When I was a little girl I went through a phase where Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz was truly my hero. I made friends and family call me "Dorothy," I had an imaginary dog named Toto, I thought Glenda the Good Witch was the prettiest woman on the face of the world, my favorite song was Lollipop Kids and I coveted red shiny  high heeled slippers like there was no tomorrow. Today I am so very thankful my Mom did not name me Dorothy...sorry to the Dorothys out there its not my favorite name. I do not have a dog named Toto his name is Norton and he is not a small black terrier...he is a 120 lb yellow lab...yes he lost 10 lbs. Glenda is not my physical ideal any longer probably because now I know that a dress that big just makes my hips look HUGE!!! And the Lollipop Kids is no longer my favorite song...ok yes I may be bitter because I am the same height as a munchkin. However, I still love shoes and red shiny shoes are awesome!!!

So anyway this weekend I went to Phoenix for a wedding and I have to say it was a truly a great weekend filled with family, friends, fun times by the pool and amazing food. I also met some amazing new friends...thanks to wedding seating charts. However, there is nothing like home. By late last night when I was sitting at the airport waiting for my flight home I was ready to be home and ready to cook again. And of course as I was standing in line waiting to board they made an announcement,"please sit down the plane has a radio that needs to be repaired." Thankfully that was quickly repaired and I made it home safely.

While at the airport I started looking through my iphone cooking apps trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner and I found a recipe for Scallops with Garlicky Tomatillo Salsa. So the first call I made as I stepped off the plane was to my local fish market to find out what time they were open until. Yes, I know I am a tad bit fanatical...how many people call their fish store from the airport, right. Thankfully they were open until 2100 so I was in luck...as I was able to run from the airport to the grocery store and start cooking.

This recipe was really good!! The scallops are placed on skewers and brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with red pepper and smoked paprika. I have never used smoked paprika before and I really liked the flavor and come to find out it has a great smoky flavor...I am guessing that is probably where the name came from. The scallops chill in the refrigerator for 30 min and then they are grilled. Yum! Just be careful not to overcook them because they get chewy if you are not careful.

So although today was 80 degrees for some reason it felt like Fall to me and so I decided to make a Fall meal. I made chicken chili and cornbread...which although I prefer beef chili I figured chicken was way better for me. Plus I found a recipe for chicken chili that I could make in the crockpot which makes everything better. However, I do have to say that I did feel a little odd cutting chicken thighs at 0600 before I went to work...maybe I should have assembled it the night before. Nothing like standing there in business attire hacking away at a chicken thigh, right?


This Southwestern Chicken Chili recipe is super easy as all you need to do is cut up some onions, bell pepper and chicken thighs. Throw in a bunch of seasoning and some canned ingredients and just let it cook. I also loved walking into the house after work and smelling chili throughout the house...that alone pretty much makes it worthwhile.

As for the cornbread I have to say that throughout time I have tried just about every cornbread recipe known to man because well I love cornbread. However, I always go back to old faithful...I remember making cornbread as a kid probably around the age of 12 and I remember my family telling me how great it was and being so proud that I made it myself. Well that recipe came from the back of the Albers corn meal box and I clearly remember the orange and blue box and even after all these years that recipe is still my favorite. Plus I have to say it is one of the easiest recipes on the planet which always helps when it comes to me and baking. I love to serve cornbread with honey butter which if you have never made it before is so easy and pretty much a slice of heaven. You take softened butter or margarine and add honey and stir until mixed thoroughly. I don't measure I just taste and so my suggestion is just to add as much honey as you want...if you like it sweet add more and if you like it more buttery add less...think you get the picture.

So here is the Albers Cornmeal Cornbread Recipe straight from the back of the box:

1 cup Albers yellow corn meal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease an 8" square baking pan
Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Combine milk, vegetable oil and egg in a small bowl and mix well. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir just until blended. Pour into pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes and serve warm.

Ok now for the randomness. So last night I made a steak recipe that in and of itself was just ok but the recipe called for fried garlic on the steak. And the steak was to die for! You take olive oil and heat it in a skillet until its really hot. You take as much garlic as you want and slice it so its thin. Throw the garlic slices in the oil and cook until golden brown and then remove with a slotted spoon. Serving these over steak was great-amazing garlic flavor without being too overbearing but this would also be good in a salad or rice dish. Just an idea.

