Copycat Restaurant Recipes - Surprisingly Romantic

Picture it: the perfect romantic evening. The crystal is set, candles lit, your grandmother's best silverware and china grace the table. You chose the flowers and music carefully, and the table is set up next to the sliding glass doors that overlook the deck. Outside, a wonderland of artificial twinkling minilights leads out to a velvet-black sky set with stars.

Only one thing is missing: his stupid cheese sticks, a favorite from your first date at Chili's. And your more sophisticated stuffed mushrooms from the Olive Garden's appetizer menu. And, well, a decent main dish. Your answer: copycat restaurant recipes. The really good news: you can find these recipes online in a variety of places.

There are people, from gourmands to home chefs, who spend a great deal of time figuring out the ingredients to recipes like On The Border's cheese dip, and then post them for free online. So start with the Internet, and look up a few of your favorites.

While this sounds like hard work - duplicating the efforts of professional chefs for your own home uses - just a few simple rules will make cooking copycat restaurant recipes a piece of cake.

First:

Make sure that the recipes you find really are the classic favorites you remember from the recipe. While there are tons of these recipes online. you'll quickly find that the ingredients vary widely, and some of the copycat restaurant recipes are no good at all.

Others, however, are spot-on, or eve a little better than the original recipes. And choose them carefully; Olive Garden restaurant recipes are among the easiest to duplicate and hardest to ruin, for example, while Outback Steakhouse recipes are perfect for outdoor grilling.

Instead of just picking out random copycat restaurant recipes to try, use a reviewed recipe that someone else has tried out, so you know that at least two people approve of the recipe. These sites are a little harder to find, but they are out there. Then do a dry run of the recipe before your big night. That way, you know all the pitfalls, and you can taste the results yourself and even make modifications if necessary.

Second:

One of the big tricks used by restaurants is to only use the freshest possible ingredients. This does two things: it removes all the sodium and other preservatives that are found in frozen and canned foods, and it gives you a pure, healthy, fresh-tasting base for all your recipes. This means you must do your shopping the night before, and be extremely picky.

Third:

To make sure the rest of your night goes well, do some pre-prep on your copycat restaurant recipes. Put together sauces and dishes, chop your veggies and store them (in water, if they're hard veggies like potatoes, celery, or carrots) in sealed containers in the fridge.

The more stuff you have done ahead of time, the better everything else does. Try to have enough time to take a quick shower before dinner. You'd be surprised how much food odor your hair can pick up!

Once your dinner is together, you can drape yourself in a peignoir or whatever floats your boat - nothing is fine - and have a lovely dinner, in private, with your restaurant favorites inside, the sparkling lights and stars outside, and each other for dessert. All thanks to your copycat restaurant recipes!