Decisions!

Mark here... Laurel and I have settled in for another bit of TV Night.  It's Holiday time and usually I host a brunch, but I wasn't together with it enough this year.  Instead we've made a holiday brunch for dinner.  Laurel made a bread pudding with spinach and ham topped with a hollandaise sauce and I made potato latkes with a chive and sour cream topping and smoked salmon.

So we've made it to the Season 1 finale, "Decisions", and...meh.  It's a really dramatic episode. Joey gets the opportunity to go to Paris for either summer or the next year, neither of us can remember.  In any case, this leads Dawson to realize he is in love with Joey.  This comes across  as totally unrealistic since he's spent the season being completely oblivious to Joey being in love with him.  All episode we are treated to talk of cliffhangers to remind us how self-aware this show is, and let us know what to expect...

Meanwhile Jen's grandfather, who has been in a coma all season, briefly revives, only to pass away by the end.  As dramatic as this sounds, its frankly more interesting than the Joey-Dawson drama.  I know that the Joey-Dawson love is supposed to be the big story, but the reality of the two of them comes across as so stilted and awkward. Also, Joey visits her jailbird Dad in the big house.  The only interesting part here is Pacey's role and how just being with Pacey manages to make Joey more interesting...

Laurel here..I agree that the brief parts of this episode with Pacey and Jen are somehow way more interesting than the stuff between Dawson and Joey which is supposed to be the big deal.  who cares?

Poor Jen really gets the short end of the stick this episode.  She loses Dawson to Joey AND her grandpa dies.  At one point we got really frustrated with her because she gives her grams sort of a lecture about how her religion is a crock while her grandpa is in the hospital and her grams is trying to be positive about her faith and the power of prayer (which Mark and I agreed we both believe is real, at least as a form of self reflection, regardless of which religion it's attached to).  But in the end Jen comes around and joins her grams at church at the end of the episode after they lose grandpa.

I really hope that Joey decides to go to Paris but I know that she won't because she is super boring and always seems to make the opposite choice of what you hope she will do.  I'm sort of dreading next season when I'm sure she and Dawson will talk us to death about being together the same way they talked us to death about their friendship this season....

Roasted Butternut Squash with Cider Vinagrette

This is a take on a Barefoot Contessa recipe, plus or minus a few ingredients:

• 
  
• 1 (1 1/2-pound) butternut squash, peeled and 3/4-inch) diced
• Good olive oil
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dried cranberries
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 ounces mixed baby greens
• 1/2 cup walnuts halves, toasted
• 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the butternut squash on a sheet pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, the maple syrup, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and toss. Roast the squash for 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until tender. Add the cranberries to the pan for the last 5 minutes.  Pay particular attention to this, as it can be a pan-ruiner, or at least a real bitch to clean up.  The maple syrup makes the squash taste amazing, but can also burn or blacken the sheet pan, and because it can be sticky I would avoid using aluminum foil or paper on the sheet pan.  I think it probably requires more attention than I gave it with tossing around...

While the squash is roasting, combine the apple cider vinegar and shallots in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Off the heat, whisk in the mustard, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Place the greens in a large salad bowl and add the roasted squash mixture, the walnuts, and the grated Parmesan. Spoon just enough vinaigrette over the salad to moisten and toss well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Beauty Contest

In this episode Joey enters the Miss Windjammer Beauty pageant!  I know it seems so unlike her, right?   But first place prize is $5000 and as we keep hearing over and over, she is so poor.  Jen volunteers to help her get ready for the pageant, and they finally get some lady time together where they are not exclusively talking about Dawson (although they do a little, how could they resist?).  The best thing about this episode..Joey finally admits that she has been a bitchy cunt to Jen ever since she got to Capeside.  Does this burst of honesty mean that they might finally become actual friends?  I will dare to dream.

Thankfully Pacey enters the pageant also and provides some much needed screen time relief from Joey looking at the ground and shrugging her shoulders in her "aw shucks I'll never be pretty enough to win this beauty contest" way.

