Shrimp and Rice

I wanted to make one more fancy meal before I headed off to camp. In Martha Stewart Living each month she suggest a dinner. This month is was Garlic- Jalapeno Shrimp and Rice with Peas and Cilantro.

I began my chopping my first jalapeno, very carefully and avoiding touching my eyes. It was only made slightly more difficult by Boddington who is always interested in what I can cutting and then by what I put in the trash. Needless to say i did not want my bulldog eating a jalapeno. I made the rest of the marinade for the shrimp with line juice and salt and pepper.The shrimp in marinade went into the fridge for 45 minutes.


While the shrimp were swimming in lime juice I worked on the rice. First I cooked the onions and garlic in a sauce pan and then added spices and rice. I then added the water to cook the rice and a bundle of cilantro stems and let it simmer for 15 minutes.



While the rice cooked I prepared the peas. It began with shelling :) I bough sugar snap peas and carefully cut them open length ways and then picked the peas out. I needed 3/4 of a cup of peas and these peas were very tiny. After the peas were finished I worked on picking off a 1/2 of cilantro leaves. Both of these task too the entire time the rice cooked which was longer then I expected. After the rice was done I added the peas and left the rice covered for 10 more minutes. During this time I went back to the shrimp and gave them a quick cook in olive oil.



I then removed the cilantro from the rice and added the cilantro leaves. It all served up great and I will defiantly be making it again.

Cupcake Mania Part Two

For the second baking event we got a little more daring for Elizabeth's shower. I picked to bake black and white cupcakes; chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling. They were topped with a gooey chocolate glaze and chocolate curls. Merida worked on the chocolate cupcakes and made the cream cheese filling but before we before we could begin baking we had to get more sugar. Merida ran to her apartment and brought her sugar over and we were good to go.



I chose to small a bowl to make the cream cheese frost and we ended up with a bunch of cream cheese all over the wall!



We used out technique of filling a plastic bag and cutting the end to fill the cupcake tins. We filled them 3/4 full and then spooned in the cream cheese filling. When they baked the cream cheese would sink down into the middle with a chocolate shell all around it.


When the cupcakes started bake the cream cheese frosting did not sink down into the middle as intended but exploded out the top and sides. When we removed the cupcake for the pan we found it difficult and the cupcakes had no top and the chocolate they had around the edge was very fragile that most of them almost broke in half. They cupcakes came out all different sizes as well. We called it quits for the days and I ran to go get ready for the baby bash.

The next day before the shower I had the tack of finishing the cupcakes I need the make the gooey chocolate glaze and the chocolate curls. The chocolate glaze way made warming sweetened condensed milk, semisweet choclate and butter in a small saucepan. Then you stir and stir and stir. The mixture was indeed gooey as billed it had the consistency of Gak. It was very unweldly but perfect for creating a top for the cupcakes and filling in the hole the cream cheese left. After a couple of cupcakes I got pretty good at commanding the gooey glaze to the top of the cupcake.



The chocolate curls were made by using a vegetable peeler on a frozen bar of milk chocolate turned long was. The curls were very delicate and would melt in your hand it you took too long. They made a nice finishing touch.

The cupcake were enjoyed by all as we celebrated Elizabeth and her big day.

Cupcake Mania Part One!

I am excited that I am known for my cupcakes and I think I am getting set up to have a second career and a cupcake baker. In early May there were two big event that required my culinary attention. A "baby-bash", co-ed baby shower, for our good friends Krista and Blake on Saturday and a bridal shower for my co-worker and friend Elizabeth on Sunday For the baby bash a chose to keep it simple because I would be doing a few other things for the party. I picked a simple yellow cupcake and a can of whipped icing. I decorated them with mint chocolate chip and plastic babies.

In order to bake 48 cupcakes for both event, I enlisted the help of my fellow cupcake baker and future business partner, Merida. We baked for two and a half hours straight and finished just in time to head off the the baby bash and have the bridal shower cupcakes in good shape for the next day.



