Date Night Dinner Series: Appetizer

Cooking in our kitchen, eating in our house is the highlight of our weeks more often than not. Mr. K is an amazing cook (can I say chef?), and he loves cooking. The kitchen is what really sold us on this house, and we've made every penny count since we moved in. One of the biggest ways is cooking new things at home instead of going out to restaurants for date night. Believe me, we do love a fun time out, but perusing Harris Teeter's specials, wandering the store for new things is exciting to us.

We're also finally in town for a few weeks together which is a joy, and makes me so happy. We've been traveling a lot for a few reasons and we haven't been able to spend too much time together at home. When we do get a night or two, we brainstorm fun dinners to cook (for Mr. K to cook, and for me to photograph and drink wine).

Tonight's wine of choice was Alamos Malbec in honor of Pope Francis being in town this week! My father's family is from Argentina, so having an Argentine Pope is even more special. My parents attended the Mass outside of the Shrine this week and they said it was so special. More on that later. Let's get to the food!

First course was mussels and gazpacho! We're channeling the summer weather that's slowly on its way out. Both were so delicious. Mussels were steamed in a lemon, wine, cilantro sauce.

All serving platters are most likely from Home Goods :) That's our go-to spot during our free weekends to try and find new things. 

Zest of one lemon 

3 cups white wine (2 for the mussels, one for you!)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons grated, crushed ginger

1/2 of one shallot

2 tablespoons of butter

A handful of Cilantro (once you pull the mussels out, toss the cilantro in and mix 'em up)

Melt butter in the pan, throw in the garlic, shallot and ginger. Sautee for for 30-40 seconds, add in the wine (don't forget to sip some along the way, too). Boil the wine. 

Throw in the mussels, channel your inner T Swift and shake it off (shake the mussels in the pan a bit). 

Toss in the cilantro, mix up a bit, and then put everything into a bowl, and serve. Don't forge to put the wine mixture in the bowl too. Enjoy! 

Appetizer #2: Gazpacho

In typical Mr. K fashion, he didn't actually follow a recipe. That's a large part of the reason why it either takes me forever to actually write a food post, or why I don't post them at all... because he adds his own twist to every single thing he makes, he combines a bunch of recipes, or just thinks of things on his own, and says he's going to tell me everything but never actually does ;) So let's give it a shot with the gazpacho... 

2 lbs roma tomatoes

1/2 vidalia onion

2 poblano peppers 

3 gloves garlic

1 cucumber peeled and diced 

1/4 cup sherry cooking wine (and some actual wine ;)) 

1/4 olive oil 

1 tablespoon Paprika (if you want it a little smoky) 

1 tablespoon of cumin (again, we really like this spice) 

Chop everything, put into a bowl, let is sit out for an hour, puree with a cup of whipping cream (we like it creamy, but if you don't, use water instead). 

Then put it in the fridge for 2 hours, up to a day (we didn't keep it in the fridge for two hours because we started late, but it was still good. It will probably be pretty awesome tomorrow, filled with even more flavor). 

Top with raw, fresh ingredients, like chopped tomato, cucumber and onion. Add croutons if you like, too :) 

Serve and enjoy!