Mark here... in this episode Dawson finally realizes his love for Joey, because she puts on a dress and sings a song.  And of course Jen can't handle this because women must always fight over a man. Really this writing is a little ridiculous.  I mean Jen broke up with Dawson and has been trying to make friends with Joey, yet for some reason the writers want us to believe she must still be harboring feelings for him. To me it really just seems like they don't know how to write women.  Jen and Dawson had zero chemistry, so this feels forced.  

Laurel here...I agree with Mark totally.  I can only hope that Joey and Jen become real friends and talk each other out of liking Dawson.  If they are gonna pretend not to fight over anyone it should be Pacey.

Double Date!

So I guess, according to Wikipedia, we watched this episode out of order, but it was the next on the DVD.  It makes sense though because it seems like it came first, because Dawson starts out complaining about Jen not seeing him and Dawson's parents are back to worrying about their relationship.
In any case this episode involves Jen and Cliff going on a date and Dawson deciding to make it a double date with a random girl who looks like she was plucked from the cast of Law & Order. Seriously, her wardrobe is sensible pantsuit...totally appropriate for high school.  I was expecting her to have a gun under her blazer. Dawson behaves like a little bitch, and I think he is the Brenda Walsh of the series..and I am generally a fan of Brenda, Dawson, not so much.
By far the more interesting plot line of the episode is Joey being stuck working on a science project with Pacey. Clearly there is much more chemistry between these two. Pacey manages to make Joey much more likeable.  Her bitchiness comes across as more fun.  It doesn't pan out at the end, but I think there's a future there...

Laurel here...this episode was pretty watchable, mainly because of the Joey/Pacey chemistry developing.  I hope they get together!  I personally don't get it why these gals are hemming and hawing over Dawson, Pacey is way better.  Also I could not believe what a jerk Dawson was to his poor SVU lady cop date in this episode.  He asks her out, but then takes her on a double date with his ex girlfriend that just broke up with him 2 weeks ago without giving her a heads up?  BOO!

Mark here... I would also like to note one more thing...we've seen "poor" Joey's house several times, and see it again this episode.  As far as I can tell, Joey's house is a huge property burdened with mismatched flower pots and patchwork sofas on the porch, as opposed to Dawson's perfect wicker deck furniture!

Scare!!

Next episode..."Scare"...this episode is clearly supposed to be a halloweeny episode. All the characters end up at Dawson's for a Seance on Friday the 13th.  Back tracking a little, Jen has brought her date, Cliff and Pacey and Dawson bring a random woman they meet at a convenience store who is clearly in an abusive relationship.  The whole episode has the feel of "tinkering" from either staff writers or producers who wish to remind us of plot lines. Otherwise, it works well as a scary episode.  The woman from the convenience store is being stalked by her boyfriend and this would have worked better if she was a teenager, but that would involve a teenager in an abusive relationship.  As it plays out, its ends up written for laughs and all works out well in the end, even though the cops probably should have been involved! There's a number of scares throughout and the segways to the characters relationships with each other come across as disjointed and out of place.  Then at the end everyone acts like nothing has happened in a sitcom-y way which seems forced.

Laurel here...again I am left wondering, where are the parents?  Dawson brings a bunch of his friends and a older lady who they pick up at a gas station back to his house at nighttime, and the parents are not around?  with no explanation?  I mean they still live there right?  Then the psycho abusive boyfriend comes over and breaks a bunch of windows...who wants to take bets that this will never be explained or even mentioned in the next episode?  Is Jen's grandma the only responsible adult in this crazy town?

Mark here...Also, I'd like to add that Jen's Grams likes this guy and claims he's from "good stock", yet from what we know about Jen's Grams, I think the nerdier guy would be more appealing than the hometown jock, no?

Roadtrip!

