Valentine's Day Desserts

This past weekend was spent cooking with only 1/4 of the kitchen tools I normally have at my disposal.  It was Valentine's Day weekend at the beach and our little efficiency apartment really lacked some of the finer points of bakeware.  That said, it was still necessary to get my bake-on.  Here's what I made and how I changed it up:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/sweet-roasted-grapes-recipe/index.html

This recipe I pulled out of Food Network Magazine ages ago and had been really interested to try.  Grapes aren't something you see baked a lot and lets face it, it was suggested that you serve it with cheese and bread.  There is very little you need to change about this recipe- the only thing I would add to this is that it doesn't need to roast for 25 minutes in the oven.  15 minutes should work for you, with a nice stir at 7.5 minutes.  Also, it is super necessary to buy a high quality cheese to set the flavors right.  We chose a super-soft French brie, though a gruyere would have worked nicely as well.

This would be a great party appetizer, but also could be served as a slightly savory dessert if you wrapped some brie and grape dip in puff pastry, baked it and then drizzled the honey syrup on the pastry. 

Staying on my Food Network magazine kick, I also tried a Vanilla Poached Pear recipe I pulled a while ago and was waiting to try out.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/vanilla-poached-pears-recipe/index.html

I did make several adjustments to this recipe.  First, I did not buy a dry white wine.  This was merely because I didn't want a whole bottle of white wine I knew we were unlikely to drink (we both wanted red wine or beer).  So instead, I bought one of those small wines they sell in a carton (I know, so super classy) that only has about 2 to 3 glasses of whine in it.  It was Fox-something-or-another chardonnay, and it tasted supremely awful.  However, when you dump two great pears, a high quality vanilla extract, sweet sugar, and cinnamon in the mix and let it reduce for a long while, it was almost as if I had bought a quality wine. 

Vanilla Poached Pears:

Serves 2

1 large Bosc pear (Anjou might be ok too, but I like the natural juiciness of this variety)
1 cup White wine
2/3 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
1 Cinnamon stick

Peel, halve and core 1 pear. Put in a shallow skillet with 1 cup white wine, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste, and a 1 cinnamon stick. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves.  Cover and allow to simmer and reduce 15 minutes.  Serve the pears with the reduced syrup; top with whipped cream, if desired. 

I did this on the stovetop instead of in the microwave for a little more control over how it cooked up.  Also, I substituted lemon juice for grapefruit zest, mostly because I had lemon juice on hand and partially because I am not a grapefruit person.  Finally, I added the cinnamon stick because I felt the pears needed a subtle layor of flavor beyond the vanilla- you know, some place for the pears to land when it was all done. 

And this was really just the dessert portion of our weekend.  Stay tuned for some quick raspberry sweet rolls, raspberry stuffed French toast with honey sauce and a blueberry marscapone danish.