Memorial Day Feasting and Cooking Lessons

I hope that everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend. In the United States, "Memorial Day is a federal holiday…for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans -- established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers." (Wikipedia) 

I spent my Memorial Day Weekend with R and it was a very fun weekend, especially since I was teaching him how to cook! R isn't an obsessive foodie, like I am, but he keeps an open mind. He is willing to try everything I feed him/introduce him to and through this process, he has discovered new foods that he likes. He has come a long way and has even attempted to start cooking! (Something he had really never done until we started dating).

We kicked off the weekend with a nice Friday night dinner of mussels, sugar snap peas tossed with butter, and pasta with parmesan cheese. R's cousin made a surprise visit, but that was fine. The more the merrier! For the most part, I let R do all of the hard work, whilst I directed him. He prepped the bacon, cleaned the mussels, cleaned the sugar snap peas, steamed the mussels, and boiled the pasta. 

R cleaning up the sugar snap peas

R adding the mussels to the pot for steaming

For someone who doesn't cook, he was a bit intimidated, but he did a wonderful job and dinner turned out fantastic! I know that R loves mussels, so I chose this dish on purpose. I think everyone should know how to cook their favorite foods! The mussels were beautifully cooked and very flavorful. We also learned that R likes sugar snap peas. Hooray!

For breakfast on Saturday, we went with a classic combo: bacon and eggs, and berries, too! I challenged R with this breakfast because I forced him to cook several things at once. He passed with flying colors! Eggs were beautifully scrambled and the bacon was cooked to perfection. Well done, R!

For dinner on Saturday, we made duck breasts, haricot verts, and roasted potatoes. Apparently, this was a winning menu. I didn't realize just how much R loves duck, until I made this dish! We had four duck breasts, which I thought would be too much, but since I knew they would shrink, I thought, "why not make them all?" Boy am I glad that I did that!

R scoring the duck breasts

I was so impressed with R. He did a brilliant job making dinner! Everything was cooked to perfection, including the duck breasts, which were still slightly pink in the middle! Hooray! R loved this dinner so much, he ate three out of the four duck breasts! He also told me that this was his favorite meal we've made. I will have to keep this in my normal dinner repertoire with him. Actually, now that he knows my recipe, I should have HIM make this for ME.

Oven roasted potatoes, oven roasted duck breasts, and steamed haricot vert tossed with butter

Sunday was a day of indulgences. We met R's dad for a BBQ lunch and enjoyed walking around the Upper West Side of Manhattan. We had the most gorgeous weather! A few hours later, I took R to "Rita's" --- a Philly staple, with a location on the UWS. Rita's sells Italian ices and custard. (Custard is basically soft serve ice cream, but because it is made with cream, it is heavier than regular soft serve.) I love Rita's custard and I was so excited to introduce R to this wonderful treat. 

It was a gorgeous 70F, perfect ice cream weather! Although the choice was difficult, R and I both ordered vanilla and chocolate swirl custard. He topped his with caramel sauce, whilst I reverted to my 5 year old self and enjoyed colored sprinkles. We were like small children, enjoying our custards with big grins. So delicious! Really hit the spot.

Yummy!

We ended the weekend with one of R's all time favorite foods: STEAK. Neither of us has much experience cooking steak, but I think we did a pretty respectable job! We bought two rib eye fillets, which we served with sugar snap peas and butter rice. 

R seasoning the steak with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, red wine, and soy sauce

Letting the steak marinade

Pan frying the steak

For this dinner, R and I worked together. I let him focus on the steak, whilst I prepared the sugar snap peas and the rice. The steak was superb! R's seasoning was perfect and the meat was absolutely succulent. Furthermore, the steak was cooked to perfection. Wonderfully browned on the outside, but still pink on the inside. Perfect! 

Gorgeous spread

Yum! 

All in all, I'd say this weekend was a true foodie weekend! We really feasted and enjoyed some nice dishes. For me, the highlight was watching R get his hands dirty in the kitchen. He was such a great sport and he did a brilliant job cooking. For someone who doesn't spend much time in the kitchen, I think being able to boast mussels, duck breasts, and steak is rather impressive. Well done, R! So proud of you! Everything you made was absolutely delicious and I can't wait to spend more time with you in the kitchen.