Sushi!

No disaster! Can you believe it?? Sushi.. I thought for sure I'd be crying in my Ebi. But no.. everything went beautifully and our sushi not only turned out very pretty, but muy delicioso! I had to wait until the 14th to make it as I had a couple friends over for a sushi making/movie watching party. Both gals were an absolute delight and we all really enjoyed making the sushi. Sushi making is very time consuming due to the prep work and because of this, it is assured that our favorite sushi place will not be losing our business. *grin* Well there's that and there's the fact that the sushi chef, Jonathan Hirsch, from our favorite sushi restaurant (Lure Bistro in Willoughby, Ohio) helped me to make this party a sucess for myself and my friends! He gave great advice and hooked me up with some excellent fish and a few tools of the trade to make sushi making much easier than I ever thought it could be. Well, let me rephrase that - BASIC sushi making is easy.. the kind of sushi that looks like art work, well that's a whole different story. I could never put out sushi plates that look as beautiful as Jonathan's - and I'll tell you why I know this... The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge. I watched a video that Audax and Rose gave us the link to. It was of a pretty basic dragon roll, but what I was most interested in was how sushi chefs get the avocado to lay so perfectly on top of the roll. This video really illustrated how it's done and it's the method I used - which turned out perfectly. I was so excited! The next step was to cut the dragon roll and then plate it and decorate it. That part didn't go so well. We chose to use tempura shrimp in our dragon roll because none of us like eel. Well, even though I was using a sharp knife, when it hit the harder tempura shrimp, I over compensated by pushing the knife down to break through it (not that it was rock hard, just harder than avocado, rice, tuna and cucumber) and that ended up squishing my beautiful roll and the delicate avocada squished off and all over the place. Gah. This happened after 4 hours of prep (we also had tempura sweet potato to munch on - YUM! and I made Jaden's Pork and Crab Wonton soup again) and ya'll know me.. I was f'n starving, tired, and annoyed. So I didn't even bother decorating it. :P Mindy made gorgeous spiral rolls and Amy excelled at the Nigiri. All in all it was a most fabulous evening and we were all super impressed with our mad sushi making skilz that we didn't even know we had! Thanks Audax & Rose! It was one of the best challenges yet! And thanks Jonathan!! You made a daunting task, so much more accessible and fun! xoxo

Rice with Mushrooms, Squid and Artichokes

This month we were all treated to learn how to make an authentic Spanish meal that was time consuming, but easy and so worth the hours of slow cooking. Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga's Recipes, was our hostess and wow, what an amazing job she did! Thank you so much, Olga! :) I really don't have much to say about the recipe, other than it truly was delicious and it made my house smell amazing. I followed the recipe almost exactly - my only changes were to caramelize my onions slowly over low heat for about an hour before adding the rest of the veggies for the Sofregit, I used canned fire roasted diced tomatoes instead of fresh because our garden tomatoes aren't ready yet and I refuse to buy the tasteless tomatoes from the grocery store. Oh and I used squid instead of the cuttlefish that was the original seafood ingredient, just because you'd have a better chance of meeting Elvis at the local library than you would of finding cuttlefish at the grocery stores/fish markets in these parts. ;) I really took my time with the Sofregit.. mainly because of what other members were saying about theirs and I knew it'd make way too much for what the recipe called for, so I wanted the remainder to be really concentrated in flavor so I could use it to spread of bruschetta for a lil get together I'm having in a few weeks. And I'm glad I did, that stuff is amazing. I'm almost thinking of just serving it in a big bowl with a loaf of crusty bread torn up around it so people can just dip.. YUM. I was concerned, initially, about rubbery squid. From many past experiences I know that you've got two choices with squid - cooked quickly, or cooked for hours and you will get tender slices.. cooked in between those two times and you're just asking for a mouth full of rubber. Although you don't cook the squid for tooooooo long in this dish, it's longer that what I've had success with in the past and much, much shorter of a time than my dad's Christmas Calamari sauce that I cherish. But to my surprise it came out super tender! It was fantastic! I used Arborio rice since we needed a short grain rice and it made the dish extra creamy and delicious. This is definitely a dish that needs a good starchy short grain rice to give it an extra kick of wonderfulness. I now realize why the paella I made years ago was just "okay" instead of really good like this dish. I used regular long grain rice that I always have in my pantry. Now I'm rarin' to make Paella again using the Arborio. I'm looking forward! :) If you like Spanish cuisine, I highly recommend this dish. Try it! :D Check out the other Daring Cooks' versions of this recipe.. I guarantee you'll be listing the ingredients on a grocery list in the not too distant future. ;) xoxo

Exciting News! Also, a New Scallops Recipe!