We're Back!  Tonight Laurel and I are enjoying a Polenta and Onion Jam dish that Laurel made and Ina Garten's Warm Butternut Squash with Cider Vinagrette that I made.  We're on to the next episode of Dawson's, "Roadtrip".  It opens in Dawson's room with Dawson baying at the moon over his break up with Jen...Joey in the background lurking of course.  Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" is playing.  The episode is about the boys, Dawson, Pacey and Jen's douchey ex taking a trip to exotic Providence, RI while the girls deal with the school rumor mill back in Capeside.
On the ferry ride to Providence (there is no ferry ride to Providence, meanwhile), the boys notice some guys harassing an old lady in her car in one of the most ridiculously hilarious subplots...like really, there's nothing better for some 40-something men to do than shake an old lady's car?!?!  The boys plot an elaborate and totally unrealistic payback for these men, that, in reality, would have landed them in jail.  But, being TV, hilarity ensues!!
Back in Capeside, a school jock makes up a story about sleeping with Joey and she and Jen plot their own revenge with a competing rumor about Joey being pregnant. This leads to rumor on top of rumor in a scenario that should have played out in a week's time, yet we are lead to believe it all takes place in a day!  Once again, Joey responds to Jen's help by being a total bitch.  The writing of the show seems to be whenever these two are together they can't be friends.  Joey remains a bitch and all they can talk about is Dawson!
The boys end up at a bar with Dawson making time with a woman old enough to be his mom.  Yet she has a braid in her hair and a grungy scarf and leather jacket over her mom jeans to convince us she's down with the young folk.  Sort of like a hipper Andrea Zuckerman from 90210.  So it makes sense Dawson would hit on her...

Laurel here...favorite quote from this episode "She rejected romance, honesty, and respect" - Dawson on Joey breaking up with him.  GET OVER YOURSELF!!

This episode left a lot to be desired in terms of logic.  I know, I know, it's a teen soap opera...but there are basic minimums I feel a TV show should meet.  I'm not a tv snob at all but please help me try to get on board!!  For example...why would Pacey and Dawson go on a road trip with some douchebag (jen's ex) that they hate?   Why would Dawson and a 40 year old at the bar be interested in each other?  How did these guys even get into a bar?  How did the rumor about sleeping with Joey started by Jockface (played by eric balfour) and 3 distinct counter rumors only take one day to circulate (and prompt very elaborate locker retaliation jokes), and even catch the attention of a teacher when clearly it would have taken at least a few days, if not a week? How are we supposed to think that jock face actually wants to date Joey when he's just told the whole school that she's a slut?   Why, when a couple of douchebags are terrorizing an old lady on the ferry (which btw according to mark does not exist from cape cod to providence, but there is one from long island) are all the extras just casually walking by on deck??  And Jen is STILL being nice to bitchface Joey when she gets nothing back from her?  I usually give shows a lot of leeway in the making-sense department, but please, throw us a bone?!  At least meet us halfway?!

Dark and Stormy cocktail

This cocktail seemed like the just the thing for the hurricane episode. We made it with Gosling's rum and Bundaberg ginger beer. I had some rum recently and wasn't into it but decided to give it a try anyway. Turns out I am still not a huge fan of rum so after the first one I switched to whisky and ginger beer instead (delicious!), but at least I gave it a shot, right? Mark liked them the regular way and happily took the rest of the Gosling's off my hands.

Make sure to get ginger beer instead of plain old ginger ale, I like ginger ale too but ginger beer definitely has a stronger, deeper flavor. Of the few that I've tried so far I like Bundaberg the best, it has a nice balance of spicy and sweet. Also Jenni, Kerri and I drank a lot of Bundaberg on our recent trip to Australia so it brings back memories. We even toured the Bundaberg distillery...both the tour and the rum left something to be desired, but the ginger beer was delicious!

Bundaberg distillery

Me and Kerrie after the tour. meh. Jenni's taking the picture.

I got this recipe from a blog about bartending

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/dark-and-stormy/

He even has a post about how to make your own ginger beer.

Hardcore!

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/how-to-make-your-own-ginger-beer/

Dark and Stormy

2 oz Gosling's Black Seal Rum

5 oz ginger beer

lime wedge

Pour in a glass over ice, garnish with lime (apparently a Collin's glass is the proper one but Mark and me just used regular).

Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe is a bit of a Frankenstein from several different sources, but the skeleton in Ina Garten's Chicken and Vegetable Pot Pie recipes, with a little inspiration from Julia Child... Also, I made a large portion for two people, because I usually make for a crowd and also wanted leftovers for the week...I'd say this was enough for 8... Also, Ina Garten's recipe says it takes about 1 hour and a half and this took me about twice that...

Ingredients

2 to 3 large skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
10 baby gold potatoes
4 carrots
1 1/2 onions
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
chives
parsley
1 cup flour
butter (about 12-14 tablespoons)
chicken stock (about 5-6 cups, plus a little extra if needed)
bouillon
white wine (1 cup)
10 oz. frozen peas
about 5-6 oz. frozen pearl onions
1/2 cup heavy cream
frozen puff pastry sheets (defrosted!)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 375˚

Rub olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides of the chicken breasts and place on a roasting tray.  Cook in the oven for about 20-25 minutes until done, then remove and set aside to cool.

Next, cube the potatoes (I left them unpeeled) and place in salted water and bring to a boil. When they are slightly tender, remove from heat and drain.

Peel and chop the carrots and onions.  Remove the chicken skin and bones from the breasts and cube the chicken.  Chop up a handful of parsley and chives (I had some left in my fridge that I needed to use up, not quite a handful)

Heat the chicken stock over a medium heat and add 2 bouillon cubes. Melt about 13 tablespoons of butter in a dutch oven over a medium heat and add the onions.  Sauté until tender, then slowly add the flour and mix into a paste.  Cook about a minute or two. Add 1 cup of dry white wine and mix together, cooking about another minutes.  Begin adding the chicken stock and mixing together.  The consistency will start out thick and pasty and what I was looking for was more of a thick sauce.  It's good to have extra stock on hand just in case it needs more. Then mix in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Add the chicken, carrots, frozen peas, frozen onions and potatoes to the sauce.

In a separate pan, melt the remaining butter and sauté the mushrooms until tender.

Then stir in the mushrooms, parsley and chives to the sauce.  Remove from the heat and ladle into oven-proof bowl(s).  At this point I was working quicker, so I stopped taking pictures...  Separately, crack both eggs into a bowl and whisk, then brush this egg wash around the edges and sides of the oven-proof bowl with the pot pie sauce inside.  Then unfurl the puff pastry over the bowl and cut any excess pastry off the sides (The puff pastry can get sticky or rip and it's best to have some flour and a roller on-hand just in case).  Press the pastry into the sides, the egg wash will help it stick.  Brush the pastry with the egg wash and slice 4 holes in the top for steam.   Then sprinkle with salt and pepper, this is where a fancy salt would be nice.  Then put the bowl on a roasting tray (the pie may bubble over). and cook for about an hour until golden...

Boyfriend!

Mark here...so this episode, "Boyfriend"...totally weak after last episode which was soo good! Jen's ex shows up from New York and the whole episode is a back and forth with him Dawson. Jen asks if he can stay with Dawson....totally unrealistic. The pay off is that Jen breaks up with Dawson at the end of the episode, after a lot of drama.  Really, we like Jen and think that the poor writing shows here.  She never should have been with Dawson and the boyfriend from New York is a bad excuse for the break up since he's been kind of a dick to her for a while.

Meanwhile Pacey continues to be awesome. He saves Joey from a douchebag at a party when she gets drunk, and continues to be the "adult in the room" character.

Laurel here...I agree it's a good thing that Jen broke up with Dawson, but I think it's BS that her ex had to show up to be the catalyst.

Also in this episode we finally see Dawson's parents again.  They acknowledge the affair and are trying to work through it via couples scuba diving (!) etc.  However, there is still no mention of the fact that a neighbor gave birth in their living room while they were away, the mom presumably at work, the dad doing god knows what...

Dawson's got Detention!

Mark here...This episode is called "Detention" and is an ode to "The Breakfast Club". We open with Dawson and Joey in Dawson's room and talk turns to Jen not sleeping with Dawson... cut to Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait"...finally the song is appropriate!