The yellow cupcakes we fairly simple, the normal ingredients. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs,vanilla, ect. The only issue we ran up against was the butter. I usually like to leave it out for a while before I start baking. However. I had just gone to the store and the butter was stone cold hard. As we tried to mix it in it was clumping in a weird way and the cupcake batter looked soupy. We continued to mix and mix and mix. Eventually the batter turned more into a texture that I recognized and we deiced it was finally ok to turn off the miser. Then we filled a plastic bag with the batter cut the end of the bag and pipped the batter into the cupcake tins. It was suppose to make 24 cupcakes but it barely made about 20. With much work we squeezed out enough batter for 22 cupcakes.


We places pink yellow and green mint chips in order to be gender neutral and placed some creepy plastic babies in the middle with their arms reaching up at you. Krista and Blake loved them and it was a great success.

Farmers Casserole

For our last small group meals we made one of my favorite recipes from my Better Homes and Garden Cookbook 12th Edition: Farmer's Casserole. What sounds rather ordinary and might contain potatoes, green bean and some sort of farm animal is actually full of my favorite items from breakfast all rolled into one dish. Farmer's Casserole includes; hash-browns, cheese, Canadian bacon, green onions, eggs and milk.

We double the recipe to make the casserole for 12 people and we began by laying the frozen hash-browns at the bottom of my largest and polka dotted casserole dish , then add the cheese Monterrey Jack or Cheddar or both, ham and onion. Then we pored the 8 beaten eggs and milk over the ingredients. The eggs sunk to the bottom leaving the ham and onions on the top.

Then we baked in for 55 minutes and the with a beach towel, trivets and pot holders we carefully loaded the very heavy and hot casserole in to the back of our car. At small group when ask what was in it, we answered and they then said "no wonder it is so good."

Mahimahi

A couple weeks ago I started to get more adventurous with our cooking once the dust had settled on our life. I looked thought the binder of recipes I have saved from magazine and picked on that caught my eye, Pink Peppercorn Mahimahi with Tropical Salsa from Cooking Light. With a title like that, it left us one option of where to shop, Central Market. Several ingredient were hard to find as expected and some were a surprise. The pink peppercorns were not among the usual array of spices but Brian came to the rescue and checked out the bulk items section. He found the peppercorns and we were shocked at the price. $34.00 a pound but luckily we only needed a few ounces. What was harder to find was fresh pineapple so we settled for canned. Central market did not have lime juice or coconut milk.

I headed to H-E-B the next day to pick them up. The lime juice was easy to find in the fruit section as expected. The coconut milk was still alluding me until I called in my reinforcement, my mom. She knows were anything is in any grocery store and I usually call her once a week. She suggested checking the aisle with other Asian flavors and there it was. I returned home ready to make the dish.

The recipe suggested making the salsa first but I opted to make the coating for the fish first and then make the salsa while the fish was cooking. We would also be paring the fish with broccoflower we picked up from the market.


First I crushed the peppercorns with a mortal and pestle and then mixed it with other ingredients for the breading; panko bread crumbs and chopped macadamia nuts, which I used our mini Cuisinart. Then I needed to mix the ingredients for the liquid that I would soak the fish in and then place it in the breading. I measured out the soy sauce and then opened the coconut milk only to find I had purchased coconut cream instead of milk. It was a solid paste. So after a few choice words, I tried diluting it with regular milk. I whisked the milk with the coconut cream and it was too solid so I added a second addition of milk and got the texture I wanted. I mixed together the soy sauce and coconut milk and then set up the breading process.
I dipped one side of the fish into the liquid and then placed in the breading I then placed the fish crust side down into a pan and cooked it for three minutes which gave it a nice brown color then I cooked it in the oven for 10 minutes to finish the cooking process.

While they were cooking I chopped up the broccoflower and began steaming. Next I made the salsa. I only had 8 minutes to chop the pineapple , red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. I then need to mix in the coconut, line juice and pink peppercorns. The recipe was right I should have made the salsa before I did anything else. It turns out I did well under the gun and was able to finish just as the fish was done. If I had not had a time limit I think i would have taken me 20 minutes.



The dish turned out great and I got Brian's highest complement, "it is a definite make again!"

Jeffery's

Brian's parents visited a couple of weeks ago and took us out to a wonderful restaurant. They are training to be foodies as they are. We went to Jeffery's and had a great dinning experience. http://www.jeffreysofaustin.com/

Brian, Jim and I oppted for the tasting menu with an appitizer, main couse and dessert. We also added the wine paring and had a great time learning about the differnt wines from the sommelier.