Thanks to everyone who gave their opinions on the Reynolds Parchment Paper! Daniel wrote and said that he will pass along the comments to Reynolds.. so maybe, just maybe, they'll listen and our parchment paper blues will end! heee! Has been a pretty busy week.. and I haven't cooked much new and exciting, but I do have some new and exciting news! Tuesday was "Lung Day 2008". Yeah, not a national holiday but a very important date to my mom and myself. Tuesday we went to 2 doctors and they both agreed.. "IT'S NOT A TUMAH!" (Did I sound even remotely like Arnold?) WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! What a fakkin relief. Talk about being scared out of your mind for 2 months. But it's all good now. :) (Whoops! For those of you who are lost at this point.. they found "something" on my mom's left lung 2 months ago.. but it was too small to tell exactly what it was.. finally after a very long wait a 2nd CT scan showed it was NOT a tumor) Anyhoo.. from new and exciting news to a new and exciting recipe that both Hubbs and I loved. Again with the scallops.. his favorite seafood. I was craving pasta like you would not believe so I went in search for a scallops-y pasta-y recipe packed full of deliciousness. It didn't take long.. I went to Cooking Light's website and found a recipe that sounded pretty good and included ingredients that I had on hand. Bonus! This dish ended up being really, really good. A creamy red pepper and cheese sauce that has outstanding flavor, wrapped around tender scallops and al dente linguine. Superb! It was super easy to make.. well.. it would be super easy to make for any other person on the face of the planet. All that was required was pulsing the sauce ingredients in the food processor, sautéing the scallops, cooking the pasta until almost done and then baking the whole kit-n-caboodle in my Ohhh so sexy dutch oven. Easy peasy, right? No. Not right. Not even close. If you are me. With the bad juju. Fakk no it was NOT EASY. There's a lesson here, kids.. now pay attention to what I'm about to say.. I've got one of those food processors that has a lid with a shooter tunnel thingie on the side.. you know, it kind of resembles your pet hamster's playground but you'd never let your preshus hamster play in this playground because the hamsters in this neighborhood play with spinning blades. Anyway.. this shooter thingie, I suppose it's got a purpose. I just don't know what it is. Well another little feature that my food processor has is a slit in the lid. And in this slit is a removable plastic blade-like thingie. I never really gave much thought to this removable plastic blade-like thingie other than to wash it once I was finished processing. So, did it even occur to me that I was headed for a rude awakening when I noticed the lil plastic blade-like thingie wasn't in the slit on the lid? Did I even give it a second thought? No. No I did not. I didn't think about it after I threw in the roasted red peppers, the fat-free cream cheese, the salt and the hot water.. I didn't even think about it when my hand pushed the pulse button down.. HELLO! It was at that particular point, when the contents of my processor bowl shot out of the shooter thingie covering my legs, feet, floor, dog dishes, butcher block table and assorted small appliances in a curtain of warm, chunky, liquidy, pink gobble-dee-gook. ewwwwwwwwww! GOD DAMMMMMITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! MOTHER F*CKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU SON OF A MOTHERLESS GOAT!!!!!!!!!!! It was squishy between my toes. That's not such a very good squish. Me no likey. Thankfully, my sweet male counter-part, heard my "alarm" and came running. After he stopped laughing, he grabbed a bunch of paper towels and started cleaning up the floor so the dogs couldn't OD on pureed cheesy peppers. I waddled on my heels to go hose down my legs and feet. Gah. And the lesson learned? If you own one of these instruments of Satan, go bury it in the back yard. No, that's too close.. go find a field somewhere and bury it. It probably wouldn't hurt to douse the site in holy water as well. To extreme for you? Then right now.. before you read another word - go find the duct tape and close that side shooter tunnel thingie for good! (and it probably wouldn't hurt to douse the tape in holy water as well) Luckily, I had another jar of peppers and more fat-free cream cheese, so I started over, only this time I made sure the f*ckin' plastic blade-like thingie was in the f*ckin' lid of the f*ckin' processor. God. I have to say.. although I really don't think any recipe is worth what I went through, this one was pretty darned good. Creamy, cheesy, sweet and smokey bell peppery with the bite of the just-done linguine and those scallops were super tender and didn't lose their flavor under the sauce. I recommend this low-fat / low-cal but doesn't taste low-fat / low-cal recipe! Give it a shot! My only change would be to thin the sauce a little bit.. maybe adding a little of the pepper "juice" next time. Even if you aren't a scallops fan, try it with shrimps (the original recipe actually called for scallops and shrimp - as well as ziti instead of linguine).. or leave the seafood out completely. The sauce would be completely delish over some cheesie ravioli or tortellini. You can find the recipe here. Here's my take on the recipe in photographs! And for those of you wondering.. sorry! the camera didn't come out until after my kitchen AND MY TOES were clean.. :) First you slather up your sexy dutch oven with a lil olive oil and you slip some linguine in a nice salty bath until it's almost done. Then you toss in a lil garlic, finely chopped.. Finally the scallops go in for a quick sear on each side. Once you've seared in the flavor of the scallops, pour that crazy roasted pepper sauce over them. Don't forget the linguine! What's a lil pasta without some parsley, eh? And who would think of putting all that goodness in the oven half-nekked like that?? There's ALWAYS room for an Asiago blanket to keep our scallops toasty warm in that 400º oven! Mmmm.. melty cheesie goodness! Voila! Slightly blurry, but ohhhh so luscious Baked Sea Scallops and Linguine in Roasted Pepper Sauce! *slurp* xoxo

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble

No, I wasn't concocting a brew made of baboon blood and toad's eyes. Although, that might have been a good idea to ward away the snifflies I've caught this weekend. *sniff* Kind of looks a lil like what you might find in a witch's cauldren, eh? I can't truly vouch for how good this dinner was myself, as my tasters feel as if they are covered with a thin sheet of visquene, but Hubbs raved about it. Which is good because there's no reason for him to suffer just because I can't taste anything and I know I can make this again once I feel better because it was very easy and quick. There is one thing I learned though.. I do not like the texture of tentacles unless they've been cooked for hours or fried until golden brown and delicious. Anyhoo.. what I wanted to accomplish a couple nights ago was picking out something from a newly acquired cookbook for my submission to the WCC #13. Unfortunately, the only cookbook I received for Christmas was Nigella Bites. Unfortunately because after my first flip through it, I wasn't impressed like I was with Feast and after my more in-depth look into it Friday afternoon I still didn't find much that tripped my trigger. At least nothing I could make for dinner. I did find something that I'll be making later today.. stay tuned! Same bat channel! Same bat time! So I tossed Nigella to the side and picked up my 1,000 Italian Recipes book that I bought many moons ago and haven't really cooked much from. And it was from this book that I chose to make Calamari alla Veneta or Venetian-Style Calamari. This recipe was very easy to put together, very quick to cook with the flavors melding as if they'd simmered for hours (so says Hubbs) and the sauce was very creamy with the addition of a little Parmigiano Reggiano. I decided to serve this with penne, but the recipe says it's traditional to serve with white polenta. I also threw in some sliced kalamata olives just because they were sitting there staring at me. By the way, if you are looking for a terrific cookbook jam packed with lots of traditional and contemporary Italian recipes, this book is worth the cash. Michele Scicolone is of Italian American descent and like many of us, learned how to cook by watching her parents and grandparents. She has collected recipes from traditional family favorites, to tried and true recipes given to her by friends as well as authentic Italian recipes collected in all regions of Italy in her travels. There is definitely something for everyone in this book. =) Calamari alla Veneta or Venetian-Style Calamari Adapted from 1,000 Italian Recipes written by Michele Scicolone 1/4 c. olive oil 1/4 c. finely chopped onion 2 whole garlic cloves, peeled (I gave mine a good smash) 2 lbs. calamari (squid), cleaned and cut into rings 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped or 1 c. chopped canned tomatoes 1/2 c. dry white wine 1/2 c. sliced kalamata olives (My addition, optional) Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/2 lb. Penne, cooked to al dente or Polenta (both are optional) Pour the oil into a large, heavy skillet. Add the onion and garlic to cold skillet (*See note) and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes. The recipe says to discard the garlic at this point, but to me that's sacrilege - so my garlic stayed in ;) Add the calamari, tomatoes, wine and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is thickened and the calamari are tender, about 30 minutes. Serve hot. In Venice, fish is often served with Polenta with white rather than yellow cornmeal. I chose Penne cooked al dente. *My Notes: When cooking with garlic and onions in oil or butter, it is best to add all the ingredients into a cold skillet then bring them, slowly, up in temperature together to avoid burning of the vegetables. If you want to serve this with pasta, your sauce might reduce quite a bit after 30 minutes. I added a couple ladles of the pasta water and maybe 1/4 - 1/3 cup of finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano to make the sauce creamy. Make sure to taste often as the cheese will bring a lot of saltiness to the dish - especially if you decide to add the kalamata olives. If you decide to serve this without pasta or polenta make sure you have a good crusty bread to sop up the sauce. ;)