The coolest thing happened to me today-I got my first blog gift....can you call it schwag or just blog kick back? So I go into work today and on my desk is this:

And along with this gift is a note that says something like hope this helps you light your candles. Yay I have a fan who reads my blog I was so excited. So thanks Marl for making my day. And let me tell you all of the candles in the house are lit right now and it kind of smells like a flower garden explosion next to a cinnamon roll factory. Not sure if that is good or not but I love my lighters.

Let me start by saying thank you to all of you who supported Erin and I with this Avon Breast Cancer Walk journey. And journey was truly what it was from the fear of taking on an $1800 fundraising goal which initially sounded so daunting to the very physical and mental challenge of walking 39 miles. During this weekend I went through every emotion known to man and I just have to say at the end of this 2 day voyage I am so proud of both of us and I feel so blessed to have a friendship that can survive this battle.

The first day (picture on the left) we started at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara at 0630 feeling ready, confident and a little anxiety for the 26.2 miles ahead of us that day. I can honestly say I walked into this breast cancer walk way TOO cocky. I thought hell I am in good shape, I workout almost everyday and this is walking how hard can it be right? I have never been so wrong in my entire life! The first 13 miles was pretty easy-we talked a lot, laughed a lot, enjoyed the people watching, the snacks at the rest stops and we were feeling pretty damn good. The 2nd 13 miles on day 1 was by far the hardest thing for me to accomplish as it was exhausting both mentally and physically. My hips hurt, I had blisters and my calf started cramping around mile 20. The scenery was gorgeous as it was through Montecito and into Summerland ending at the Santa Barbara Polo Club. However, it took everything we had just to keep putting one foot in front of the other. From mile 20-26 we did not talk not because we didn't have things to talk about...believe me it was not that peaceful serenity of silence...it was the agony of silence as both of us were trying to conserve energy just to get through it.

At the end of day 2 we amazingly completed a marathon but we were worse for the ware. Erin's knee was swollen, we both had blisters, we were both stiff and sore and thank god for the angel who set up our tent as we had to camp that night. However, even through that pain we were both determined to continue so we went and took showers in one of those giant semi truck shower trailers and I can honestly say it was one of the best damn showers I have ever taken. We went to medical and had them look at Erin's knee and she got ice to try and bring down the swelling overnight, we had our blisters popped and wrapped...yes I know way nasty. And we ate dinner and went to sleep in our pink tent with the mental knowledge that we still had another day and another 13.1 miles ahead of us which was such a psychologically exhausting thought.

However, day 2 arrived just as day 1 ended with the endless chatter of the random people in the tent next to us who really enjoyed talking very loud to each other even though they were in a 4x4 tent together. Love it...ok not really! So at 0745 we headed out for day 2...let me just say I was so impressed with Erin because her knee was swollen and wrapped in an ace bandage, her blisters were nasty and she looked miserable. The first mile was easy and then came more agony as we counted down the miles constantly trying to keep each other going and finding random landmarks and goals to accomplish...lets get to the next rest stop, lets get to mile 6 because 6+7+13, lets get to mile 10 because that is lunch and well we only have 3 miles after that we can't give up, right? We talked about everything on this trip from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to our families to how every muscle in our body hurt to how to have global peace (ok that was a little too deep even for us). The picture of us on the left is at mile 13 on the 2nd day and I was so impressed that we were still able to stand let alone smile for that picture.

This experience was by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do physically, however for me it was even more taxing mentally because getting through day 1 was hard but knowing there was a day 2 was psychological torture. And getting yourself through day 2 with the pain of day 1 was truly a feat. But it was an amazing experience and a huge accomplishment...seeing and talking to so many people who had or were currently touched by the illness was such a powerful motivator. The Avon Breast Cancer Walk motto is "In it to end it," however we decided by the end that our motto was,"In it to end us," since we were in so much pain. But we finished and it was an experience that both of us will never forget and today over massages and lunch Erin said those fateful words to me,"I want to do it again." And so I said to her,"Ok." So we will be back for round 2 but we will not use diaper rash cream as it still gave us blisters and I got a rash, we will train for it and we will smuggle wine into our bags for our night of camping!

