10 years ago, my wife and I had been dating for less than a year.  I was trying to impress her, so I decided to find something "fancy" to cook her for Valentines Day...and found this recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu.  I didn't exactly grow up cooking much or eating out a whole lot, and so had never had it, never heard of it...but it sounded fancy, so decided to cook it for her.  

It tasted okay and she was appreciative I made the effort, but I made a lot of rookie mistakes.  She clearly did not marry me for my cooking ability, because I sucked at it when we were dating.  Recipe calls for ham slices?  Sweet, buy some prepackaged deli ham.  Cool, sliced swiss cheese is right here next to the deli meat....score!  Frozen broccoli is easy to nuke, good enough for a side.  

So, 10 years later I decided to take a second crack at the first "fancy" meal I tried to impress her with when we were dating, but with better ingredients.

Bouncing around on the net I found this video about making proper Chicken Cordon Bleu, then stumbled onto a recipe that recommended prosciutto instead of sliced ham and gruyere cheese instead of Swiss....sold!  Holy crap, what a difference good ingredients make.  Using stone ground Dijon, Prosciutto, Gruyere and Panko bread crumbs meant tonight's Chicken Cordon Bleu tasted pretty much nothing like last decades attempt.  Skipped the chicken bullion on the sauce as well, and just used Chardonnay, butter, and heavy cream with a touch of corn starch to thicken.  It was amazing.  

Couldn't stop at just improving the chicken.  Roasted fresh broccoli this time instead of limp frozen crap, coated in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a touch of lemon.  Garnished it all with a lemon slice/zest, paired with the rest of the bottle of Chardonnay I didn't use for the sauce....and damn.
Attempt number 2, a decade later:



If any of you forgot Valentines day and pissed off the wife/gf, watch the video above, use prosciutto and Gruyere to fill the chicken, and I promise she'll forgive you.  

Looks good, OP.  Great idea.

I have a recipe for Cordon Bleu.  It calls for a ton of heavy cream and butter.  It is fucking fantastic, but you can feel your blood turn to concrete as you gulp it down.

The lack of proper dinner pic etiquette would have been ignored if you at least followed the rules (being V day and all)

But no.

Looks good but 1/10

Mine also used a non zero amount of butter and heavy cream.  I never said it was good for you, and I won't be making it often.    

But it tastes amazing, and she loved me using an old memory of when we were dating to pick the meal.

She also thought we weren't doing anything for Valentines Day this year.  She was wrong.  

If I had said anything about "dinner pic" in the thread title, you might have a point here.....but it's not a dinner pic, so you don't.  I did a breakfast pic last week with guns and shit...this was just a meal cooked for the wife.  

I rate you a 1/10 for reading comprehension.  

I made shrimp and scallop scampi.  Had the kiddos help out, they made garlic bread.  Wife loved it!

Nice job OP!! I made my wife Country Fried Chicken with home made made potato and some toasted bread. My first attempt, not bad, will have to tweak the recipe a bit but over all, not bad. She seemed pretty happy by the gesture of my trying to make her favorite meal from scratch.

Great minds think alike, making your woman a home cooked meal, special for them, from the heart means more to them then flowers.

I let out a big old laugh.  

First beans and now this, when does the book come out.

No book necessary.  I'll just continue to spread my opinions unwanted and for free on GD.