Love is untidy, and rich, and so the molten chocolate babycakes from How to Be a Domestic Goddess, baked in heart shaped molds, were really the one thing I knew I wanted on last night's Valentine's menu. The theme of the meal, though, seemed to be lack of preparation, and when I went to fix up the babycakes I realized I was out of parchment, so I sprayed the molds with a lot of Pam and crossed my fingers. And they probably would have unmolded beautifully, except I was trying to hold them with two very thick potholders and potholders+ clumsy cook does not = easy unmolding. So they were sort of heart-shaped. Covered with whipped cream, they were even less recognizable as hearts, but were all the more delicious (they were really, unbearably, rich- one cake would have done it for the two of us, and for the first time in history, I did not finish my dessert.).

The rest of the meal was all about the slapdash last minute inspiration- I had just finished reading Julia Child's "My Life in France" and had been thinking about her description of aigo bouido ever since, and if there is one little-heralded perk to marriage, it is the freedom to consume as much garlic as you want and know you'll still have someone to make out with. And it also seemed super-easy, and I am all about convenience foods these days.

It was super-easy- boil some garlic with herbs and olive oil, and then whisk together some egg yolks and olive oil and then beat in the broth, bit by bit, and then serve with french bread and grated swiss cheese. However, it was also pretty mild. I loved it, but would double the amount of garlic for next time (and also not make it unless I was sure I had cloves on hand- I omitted them, since I was out, and I think that would have added some sharpness to the soup.) Jeff claimed it tasted like "milk with butter" even though it contains neither. Of course, milk with butter also sounds kind of good to me, so I think this was more of a me dish than a Jeff dish. Nonetheless, I caught him using leftover french bread to sop up some of the extra soup.



And for a starter, I was inspired at the last minute by the Homesick Texan blog to make "Love Dip,"* which is really just a very, very, very slightly more laborious version of cream cheese with salsa poured over it. (You mix up the cream cheese and salsa and some other spices in the blender, and it is pink, which is where the Love comes from, I guess.) Not that I am knocking easy dips, and it was certainly perfect for last night- we were able to lounge about and relax, eating dip and crackers while the soup simmered, which, for me, is pretty much the perfect Valentine's Day.


*Apparently the original Love Dip is a proprietary recipe of Texas-based Central Market- which leads me to wonder if Homesick Texan takes requests, and can finally unearth for me the definitive recipe for Randall's Chocolate Chewies?