And I know this won't surprise you at all but what did I decide to do last night even with all the pain...well of course I wanted to cook. So I made Mediterranean Chicken Stacks and I will be honest there is no pic because I was just too tired but its a really good recipe with great flavors as it has chicken, eggplant, goat cheese and tomatoes...perfect for an end of summer meal. But I did pair it with a great Mourvedre and I took a pic of the label today when I was more mobile and here it is:

I decided that tonight was a night for romance so I lit a candle and decided to blog by candlelight. Oh yeah! As you all know I don't have a romantic bone in my body so I thought this was quite a big step for me. And nothing screams romance like Chinese soup, right? Ok reaching a little there...guess I will stick to the candle part. I should probably mention that it took me 3 matches to get the candle lit. Match #1 I broke in half before it lit. Match #2 kind of sparked and I thought an ember floated on the table. Ek! Match #3 equaled success!

So tonight I decided to try and make Chinese Chicken and Rice Soup (this is the link). The recipe came from Food Network Magazine and since I have been on a quest for Chinese recipes it stood out to me. I also thought this recipe was doable as the ingredients were not so out of the ordinary that I would have to take a field trip to Chinatown...however a trip is in the works, right Mel? And it had some shortcuts that did not make it extremely time consuming...yes I learned my lesson from the beef stew debacle. Also thought the mix of flavors sounded fresh, refreshing and I LOVE sesame oil!

The recipe starts by whisking 4 eggs and then throwing them in a hot pot with peanut oil and cooking for about 1 minute. I was a little concerned about the technique because after they cook for a minute you add the tomatoes and stir them with the egg to break it up. But it actually was super easy and it worked really well giving the soup a light hint of egg kind of like the egg drop soup you order at Chinese restaurants. I was worried I was going to end up with big gobs of scrambled eggs in my soup but that wasn't the case at all as the egg mixture is very thin and doesn't have that clumpy consistency.

The rest of the recipe is really easy as you pretty much just throw the rest of the ingredients in the pot. And even the chicken-EASY-as you shred a rotisserie chicken and wha-la! I did use low sodium soy sauce and chicken broth and if I make this again I would have used regular sodium on both just because I love that salty broth flavor...but I compensated by adding some extra salt at the end. It is a really light and refreshing soup and it does have those Chinese flavors which make it a little different and exotic. This would be a perfect first course for a Chinese dinner party or if you want to be like me it will be the perfect lunch at work tomorrow. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

So this weekend is the 15th Annual Long Beach Lobster Festival and since I have never been to a lobster festival I decided I needed to find out what this whole lobster festival thing was all about. I read about the event in Westways magazine...umm yeah I read it...I know it's kind of for old people but I do find cool things in it and I of course love the restaurant reviews. However, when I went to the web page and A. saw the logo of the dancing lobster and B. read that they fly the lobsters in every night from Maine for the fest I decided I was in. http://www.originallobsterfestival.com/

I had this vision of a plane flying in from Maine and doing a lobster drop every night into the park. Ya know I giant "X" on the ground where the cage of lobsters is supposed to be parachuted in right into the park in the dark of the night. And I think that was my imagination probably running amuk but it was amazing to see that many lobster in one place.

I was talking to a guy who worked there and he said on Saturday alone they were planning on selling 3, 400 lobsters...that is a lot of friggin lobster. And it was so weird to see soooo many people walking around with plates with giant red lobsters on them.


The lobsters are all cooked at the park in giant "lobster pots." So it truly doesn't get much more fresh than this...unless you go to Maine of course. So you get in line for your lobster and we learned a valuable lesson because once you get your lobster there is a 2nd line labeled "crackers." And I looked at my plate and thought to myself I have a roll why do I need crackers too. So I am like eh I am going to go sit down when someone in our party gently reminded me that the "crackers" actually crack your lobster so you can eat it....oh that would be helpful. Good point! Trying to crack a lobster shell with my teeth would probably be less than succesful.

I also learned a little lobster fact. Did you know that Maine lobsters have claws, but California lobsters do not? Uncle Joe shared that fact with us yesterday while eating our lobsters and I actually verified that fact with google this morning as I did not want to spread random lies and he does have a tendency to get me since I tend to be pretty gullible.