Our first course were the fried oysters of two different varieties. The first fied oysters, octavia, were served in normal potatoe chips and tasted just like a baked potaoes with bacon in it. So rich and delicious. The second type of fried oyster,original, tasted much more fresh and were served on a yucca chip with pineapple pieces. The wine paring was a Cheverny. It is a French red wine and was chosen for it's light body to cut the fry and a citrus notes to mix well with the sea food.

Crispy Oysters Split
“Octavia” with Bacon Royale, “Overnight” Tomato Vinaigrette
on house-made Sea Salt Potato Chips & “Original” on Yucca
Chips with Habanero-Honey Aïoli & Pineapple Pico de Gallo

Wine: Cazin Petite Chambord Cheverny, Loire, France

The main course options were filet mignon or scallops . Brian chose the steak and I picked the scallops. Both were wonderful and very flavor full. The steak wine paring was a typical Cabernet which was picked because of its rich body to match the big flavors of the steak. The wine for the scallops was supppse to mimic the texture of scaolpps and cittrus flavor to again match with the seafood. I don't remmebr what tyo eof win eit was but the texture of the wine was very similar to the scallop which was unique and a little weird.


For dessert Brian chose the chocolate and I chose mini beignets, which is a surprise because I usually pick chocolate every time. Brian had a chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and chocolate ice cream. Rich and amazing! I enjoyed the tiny beignets and poured a cream sauce over them. They were so light and fluffy and of course delicious. Both wine pairing for the desserts were ports. The wine to match Brian's chocalte desset was rich and dark to blend well with the chocalte. Mine was a bit lighter to match the fluffy donuts. I found out I like port :)

D e s s e r t
Chocolate Intemperance
Flourless Chocolate Cake with Valrhona
Dark Chocolate Mousse & Double Chocolate Ice Cream
Les Clos de Paulilies Rimage, Banyuls, France
or
Crescent City Beignets
Beignets with Malted Milk Affogato
Warres Otima 10yr Tawny, Portugal

We had such a great time and look forward to learning more about food and wine.

Easter Cupcakes

My mom held a fabulous Easter brunch for our family. My contribution... Cupcakes!

We used a box mix and can icing ... gasp, but we were pressed for time. Mom and I baked the cupcakes and Amy and I iced them. Our creativity came in decorating the top of the cupcakes to look like a bird's nest then put a robin egg candy in the middle. Mom and I toasted the coconut the day before and then Brian and I assimilated the cupcakes as guest arrives. They looked fabulous. :) I could not have done it without the help of my mom, sister, and hubby.

.

Rodeo

We had a great time with my parents at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This was Brian's second rodeo and my 26th! We enjoyed the usual activities; walking around looking at prize animals and watching a cow judging. We also had fun at the carnival. We also enjoyed some fabulous rodeo fair; meat and fried things. Brian had a turkey leg and I a sausage on a stick . We were sitting next to a couple sipping white wine that could not believe what we were eating. They asked, "Is that ediabe?" We said yes, delicious!



To cut the meat we had deep fried Oreos, deep fried Snickers and Chicken Fried bacon. The Oreos sort of melt and become cake like when fried and the Snickers taste just like a Snickers bar with funnel cake around it. The bacon has a unique flavor. It of course taste like bacon but the chicken fried batter gives it a heartier texture and even richer flavor. You can really only eat one piece. Next year we will try the fried key line pie. Rodeo food A+.

Bacon and Eggs for Dinner?

The bloggers have been on hiatus for a while, but we are back and have a lot to catch you up on.

We made spaghetti carbonara for dinner one evening. The title of the of the recipe in Brian's man cook book, Mad Hungry, is what caught my eye, bacon and eggs for dinner.

The meal is self was very easy: cook spaghetti , cook bacon, combine in skillet.

It was all coming together nicely until the last step. Whisk eggs, cheese and pepper together pour over pasta and serve immediately. I had a mini freak-out. Hello, isn't that a great way to get salmonella?

Turns out latent heat from the pasta and bacon cooked the eggs. We of course checked and could see a visible change in the eggs before we dived in. What do you know the recipe was right! The dinner was delicious