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This year, I decided to take the bull by the horns, and finally just eat seafood. For those who don't know me, I've never eaten more than a taste (and usually spit it out) of seafood in 25 years. Just one of those mental gag reflex things that I can't even explain....I WANTED to eat seafood, it just never "worked".

2008 is a new year and I said screw it. I'm going to eat me some seafood.

To date, I've eaten (and by eaten, I classify it as more than 1 piece of in more than 1 mouthful, just a 'taste' or 1 piece doesn't count)

Shrimp a couple of ways
Lobster
Crab
Scallops
Mussels
Seared VERY rare/raw tuna

My latest accomplishment was actually ordering a dish with shrimp in it....I'm working on it...

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With a cognac peppercorn cream reduction.
now we're cooking with fire...

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awesome vegetables!

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as Laurie would describe...in her Top Chef commentary....
"Brazilian coconut encrusted pork on top of a bed of rice accompanied by black bean, tomato, mandarin orange, poblano pepper. Sauce is a jalapeno coconut and cilantro ginger emulsion."

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This is the first time our families were meeting. I've never had a dinner where 2 complete families met so it was a little exciting. Her parents and Grandparents came and my parents came along with my sister and her boyfriend. We came up with a huuuuge menu. We just kept adding to it....don't mind the "names" much of it was very campy and inside jokey. We've also been watching a lot of Top Chef. We thought it would be neat to print out a menu...

Easter Menu

Hors d'œuvre
Deviled Eggs
Vegetable Crudités with a Cream Cheese and Chives Spread
Pickled Herring with a Slice of Fresh Onion on Rye
Shrimp Cocktail with Homemade Horseradish Cocktail Sauce
Giant Mushrooms Stuffed with Feta Cheese Topped with Fresh Breadcrumbs
Salads
Simple Green Salad with a Variety of Dressings
Traditional Belarusian Potato Salad
Entrée
Smoked Ham Basted with a Tangerine Glaze
Slow-Roasted Turkey Breast
Fresh and Smoked Sauerkraut Over Kielbasa
Swedish Meatballs
Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Sides
Mashed but Fluffy Potatoes
Mrs. Paul’s Famous Sweet Potatoes
Asparagus Roasted with Garlic and Parmesan
Butter Infused Corn
Homestyle Baked Beans
Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Dessert
Fruit Pie ala Timko
Chocolate Brownie Cake
Babka
Cookies
Coffee
Drinks
Miller Light
Coors
Wine
Soda

Easter started a few days ago making Babka's for the family....someone has to keep the tradition!












Oh yeah I redid my office too...




We dyed eggs...



Don't ask...


Laurie took on flower duty. At one point I made a comment alluding to the fact that I thought the flowers grew those bright color. I'll never live THAT one down...












Had to drop by Marshalls on the way to get my hair cut on Saturday and found a few gems in the cookware dept. 2 all-clad pots and 2 calphalon pans to complete my set..






Chocolate Almond Brownie Cake





Laurie had the idea of doing stuffed mushrooms with Feta stuffing...




Easter morning comes....I wake up at 6 to put the turkey on...this was quite the 'experiment' and I was really unsure "if" it would work..it did.



Fresh Rye Bread


Baked Mac and Cheese




Mom and Dad came over, Mom making the herring.




No one touched the salad...Mushrooms and Eggs were a big hit...


Yep and a Ham...


And lots of other stuff...


Dessert

Along with the chocolate cake..

Overall, we had VERY little leftovers.....the things I thought would be a hit that were on the original "menu" were not so much (backed mac, asparagus) and the things we added last minute, were a HUGE hit...(stuffed mushrooms, fruit dessert)

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Ham and Cheese Mini-Frittatas on a Biscuit

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different recipe than I'm used to and its always tough going against moms and grandmas recipes but she nailed it!

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Made some turkey burgers last night after finally getting my kitchen back together (i had made some upgrades)

made a bacon ranch sauce, mainly because i wanted to cook the bacon in the cast iron before the burgers.

sauteed some veggies quick too. Made about 3 lbs of burgers, (about 8) and froze half cooked the rest.

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Next time I have the idea of going to Ikea on a Sunday, someone please just kick me in the balls instead....

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came out great! used my own kinda recipe with some hot italian sausage and believe it or not, you couldnt notice it much, but it gave it a great taste!

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Ski weekend was amazing, of course...but I didn't expect it not to be! Pictures on SmugMug..to lazy to post a link.

One hiccup was going to a supposed to be nice restaurant, ordering a ribeye medium-rare due to a SERIOUS craving I have been having for one for weeks...and getting it well...first time I ever sent food back. Since Laurie was done her meal by the time I sent it back I just told the waitress I'd pick off hers as I was already miffed....

Not to be defeated dad came through and dropped off some ribeyes to the residence when I returned home.

Ribeye cooked perfect (medium rare, even color inside, perfect crust and sear outside)

A kind of Gratin concoction that I made from some left over potatoes (not sure on the types i used, but whatever decided it wanted to start growing roots in my fridge got the ax. Put some heavy creme in a pot and the sliced taters and cooked for a few minutes, then put it in a baking dish, poured another cup of heavy cream and some butter milk (hey it was left over too) and then grated about a cup and a half to 2 cups of Gruyer cheese over it and baked for good 25 min.

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