The lobster was served with melted butter and I really just wanted to drink it but I thought that might be a little over the top. It was also served with coleslaw, a roll and watermelon. The festival was at a great park next to the ocean and it had live music, a horrible magician that was actually more irritating than entertaining and some random booths with random stuff. And I of course bought a lobster festival shirt because as most of you know my wardrobe is made up of random tshirts and sweatshirts that I have collected from destinations throughout the world. Seriously its not an adventure unless you come home with a tshirt or sweatshirt plus its a good way to remember where you have been. And I don't buy the cheesy tourist type I buy them from cool restaurants, wineries and now lobster festivals...yes the shirt does have the dancing lobster on it....love it!

This was my first time eating a whole lobster as I normally eat just the lobster tails and I normally don't see the entirety of what I am eating on my plate. So that was a bit of an adjustment however this was truly some of the most tender and flavorful lobster I have ever had. It truly made me a believer in Maine lobster because it definitely tastes different than our Pacific lobsters and it has a less chewy texture and a more buttery flavor...oh wait that might have been the fact that I doused my lobster in my cup of butter. No, really I did try a bite without the butter and it was buttery. It was fun eating it with your hands and I was impressed with how easily it came out of the shell...probably thanks to the "crackers." There were parts of the lobster that looked less than appetizing and I won't go into that in detail but we decided "we are only going to eat what we are comfortable with," and that seemed to work really well. Lobster Fest 2011 was a lot of fun with good food, fun with family and a beautiful day. It was a huge success!

Tonight I sit here writing my blog covered in chili powder, sour cream and lime juice but I am happy. If you have ever cooked with me you would know that I am one dang messy chef...actually that is an understatement...hmmm hot mess...nope lets one up that to full on tornado. If I was a tropical storm I would definitely be upgraded to a hurricane...especially when making soup but hopefully the lessons learned tonight will help me with my future soup endeavors...especially blended soups. When I cook that is exactly what the kitchen looks like and often time whatever I am making also ends up all over me. If I am not covered in flour I did not bake...that is actually how you know I cheated and bought the dessert. If the kitchen sink does not have every dish in the house in it I did not make dinner. So tonight I decided to make Black Bean Tomato Soup with Cilantro Lime Cream from Cooking Light. The recipe sounded easy and I thought I could whip it out no problem. Boy was I wrong but I did learn some valuable lessons that I thought I should share.

1. Chili powder is spicy especially when you put it into a pot with sauteeing onions, celery and garlic and then you put your face into the pot to look at it. For some reason it likes to be inhaled back down your throat, into your eyes and sinus cavity. I still have scratchy chili powder throat as I write this

2. Lime juice likes to squirt up at you...especially if you aren't paying attention and you are pointing the lime at your face instead of the bowl. Yup learned that lesson tonight as well.

3. Sour cream ended up on my shirt...don't know how and also the cookbook. Just be careful I am sure sour cream is sneaky...not user error at all

4. And this is actually a valuable lesson because I have blended soup countless times and sprayed it out the blender like a volcano on several occasions as the steam often pops the top off the blender...last time I covered the entire kitchen counter and cabinets in soup. However, this recipe recommended when you blend the soup you take the center out of the blender lid to let the steam escape....and by golly it worked...no soup volcano. This is a lesson I will take with me.

Pardon me....just sneezed some more chile powder

So this recipe is actually very easy, very flavorful and has a nice spice to it which is not too intense. The cumin gives it a nutty texture and due to the chicken broth it is lightly salted without being overbearing. Since it has just a dollop of sour cream on it the fat content is low and the lime in the sour cream is a nice contrast to the spice of the chili powder and cumin. Here is the recipe:

Black Bean Tomato Soup with Cilantro Lime Cream by Cooking Light

2 bacon slices, chopped ***I cooked them whole and crumbled them after crisp ***
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 tsp ground cumin, divided
1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder ***watch your throat ***
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp ground blk pepper
1-15oz can blk beans drained and rinsed
1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes undrained
1-14 oz can chicken broth
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 T minced fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp grated lime rind
1 T fresh lime juice

1. Cook bacon in a large saucepan over med heat until crisp. Remove bacon and reserve 1 tsp of bacon drippings in pan. Set aside bacon. Add onion and celery to pan and cook 5 min. ***I found it cooked way faster *** Stir in 3/4 tsp cumin, chile powder and garlic and cook 1 min. Stir in bacon, pepper, blk beans, tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 min.
Place half of bean mixture in blender and process until smooth. Repeat with the rest of the soup.
2. Combine sour cream, remaining 1/4 tsp cumin, cilantro, lime rind and lime.  Serve the soup with a dollop of sour cream on it.