I have to say, this was a particularly good one.  The last two were good as well, but this one was written so teenagers acted like teenagers.  To recap, everyone gets Saturday detention, and we meet school trouble-maker Abby Morgan. I should note, this episode was written by Mike White who wrote several "Freaks and Geeks" episodes and it stands up to those.  Abby cuts to the chase with these characters and it's a breath of fresh air.  We get to see the characters without a lot of overly talkiness. The references to "Breakfast Club" are nicely timed, over all very entertaining...

Laurel here...this particular group of kids all get detention for various reasons, some are of which are worth mentioning...Dawson gets detention for breaking Pacey's nose, which he does because Pacey calls him an umpaloompa.  The truth hurts.

Joey gets detention for being AWESOME!  She smashes her lunch tray into some jock's balls and then punches him in the face, both of which he totally deserves...way to stand up for yourself Joey!  If only you could do the same in detention!  She basically gets called out on the fact that she is in love with Dawson, to which she responds that she couldn't possibly talk about the guy she's in love with because it's too real and embarrassing.  I guess this is supposed to be dramatic but the fact that she is too embarrassed to talk about it with this particular group of people is basically tantamount to admitting that she is in love with Dawson...which Pacey, Jen, and Abbi already totally get.  Everyone except for the always oblivious Dawson who is still wondering who she could possibly be referring to.

Baby!

Mark here.... Wow! This one was kind of fun...  Joey's sister has her baby and of course an ambulance can't make it to Cape Cod in the off-season.  So they end up at Dawson's (after rowing across the creek...totally realistic).  Conincidentally, Jen's Grams lives next door and is a retired nurse.  Grams really shines in this episode.  Previously she was a one-dimensional religious schoolmarm but here she whips everyone into shape to deliver this baby.  Dawson of course wants to film the whole thing, not at all creepy or gross.  Dawson's parents are nowhere to be seen, but I'm sure they won't mind a little blood on the living room carpet.  I know when I was a teenager and my parents were out, they wouldn't question blood all over the carpets.

Meanwhile, the secret's out with Pacey and Ms. Jacobs and once again Pacey is the adult in the relationship...confessing to the school board that it was all a fantasy and nothing REALLY happened.  Exit Ms. Jacobs...

Laurel here...I agree on all points.  I'm curious to see if Dawson's parents acknowledge in any future episode that someone gave birth to a baby in their living room.  There was blood everywhere.  Aren't kids supposed to have parties when their kids are away?

When Ms. Jacobs breaks the news that she is leaving, she talks to Pacey about how their relationship has to end, blah blah blah..and they hug a bunch ON HER FRONT PORCH!!!  I mean, seriously it would have been safer (and more fun) to just do it one more time in the privacy of her home than to do a bunch of PDA on the front porch of her beach house, basically in public.

Hurricane Dawson!

Laurel and I are settling in with our Dark-N-Stormys for Episode 5, "Hurricane"! We've made Chicken Pot Pie and an Arugula Salad and the weather here has thunderstorms conveniently predicted...

Well, here we go...in this episode all the characters get stuck together to weather out the storm Jen and her Grams and Joey and her sister's family end up at Dawson's and Pacey and his older brother wind up at ...wait for it... Ms. Jacob's place, because she is too "scared" to weather the storm alone.  We also find out Pacey's older brother is an in-the-closet cop.  I remember when I saw this years ago the brother was supposed to be sort of mean, but now just seems more comical.  At one point, in a dramatic turn, he pulls his gun on Pacey in attempt to get him to say the brother is not gay...after spending the previous few hours debating the finer points of West Side Story and Gypsy, proving not only is he gay, but a 50 year old queen stuck in the body of a 24 year old.  I mean come on, it's supposed to be 1997 and the best we-know-you're-gay references they could come up with was Barbra Streisand and showtunes?!  

We also see Dawson getting his mom to confess to her affair.  Once again, the word soup coming out of Dawson's mouth is that of a 42 year old. It's like James Van Der Beek can barely remember all the lines, let alone "act" them.  His father is caught prepping his dream restaurant, "The Kelp", hoping it will take off and set them all up for life.  I think it's safe to say, a restaurant called "The Kelp" is never going to take off...

