Hey Good Lookin'....What'cha Got Cookin'?

I am a HUGE fan of the Food Network Channel. So, when one of the wholesalers, TransAmerica, invited Eric and me to an "Iron Chef" night at a local cooking school, The Kitchen Table, I was excited. Not only had Eric and I not been on a good old fashioned date in a while, but to be able to have the night essentially free (we still had to pay our sitter) well, gosh....we couldn't refuse. The television show Iron Chef has two accomplished chefs compete against each other by making 4-5 dishes using the 'secret ingredient.' Our evening was similar but without the competition. We broke into two groups of 10 people each. Each group got assigned a chef to assist and direct us. We came up with our dish ideas and then proceeded to prepare them. Our 'secret ingredient' was salmon. What a blast. Above, you can see Eric in front of our Vegetable Saffron Risotto that he and I made together. The other dishes made by our team were Salmon Sashimi with a Cucumber Salad, Grilled Salmon over Fresh Corn Salsa, and Baked Salmon en Cruet (salmon in puffed pastry). I was giddy the entire evening. I have had a dream to one day go to culinary school so to "play chef" for a night was just perfect. Thank you TransAmerica for a wonderful evening out!

On a similar note, I HIGHLY recommend the movie, "Julie and Julia" starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. The movie definitely inspires you to be more adventurous with your cooking, but even more importantly celebrates marriage. What a joy it was to see good old fashioned happy marriages on the big screen; unfortunately, a rarity these days. It makes you come home and want to love your spouse even more.