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Saturday Date Night: Some Lemons in Provence

Scallops Provencal, prepared lovingly by my beautiful wife
For our second weekend of culinary experimentation, we journeyed along the coast from Italy into France, visiting the Mediterranean cuisine of Provence, famous for more simple, fresh ingredients - and seafood.  Provence was a favorite stomping grounds of the Romans, being one of the first lands outside of "the boot" that came under Roman rule, and they found its warm climate and beautiful landscape a nice place to repose.

For this week's meal, we went for dishes that were light and centered on different types of seafood.  First, it was lemon shrimp with garlic linguine, a refreshing preparation that married the lemon zest with a bit of garlic spice on thin pasta, with the shrimp soaking up the remains deliciously.  Then, we went on to Scallops Provencal, slightly dusted, fried in butter, and combined with a luscious concoction of onions, parsley, shallots, olive oil, spices, more lemon, and white wine.  Combined as the main course, it was decadent and still lingers on my lips as I ready for bed.  Instead of going for wine of the region, we polished off the other half of the varietal we had opened the night before, a Blind Dog cuvee that held up quite well to the scallops.  It ended up being as dramatic as the last Harry Potter film that we used as nightcap.

Another Saturday, another success.  We have not started planning yet for next weekend, but we are both excited about the possibilities of discovering some more fantastic food, right here at home.  After all, there is no place like it...
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