Crunchy Scallops with Citrus Sauce

We've started up the snow machine here in NE Ohio.. like I said before when we were having all that mild weather, when it starts to snow it's not going to stop! But I have to admit, grudgingly, that it is pretty - there's been a lot of it but it's been the big fluffy stuff. Normally when it's constantly snowing, I sink into cozy/hibernation mode when it comes to cooking. But since I've been on this "recreating" kick of late, I decided that the next restaurant recipe I wanted to try to figure out at home is a light, summery, scallop dish Hubbs had at that restaurant I told you about where I only ever ordered the pork tenderloin? Well he had this dish once and gave me a bite and I thought it had to be the best scallops I'd ever had. Unfortunately they were on special that night and never offered again after that. I've looked high and low for recipes that I could use as a platform to work off of but so far, nothing. And it's getting harder and harder for me because I'm trying to recreate something I had one bite of a good 4 years or so ago. This is my 3rd attempt and I knew just from reading the recipe, which I found on the Whole Foods website, strangely, that it wasn't going to be close either - but it was interesting enough on it's own to give it a shot - who knew maybe we'd find a good citrusy scallop dish that was just as good? These are breaded scallops, which I usually don't like at all - but I'd been having a craving for Panko so I subbed it for the regular breadcrumbs the recipe called for. Also I didn't have any baby bok choy on hand (imagine that!) so I served these with bite-sized chunks of roasted sweet potatoes with a lil drizzle of honey. Come to find out, they were the perfect side dish as the citrus sauce is quite tart. This dish was good - not one of my favorites - but Hubbs loved them. The scallops had a nice crunch and were tender on the inside. The sauce had a very good citrus flavor but ohhhh baby if you got a scallop with a lot of sauce on it you'd start to pucker! Not that that is a bad thing - for me the sauce really brought out the flavor of the scallop instead of over powering it, which was great. Crunchy Scallops with Citrus Sauce 1 1/2 c. freshly squeezed tangerine juice (3 to 4 tangerines) 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 to 2 lemons) 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lime juice (1 to 2 limes) 1/4 c. chicken stock 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 TBS. honey or agave nectar (I used honey) 1 TBS. sugar 2 large egg whites 1 1/2 TBS. cornstarch or arrowroot 2 TBS. freshly squeezed lemon juice (I omitted this) 1/2 tsp. salt 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste 30 large scallops, pat dry 1 1/2 c. sesame seeds (I used Panko) 1/4 c. canola oil (I used even less just enough to brown them without burning) 2 lbs. baby bok choy (Or 2 sweet potatoes chunked) To prepare the sauce, combine the tangerine juice, lemon juice, lime juice, chicken stock, garlic, honey and sugar in a heavy saucepan over high heat. Boil until slightly syrupy and reduced to 1 cup, about 15 minutes. Set aside. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm before using.) To prepare the scallops, in a large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, corn starch (or arrowroot), lemon, and cayenne pepper until blended. Add the scallops and toss to coat. Place the sesame seeds or Panko in a deep rimmed dish. One by one, dip the scallops in the coating, making sure to coat all sides. Place the coated scallops on a nonstick baking sheet, set aside. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Carefully add half of the scallops to the hot skillet, and sear the scallops until golden, about 2 minutes. Turn the scallops over and continue to sear the other side for 2 minutes or more until golden on the outside and just opaque on the inside. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining scallops. If using the bok choy the recipe says to trim it and cut it in half lengthwise. In a large deep saute pan with a fitted lid, place 1/3 c. water and 1/4 c. citrus sauce, stir to blend. Bring the liquid to a boil, add the bok choy and cover. Reduce the heat to low and steam for 2 to 4 minutes or until the bok choy is just tender and bright green. Remove from heat, toss in the liquid to coat. Place the bok choy on individual plates, arrange the scallops on top of the greens and drizzle with the remaining sauce. If using sweet potatoes, peel and chunk them into bite sized pieces. Lay them on a cookie sheet and drizzle olive oil and about a tsp. of sea salt over them then using your finger tips, toss to coat. Place sheet in a 425º F. oven and roast for about 25 - 30 minutes or until they are browned and tender. After plating, drizzle a small amount of honey over them.