Laurel here.. about the affair...Dawson's mom has been keeping her slutty secret for months, but she chooses the night of the hurricane, when they have 5 houseguests over, to confess? Akward much?

Joey continues her habit of spying in people this episode, which makes me think the writers must be doing this on purpose?  We see Dawson come into his room to find Jen sitting in there, has a full conversation with her, then finds...you guessed it..JOEY IN THE CLOSET AGAIN!  which means she must have been hiding in there since before Jen even came into the room alone.  For how long?  An hour?  Longer?  So weird.  Then later in the episode she is hiding on the floor in the corner of the porch (ignoring the many available wicker seating options).  Jen comes out to have a cigarette (bad city girl!) and asks Joey what she is doing, to which she replies "Oh, just watching Mr. Leary"...who is sitting in his car, clearly trying to have a moment alone since his house is full of neighbors, contemplating the fact that his wife is having an affair.  Joey Lurkenstein strikes again.

Favorite quote from this episode...Joey: "You're life IS a hurricane"  Dawson: "It's too late for metaphors, Joey."  Mark and I were talking about how James Van Der Beek is kind of a bad actor as Dawson but we agreed it's partially because they write him as a grown up.  His vocabulary is off the charts and the way he thinks and talks about things are not at all how a teenager is supposed to.  How is a teenage actor supposed to sell that stuff?  They are trying to make him a 42 year old trapped in a teenage body but how is a teenage actor supposed to handle that?  Meanwhile his parents totally act and talk like teenagers...

Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese

Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese

I used shells instead of elbow shape, I didn't put any oil in the pasta water, I used fancy cave aged gruyere and a raw milk sharp cheddar, and heirloom tomatoes. Also I made the breadcrumbs from some rolls I had leftover in a mini food processor. Besides that I followed the recipe as written...


Kosher Salt
vegetable Oil
1 pound Elbow Macaroni
1 quart of milk
1 stick of butter (8 Tbsp)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
12 ounces gruyere, grated (4 cups)
8 ounces extra sharp cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 tsp tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)
1 1/2 cups fresh white breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 375

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

YUM!

Balsamic Onion Salad

For the salad, I started with Ina Garten's recipe for Red Lettuce with Balsamic Onions.  I've made the recipe several times before, but still managed to make a few mistakes this time (by not looking at the recipe), cooking the onions a little too long at too high a temperature.  I tweaked the recipe ingredients a little and I think it turned out for the better...

• 3 small red onions
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons minced shallots (2 large)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup good red wine vinegar
• 2 heads red-leaf, washed, spun dry, and torn into pieces.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut the onions in 1/2 and slice 1/4-inch thick, place on a baking sheet and toss with:

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the onions are tender.

Remove from oven and toss with 2 more tablespoons balsamic vinegar and cool to room temperature.

Whisk together the shallots, mustard, red wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. While whisking, add 3/4 cup olive oil until emulsified.

To assemble, toss enough lettuce for 6 people with dressing, to taste. Place the lettuce on 6 plates and arrange the onions on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

At this point you can see the balsamic onions (slightly over-cooked) over the lettuce, I used baby arugula instead of red leaf lettuce, added some crumbled blue cheese and toasted some walnuts.  I think it was about 1/2 a cup of the cheese and walnuts, but I sort of assembled everything after for the two of us, so my proportions may have been off a little.

Lentil Soup

This recipe is from my fantastic friend Stephanie Foley, and it turned out great! This version has a lot more flavor than regular old lentil soup. It did turn out a little spicy which I really liked but if you are wary of that sort of thing you could use less serrano. I ended up using double the amount of lentils, and pureeing the whole thing with an immersion blender at the end. I used 2% greek yogurt this time, but I am trying to eat less dairy these days so next time I think I will try substituting coconut milk instead. I skipped the butter and subbed olive oil. Also be careful when dealing with the serranos, I got some in my eye and it was not pretty.

