses. Because Europe.

My husband got me an awesome pepper grinder.

And these scrumptious heart-shaped macarons

These were devoured before and after our run. Basically running didn't matter.

But let me just tell you it is FAR more interesting to go running next to castles than around Quincy.

After Face-timing with our friends Mandy and Robbie, I set off to make dinner. During the day, I made an orange, chili, and chocolate upside down cake from one of my favorite bloggers, Cravings in Amsterdam.

This is an "orange caramel" for the bottom and chocolate cake batter was poured on top. Luckily it flipped very easily and wah-lah!

The original recipe called for blood oranges which I LOVE but unfortunately could not find them. The downside (or upside?) to baking is that there is a lot of leftover cake.

For dinner, I made a Pork Wellington recipe from Alton Brown. You know Beef Wellington, right? Beef wrapped in flaky puff pastry? Well, this is similar, just with pork.

You lay out prosciutto between pieces of parchment paper and then roll it with a pin. Then, you cut the pork tenderloin in half, put on top of the prosciutto, and stuff it with dried apples. You roll it up in the prosciutto like sushi. Then you roll that pork-wrapped-pork in thawed puff pastry, brush it with egg wash, and bake.

The picture isn't, um, super appetizing but it was GOOD. I made sauteed spinach on the side.

Between the dinner and dessert (and the wine)...and the macarons earlier, we were stuffed! All in all, a very nice Valentine's Day.