Anniversary

How do you appropriately celebrate eight happy years of being married to your best friend (and the two precious souls that entered the world as a result)?  Eat, of course!  We contemplated going out for a restaurant experience, but instead opted for a dinner date in the comfort of our home - to commence subsequent to said little souls slumbering peacefully in their beds.  We also seek any excuse to make the following meal, and were pleased to have this superb celebratory occasion.

Seared Filet Mignon with Caramelized Onions and Blue Cheese

I will not rant yet again about my love affair with caramelized onions ( Hodgepodge and The Onion) - which I suppose are kind of like my new cereal and milk.  I will, however, rant about the combination of the savory and buttery steak, sharp blue cheese (or Gorgonzola) and sweet onions that play off one another in perfect harmony.  A forkful of these three components is so completely to die for that my pace of consumption halts from its typical wolf mode to the way a cow savors a pile of grass with, well, the opposite of urgency.  I always poke fun at the commercials where a woman dressed in silk takes the most painfully slow bite of a chocolate morsel and then stares away in space for a ridiculous 15 seconds.  But, though entirely unintentional, it is quite possible that I actually look like that when I eat this feast.  Wow, did I just admit that?  On to the recipe:  http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/seared_steaks_with_caramelized_onions_gorgonzola.html 

Roasted Asparagus

I think roasting is my favorite way to prepare asparagus, and it's mindlessly simple.  Trim and toss the asparagus on a sheet pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (depending on how thick the stalks are), turning once along the way.  Done!

Peanut Butter Pie

I decided at about 4:00 sitting at my desk at work that I wanted this dessert to put the exclamation point on our celebration that same evening.  As such, I did a speedy online search to locate a simple, but acclaimed recipe and took a second to peruse the reviews.  Why not garner wisdom from those that have done some homework?  And if you find a recurring theme from their commentary, look at it as a probably reliable and free nugget of insight to make your life a bit more delicious and perhaps easier.  The nugget I located was to jack up the peanut butter quantity and ease up on the whipped topping to give it some more richness.  Seemed like a no-brainer to turn up the decadence, so I made this modification.  Given the time crunch, I took the suggestion of the recipe and opted for a pre-made chocolate crust at the store.  http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/no-bake-peanut-butter-pie/Detail.aspx

Happy Anniversary, Ry! xo