Monthly Mingle #5 - Give Thanks

For this month's Mingle, my sweet friend, Meeta has picked a theme about giving thanks. I like this idea as it's always good to think about what we have and to acknowledge our appreciation for it. Sure, we've all got our problems - who doesn't - but instead of stressing over them, it's rather nice to take a moment or two to think about your loved ones and how they care about you, your home and how there is no better feeling than coming home. Your health and how grateful you are to be alive to share your life with your loved ones, be it family and/or friends. The list can go on and on. I'm thankful for many, many things. I have a Mom who is also my best friend. I have a man who loves me for who I am and who I love deeply. I have three beautiful "furry" kids who I cherish more than I ever thought possible. I have a nice home that's cozy and welcoming. I have a handful of true friends that I know will always be there for me and who I hope they know I'll always be there for them. I have my health - although I'm not in the best shape that I could be - I am alive and grateful for it. My list goes on and on as well, but you get the idea, yes? =) For this month's Mingle I've decided to say thanks to Hubbs. This man may drive me insane on occasion (heee!) but I do love him with all my heart. He shows me affection constantly. He helps around the house, he takes care of his yard, he comforts me when I'm down, he cracks me up like no one else can, he likes to do the same stuff I like to do and he's shown me things I've never seen before. He's easy going which is nice because I'm the stressed out worrying alla time type - so I know I can count on him to "talk me down" when I get wacko. lol Above all, he makes me feel loved and special. And so, to show him some of my appreciation this week, I made him his absolute favorite food. Scallops. He doesn't care how they are prepared, all he cares about is that he's getting scallops. I've made them many times for him - and always a different way. This time I wanted to make a sauce that was tangy with a nice punch of heat. So I chose this ginger-lime sauce to drizzle over them. When I first tasted the sauce while it was reducing, I was quite alarmed - whoa baby was it salty! Woo!! I thought I screwed up and was already getting out ingredients to make the old stand-by garlic and butter sauce to replace it. But I continued cooking it and added a lil sugar to tone it down a bit. This sauce ended up being fantabulous with the seared scallops and white rice that I served with it. It really brought out the taste of the scallops, which surprised me. If you decide to make this sauce, my only words of caution are - use it sparingly as it does pack quite a punch. We found that just a drizzle over the scallops and then maybe a spoonful or two over the rice was just perfect. It's tangy and salty and sweet and spicy all at the same time. Seared Scallops with Ginger-Lime Sauce 1 lb. of sea or diver scallops 1 TBS. butter 4 TBS. soy sauce (this could be cut down to lessen the salt - or use the low-sodium soy sauce) 2 TBS. light brown sugar 2 TBS. fresh ginger - either grated or minced 2 tsp. ground chilis (I used ground ancho chili powder) 2 tsp. fresh, minced garlic 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar 1 tsp. lime juice (I upped this to 2 tsp.) 1 tsp. ground black pepper 1/2 tsp. onion powder 1 TBS. corn starch 2 TBS. water Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until it's just starting to brown. Lay your scallops between two layers of paper towels and apply pressure to coax the extra liquid out of them. Season the tops with sea salt and pepper then transfer them, top side down, to the hot skillet. Season the other side and leave them alone for about 3 minutes or until the bottoms are nicely seared. Flip only once and sear until browned and cooked through - approximately another 3-4 minutes, if even. For this sauce recipe you could do two things. Put all ingredients, except the corn starch and water, into a jar or container with a tight lid and shake until combined then refrigerate for 24 hours before use. This preparation would be more for a marinade. Or you can add all ingredients to a small saucepan and cook over medium high heat until you get the desired thickness you'd like. That's the way I went. *Note: I also doubled all ingredients except for the cornstarch and water as that was plenty to thicken the double batch perfectly. And I added 2 scant TBS. of white granulated sugar to help cut the salt a bit.

Creole Shrimp And Pasta Meuniere

Here's another one of those recipes that I really shouldn't even bother blogging about, but I feel the recipe is a good base to add your own personal touch to create something delicious. I wanted to try a new shrimp dish and found this one at All Recipes. It was given 4.5 stars and in reading the comments, most people said it was really good but only because they made many changes due to it being so bland. I read their changes and made my notes and then, apparently, didn't make enough changes to my version. Because the pasta was still very bland. The shrimp, though, was not bland but quite tasty and is the reason I'm sharing my experience with Betty Pritchard's recipe. You start out with a lot of butter. Imagine that. A big butter post on La Mia Cucina - who woulda thunk it? And as much as I lurve me my butter - I don't particularly like a lot of it with my pasta. Much to Hubbs' chagrin. I hate a greasy pasta, it just doesn't sit well with me. After reading the recipe, I thought maybe the butter was just a base for a nice creamy sauce, but alas, it wasn't. Although by browning the butter and adding the worchestershire, hot sauce and herbs, it really did give the shrimp a delectible taste. The changes I made, were as follows: I did not have "fines herbs" - quite frankly, I had no fakkin' idea what "fines herbs" was until I checked it out on Wikipedia and realized that I didn't have those herbs even in a dried version. So I substituted with Herbes de Provence. Another change was I just added the hot sauce but omitted the jalapeno pepper sauce because as we all know, I'm a spice chicken. And finally, I added 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced and 2 TBS. of white wine. Two ingredients I seem to always add to a shrimp/pasta dish. This brown butter sauce clung well to the shrimp, and quite frankly, if I ever wanted to make a snacker out of shrimp this is how I'd prepare them again - but the butter sauce didn't do much for the pasta. Maybe this dish would have been better suited to rice? I'm not sure. I even went with the old standby of adding some of the pasta water and parmigiano but it still didn't perk the pasta up at all. So.. try this recipe for shrimp, but either omit the pasta and try rice, maybe? Or just make the shrimp. For the 7 TBS of butter, it was just enough to coat the 1 lb. of medium sized shrimp perfectly, so you wouldn't be wasting a bunch of sauce if you were to omit pasta or rice completely. Creole Shrimp and Pasta Meuniere I'm not bothering with typing out the recipe, but you can find it here.

