Cheers!

This recipe is really not a last minute quickie if you measuring the effort from start to finish.  BUT- If you make the sauce ahead of time, you can easily get it on the table in 30 minutes.  So, make the sauce over the weekend, put it in the fridge (It will actually taste better I promise) and heat it up right before you throw the shrimp in!  Oh, and serve it with instant grits that you have cooked up in milk instead of water.  Then add shredded cheddar cheese (1/2 – 3/4 C), salt & pepper to the grits! OMG-Yummmmm!

Simple Shrimp Creole

Serves 4

• 12 Roma tomatoes, quartered
• 1 Green pepper, chunked (or- as I used-all kinds of sweet and spicy peppers from the garden-see pic below)
  

  Sweet Banana Pepper, Cayenne & Serrano Chilis from our garden that I used

• 1 Rib of celery, chunked (not the end of the world if you are missing this ingredient)
• 1 Large (2 small) sweet onions, chunked
• 2 Bay leaves
• 2 Tbs Oil (olive, canola…)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• ¼ C Tomato paste
• 1 C Andoulie or smoked sausage
• (Water or chicken stock?)
• 2 Lbs large shrimp, peeled and deveined (good shrimp cheaper frozen at Costco)
• ½ C Fresh parsley, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. In a large bowl, mix 1^st 7 ingredients
3. Spread tomato mixture out in an even layer on a large jelly roll pan
4. Place mixture in oven and roast for 30 minutes
5. Remove tomato mixture from oven, remove bay leaves and set aside
6. Put tomato mixture in a blender or food processor and puree
7. Pour tomato sauce into a pot, add sausage and tomato paste and stir
8. If sauce is too thick (and mine was) add stock or water until sauce is the desired consistency
9. Heat sauce over medium heat until simmering- let simmer  5 minutes
10. Add shrimp and cook just until opaque-2-3 minutes-do not overcook the freakin shrimp
11. Serve shrimp in creole sauce over cheese grits or steamed white rice, and garnish with parsley!

Back in the day when I actually had a lot of time to cook! New, more accurate , pic coming soon!

Okay-So it’s 5pm and your mind is on the meat in the fridge or the freezer.  You have, let’s say, chicken and you know you need to eat it.  One more day in the fridge and the chicken becomes questionable but you don’t feel like cooking and the hands on the clock are creeping close to the 5:30 mark with every tic…  Do the following and everything will come together-I promise!

Quick, simple and versatile seared meat!

Serves 4 in less than 30 minutes

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Oil (olive, canola…)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Pound out the chicken breasts so that they are even in thickness (they will cook faster)
2. Rub chicken with oil and then season generously with salt & pepper
3. Heat a griddle or large non stick pan over high heat
4. Once griddle is hot, add chicken and sear on both sides cooking until chicken is no longer pink-about 6-8 minutes on each side
5. Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes before eating

 NOW!!!  You can go in all sorts of directions.  Look around your kitchen/pantry while the chicken is cooking/resting and decide how to bring it all together.  

Here are a few suggestions (most of the recipes on in the blog):

• Slice chicken and put it on a salad-Caesar, Greek, strawberry balsamic…
• Dice chicken and make tarragon chicken salad/sandwiches
• Chop chicken and have BBQ chicken (or just coat in warm BBQ sauce)
• Slice chicken and serves with pasta (cream sauce, marinara sauce, or just olive oil, garlic, salt/pepper, and parmesan cheese)
• Pull chicken, toss in BBQ sauce for BBQ chicken pizzas
• Dice chicken and throw together a chicken pot pie
• Chop chicken and then toss with fresh grated ginger, honey, soy sauce, chopped green onions & rice for an easy “asian chicken & rice bowl”

Simple Seared Chicken & Simple Roasted Broccoli

Serves 4 in about 25 minutes

•  4 heads of broccoli, washed, dried, and chopped
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 Tbs Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Toss broccoli in oil, spread it out on a jelly roll pan
3. Season with salt & pepper
4. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese
5. Bake until edges of broccoli are golden brown-about 20 minutes              

This is a really good way to cook all kinds of veggies-asparagus, green beans, carrots, onions, beats, turnips, potatoes…

My stepbrother Marc and a net full of blue crabs

My family was lucky enough to spend last week at the beach and food, surprise-surprise, ended up being the highlight of the week for me but not for the obvious reason:  I love to eat and good food is like a giant shot of happy juice…  I got to experience how food and family can become partners in an effort o create one of those memories that I will cherish from this point forward. 

