Kitchen Of Love!!!

What a Month February is. There were so many great events to jump on top of. And I tackled 2 in one night =). Both having to do with Love and my Hubby reaping the benefits of Both!. So Mele Cotte of Kitchen of love put together an event on Aphrodisiacs. How fun could that be, food to set you up for love. So I put my thinking hat on and hit up Google. I decided that if I was gonna do this, the WHOLE meal was gonna be full of Aphrodisiacs. I do have the one item which will be my side dish, that I will name Honey Spiced Carrots.
So the Menu for last night was:

Broiled Flat Iron steak (I found a site that gave info on various aphrodisiacs and I copied the ones I was going to use for my dinner) : Beef: One of our favorites. When Michael has a steak there's no stopping him. It brings out his inner caveman. Meat works wonders on your libido and brain. After a high protein meal, your blood stream is flooded with the amino acid tyrosine. The chemicals made from tyrosine, dopamine and norepinephrine, trigger brain cells that enhance mental alertness and concentration. ( I think Beef was a good choice hehe)
My honey spiced carrots:Carrots: This popular root vegetable, with its phallic shape and sweet flavor, was used to seduce lovers by Middle Eastern royalty. Our question is: "Why does royalty needed to depend on carrots?"
I have the info on all the spices I used, but why make this that long?? lol. In those wonderful carrots were Honey, Brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves (all listed in the search as Aphrodisiac's) and a tid bit of butter. Now seeing that carrots are not a dessert I was confident that their sweet flavor would be excepted. They reminded us of Thanksgiving actually which I adore.
Mushroom Risotto was the 3rd accompaniment to my Dinner of love. I got lazy here and since am a bit strapped for cash, found a great box version that worked and was damn tasty. But I found that both Rice and Mushrooms were also considered an aphrodisiac, so why not include it.So My carrots. I love carrots, really I love almost all veggies, and it was a toss up which to use. When I searched for the items, Artichokes came up, and let me tell you the reason they were considered aphrodisiacs put them at the top of my list. But they aren't always easy to find, and good and I wanted this a great meal. So I chose my Carrots. So here is the recipe I came up with. Now keep in mind, I am not the best at just creating, I am much better with a base recipe and then I tweak or change stuff. So I had to go a little easy lol.

Honey Spice Carrots

1/4 tsp each cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg,
1/8 tsp ginger
1 tbls honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1lb bag baby carrots
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the carrots until still crisp. (I have a wonderful little pan that I use in the microwave. I hate microwave cooking, but for veggies it steams them wonderfully). In a sauce pan put all ingredients except carrots. Heat until sugar and butter are melted and all items are well blended and starting to bubble. Pore in the carrots, add the liquid left in it if you steamed them. It should just be a little be of water, but its their juice. If you boiled them, just strain and add to the mixture. Stir to coat and bring to a boil. The sauce will get slightly syrupy and will coat your carrots.
They are sweet to taste, and I like my carrots with a crunch. You have the wonderful blend of spices in your mouth and nose. They were wonderful.
A shot of the set up, no flowers, sigh I cant believe I forgot flowers for that lovely vase I found. But that book is called "Inter Course" a book of Aphrodisiac Recipes. So I was really happy to have this event, got to bust it out, but none had a steak and the man was begging for steak the last couple of weeks hehe. And that bear, its soo cute, I got him in the mail yesterday from my Darling Princess!! Bandit of Love he is and had to be in the picture. Enjoy the carrots any who make them, we had a wonderful meal, and a hmm...fantastic dessert!