Seared Sea Scallop with Braised Endive and Buerre Blanc

Note:
"Whoops! I meant to post this earlier, obviously. Sorry, I was internet free for a week, but here it is anyway. Heck, when is it not a good time for a romantic meal?"-

With Valentine's Day approaching I thought this would make a lovely and romantic start to a meal.

Quarter 3 endives. Place them cut side down in a sauté pan with a good size lump of butter (1 tbsp?) salt and pepper (preferably white pepper) pour in a little chicken broth or water, just enough to make it about ¼ inch deep. Bring to a boil reduce heat to simmer and cover pan. Cook like this for around 5 minutes then uncover and turn up heat to let all the water evaporate and the side facing down on the pan to brown. Set aside on stove. This will keep it somewhat warm.

Make buerre blanc.
You can follow these instructions- http://video.about.com/frenchfood/Beurre-Blanc.htm
Set this aside on a back burner to keep warm.

Sear scallops. To do this use a non stick pan. Scallops are close to %100 protein which makes them very sticky. Add a little oil and a little butter to the pan. Get the pan very hot, almost smoking. Salt and pepper the scallops and then gently place in the pan and let them be( you can turn the heat down to med-high if it’s going too fast). Do not move them for several minutes. Once they have a nice brown crust on them turn them over and turn off the heat. They will cook through nicely with just the heat left in the pan.
On a plate fan out three pieces of endive. Arrange scallops. Gently with a spoon pour in buerre blanc around the scallops. Garnish with chives. (You can also place a small spoonful of caviar on the scallops)

Rum Punch

Winter got cha down? Yeah, no kidding. Me too. Here's a little ray of sunshine for you in a glass. Pour yourself one of these, turn the heat up and pretend you're in the tropics. Put one part rum, preferably a dark one like Mt. Gay or our personal favorite Ron del Barralito and two parts tropical juice over ice. Obviously you can adjust this to taste but you should be able to taste the rum. The Dole Paradise Blend works great as the juice for this. Another good one is the Ceres juice I used in the Sparkling Passion drink. Squeeze a wedge of fresh lime in the drink. The lime is key. You can try this with a few drops of bitters too.

Marscapone and Berries

Here an incredibly simple to make dessert that tastes and looks great. The flavor is similar to cheese cake but a little lighter like a mousse. Simply mix together marscapone cheese with a drop of vanilla and some powdered sugar. I leave the amount to you depending on how sweet you like it. When everything is mixed together and the texture is smooth either pipe it or spoon it into a cocktail or wine glass. Top it off with a mix of fresh berries and sift a little bit of powdered sugar over the top. Garnish with a mint leaf.