I can not believe how quickly our first year flew by.  When I think about it, it just seems like yesterday we had our wedding and moved in to our new home. Days go by like water and when I look back on our first year I can’t help but laugh.  I laugh because I do not want to cry, adjusting to a new life took time to grow on me.

I never told you how my wedding was, while it is fresh in my mind let me fill you in.  It was big and it was grand and this was not intentional, It just happened!  Our biggest dilemma during the wedding was that their were not enough seats and my seating arrangement was gone.  Our original guest list was 320 people but at the night of the wedding it was more close to 400 people.  To top that off some of our guest confused the date of the 7th to fall on a Saturday, showed up the following night and were left in ahhhh!!  It really was a night to remember, it was a very internationally and culturally mixed wedding, I could not have asked for anything more.  Everyone told me enjoy the moment, but everything felt like a blur because it just flies by.

Since our anniversary falls in Ramadan, we decided to stay and have iftar at home, it seemed more appropriate to enjoy our first anniversary at home with ease.

To commemorate our wedding, I decided to base my Iftar menu on Seafood.  At our wedding we both had order fish dinners but never got the chance to take a single bite. 

Served two types of fish:

1. Red Snapper – in red onions & lemon juice (was not able to snap a picture husband was to fast)
2. Oven baked Wild Salmon – pictured

The menu was simple, elegant & delightfully delicious!

EVOO & Lemon Juice Marinated Shrimp

 Ingredients:

• 1 lb of shrimp cleaned and deveined
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin or regular olive oil
• 1/4 cup of lemon juice (about 1.5 lemons)
• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic sliced very thing
• salt for seasoning

Preparation:

1. Wash and pat dry the shrimp.
2. Into a deep bowl mixing bowl, add in and mix the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic (mash with garlic masher or cut very tiny) and salt.  Add in the shrimp cover top with clear plastic warp or if it has a lid, cover with lid.
3. Place it in the refrigerator for 1- 2 hours, over night would be even better.
4. Remover from refrigerator, place on wooden or metal skewers, place on baking pan.
5. Cook under broiler for until they turn pink.  About 2-3 minutes on each side.

Dipping Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of marinara sauce (any pasta sauce you might like is fine)

Preparation:

1. Just heat up the sauce in a small pan and pour into a serving dish.

Pan Fried Scallops

This was my first time making scallops and let me tell you, I fooled my self.  I used more olive oil then I should have.  Which resulted in not having any browning on either side of the scallops.  The scallops did cook through beautifully and the flavor turned out awesome, the juice to die for.  Recipe adapted from Emeril from the Food Network.

Ingredients:

• 14 pieces of scallops – washed and patted completely dry
• 3 table spoons of olive oil (evoo is good as well)
• 1 lemon – juiced (the juice of 1 lemon)
• salt & black pepper
• a handful of chopped parsley for garnish

Preparation:

1. Heat pan with olive oil, add in the salted dry scallops and begin to  fry, each side should be cooked about 1 – 2 minutes until it turns light brown.
2. Note:  I added to much olive oil and my scallops did not brown at all.  It is okay if this happens, either way it will be eaten! Right!
3. Remove and plate the cooked scallops on to a serving dish.
4. Add the lemon juice into the pan (deglazing the pan) mix with olive in the pan and then pour over the top of the plated scallops.
5. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve warm.

Dipping Sauce:
             This is the simplest and best tasting tartar sauce ever!

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon of sour cream (I used yogurt)
• 1 teaspoon of Grey Poupon coarse Dijon Mustard 

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and pour into a serving dish and serve!

Shepperd Salad

This salad goes perfectly with any seafood meal.  Another good seafood salad is an arugula salad. Since I was not able to find any good arugula, I decided to make a sheppers salad. Yummyyy!

Stir Fried Asparagus & Red – Yellow Bell Peppers