Post Valentines Day menu:

This Valentines Day I had the pleasure of catering a meal for my oldest Son, Michael and his beautiful Wife, Michelle along with another wonderful couple.
Mike Sr. and I had planned to have a nice steak dinner the night before and have a "date night" on Friday. I'm not big on going out on Valentines Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Easter Sunday! No thanks!
Michael said "Mom, make whatever you want" So the excitement began! First thing I did was run to the sales adds. They had the small 4 oz. lobster tails on sale for $5.00 each. I prefer the small ones because they cook faster with less chance of over cooking and over cooking seafood is like throwing your money down a hole. Also, they taste a little sweeter to me. Next, boneless skinless chicken breast on sale for $.99 lb SCORE! Next....the sides? Asparagus $1.99 lb, I just picked up a ten pound bag of red potatoes at Costco. Dessert...hmmm? it's valentines day so let's do my FAVORITE, CHOCOLATE covered strawberries!
The menu was as follows: Lobster Salad, w/avocado & cherry tomatoes served in a champagne glass with a tarragon & lemon dressing.

For the Lobster Salad I poached the lobster tails in white wine and butter. I filled a large stock pot about 1/3 of the way with water and added about 1 cup of white wine and 1/4 cup of butter. Once it started to boil I turned the heat down to a simmer and put the lobster in for about 5 mins. and removed it from the poaching liquid and let cool.
I made the dressing using about a 1/2 cup of mayo.
the juice of two Meyer lemons
about two tablespoons fresh chopped tarragon
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
a sprinkle of my all time favorite "Cavanders Greek Seasoning"
and kosher salt to taste.
The rest is even easier, just remove the lobster meat and dice in nice big pieces, toss in halfed cherry tomatoes and a diced avocado, mix with the dressing and serve on a bed of lettuce.
For catering purposes I chilled the ingredients separately and built the salads on site that's when I added the avocado so it would not brown.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, with a twist of course. I used proshutto and I used gruyere and a local jack cheese with a topping of panko bread crumbs, parmesan and fresh thyme.
 I laid out plastic wrap and placed 4 boneless skinless chicken breast down and then covered with another layer of plastic wrap. Then pound it out, so that they almost double in size. Next place a layer of prochuto and top with a grated mixture of the cheese. Fold in the top and bottom and then roll. Place on a piece of clean plastic wrap and roll the chicken tight by gathering the ends. Place the wrapped chicken rolls in the fridge for at least an hour.
Mix the panko bread crumbs (about 2 cups) and 1/2 cup of parmesan, along with about a tablespoons of fresh thyme. Season with fresh ground black pepper, you really won't need much in the way of salt because the  proshutto and the cheese will be salty.
preheat the oven to 350 degrees, unroll chicken from the plastic wrap and place each piece in an egg bath (whisk 2 eggs, a couple tablespoons of half & half and more fresh cracked pepper and chopped thyme) then roll in panko mixture and place on baking sheet. Bake for 25-30 mins. let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

I grilled the asparagus on an indoor grill, before serving drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
The potatoes were roasted and tossed with garlic, lemon juice and lemon zest.
I had started a batch of homemade rolls and forgot them in the oven only to remember them once I smelled something burning....So I made a quick stop at the Market and made a quick pick of croissants.