Pan Seared Shrimp & Scallops with Mushroom "Hash"

Remember the old Reese commercials where the slogan was "Two great tastes, that taste great together!"? 'kay well this was not the case last night. I had two skewers of giant scallops and jumbo shrimp that I had purchased from our seafood store, but didn't feel like grilling them. So I just started dumping ingredients in a pan that I thought would be good with the shellfish. Ohhh and was it good. Garlic, butter, fresh parsley, lemon juice and a splash of white wine.. the scallops were tender and sweet, the shrimp was creamy and flavorful. I might just have to prepare my shellfish like this from now on - yum! I needed something a little on the substantial side to go with the shellfish as there were only 2 scallops and 2 shrimps per serving.. so I decided to go with baby new potatoes and fresh button mushrooms. I started preparing them the same way as with the shellfish - garlic and butter. At about the time I was allowing the veggies to carmelize a bit, Hubbs walked in with 2 late garden tomatoes - so I decided to seed one, cut it in chunks and add it to the veggies. I let the whole thing cook down a bit and what I got was a fabulous side dish that really could have been ate as the main course. The only problem was that by adding the tomato, the veggies ended up on the rich side and were a little too heavy to go good with the light shellfish. I will prepare this veggie dish again and again - but will pair it with beef or pork next time, for sure. So there you have it - 2 new dishes for me, wonderful on their own, but not quite right with each other. =) Pan Seared Shrimp & Scallops with Mushroom Hash 3 TBS. butter 3 cloves garlic, minced and then mashed into paste 2 TBS. fresh, chopped parsley juice from 1/2 lemon splash of a good white wine (I used a Pinot Grigio) 1/2 lb. sea scallops 1/2 lb. large shrimp, shelled & deveined pinch of sea salt Saute garlic in butter until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the lemon juice and wine and cook until sauce reduces a bit, about 4-5 minutes. Add scallops, season with pinch of sea salt. Sear for about 2-3 minutes, flip the scallops and season, then add the shrimp and fresh parsley. The shrimp won't take as long so once you see them starting to turn their pretty creamy pink color, flip them. By the time the shrimp are cooked through, the scallops will be done as well. Mushroom Hash I'm not even sure Hash would be the right term for this side dish? 1 small carton of small to medium button or crimini mushrooms, leave whole 5-6 small new potatoes, peeled and chunked 1 lg. tomato, seeded and chunked 3 TBS. butter 3 cloves garlic, minced Cracked black pepper Sea salt 1 TBS. fresh parsley, chopped Saute garlic in butter for about 3-4 minutes, add potatoes and allow to cook until lightly browned on the bottom, about 4 minutes, flip. Add the mushrooms, cap side down, cook for another 4 minutes or until the caps have gotten goldeny brown and add the tomato. Simmer for 6 minutes or until the juice from the mushrooms and tomato has reduced by half. Season with salt & pepper, stir in parsley.

Seafood Chowder and Honey Cornbread

I wasn't even going to post the Seafood Chowder recipe as I did not like it at all. But, I do not like seafood in soups/chowders unless it's my father's clam chowder - AND I'm not a fan of bacon in my soups either.. I figure this recipe must be decent though, as Hubbs ate not one.. not two.. but three fakkin bowls of the stuff! Therefore, I'm sharin' =) The Honey Cornbread, on the other hand, was delicious. Not too sweet and not too crumbly. Unfortunately, I didn't cook it long enough (as you'll see in the picture) and the very middle was smooshy - but the rest of it was pretty tasty! Seafood Chowder Courtesy of Recipezaar 3 slices of bacon, chopped 1 TBS. olive oil 1 c. celery, sliced 1 c. onions, chopped 2 c. chicken stock 1 bottle of clam juice 2 c. potatoes, peeled & chopped (I used baby reds, so I didn't bother peeling) 1 c. carrots, sliced 1 can (15 oz.) tomato juice 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. sea salt 1 TBS. corn starch (See Note) 1 TBS. water 1 lb. of seafood (I used a bag of assrt. seafood that I purchased at Trader Joe's - shrimp, bay scallops and calamari rings) Saute bacon in medium to large stock pot until crisp, add 1 TBS. olive oil, onions and celery sauteing until soft. Add stock, clam juice, tomato juice, potatoes and carrots. Season with salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 35 minutes. Add seafood and a slurry made of the cornstarch and water. (1 TBS. cornstarch and 1 TBS. of water didn't come close to thickening this chowder - so I added 2 TBS. of both and it still didn't thicken.. I gave up, basically because it wasn't a big deal to us that the chowder was more like a soup. So if you want this thick, I suggest starting with 2 TBS. of cornstarch and water and then adding more to get the thickness you desire). Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Honey Cornbread Courtesy of Recipezaar 1 c. all purpose flour 1 c. yellow cornmeal 1/4 c. sugar 1 TBS. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 eggs 1 c. heavy cream 3 TBS. honey 1/4 c. vegetable oil Preheat oven to 400º F. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl and then slowly add dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Transfer to either a 9" springform pan or a 8" x 8" baking dish that's well greased. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven, or until toothpick comes out clean. (guess who was rushing and forgot to check with a toothpick? *sigh*) Slather slices in butter (ya'll) and enjoy! ;)

OMG She Cooked!