Have a good night all...think I better hit the shower
By the way thanks for all the feedback on the wok article...damn there are a lot of wok owners...and a lot of people really did get them for wedding presents. Um when did woks become the trendy wedding gift?

So as you all know I had a special request to attempt to make Chinese Food for my blog. I will fully admit that I have always been pretty intimidated by Chinese Food-especially due to the ingredients and cooking style as I am not familiar or comfortable with any of it. However, I took this blog request as a challenge and I decided it was time for me to face my fears. As you can you probably imagine based on seeing the picture of my cookbook collection I do own a Chinese cookbook or 2, however for this 1st attempt I decided to try a Chinese recipe that came from Better Homes and Gardens as it allowed me to ease into the ingredients in a one toe into the water at a time fashion.

During this quest to conquer my fear I did my research as every good journalist should. So the other day at work I asked the room,"does anyone know how to cook Chinese food?" After all 6 ladies stopped laughing at me they pretty much answered in unison with a "no." However, one did seem to have some knowledge about cooking styles, using a wok in particular. So she asks me,"well don't you have a wok?" And I answer,"um no why would I have a wok?" She goes on to tell me that," everyone who has gotten married has a wok. You always get one as a wedding gift." Well to that I have to say what the hell friends and family...I have been married twice and I have never received a wok...so I have to say that you all who have loved and cared for me over the years have definitely let me down as none of you have gifted me a wok. Thanks a lot!!!  I told my husband about this as if I add him into the mix this is his 2nd marriage as well...and still we have no wok.

Ok so here it goes I decided to try and make Ginger Lemongrass Chicken with Cilantro Rice Noodles. http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/ginger-lemongrass-chicken-with-cilantro-rice-noodles/ My first concern was where was I going to find lemongrass and rice noodles, however the Asian food section of the everyday grocery store has really improved and truly does have a lot of common Asian food ingredients. The lemongrass I found at Albertsons and they had both paste form in a tube and it whole in the recipe section of the produce department. The rice noodles and fish sauce were also at Albertsons and actually the biggest challenge I had was deciding which noodles to buy because they came in different thicknesses and there were rick sticks, Thai rice noodles and something else. I ended up with Thai rice noodles because they looked the most like the picture.

So the recipe first asks you to make a paste in the food processor of lemongrass, ginger, garlic, lime, green onions and oil. Easy enough I thought. I roped my friend Jen into helping plus I figure if I am going to make Chinese food for the first time might as well have the added pressure of other people eating it so her whole family was over. However, we did order pizza for the kids and if it went poorly it could have been pizza for the adults as well.

My first batch used the whole lemongrass and after it blended it just looked kind of stringy and when I put it in my mouth it kind of got stuck in the back of my throat...kind of like how I imagine a hairball would be. And I just didn't think that was what I was going for in a main entree. So I made a 2nd batch using the lemongrass paste and that was much more successful and it tasted better. I rubbed the paste into the chicken and then grilled the chicken.



Meanwhile on the other side of the kitchen Jen was making the sauce for the noodles. She said that at first she was turned off by the thought and smell of the fish sauce but once it was blended with the other ingredients she thought it smelled a lot better. The noodles were super easy to make as they just get tossed into boiling water for 3-4 minutes and then they are strained and tossed with the sauce, shredded carrots, cilantro and peanuts.

Granted I know this dish isn't completely authentic Chinese food but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with the outcome. Next time I will get more brave and tackle something a little more technical. And now that I have fish sauce in my fridge I am practically a pro.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend!

So I am really not a fan of most foods that are supersized...usually they just mean more fat, more calories and more pain/suffering. However, I was just reading an article about a new jalapeno that has been created that is bigger, faster and stronger. It is called the...wait for it....JALMUNDO!!! No that is not a wrestler in a Mexican mask it is a pepper that was created because there was a need for the perfect pepper for jalapeno poppers. Until I read this article I was a little afraid of genetically altered foods, however after this lovely creation I may be jumping on the bandwagon. This is just friggin hysterical!