2 Tbsp butter

2 shallots, chopped

1 Tbsp grated ginger

2 Serrano Chiles, seeded and chopped

2 Tbsp tomato paste

3/4 cup lentils

5 cups vegetable stock

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 cup cream or yogurt

Melt the butter (or olive oil) in a stockpot over medium heat, then add the shallots, ginger, and serrano chiles and saute for around 4 minutes until the shallot is translucent.

Add the stock, tomato paste, and lentils. Boil and simmer for about an hour.

Add the chopped cilantro, and yogurt or cream. I blended it all up with an immersion blender, but I'm sure it would be great if you left it whole also. I garnished with a dab of yogurt and a little cilantro. Enjoy!

Discovery!

Mark here... Episode 4 "Discovery", we open to Joey and Dawson in Dawson's room discovering the video that Dawson accidentally shot of Ms Jacobs doing it with a guy they can't see, who we know is Pacey. Cut to Paula Cole! I think we've decided this song is always inappropriate to whatever is going on in the episode!

Shocker! Dawson finds out his mom is having an affair right before his parents anniversary.  And Joey knew and didn't tell him... Everyone keeps telling Dawson how "perceptive" he is yet he can't figure out his best friend is in love with him or that his other best friend (Pacey) is screwing with the teacher. Clearly he's the most clueless of all of them.

So the episode goes on to show us Pacey continuing his affair with the teacher and everyone dancing around sex issues.  To quote Joey: "All this subtext is making me tired". Me too.

Laurel here... Also in this episode Jen confesses to Dawson about her slutty past (which has been alluded to the whole time) and he has a big problem with it.  If he wasn't busy being so "perceptive" he would have maybe thought about the fact that this girl from the big city got shipped off by her parents to live with her grandma in the suburbs...

Kissin' the Creek

Mark here... we're on to episode 3, "Kiss"... Joey sees a cute guy at the Icehouse (the local bar owned by her sister I think, where she waitresses).  So, of course, she starts spying on him, proving Laurel's theory true again.  She then begins a big lie about being rich to impress this guy...yawn, we see where this is going.  Pacey, meanwhile is engaged in after school lessons with his teacher, who once again reminds him "we can't do this", and then does...not it, per se, but lots of innuendo...and of course the classic legs up on the desk while wearing a short skirt, twirling her glasses in her mouth.  Aside from this, the episode's a bit boring.  Jen has agreed to act in the guy from the dance's movie....even though she's also in Dawson's movie.  Yet she still acts clueless about Dawson's feelings for her, though I guess they're dating?  Despite this, I do like Jen, she saves Joey at one point by playing along to the stupid fake name charade...

On to Dawson and Jen's pseudo romantic "film scene" moment for his movie, but Dawson left the camera on while trying to kiss Jen.  Sleazy, but given his Dad and last episode, I'm not surprised.  Totally spoiled the Toad the Wet Sprocket moment though!  Dawson again goes off on a mind-blowing monologue..."jen, I assure you my intentions are nothing short of honorable..." Really?!

Laurel here...I totally agree with Mark about Jen.  I like her the best despite her weird behavior with Dawson, she is super nice to Joey which is more than she deserves at this point.  I want to like Joey but so far she is a bitchy snoopy liar and it's been hard for me to get on board with her.  It's a little hard for me to get on board with Dawson too, I can't believe that he still somehow remains oblivious to the fact that Joey has feelings for him.

This episodes scandal...Pacey and the teacher do it!  They happen to stumble into Dawson's film set where the camera is still on and the deed is caught on tape, unbeknownst to them.  When is this lady gonna lose her job already?

Dancin' with Dawson

Mark here....on to Episode 2 of Dawson's, "Dance"...we open with Dawson, Joey and Dawson's forehead again engaged in salacious talk in Dawson's room.  Something about Crisco and cut to Paula Cole...
Dawson is making some movie with all his friends, Pacey kissed the teacher last episode and is finding all the wrong times to talk to her about it, like during school hours.  But, ever the educator, Ms Jacobs (the teacher) finds a way to tie in their illicit love to the current lesson on "Wuthering Heights". Back to Dawson, who asks his dad where the video camera is..."In the bedroom, on the night stand, but you may want to take the tape out." What?! Not at all inappropriate or gross...with your son.
Fast forward to the gang at the school dance and Jen has gone with another boy, leading Dawson to go with Joey.  Dawson attempts to break up Jen and said-boy's horrific dancing with a monologue, leading Jen to walk off.  Pacey, meanwhile continues to flirt with the teacher, who behaves more like a teenager than the teenagers.  After the teacher goes on and on to Pacey about how it can never happen again, they kiss again!