Hello? Anyone out there? Remember me? Lisa from the suburbs? I'm baaackkkk! It feels like forever since I've cooked a meal! These last few weeks have kicked me in the arse, to say the very least. Gawd. As I now refer to this painful episode of my life, "Painapalooza 2006", I can't get over how it effected me. I am so incredibly exhausted that I haven't felt like doing jack shite since it all began. I do not even remember being this tired after the hysterectomy. And my God, the total lack of appetite has blown me away! Don't get me wrong.. I'm not complaining.. it's kind of refreshing as I've always had me a good appetite! ;) These thunder thighs and chunks O'hips certainly needed the break from the power noshing spell I'd been under the past few months! teee heeee! Hubbs has been wonderful during all of this.. but I could tell he was getting a lil nervous that I'd never get back in the kitchen. Poor man has survived on carry-out and frozen pizza for the past 3 weeks. Oh the shame! So against my so very tired body's wishes, I forced myself to get me arse back in my lovely little kitchen and make my man a home cooked meal. I'm glad I did.. I rocked this dish! I chose to make an Alfredo sauce. I don't really know why I did that, as Hubbs isn't particularly fond of cheese sauces. Way to go, eh? Finally cook him a decent meal and chose one of his least favorites to go with! Well you'll have that.. I added shrimp to offset his dislike of Alfredo, so I'm not all that bad, right? ;) When he asked what I was going to cook, I simply told him a pasta and shrimp dish, which made him happy. As I was cutting the cheese (no pun intended) into cubes, he asked to try 3 of the 4 varieties I was using and gave a thumbs up - so far so good! The sauce came together quickly and beautifully. It was incredibly silky and scrumptious.. a mild cheesy flavor with a nutty hit in the background - I assume due to the Gruyere. I chose papparadelle pasta, which I'd never had before, and I really liked it. The other highlight of this dish, aside from the outstanding sauce, was that FINALLY my grocery store is carrying wild AMERICAN shrimp. What a difference! My God, they were creamy and so tender without that too salty taste. Fabulous and about time, dammit! I think the key to this sauce being so damn good was the cream cheese. I'd never heard of using it in an Alfredo but it definitely makes a difference. Seriously, kids, try this the next time you feel like Alfredo and/or are feeling naughty.. because this is not a figure flattering dish :D Shrimp Alfredo 1/2 c. butter 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese 2 tsp. garlic powder 2 c. heavy cream (or milk) 6 to 8 oz. grated Italian Fontina cheese 6 oz. grated Gruyere cheese 1/2 c. grated Parmiagiano Reggiano 1/4 tsp. white pepper pinch of salt 1 lb. Pappardelle or Fettucini pasta, cooked al dente 1 lb. medium to large raw shrimp, shelled and deveined In a medium sized, heavy sauce pan melt butter. Add cream cheese and whisk with melted butter until melted and smooth (it will be hard to incorporate the cheese with the butter at this point and that's okay). Slowly add the heavy cream whisking to combine. Add the garlic powder, Fontina, Gruyere and Parmigiano stirring often until melted and incorporated. Add the pepper and salt. This sauce will thicken quickly, so keep an eye on it and stir often. After my pasta had been boiling in salted water for about 5 minutes, I simply dumped the raw shrimp in with it. They took about 4 minutes to cook perfectly, which was just enough time for the pasta to be al dente. I drained the pasta and shrimp, placed it back in the pan and added 1/2 of the sauce to coat it. Served it family style, in a large bowl, with the remaining sauce on the side. Yum! *Note: Hubbs not only gave this a thumbs up but said he'd eat this whenever I felt like making it again! Now that's a sign of a good Alfredo sauce ;)

Winging the Paella

Somehow I managed to make us all dinner Saturday night. I had help from my girlie girls and none of us managed to chop the tips of our fingers off. Bonus! I put Cindy on sausage patrol, while I took care of the onions, garlic and peppers. Mindy took care of dishes and hubbs sat on the deck taking care of his Miller Highlife. Mmm hmm. Like I said earlier, I checked out my favorite go-to sites for recipes and found a few interesting recipes for Paella. None had the exact ingredients I wanted to use, but that wasn't a big deal. What I learned from the combination of all the recipes I looked at was that Paella is just a big rice/seafood stew that isn't hard at all to make. I was relieved. I really wanted to Wow! the guestifriends, but I didn't want an asspain in the process, yanno? So in a nutshell (kinda) here's what I did. I started off sauteing diced onions, minced garlic, diced red pepper and spanish paprika in a lil olive oil. I had Cindy slice keilbasa and Andouille sausages and brown them. While she was doing that and my veggies were sauteing, I made the rice using chicken stock and saffron. Once all the components were cooked, I threw them all together and then added my shrimp and mussels. I needed to add extra chicken stock to give the mussles some steam to open. They took the longest. Had I known they would take that long to open, I wouldn't have added the shrimp with them. But, the shrimp came out beautiful anyway, not tough in the least. We served it simply with cornbread and butter - which was the perfect compliment to the savory stew. If you get the chance and haven't tried this dish yet.. I totally recommend it. Other than a lot of pans used up (and really, had I been more "with it" I would of just sauteed the veggies and sausages together in the big pot that I was making the rice in.. because this totally could have been a one pot meal) this was super simple to put together and sooooooooooo delicious for not so much effort. =) The ingredient list I'm giving you will make a LOT of Paella. I've still got a huge bowl of it in the fridge and we had some with steaks the next night.. so really, cut the ingredients in half if you aren't feeding an army. Paella 1 c. vidalia onion, small dice 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 whole red bell pepper, diced 1 TBS. olive oil 2 tsp. spanish paprika 1/2 lb. keilbasa sausage, sliced on the diagonal 1/2 lb. Andouille sausage, sliced 1 1/2 c. uncooked white rice (I used Basmati rice) 2 2/3 c. good chicken stock pinch of saffron threads 1 lb. fresh mussels (1 lb. gave us about 18 mussels - plenty!) 1 lb. med. raw shrimp, peeled & deveined 1 c. frozen sweet peas (I forgot the damn peas. Ugh.) extra chicken stock (I have no idea how much more I put in - wing it people! :D) 2 TBS. fresh parsley, chopped Your choice.. either use up a bunch of pans, like I did.. or start with a big stock pot and cook all your ingredients in it to save on clean up. Saute the onions, garlic, peppers and spanish paprika in the olive oil. Brown the sausage. (We found these two sausages didn't give off much grease at all, so again this can all be done in one pan, if you'd like.) Prepare the rice by bringing the 2 2/3 c. chicken stock and the saffron threads to a boil, add the rice. Put a lid on it and lower the heat, simmering for roughly 15 minutes or so. (The rice wasn't done at this point, but I knew it had a while longer to cook once I added the seafood.) Add the mussels first, put the lid back on and let them steam until they open - it took roughly 20 minutes for all of mine to open. If the rice soaks up all the chicken stock, add more so that the mussels can steam properly. As soon as they have opened, add the shrimp. If you need to add a lil more chicken stock at this point, do so.. you don't want the rice to burn to the bottom of the pan - and all the stock I used did not mellow out the flavors of any other ingredient. Shrimp should take about 5 minutes before they are ready. Pour it all into a huge bowl and serve with a giant spoon and some hot cornbread with butter on the side. *swoon*

