Valentine's Treats: Wine, Chocolate, and Cheese

Check out this awesome spread! Dark chocolate covered
pretzels, oreos, and cookies, homemade flourless
chocolate cookies, Eataly bread, bruschetta, herb
crusted goat cheese, almonds, baked camembert, and of
course some special Valentine's Day drinks!

My roommate and I decided to go all-out for Valentine's Day, and I would say that it was a success. With wine, bread, cheese, and chocolate, how could you possibly go wrong, right?


The day before, I picked up some Camembert cheese and a loaf of fresh bread from Eataly, along with some herb-encrusted goat cheese and bruschetta from Trader Joe's. On Friday while Kambria was at work, I baked some cookies and made chocolate covered treats…Oreos, mini chocolate chip cookies, and pretzels…for our delicious spread that we would devour later.

She made chocolate peppermint martinis, and I prepared a beautiful food spread, which we absolutely devoured. Following up the martinis with a nice glass of pinot noir, it was a wonderful Valentine's day, to be sure.

I reviewed Eataly in my last post, but I did want to provide some feedback on the bread and cheese. I was not surprised by the fact that they were both delicious. The bread had a wonderful, hearty texture, with the crispy, crunchy outside, and fresh, soft middle. When you squeezed it, it made that perfect crackle sound that all good bread should make, as you break through the hard crust to the soft center. It was wonderfully delicious, but probably would have been better if we had eaten it the day I bought it.

For any mild soft cheese like camembert or brie, adding a
salted caramel or other chocolate, and some dried fruit like figs,
dates, or craisins, and baking it for a few minutes creates
a wonderful flavor explosion.

The Camembert was incredible, as well. Soft, buttery, and wonderfully warm (I baked it in the oven for a few minutes with a dark chocolate sea salt caramel and some candied craisins), it simply melted in your mouth. Perfectly balanced with the sweet notes from the chocolate and craisins, this cheese was more on the expensive side, but was worth every penny. 10/10 would buy again.

My incredibly simple Flourless chocolate chip cookies were a perfect pair with the pinot noir, as well. I can't even describe to you how rich and delicious these cookies are, and they're even better considering they're very easy to make and have very few ingredients. A recipe is soon to follow!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day as much as I did! Whether you were with friends or your significant other, I bet it was fabulous and chocolate-filled!