A Special Birthday Dinner

or: Dinner from the Dairy Section

The whole recipe is here --
Click to enlarge

For today's post, we include a photo of the entire recipe, because instructions provided by Mr. Price are succinct to the point of being, well, cryptic. (Get it?) Describing the directions would require more words from me than are in the original. That said, I invite the reader to click the image to enlarge it, and to consider my caveats.

I understand the importance of taking care not to overcook seafood, but two minutes was not nearly enough time to cook 1.5 pounds of scallops in a half cup of Vermouth. I covered the pan and cooked for about six minutes.

I followed the rest of the instructions before realizing that I had failed to notice the "very hot oven" comment at the end. So I turned it to 350 and put everything in an oven-safe dish for about 10 minutes. In retrospect, I would shorten the boiling slightly and have that oven at something like 400 for 5 minutes.

Details aside, the important thing to know is that this was delicious! Careful readers of this blog will know that we have are hugely devoted to the New Bedford scallop harvest -- doing our part to support sustainable fisheries and the local economy. Scallops in this sauce are even more delicious -- and decadent -- than scallops wrapped in bacon.

Even better the second day, heated for about 30 minutes at 375.

For technical reasons that only iPad-using bloggers would care about, Pam put the title on this post because it was indeed a special dinner and it was indeed her birthday. The Vincent Price cookbook was my weeks-early birthday present to her, and it was good to use it again on her actual birthday. Even better, our daughter was able to join us. Since she is a vegetarian, I made fettucine alfredo with peas as an entree for her and a side dish for us.

For the dessert was one of Pam's favorites: key-lime pie. Specifically, it was Paula Dean's Frozen Key-Lime pie, which Pam made to celebrate Florida day back in 2010. It was at least as delicious as we remembered it.

Pam gave us both a birthday present by choosing not only the main course, but also the dessert. Cooking is usually no work at all for me, but I sometimes struggle to choose a menu. With the dessert and main course chosen, I chose alfredo as a compatible, but in fact it might be better described as redundant. Hence the subtitle I placed at the top of this post. I thought of it because I found myself buying one each of just about everything in the dairy case to make this meal. Good thing we have plenty of biking, walking, and rowing this weekend!