Scallops with Capers and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Hubbs is home =) He finally pulled in around 5:30 last night. His originally scheduled ETA was suppose to be around 2 yesterday afternoon, but thanks to one of the drivers in the convoy taking a few wrong turns and a huge construction backup, his trip was prolonged. Which really didn't shock me.. considering the job was suppose to be done at the end of April, why wouldn't an extra 3.5 hours of drive time be a surprise, eh? Anyhoo.. it's over, he's home and I'm relieved and quite happy! After he recovered from almost being licked to death by the dogs, we sat and chatted a bit on the deck as he was surveying the back yard. The overgrown grass, the still covered pond, those lil f'in maple tree "helicoper" thingies that were EVERYWHERE. I could see his mind racing with everything that had to be done. Thankfully, I got outside a couple weeks ago and cleaned out the beds as best I could, and his brother came over to help plant the garden and he mowed a few times.. but the work to be done outside is quite monumental. He's never had to deal with all of this as he's one of the first in the neighborhood to start on the yard work after a long fall & winter. You know, the weirdo up the street who is wearing his winter coat, gloves and hat mowing the lawn and weed-eating? Mmm hmm.. that's my Hubbs. It was kinda comical watching his eyes dart here and there while pretending to carry on a conversation with me.. teeee! So I asked if he wanted to take a walk around the two yards to check out what flowers have bloomed so far. I thought he would trip over Nigel the way he jumped out of that chair with a squeal in his voice, "OKAY!" hahaaa! After the quick walk and a short visit with the neighbors (ugh) he got this look on his face and I knew what the evening was going to consist of. So I told him I'd go in and start dinner as he was longingly looking at his garage. Yep, after 11 hours of driving the man got out his blower and took care of the helicopter thingies and then he mowed. He wanted to start weeding but I told him dinner was done. Sheesh! lol One of his favorite seafoods is scallops. So scallops it was last night. I don't really make them too often, not sure why because I love them too, so I don't have many recipes for them.. this one I found on Epicurious and it was delicious. The sauce that's created with just a few ingredients and the liquid given off by the scallops was scrumptious. I was going to serve this with sun-dried tomato risotto.. which I didn't remember until after I had peeled, cut and started frying the potatoes and onions. I don't even recall giving fried potatoes a thought when I was figuring out what to make for dinner yesterday.. must be habit when I cook for Hubbs? He definitely likes his potatoes. Well the scallop recipe is definitely a keeper, it was heavenly. Scallops with Capers and Sun-dried Tomatoes 2 TBS. olive oil 3 large garlic cloves, pressed - (I minced) 1 tsp. minced lemon peel - (I grated with the microplane) 12 sea scallops - (as if that'd be enough for him.. I used 2 pounds of large sea scallops and the sauce, as is, was plenty) 2 TBS. minced, drained, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes 1 TBS. drained capers 2 TBS. fresh lemon juice 3/4 tsp. minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp. dried, crumbled - I used 1/4 tsp. Herbs de Provence but I wish I had upped it to 1/2 tsp. 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into pieces Salt & Pepper to taste Heat oil in heavy large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and lemon peel and saute 30 seconds. Add scallops and saute until almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer scallops to bowl using slotted spoon. Add sun-dried tomatoes, capers, lemon juice and thyme to same skillet. Boil until liquid (The scallops will give off a lot of juice) thickens, adding any accumulated juices from the scallops in the bowl to skillet, about 2 minutes. Add butter and whisk until just melted. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Return scallops to skillet and stir just until heated through. Transfer scallops and sauce to plates and serve. All I did for the potatoes was semi-peel and quarter about 1 lb. of new red potatoes, slice about 1/2 of a vidalia onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Fried them in 2 TBS. of olive oil with salt & pepper until they were nicely browned then finished them with a good sprinkle of fresh clipped chives and chopped parsley.

Crab Salad

Just a quickie post this morning.. as I need to get to the dungeon early for a bid due by 8 a.m. Ugh.. right after a holiday weekend too.. sheesh. Yesterday was beautiful and perfect for cooking out. My mom and cousins came over for a simple barbeque of hamburgs and hot dogs. The whole issue was a relaxing day for everyone with the focus on the kids and not on the cooking, which was kinda nice. One of the very first get togethers at my humble abode where I didn't spend 3 days cooking. Although it's me.. and yanno me.. I hadda find something to make to munch on before we fired up the grill. I went with Laura Rebecca's Crab Salad served on toasted English muffins. This was delicious and just screamed summer. The lemon zest and juice really perked up the flavor of the crab and veggies and the crispedy english muffin base was something I'd never thought of serving crab salad on before - it was wonderful. :D Laura Rebecca's Crab Salad 4 oz. crabmeat, picked over 1 TBS. finely chopped scallions 1 TBS. finely chopped bell pepper (red, orange or yellow) 1 TBS. finely chopped celery 2 tsp. lemon juice 1/2 tsp. lemon zest 1 to 2 TBS. mayo Salt & Pepper 1 English Muffin, split, toasted and lightly buttered 1 Bibb lettuce leaf, torn in half In a medium bowl, combine crab, scallions, pepper, celery, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add mayo, mixing to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top each English Muffin half with half a Bibb lettuce leaf. Place spoonfuls of crab salad on top of each muffin half, garnishing with a bit of lemon zest or pepper slice. Serve with wedge of lemon. *Note: I topped the salad with a lil Gruyere cheese and broiled it just long enough to melt the cheese. Then I cut each muffin in quarters and served as little appetizers.

