Pot & Cover

dinner 11/15/08 Tyler's Ultimate on food network is one of our fav shows....scott loves scallops and puff pastry...he's always trying to figure out how to encase yummy morsels inside the puffy, buttery flakes. when i saw this episode i knew it was for him... see http://www.foodtv.com/ for the recipe. we used already shaped puffs we had in the freezer...but i would not cut them in circles like he does in the show...just cut it into four squares! why waste any of the yummy pastry, cause to me its the best part! these are really rich, so a green salad with a sharp balsamic dressing would be a great accompaniment. sauteed peas and carrots sauteed onion and mushroom buerre blanc...a.k.a. winey, buttery goodness we had been trying to eat "healthy" all week and this was our splurge meal on the weekend...just don't drink too much before and numb your taste buds...they will want to be present for this meal. i also made choc cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...see scott...

dinner 10/27/2008 scott named this "marriage chili" because we cooked it together and we love it sooooo much...it helps keeps a marriage together. we make this chili very often and this was the first batch of the fall. its based on a chicken chili from emeril. chicken is good, but we both think pork is a little better even. we make a cast iron skillet full of crusty, sweet, fluffy, buttery cornbread to crumble in...and "sprinkle" cheese, usually a mexican blend and a scoop of cold sour cream with lots of fresh cilantro...oh its so beyond chili...it is only right its called marriage chili, i think the word 'sex' should be added to the title somehow, maybe 'sexy marriage chili'...it is really spicy you know...this may be one of my top 5 favorites. and it gets better each day...this recipe gives almost 10 servings...so we get to enjoy it a few days in a row...we don't get sick of it. browned pork=yummy sauteed pancetta, mushrooms, onions and ...

dinner 10/22/08 we are admitted tv food network junkies. i would choose to watch food tv over any other. we watch lots of these together and its scotts favorite 'cookbook'. he watches and pauses and rewinds and cooks directly from the episodes...just like this dinner from barefoot contessa, ina garten. seared filets, with creamy blue cheese sauce and the best cornmeal crusted onion rings ever. scott made them perfectly. he's been great at onion rings for a while now and these are added to the list of great ones. oh, yah, sauteed mushrooms too...see recipes on food network website http://www.foodtv.com/ or ina's new cookbook, back to basics...eat up:)

i waited too long to blog this and i can't remember what we ate for dinner...although i remember it was really good...but i do remember the chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting cause i took a picture:) i got him a stainless steel mandoline so he can work on perfecting the crispy potato chip and cakes...and my dad gave him a gold plated putter! too funny. well, the cupcakes were a little dry, but the frosting solves all problems...as scott says, you could put it on cardboard and it'd be good. i've used several recipes over the years and this is our new favorite. "sprinkles" cream cheese frosting 8 oz cream cheese, 4 oz butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla blend cheese, butter at room temp, add other ingredients and whip a little till fluffy. add your favorite coloring or just enjoy in all its creamy, cheesy whiteness.

breakfast 10/12/08 we love breakfast...especially when we have mimosas to drink as we did for a morning during our birthday week...we decided that since our birthdays are exactly a week apart we get to celebrate for an entire week and since they were on the weekend this year it was more like 10 days... we still have the flutes from our honeymoon...they've made it 16 years, or at least 2 of the 4 did:) ah, dreams of lake tahoe in the fall (speaking of lake tahoe and breakfast...i have two words for you...red hut)...any way, breakfast usually entails creamy, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon (turkey or regular), surprisingly i like turkey bacon better in this instance, and flaky refrigerator biscuits with butter and strawberry jam. scott usually cooks this while i'm still attempting to avoid the day under the duvet, snugged up with chey all warm and cozy in the dark. sometimes we (i) make cream gravy...or toast instead of biscuits if that's all we have. its a very good way to eas...

I must say...and scott said it first...this chowder was even better than the mussels the night before. we used a recipe from america's test kitchen for fish chowder and used mussels instead and added fresh corn kernels we had on hand. we had to find another excuse to use the new pot and we'd never made chowder before. it was so yummy. i only wish it had been colder so the hot soup was even more cozy...its almost thanksgiving and its barely cold...no white Christmas here. i'll have to add the recipe later, 'cause we're moving this week and all my cookbooks are in boxes in our new garage. but you can google any quality recipe for fish or clam chowder, or even corn chowder...enjoy with crispy crackers, crusty bread, fresh parsley, and someone you love. this was even better the next night over rice pilaf (see other blogs for recipe)...sounded weird to me, but scott insisted and it was really good. i think we had bill m.- our friend over to watch the game that night...

i turned 35 on oct 10...and got the mac daddy of a 'pot and cover'. scott surprised me with a fire engine red 6 qt dutch oven. we of course had to cook in it right away...and mussels and filet were on the menu...surf and turf i guess:) thank goodness for costco so eating surf and turf is very affordable and high quality! i got around a 3lb bag of mussels...remember its costco ...no small quantities, and scott helped me clean them all, no beards on my mussels thank you. it was a while ago when we actually cooked this...so i don't remember exactly what we did to the meat or mussels...but they were pretty straight forward... mussels in a winey , carmelized oniony, garlicy, buttery sauce with lots of crusty garlic french bread to sop it up and perfectly cooked and seasoned filet . i think we may have marinated them in teriyaki (how do you spell that?) ( yoshida's is the best on the planet...unless you are in Japan i guess) scott just sears them in a screaming hot d...