My stepbrother Marc (whom we usually see every couple of years), his wife and their 2 kiddies overlapped their vacation with ours so that we could have a mini family reunion at the beach for a couple of days.  And though Glenn & I are in Sarasota a couple times a year, we got to do something we have never done before-go crabbing.  Marc has a “flats” boat that we all hopped on and he took us to sand bars where everyone took off, net in hand, in search of the elusive (for me it was elusive-for everyone else they were easy to find) but super sweet blue crab…

It was this sight, coupled with the sound of our 4 year olds giggling, a gentle breeze and music in the back ground that will always have a special place in my heart.  The kids, as happy as they can be, eyes glued to the water in search of crabs right where the sea grass meets the sand and everyone laughing as they twist the net to keep a just caught crab for escaping. 

So that describes the the sentimental significance of “crabbing” for me.  The culinary significance is the fact that we caught a lot of crabs-enough for 4 adults to enjoy for dinner.  And they were so delicious!  So what can you do with a ton of crabs besides boil and eat?  Well, Marc & Laura taught me that if you are from the South, specifically “Lower Alabama”, you make “West Indies” (crab salad).  This is the first time I have researched a dish, on line, and in books that doesn’t vary much between versions-at all really.  It seems that there is really one way to make West Indies and it must be good because everyone respects it.

So make this salad that screams summer beach trip, sit outside (with a good breeze & music in the background) with your friends or family, and allow food the opportunity to become part of your family album!

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer-10 Minutes prep time and 2-12 hours marinating time (so great for entertaining)

•  1 lb Cooked lump crab meat
• 1 Medium sweet onion, chopped fine
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 4 oz vegetable oil
• 3 oz cider vinegar
• 4 oz ice water

1.  Layer crab & onion in a dish
2. Salt & Pepper each layer
3. One by one:   drizzle oil, then vinegar, then ice water over crab & onions
4. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 or up to 12 hours
5. Toss lightly and serve with saltine crackers

Me In My Favorite Place!

Soooo- Somehow, I have the mental fortitude to take 2 lbs of frozen ground beef and put it on the counter on Tuesday morning.  Thank god because then at 4:30pm, when I am nearing the end of my work day- when I am hot, sweaty and tired and it occurs to me that I haven’t given dinner one thought all day at least there’s that:  2 lbs. of ground beef waiting to be the star in the big Dinner Show.

Only…What’s the show?  Hamburgers?  No, we do that every week and we are not sure how much gas is in the grill.  Spaghetti?  No, we don’t have Marinara and I don’t have the time or energy to make home roasted marinara.  Meatloaf?  No, that’s too boring.  Or is it?  I have the power (and so do you!) to make meatloaf exciting, right?  I have an herb garden, I have garlic, I am thinking “Rustic Tuscan Meatloaf”.  (You can put the words Rustic and Tuscan with anything and make it sound good!)

Simple, Versitile & Inexpensive!

Serves 4 People in about 1 hour (20 min prep-40(ish) minutes cooking)

• 2 lbs Ground beef
• 2 Eggs
• ½ C Seasoned breadcrumbs
• ½ Sweet onion, chopped fine
• 3 Large cloves garlic, minced
• ½ C Chopped rosemary & basil (or Oregano)
• ½ Tsp Salt
• ¼ Tsp Pepper
• ¼ C Ketchup (forgive me, I am southern, you can’t have meatloaf without ketchup!)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In a large bowl, gently mix 1^st 8 ingredients and form into a symmetrical loaf shape
3. Place loaf on a greased broiler pan (this way grease will drip off of the meat loaf)
4. Place loaf in the oven and bake until loaf has an internal temp of 150 (medium-ish) degrees (about 40 min)
5. Pull meatloaf from oven and allow to rest for 5  minutes before slicing

This salsa also makes a great appetizer when served with chips!

At first, I paired this recipe for salsa with a nut coated chicken breast and it didn’t take me long to realize after I began to eat this light & lively dish that the salsa was the super star-that really just about any grilled meat would make a great summer time companion for the salsa. 

For the fastest preparation, pair with a rotisserie chicken and canned black beans.  If you do choose to grill your meat at home, grill it simply with olive oil, salt & pepper-just make sure the grill is hot -400+ degrees, don’t overcook, and allow the meat to rest before cutting into it-

Mojo Chicken & Pineapple Salsa

Serves 4 people in 10 minutes

• 1 (2 if you have all white meat loving guests) Store bought “Mojo” rotisserie chicken (or 4 pieces of grilled chicken, 4 grilled tilapia fliets, 2 lbs grilled shrimp, 1.5 lbs of grilled pork tenderloin…)
• 2 C Fresh pineapple, cut into ¼ “cubes
• ½ C Sweet onion, chopped fine
• 3 Jalapenos, seeded & chopped
• ¼ C Fresh cilantro, chopped
• Salt & pepper to taste

1.  In a medium bowl, mix last 5 ingredients
2. Arrange chicken on platter and garnish with salsa