Lisa's Shrimp & Penne

I have a dilemma today. It's bothering me, big time! Do I eat my leftovers from last night's hella good dinner for lunch?? Or do I force myself to wait until dinner time tonight?? UGH! teeee! Quite frankly, I've been awake now for about 30 minutes.. haven't even finished my first cup of coffee yet and am thinking my shrimp & penne might not be too bad for breakfast :P Holy crap was it good! Can ya tell? I started making this a few years ago.. I had shrimp and a cupboard full of pasta and all I knew was that I wanted to combine them somehow. I pretty much just looked in my fridge for ingredients that might work - I chopped, I minced and I threw it all together and it worked.. and worked well if I do say so myself, my friends :D The tanginess of the lemon and tomatoes is wonderful with the salty, yet sweet shrimp. The heavier type of pasta works so well with the delicateness of the sauce, giving you something to sink your teeth in to. The tender shrimp and the pasta soaks up the garlicky, buttery, lemony flavors in a most heavenly way.. *swoon* Lisa's Shrimp & Penne 1 pound medium to large, deveined, shell on, raw shrimp 1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick) 6 cloves garlic, minced 6 to 7 sun-dried tomato halves, chopped 1/2 c. chicken stock, not broth 1/2 lemon, juiced 1/2 c. Parmigiano Reggiano, grated 1/2 c. Pecorino Romano, grated good handful of fresh, chopped parsley 2-3 c. penne S & P to taste (If you have sea salt, use it in this recipe if you normally don't) Remove the shells from the shrimp and set aside. Fill a large pot with water and heat to boiling. Once it comes to a full boil, throw a good amount of sea salt in along with the penne, cook for about 7-8 minutes or until al dente. While your water is heating up, place butter in large skillet and heat until it's melted and starting to bubble (You don't want to brown it, though) then add your garlic and tomatoes. Let the garlic permeate the butter for about 3 minutes then add your lemon juice and the chicken stock. Heat through about 2 minutes. Add the shrimp. Cook the shrimp until it just becomes opaque, then add the Parmigiano, then sea salt & pepper to taste, mix well. Once the shrimp has turned a creamy white and pink, take it off the heat. Your sauce should be thin. When the penne is at al dente, using a slotted spoon or spider strainer, remove the pasta from the water and add directly to the skillet with the shrimp mixture. Add maybe a 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Just before plating, add the Romano and the chopped parsley. Sprinkle more romano on top and devour.. try to slow down so the juices don't dribble down your chin. Use a napkin, people! :P Just a couple notes on this one: I normally don't like to spend a lot of cash on my groceries.. I look for bargains and on occasion, I even coupon clip! But.. I have to say with this recipe, don't skimp on your ingredients. Such as.. I keep a good domestic Parmesan in my fridge as well as a hunk of the really good stuff, Parmigiano Reggiano - the cheese that costs like $12.00 for a small hunk - if you can, use that kind in this recipe. Make sure your shrimp are fresh, I didn't buy these at my normal grocery store, I made the trip to my local fish mart because I wanted to know for sure it was caught yesterday. And for really, really good depth of flavor, use stock instead of broth. You can buy a really good quality stock at the grocery store, it's located in the soup section and comes in a paper box. Or use your own homemade stock.. even better :) Because it's such a delicate (yes even with the 1/2 c. butter) dish, you really want fresh, vibrant flavors throughout.. trust me :D )

This is the recipe everyone wants.. and it's inexpensive!

Hubbs came home last night for his long weekend before having to go back to Arkansas for at least another month. It was such a great night.. we sat around our dining room table and just bs'd for hours. I had missed that so much. Today we both have early morning appointments and then we're just gonna hang out together - yay! Tomorrow is going to be even better as I discovered there is a Trader Joe's not too far from where we live so we're gonna go check it out! For his first night home, I made one of his favorite meals. Linguine and Clam Sauce. This recipe has been in my family for many, many years. My father use to love experimenting with recipes, and admittedly, some were.. hmm.. strange. But he was right on with this one! I've yet to meet anyone who did not want this recipe after they've tasted it. And the ingredients are so simple and inexpensive! This is not your high end Linguine and Clam Sauce, but my guess is that it will be, at least, one of the best you've tasted. Hank's Linguine and Clam Sauce 1 lb. uncooked linguine 2 tbs. olive oil 5-6 cloves minced garlic 4 (6 oz.) cans chopped or minced clams 1 heaping tbs. dried oregano 4-5 heaping tbs. dried parsley 2 eggs, seasoned (S&P) and gently beaten Pecorino Romano - grated *There is no real measurement to the cheese. Add to your taste. You will need at least a good handful or two for a pound of pasta to get the right consistency of creaminess. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Add a good amount of salt and the linguine. Cook until al dente, approximately 7 to 10 minutes. While the water is coming to a boil, in a small saucepan, saute the garlic in the olive oil until it is golden brown. Add clams, oregano and parsley and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain pasta (but do not rinse-you'll need the starch) and transfer to a 9" x 13" x 2" Pyrex glass baking dish (or something similiar that you can really mix everything up in), pour the eggs over the hot pasta and mix throughly. You don't want the eggs to scramble, but you want them to evenly coat the pasta. Add a good handful of the cheese and mix well. Using a slotted spoon (or similar to scoop out the clams from the broth) add as much of the clam mixture as you can get, leaving the broth in the saucepan. Mix well. Add more cheese. Then start adding the broth, a little at a time, mixing well until the sauce evenly coats the pasta and turns creamy. Serve immediately with a fresh garden salad and garlic bread. Serves 4 *Note: If the raw eggs make you squeamish, I would think you could leave them out without there being a huge difference in taste. This is going to be a two-fer for me because it fits the bill for 2 great round ups this month! My first submission will be for this month's VRC at The Savory Notebook Look for everyone's most requested recipe at the end of the month! The other round up that this dish is perfect for is Something for Nothing at Toast where Lindy is looking for tasty, creative and budget friendly recipes. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone will come up with for both of these round ups =)