Best Husband EVER February 28, 2009

Last night was date night and I knew Jake had something up his sleeve.  He took the date money out of the cash envelope in my purse the night before and was being rather sneaky.  

I had a friend over for coffee when he got home with a paper bag and immediately banned me from the kitchen.  Occasionally he would peek around the corner and ask questions like, “what do I do with this part of the garlic after I squeeze it?” and “do I use this knife for chopping the green onions?” and there were the occasional “ah ha!”s and “Oh come on!”s.  It was very cute 🙂  Jake has made me dinner once before, I’d say over 2, maybe 3 years ago.  He made me shrimp scampi and it was delicious, so I had a sneaking suspicion that he was making me the same thing last night.  I was right 😉

 

I’m glad he made me shrimp, we both LOVE seafood and it is definitely a special meal because shrimp is not something we can normally afford to have.  And he makes one mean shrimp scampi! 🙂  

He even set the table with candles and everything 🙂

 

The shrimp was amazing…and REALLY buttery…haha.  He did a wonderful job and I felt so very loved 🙂

This is the recipe he found online:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs large shrimp (about  16 to 24)
• 1/3 c clarified butter
• 4 Tbs minced garlic
• mushrooms (as many as you want)
• 6 green onions
• 1/4 c dry white wine (Jake used Pinot Gris, which was really good)
• 2 Tbs lemon juice, fresh if possible
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Rinse shrimp and set aside.  Heat butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Saute  garlic until it is softened but not browned with the salt, pepper and parsley.  In a separate pan saute mushrooms in butter.  When the garlic butter is done, turn the stove up to medium-high heat and pour in the wine, lemon juice and sauteed mushrooms.  Add shrimp and green onions; cook until shrimp are pink and firm, about 1 to 2 minutes on each side.  Do not overcook (no more than 5 minutes total).  Garnish with lemon slices and parsley sprigs if desired.

He served it over pasta with garlic bread 🙂

 

DELICIOUS

Winey Peaches with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream January 4, 2009

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups red wine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 or 3 while peppercorns
• 1 or 2 strips of lemon zest
• 2 large ripe peaches (halved and pitted)
• 1 pint vanilla bean ice cream

Instructions

Combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon, peppercorns, and zest in a sauce pot and reduce over medium-high heat to a syrup, 12 – 15 minutes.  Remove the cinnamon, peppercorns, and zest with a slotted spoon and discard.  Add the peach halves and turn to coat in the wine sauce, spoon the winey peaches into dishes and top them with ice cream.

Seafood Lasagna November 24, 2008

 

WONDERFUL – again, a little on the expensive side because of the seafood and the cheese, but so so good!  Even if you have someone who doesn’t like seafood I think this would be ok, it’s not very fishy, I don’t think (but I love seafood!)

 

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup minced onion
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese 
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 (6 ounce) can crabmeat, drained and flaked 
• 1 pound cooked small shrimp
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain, and rinse in cold water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a skillet, cook onion in butter over medium heat until tender. Remove from heat, and stir in cream cheese, cottage cheese, egg, basil, and salt and pepper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the soup, milk, wine, crabmeat, and shrimp.

Lay 3 cooked lasagna noodles on the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.

Spread 1/3 of the onion mixture over the noodles. Then spread 1/3 of the soup mixture over the onion layer. Repeat the noodle, onion, soup layers twice more.

Top with Cheddar cheese and Parmesan cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until heated through and bubbly.

Michelle’s Notes

Of course I used Olive Oil instead of butter

Some of the reviews on this recipe said to use Fontina Cheese instead because it makes it not-so-runny, I used Fontina and it was not runny at all and tasted phenomenal

We used Dancing Bull Chardonnay because it was on sale (though I don’t think Chardonnay is typically considered a dry white), it also went well with the meal…so Jake says…

I used my left-over imitation crab from my zucchini recipe

I have found that having a block of Parmesan Cheese in the fridge is kind of a staple, I use it all the time

I think I used a little more Cheddar than it calls for, and I generally use Medium Cheddar on a regular basis so I used that instead of Sharp

I broiled it for a bit once it was done baking to get the cheese crunchy on the top

The best part - happy husband after a yummy dinner 🙂