Squid with Watermelon and Basil

After a long weekend of lots of food, Jamie and I wanted something fresh and healthy for dinner. I saw this recipe in Simple, Fresh, Southern and immediately started drooling. Watermelon just sounded so refreshing and nice, and I love fresh calamari. It's pretty simple - you just need to have an hour or two so it can marinate. It's pretty with bright pink and green from the watermelon and basil and it tastes great. Put in more jalapeno to give it a bigger kick.

Serves 2, double it for 4
Ingredients:
kosher salt
1 lemon, halved
1/2 lb cleaned squid, cut into 1/3" rings and tentacles cut in half
4 oz seedless watermelon cut into 1x1x1/4" tiles (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 a jalapeno, finely chopped
a little less than 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
leaves from 2 sprigs basil, roughly chopped

Profiteroles

If there are profiteroles on a menu, I will order them. I love them! (La Sirène in Soho has the best profiteroles - so chocolaty and rich.) Jamie's and my parents met for the first time last weekend, very exciting, and I decided on profiteroles for dessert. They're actually pretty easy - I've been making them since I was 12 - and always look impressive, and better still, taste amazing. This is a basic recipe, but feel free to jazz it up with peppermint ice cream instead of vanilla and crushed peppermints on top, or different flavors or ice cream, etc. Yum! (Also, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product covered in chocolate because of all the fun we were having at dinner - everyone got along, phew! - so you'll just have to imagine them covered in warm, gooey chocolate sauce.)

Serves 8
Ingredients:
vanilla ice cream, softened a little
3/4 cups water
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt and additional pinch of salt
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
9 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp instant coffee

Apple-Stuffed Pork Chops with Cider Garlic Glaze

I had some good friends over for dinner last night and one of them, Charlie, requested these pork chops. I made them for him once before for helping me carry a table from my sister's apartment to my then new apartment. They're super tasty and a really special weeknight meal. The sauteed apples are so tasty, I'd love to find another use for them. The sweet of the apple and the rich butter, the salt, and the kick of the chipotle powder is awesome. The cider glaze is also incredibly good - syrupy but with garlic. Yum! I served it with minted pea puree. (Jamie loves pea puree, so it's becoming a staple in our house.)

Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 bone in pork chops, the thicker the better
1 1/2 apples (I used 1 Granny Smith and half a Gala) peeled and thinly sliced
3 cups apple cider
4 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
1/2 tsp chipotle powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper

Valentine's Day Dinner!

Jamie sent me two bouquets of roses! One the day before Valentine's Day to psych me out, and then an even prettier one on actual Valentine's Day. Isn't he the best?? We have a Valentine's Day tradition of staying in and having some sort of special dinner, then going out to Long Island the weekend after and having a long, relaxing weekend, just the two of us. I wanted to make him something special and toyed with a few ideas and decided on salmon roe caviar and creme fraiche as an hors d'oeuvre, lobster pot pie and salad, and pink cupcakes. (It was going to be a pink heart shaped cake, but they heart shaped cakes fell apart, so I just used the cupcakes!) All of this was complemented by a bottle of our favorite bubbly, Graham Beck. (We were introduced to it by Luvo Ntezo, the amazing sommelier at One&Only Cape Town in South Africa - it's fab. Made in the Champagne style, so very yeasty and dry, not sweet. And about $15 per bottle. Love!!)

I was able to whip this up on a weeknight, but it was a bit crazy, so I'd recommend saving it for a special weekend night home-date, or intimate dinner party.

Lobster Pot Pie
This was really decadent, but great and choc full of lobster. I used Ina's recipe, but used puff pastry instead, and didn't do the bottom layer. Also, I didn't use any Pernod because I didn't have any.

Engagement Pie!

Not for me! Our best friends, Chip and Siobhan, just got engaged too! Such a fun and celebratory time. (Jamie and I have now deemed ourselves Champagne people.) We were SO happy about this engagement and wanted to give them a little treat. They so sweetly sent us a bottle of bubbly when we got engaged, continuing our new Champagne dependence. Both of them have a weakness for strawberry rhubarb pie, and by some stroke of luck, I found rhubarb in February, and some pretty good looking strawberries (both at Essex Street Market). I made the crust (Martha's pate brisee recipe) and personalized it with a big engagement ring and a C and an S on either side. Next time you need a special treat for a special occasion, try personalizing your friend's favorite pie. I think it was a big hit! (Chip ate half of it out of the tin with a spoon before leaving our apartment.)