Valentine's Day Dessert: Chocolate Strawberries

For Valentine's Day, the kids and I made chocolate covered strawberries. Yummy!

You can find a lot of great recipes that have you using a thermometer and double boiler to make these, but I wanted to keep things simple. We used a Baker's dipping chocolate bowl and a Ghirardelli white chocolate baking bar, and just melted the chocolate in the microwave.

First I washed and dried all the strawberries.

Next we placed the Baker's chocolate bowl in the microwave and heated for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between heating until the chocolate was all melted. Then I chopped up the white chocolate baking bar into small pieces, placed it into a microwave-safe bowl and heated it the same way.

The kids had fun dipping the strawberries in the chocolate. We placed each strawberry on a baking sheet as we worked, then we tried drizzling the white chocolate over them. It didn't come out so well...instead of nice drizzles we ended up with thick globs of white chocolate. Oh well, it was delicious nonetheless!



For a great tutorial with pictures and step-by-step directions, check out:
Last Minute Gifts: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

This tutorial is what inspired me, although I opted for the much-easier route and used the microwave, and no thermometer! The next time, if presentation is a lot more critical, I will try the tutorial. As you can see from the tutorial pics those strawberries came out beautifully.

Here's what we used:
Baker's dipping chocolate bowl
Ghirardelli white chocolate baking bar

Celebrating our Anniversary: Dinner at LaFondue

Dinner at La Fondue
Originally uploaded by purlyshells

LaFondue Restaurant is one of our all-time favorite places to go. We rarely go out without the kids but last night we got a sitter and went there to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Wow, 4 years flew by.

Fondue is basically a Swiss dish where you dip bits of food into a communal pot filled with melted cheese. If you've never had it, you should at least try it once. It's a really fun dining experience. Whenever we go to LaFondue, we plan on spending between 2-3 hours there.

They have a great menu and you can choose from a variety of meats, cheeses, cooking methods, and chocolate. We ordered what they call their "La Romantique" dinner combination which is a 4 course meal. It comes with a salad, cheese fondue, the main entree, and chocolate fondue for dessert.

The chef salad is really really good. They give you this huge plate full of lettuce chopped into bite-sized pieces, grated carrots, sliced mushrooms, and these yummy meat and cheese pinwheels. They top it with grated cheese and dressing. It is a great salad but you have to pace yourself and not eat the whole thing or you won't have room for anything else.

For the cheese fondue, we chose the Cajun Beer and Shrimp. It's a toss up between that and the Stinking Rose -- we usually get one or the other. They're both delicious. They give you pieces of bread and veggies to dip into the cheese. We didn't leave much in the pot by the time we were done -- we wiped it clean. So much for pacing ourselves!

Our main entree came with filet mignon, chicken, and shrimp. There are different types of cooking methods. We chose the grill -- the other methods all involve boiling your food in flavored oil, bouillon, or different bisques. We love the grilling method the best. The meat comes sliced in small, thin pieces and you just put it on the grill and cook it together. You get a half dozen little containers of sauces that you can dip the meat into. I always ask for extra of the teriyaki wasabi sauce. Yummy!

Last but not least, the chocolate fondue for dessert. You can get milk, white, or bittersweet and can add different liquors/flavorings. Simple is best I say. We always get the plain bittersweet and it is heaven. They give you a plate full of sliced strawberries/bananas/oranges, pieces of snickers candy, marshmallows, and little balls of rice krispies and cookie dough to dip into the chocolate. It is absolutely delicious. Poor Kurt was too full to have much of dessert but I made sure I left room. It was all part of the plan...all the more for me haha!

If your server knows you are celebrating something, they'll come by with a polaroid camera and take your picture. We have one more to add to our collection :)