A Pampered Chef, Indeed

     Not too long ago, Matt & I were invited to and attended a Pampered Chef party at a friend's house.  Before we even got there I knew what we'd be cordially checking-out with... the double-bladed salad scissors.  (This photo doesn't do the double-blade justice).  This past summer, I was staying with our friends Tara & Rob, and as Tara was partaking in her fantasy football draft, she was also making homemade salsa using these babies.  I was immediately hooked, and couldn't wait to make her salsa on my own.

     Now, I think Matt is somewhat sick of homemade salsa, but it seems to be a crowd-pleaser, and you can make it as hot-or-not as you want.  This batch below was for a bachelorette party pre-game this past Friday.  Sadly, it was the last salsa this cute fiesta-pepper bowl will ever hold... I destroyed it after clean-up the next day (ok night... when I made it off the couch...)

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

     I have been on a Barefoot Contessa kick on the Food Network lately.  The other day, she had an episode entirely devoted to chicken.  (Right after I watched Oprah's special on how disgusting chicken is these days, but Ina made it look good).  Anyway, she made a roast chicken dubbed "Engagement Chicken" by Glamour magazine, because whenever someone cooked it for their boyfriend, they were proposed to within 24 hours.  I haven't made roast chicken before, but I did use Ina's recipe for a roast turkey 2 Christmases ago, and it was very similar, and this looked delicious on TV so I couldnt resist.  It took longer to cook than on TV, but it was pretty tasty.  Ina & I made a sauce for the chicken out of the lemon & onion garnish, and although Ina likes to eat the rhinds, I decided against it.  It made quite a bit of sauce, the chicken is gone but there are still two bowls of garnish leftover in the fridge!  (Perhaps to use on a rotisserie chicken in a quick fix!).  I told Matt about the history of engagement related to this chicken, and I decided that although I am already married, a girl can never have too many diamonds... he said it was was good but not that good...

Fishy Fridays!

So, I'm Catholic. Lately, you wouldn't know it, because I didn't get ashes, (though I did give up Facebook for Lent), I haven't been to church a whole lot, (both of those, thanks to my nights/weekends shifts in the ER), and I've always been pretty bad at remembering not to eat meat on Ash Wednesday & each Friday of Lent. That is, until this past week. Not only did we make it to Mass, but on Friday I managed not only to avoid a thoughtless pulled pork sammy for lunch, but I couldn't wait to make a seafood dinner that I'd been planning for weeks!

Before I get to the main course, I saw a post by Jessica Webb about crab rangoon, and I had just made those crabcakes, but realized I had a stack of wonton wrappers in the fridge from some Wild Mushroom Ravioli I'd made during the Master Chef ordeal. I decided to go back and get some more crabmeat, and throw some together myself. I eyeballed the ratios, and tweaked a few of them... I added some cilantro and a bit of Old Bay... (Maryland Crab Rangoon??) Spice it up a bit.

I used a Sweet Chili Garlic sauce for dipping.

For the main course, I made bucatini with mussels, scallops, and shrimp in a homemade wine sauce with roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, and bok choy. It was even more delicious reheated the next day, when the bucatini snoodled up the sauce. Yum Yum!

Crabcakes & Football!

"That's what Maryland does!"

So Matt and I had his future XO, Winston, over for dinner on Tuesday night, and to keep with the theme of our future Southern move, he suggested I do a low country boil again. I discussed it with a nurse I work with, Lulu, who told me the ways of the south, and corrected me on my ignorant northern mistakes of the last batch I made. This time I got 4 lbs of shrimp, 3 lbs of snaussy (my word for sausage), red potatoes, and corn. I didn't use all of the shrimp & sausage, that's quite a bit for just three people.

"Get you some lemons and cut 'em up, squeeze 'em into a big ol' pot, cut you an onion in half and th'ow it in there, and get you a bag of crab boil... them seasoning bags, not the powder." So I did. Except I don't have quite a big enough ol' pot for all that food, so I used two medium ol' pots. (Thanks Jamie C.!)

I decided that though all these pounds of food was going to be filling, my meal lacked the variety of several courses, so I went back to the store and got the makings for an appetizer: crabcakes. I hadn't ever made crabcakes before, and I'm not one for recipes. My dad makes them all the time, so I took what I remember from his batches, and mixed it with what I remember tasting and seeing in a batch Matt's Aunt Mimi made at her low country boil, and came up with my own blend of crabcake ingredients.

I got some crab claw meat, some yellow/orange chili peppers, some cilantro and parsley, and plennnnty of Old Bay seasoning, and blended it all with mayonnaise (Yuck! I can't believe I used mayo. Anyone have any substitutes?) and an egg. I let it sit like that in the fridge for a while and then made them into little cakes and coated them in panko.

I threw one in a frying pan to test it out, and my mayo fear came through... I can't stand it so I minimized the amount, and the crabcake came apart. (Also, I had too much oil in the pan). So, I decided to pop the other 7 in the oven for a few minutes before frying them, and that seemed to workout much better. I did eat the one that came apart. It still tastes the same when it's not stuck together! Anywhoo, they came out pretty tasty. I even ate a leftover one for breakfast yesterday!

Not Always The Chef

So occasionally I put up pics of food that I don't always cook myself, but I think are worthy of posting. Matt and I went to Gulfport, MS last weekend, and I was lucky enough to catch a taste of the south during Royal Red Shrimp season. If you've not had these before, they taste just like lobster. (Trust me, lobster is my favorite food, so I kid you not.) They are absolutely delicious. They are found off the coast of Florida in very deep waters, and they are only in season at certain times. I got this plate for $12.99. The next day I got a plate of fried shrimp for $12.99 at a BBQ joint. No comparison. The pic I should have taken but didn't was the 5lbs of crawfish we got that night at the same restaurant. (Who goes to the same restaurant for lunch and dinner? We're such losers... or it was just really good.)






So I finally had a day off last Thursday, and planned to make my favorite salmon, but I went to a fashion show with some friends and got some chips, salsa, and cerveza at a Mexican restaurant before-hand. When I got home around 8pm, I didn't go with the salmon, because we were pretty hungry. I went with a quick stir-fry dish that included steak and shrimp. Yummy yummy and quick to make!




The next night I decided to make the salmon, while it was still pretty fresh. I make it in a brown sugar glaze. It's delicious, and my cousin Theresa's fave. I usually do it with a side of asparagus, so I had some of that, but this time I also tried out some Chinese broccoli, and Matt wanted some corn. The salmon and asparagus combo was great, as ush, but I went a little overboard on the rice vinegar on the broccoli. Woops!




On Saturday night I had to work until 9, (and it was a stressful day!) and so on Friday I crock-potted some pulled-pork in advance. I love this pulled pork, I crock it in beer, honey, BBQ sauce, onions, and garlic until it falls apart. So Matt said he'd wait for me to get home to eat that for dinner on Saturday night. Much to my delight, when I walked in the door, he was dressed all fancy-pants, and he led me to the back deck, where he had set up our new fire pit for the first time, and had a romantic candlelight/white light dinner and stereo set up. He even put my Slanket (better than Snuggie) out because he thought I'd be cold! I didn't take a pic of the food, just the set up and our doggie, Marley, loving the warm fire. Most romantic Mac-N-Cheese I've ever eaten :)