Venetian Dining In

On Friday night it was time to try out some of those recipes at home. I'm not a great cook. My husband's forte is Top Ramen. Somehow we have managed. My husband's mantra is "just cook something so we can eat and get it over with." We rarely eat at the same time, in the same room.

But not this night!

Menu:

Venetian Sole

Mushroom Risotto

Green Salad

Venetian Spritz

Gelato

I set the table with linen and candles. Pandora provided romantic Italian dinner music; we stirred the risotto.

And stirred , and stirred. We had no idea what we were doing, but it was fun! To heat things up a little more, I created a "Spritz Veneziano". I could not find Aperol, so went with Campari. My husband preferred the sparkling wine without the bitter Campari. But it's pretty.

At the same time we made this delicious Venetian Sole. The recipe instructs to make this ahead and eat it at room temperature, but we enjoyed it served immediately. The onion marinade topping is so flavorful.

We talked about what we would do "in Venice" the next day. Tonight, we imagined ourselves to be in an opulent hotel overlooking the Grand Canal. We watched a romantic movie filmed in Venice.

And then I put on our Venice Soundtrack.