Cheesy Chicken Rolls

One thing I don't like to do on Valentine's day is eat at a restaurant. Why eat out on the busiest night of the year with a bunch of other couples who don't have the imagination to do something different? This year James and I decided to dust off two little-used cookbooks (Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook, and A Taste for Love: A Romantic Cookbook for Two) and make dinner together. We actually did this yesterday (on Valentine's eve), knowing that we would not have an oven for a few days starting today. We are having a new oven delivered later this week.

James wrote about preparing Black Bean Fritters from Intercourses in a separate post. I took the lead on creating Cheesy Chicken Rolls from A Taste for Love. This was a rather complicated recipe with 16 ingredients, which I only simplified down to 15 by using one cup of cottage cheese, rather than 1/2 a cup of that and a 1/2 cup of ricotta. We began by baking boneless chicken breasts for 30 minutes at 350, and parboiling 6 lasagna noodles (the recipe said to boil 4, but it looked to me that the filling would make more, and I was correct). I sauteed asparagus (a substitution I made for broccoli, which James does not like as well) and mixed it with the chopped chicken, cottage cheese, egg, chives, and a bit of nutmeg and pepper.The filling was then spread onto the noodles and the noodles were rolled and placed in a casserole. Finally, the topping was made with flour, butter, vegetable broth, milk, and mustand and cooked on the stovetop until thick. This we poured over the noodles and then garnished with paprika. The stuffed noodles were baked at 350 for 25 more minutes. This all took about 2 hours, but it was worth the wait, and after all, it was a special occasion. James and I both liked them. Paloma doesn't eat meat, but did eat one of the Fritters, which she declared "okay". I thought they were a perfect complement to the Chicken Rolls, though, and there was enough of both for leftovers for lunch today. I think the Rolls would be especially good if I were to add pine nuts to the mix next time. We enjoyed a bottle of 2000 Blanc de Blancs sparkling Chardonnay from Westport Rivers Winery with this meal. James declared the dinner "perfect for blogging and snogging!" Yes indeed!