Laurel here...a pattern seems to be emerging where Joey is always spying on people...in the first episode she ends up lurking in Dawson's closet waiting for him to come home...hoping to witness what?  Then in in this episode she sneaks into Dawson's house and listens in on his mom having a phone conversation with a guy from work she's having an affair with (and confronts her about it in a way that no teenage ever would to a friend's parent).  Later Joey Lurkenstein is at it again when she spies on Dawson and Jen having their first dance on the docks.  What will her and her mom jeans discover next? Favorite quote from this episode, again from Joey "I'm too tired to philosophize, Dawson."

Mark here... one more favorite quote from this episode "You're such a sphincter, Dawson!" Good grief, where's my dictionary?

Back to the Creek!

For our first show, we've decided to go back to Dawson's Creek, Season One.  For dinner, Laurel made Mac-n-Cheese with Gruyere and Heirloom Tomatoes and a Lentil Soup.  I made a salad with Arugula and Onions.

You will find the recipes for our dinners either at the the end of the post or sometimes we may post them the next day...but for now on to DAWSON"S CREEK!

We just watched the pilot episode...hello 90's!  Egads are these kids wordy! The show opens with Dawson, Joey and Dawson's forehead discussing growing up and genitalia, in an awkward conversation in which even the actors seem uncomfortable.  Then it's onto the credits and Paula Cole...once again, hello 90s! We're introduced to neighborhood friend Pacey and new-girl-from-New-York-with-a-secret-past Jen.

Laurel here...The first time we see Dawson's parents they are dry humping in the living room and Pacey and Dawson walk in on them.  what?  The actors are both way too young to be parents of a teenager, and the father looks like a playgirl model...not in a good way.  He also looks to be in no way related to Dawson.  The other grown up we meet in this first episode is a woman who comes into the video store where Dawson and Pacey work.  She is wearing a dress that is super short and basically just a slip, she flirts a bunch with Pacey, then asks to rent...wait for it...the GRADUATE.  Then when school starts it turns out she is their new english teacher.  I smell trouble for Pacey!!

So far all of the outfits are awesomely 90s...the boys wear giant button down shirts and pleated pants, the girls wear cropped jackets, scrunchies, floral dresses..the works!

My favorite line from this episode...Dawson tells Joey that he expects her to be more understanding, to which Joey replies "All I DO is understand!!"

Mark again...I like when Dawson is showing Jen all the Speilberg posters in his room (and enough with the Speilberg already! we get it!), he gets to his closet and there's a Schindler's List poster...there were really Schindler's List posters mass printed?!? Anyway, the rest of the episode is lots of salacious talk, Pacey kissing his teacher, Joey and Jen not hitting it off...very scandalous for a pilot I will say.  At the end, we get to Joey and Dawson in Dawson's room again talking about their changing friendship, and how they can't talk about certain things anymore.  Although after watching this episode, I find it hard to believe anything is off limits...but Joey asks Dawson how often he "walks the dog".  It took us old timers a few minutes to figure that one out...but Dawson doesn't tell Joey until she has left.  He yells out the window..."Every morning during the Today Show with Katie Couric!" and instantly Laurel and I are scarred for life.  The last cliffhanger is Joey seeing Dawson's mom kissing another man... like I said, all in all pretty scandalous for a pilot!

Welcome to TV Dinner Night!

Hi, we are Mark and Laurel and we are big fans of fancy, homemade dinners and TV shows.  So we've decided to create a blog combining these two loves. We're hoping to post our recipes and how they turn out, and where we got them or the inspiration from.  Also, we have a plan of reviewing some of our favorite TV shows from beginning to end.