Belated Anniversary Celebration

Jaymi got to spend the weekend at Gramma's, so that we could have a belated anniversary celebration (9 years!). Last night I cooked dinner for us, and tonight Mark cooked dinner.

Here was my dinner:
Rice Noodle Salad with Thai Dressing
3 ½ ounces noodles, thin rice
1 drizzle oil, sesame
200 grams snow peas or sugar snap peas
1 large pepper, sweet red
1 large pepper, sweet yellow or orange
2 onions, green
200 grams shrimp, cooked, peeled
1 handful cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon seeds, sesame,, toasted, to sprinkle
DRESSING
1 shallot, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely crushed
1 small chile, red, seeded and minced
2-3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 ½ tablespoons sugar, soft brown
2 tablespoons oil, sesame

Bring the kettle to a boil. Place the rice noodles in a large bowl and pour on boiling water, fully immersing noodles. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand for 5 minutes. Drain and immediately toss with a drizzle of sesame oil.
In the meantime, blanch the snow peas in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Refresh in a bowl of iced water, then drain well. Cut snow peas on the diagonal into 2 or 3 pieces. Halve, core, and seed the peppers, then cut into long, thin slices. Trim and finely slice the green onions on the diagonal.
For the dressing, put all ingredients into a bowl and whisk lightly.
Put shrimp, green onions, snow peas, and peppers into large bowl and add noodles, cilantro, and sesame seeds. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to coat. Eat immediately or chill until ready to serve.

And for dessert, I poured Grand Marnier over 2 bowls of mixed berries (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries), heated them up in a pot, and then poured that over organic vanilla ice-cream. Yum!

And Mark's dinner tonight was an awesome rack of lamb with a delicious red wine reduction (rosemary, shallots, garlic, Cab. Sav.), with garlic mashed potatoes and pan-seared asparagus.

I don't have the recipe because he combined three recipes and sort of, made them his own. It tasted awesome! Especially the red-wine reduction.

I have one more dessert that I want to try tonight. Melted Toblerone, which we will dip cranberry biscotti into.
Mmmmmm :)