Paella Night-Making Memories

My college-aged son, Russell, and I had a rare evening the other night when we found ourselves both at home and actually watching the same thing on TV. At nineteen he and I don't often see eye-to-eye when it comes to television entertainment. Watching things blowing up or motorcycles chasing scantily clad women is his idea of a great evening in front of the tube. There are, however, one or two things we do enjoy watching together.
I was shocked to discover that "Grey's Anatomy" captured his attention. All of a sudden, we had something to watch together. I found out later that the reason why he was watching was because a girl friend of his loved it and he needed to be able to "discuss it with her" the next day. Typical.
This night, though, our eyes were glued to "The Food Network" as Bobby Flay declared a "Throwdown!" and challenged a local chef in California to a paella cook-off.
It was fascinating to watch. But more interestingly, every step of the way, I found myself saying to myself; "I can do that. I can do that!"
Russell, an advocate of eating seafood "any time and any way", kept asking, "Mom...can you do that? Can you do that?"
By the end of the show, we had decided that the next night would be Paella Night. We invited my sister and her son and, along with my hubby and Russell's girlfriend we would be 6 people.
The next day, I dedicated myself to planning, prepping and executing our paella feast.
I bought mussels, scallops, shrimp, sausage, chicken, and saffron, and since I work with my sister in our local food assembly business, we talked about it all day long. I was very glad to have her pitching in that evening as we started our dinner project.
Step by step, we followed our recipe. I found the largest, shallowest pot I had and kept a picture of perfect paella in my mind as we went along.
The finished product looked amazing!
We put the entire pot on the table, right off the stove.
Everyone "oohed" and "aahed".
Add some fresh, sweet-as-sugar Jersey corn and a super-easy vinaigrette salad and voila! We had a dinner feast from which the King of Spain himself could not walk away!
It felt like a Holiday even though it was only Thursday. It was magical the way the evening came together.
Until you do it, it's impossible to describe how one good dinner, no matter how simple, has the power to gather together and entertain friends and family. Suddenly, besides making dinner, everyone finds themselves making precious family memories as well.
Thanks for those memories, "Food Network"; and thank you, Bobby Flay, for the magic.
Fran Valle is partners with her sister, Sharon Grey and their friend Mary Meade in DinnerSmith; the first meal prep studio in Maplewood, New Jersey. Every day the three women dedicate themselves to bringing together fresh ingredients, cutting-edge recipes and the work space necessary for their friends and neighbors to quickly prepare as many delicious dinners as they need for that week or for that month. Visit http://www.dinnersmith.com for incredible meal ideas or, if you're in the neighborhood, just drop in and say "hi." Who knows? Maybe it will be the magic spark to a night of your very own precious family memories

Fran Valle