And since I am on the topic of chile peppers here are a few random things you might not have known:

 -There is a Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico...yes they study chile peppers and they have statistics and a web page

-There are 26 species of chile peppers...I don't know if the JALMUNDO is included in that stat or if its actually now #27

-Hot chile peppers burn calories because they speed up the metabolism...just imagine what a JALMUNDO could do...I will be Kate Moss skinny is no time and when people ask my secret I will be like "oh I just ate 12 poppers with cream cheese. No, I don't work out its just my metabolism."



Yesterday was truly the perfect food day. I decided to make eggplant parmesan for lunch.  I found this recipe in a Sunset magazine and I liked the fact that it was eggplant parmesan without the breading and frying. Don't get me wrong I love a good breaded eggplant and I have great childhood memories of a truly traditional eggplant parmesan made with love by my Mom but I was trying  not to overdue it especially for a lunch meal. So this recipe has you roast the eggplant slices in the oven and then brush them with olive oil and broil them. It also calls for you to make your own marinara sauce and it turned out really good as it had added flavor from red wine and a subtle spiciness from red pepper flakes which I love. So basically what you do is create an eggplant stack doing a layer of eggplant, sauce and then topping it with cheese and throwing it back in the broiler. I did learn a valuable lesson...not all plates can go in the broiler...as I did break one...took it out of the oven and put it on the counter...heard a loud noise and it was split in 2...oops...we will call it a casualty of cooking wars. The eggplant parmesan is sprinkled with crushed croutons and fresh herbs. I served it with rigatoni pasta and a Sangiovese and it was perfect! This is a great vegetarian entree!
Here is the recipe if you want to try it: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/eggplant-parmesan-50400000110384/

I also learned a valuable lesson that I thought I would pass on about eggplant. If you cut them open and they are brown and kind of soft-do not eat them! I am new to the eggplant world so I wasn't sure if it was natural for it to have brown spots or not...its not natural. I had bought an eggplant last weekend when I did my weekly grocery shopping and when I cut it open yesterday it had brown spots. So I googled whether or not you could eat eggplant that was brown and it said NO...guess its a chemical reaction that causes eggplant to turn brown when it goes bad and it can inflame your intestines...so eggplant should be a creamy beige color not brown. Just a little tip.



Last night we were going out to celebrate a friends bday so I decided to make a Kahlua Cake for dessert. This is truly the easiest cake recipe I have ever made as you put all of the ingredients in one bowl, mix it, put it in the pan and bake it. It makes the house smell like heaven and when you cover it with a kahlua/powdered sugar glaze it makes for a super moist and yummy cake. It is dusted in powdered sugar right before serving. Thanks Laura for turning me on to this recipe. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/KAHLUA-CAKE-1253495



Finally, dinner was at Mastro's and if you haven't been to this restaurant you must go! http://www.mastrosrestaurants.com/ It is probably one of the best restaurants in Ventura County! However, you do have to put your fear of calories and fat aside. It is a great restaurant to order a smattering of options and share...especially love the fact that the plates are hot and keep your food warm as you eat. I have been to this restaurant 3 times and there hasn't been anything that I have tried that I haven't liked. Their fish and their steaks are the highest quality and always cooked to perfection. The service is impeccable and they truly know their food. I love oysters rockefeller and they have the best I have ever had...and I have had a lot because I order them whenever I see them on the menu and my husband actually makes them...thank god for Playboy...he found the recipe in that magazine...finally a man who actually does read the articles. I am sure that is all he does is read the articles.  Last night we had the sauteed sea scallop appetizer and I wanted to drink the sauce, but the restaurant was just way too classy for that. My best friend doesn't even like scallopes and she thought these were too die for! We also tried the lobster and it was amazing. I had never had lobster claw meat and it just melted in your mouth! Definitely recommend this restaurant for any special occasion!

So today I am recovering now from a self induced food coma and I am off to the gym to try and counteract the damage I did yesterday. But some truly amazing food and I hope you enjoy it all as much as I did. Have a great Labor Day Weekend and I plan on tackling my first Chinese recipe tomorrow...wish me luck!