Top Ten Dinner

At the end of the year the past couple years, I have pulled together end of year Top Ten lists: top ten adventures and meals, for example.  Admittedly, it's sometimes hard to come up with these after up to twelve months have passed.  My mom tells me this only gets worse, too :)

I don't know if I am early or late to complete this task, but I decided to post about one of the Top Ten meals we've had so far this year.  Either early, because I am way ahead of the ball to be posting 2012 recaps; or late, because I'm a little embarrassed that this was our Valentine's Day dinner, and I am only now getting around to posting about it.  But it was one of my most proud cooking moments, so I want to document it!

This year Valentine's Day fell on a Tuesday.  We celebrated the Sunday night prior at an incredible dinner at Florio, a French restaurant on Fillmore Street.  (That was probably another Top Ten dinner for 2012!)

But a few days later, my valentine was working locally, and I was able to put together my own attempt at a top 10 dinner for the year.  Some of his favorite foods are steak and scallops, so I went with that.  

Ribeye, in particular.  And with lots of sauteed mushrooms on top.  

This is, admittedly, not the most appealing photo.  But it was so good, and I will remember that part!

Though I had cooked steak several times before, this was my first time attempting scallops.  I followed the trusty Thomas Keller's recipe from Ad Hoc at Home.   A bit of brine, and the perfect caramelization.
They
were
incredible!!

To top off the evening, I had another thing up my sleeve.  I had completed all the preparatory steps for Molten Lava Cake before dinner, and they just needed a bit of time in the oven after we finished eating.

The mini cakes popped out of the ramekins easily, and they had the perfect molten consistency inside.  Success!

Inspiration Recipes here:
Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
Scallops a la Ad Hoc at Home
Steak