Shrimp...

I have been eating a lot of seafood lately!  So I needed to get creative and find some new recipes to try...Pinterest!?  I do love Pinterest...but I will say it is just like any other cookbook, food blog, etc.  sometimes you find a big hit and sometimes a flop.  Here are a few of my favorite finds...

Eat & Relish - Honey Chipotle Shrimp Skewers with Avocado Greek Yogurt Sauce

 This was my try at it - so yummy! Definitely a keeper.

 Melanie Makes...Rosemary Citrus Shrimp Tacos

Melanie Makes Blog

 I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but closely...we love shrimp tacos.

 This is one of our favorite stand-by recipes (well more of a dinner creation)...Sauteed Shrimp with tomato and basil and mixed greens with strawberries, walnuts, and balsamic dressing.

Shrimp...

Rinse and dry (pat dry with paper towels) 1 lb of peeled, deveined shrimp.  In a skillet heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Saute 1/2 medium onion - diced, until translucent.  Add two cloves of garlic pressed.  Add shrimp and saute until opaque - time varies but shouldn't take more than 3-5 minutes.  Watch for the color change and remove immediately.

Add 1 cup of cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half lengthwise to the skillet, add salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes begin to release juice.  At this point add about 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil and the cooked shrimp back to the pan.  Toss gently to mix together.  At this point we sometimes add crumbled feta.  Serve over pearl couscous or other pasta.

Easy Balsamic dressing....

1/2 cup Olive Oil

1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tablespoons honey

Pinch of salt

Whisk together well.  If you like a creamier version add 1 tablespoon mayonnaise. 

Crabcakes, my Favorite!

They really are! But I am pretty selective about them...I prefer the ones that are almost all crabmeat and if I had to select a style it would be the Maryland Crabcakes that I enjoy the most. For years I only ate them when we went out or traveling, but over the last few years I just make my own.

I have had a lot of trial and error because I couldn't find a recipe that tasted like I wanted it to. So finally after several recipes I decided it was time I tried to create my own. Which isn't really my own ~ I took the flavors and consistency I liked from various recipes and combined it into one.

Now I know there are two kinds of people out there...those who are thinking what took you so long, I never use a recipe and those who are thinking WHAT! ? No recipe. So I will say I narrowed it down to two recipes that I liked best. 

Inspiration...

Once Upon a Chef; Maryland Crabcakes

Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) Crab Cakes

Martha Stewart Crab Cakes

Mine...

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 2-1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
• 1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup finely diced celery, from one stalk
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3 Green Onions chopped (finely, not minced but small)
• 1 small red pepper chopped (finely, not minced but small)
• 1 pound lump crab meat 
• 1/2 cup panko
• Olive oil, for cooking

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Combine the egg, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, onion, red pepper, and parsley in a large bowl and mix well. Add the crab meat and panko; gently fold mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat. Shape into 6 crab cakes (I use an ice cream scoop - I get same size and they are sticky so this works nicely) and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (this is really important because the crab cakes are mostly crabmeat, not much filler to hold them together).
3. Preheat a large nonstick pan to medium heat and coat with Olive oil (spray oil works too). When oil is hot, place crab cakes in pan and cook until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes per side. 

Serve immediately with tartar sauce, a squeeze of lemon, or my favorite Tabasco Sauce.

Cheese, Lovely Cheese...

My newest interest is making homemade cheese.  Well actually I have been playing around with making cheese for about a year now, but I decided it was time I get serious and bump up my game.  

So today I am making Chevre cheese.  Not that this is a difficult cheese to make, on the contrary it is quite simple.  It takes about 12 - 18 hours for the curds to set up.  So no pictures at this point.  

However I do want to share a few resources I found helpful:

Available on Amazon

This book is , shall I say, amazing.  I am fairly new to this adventure and I have to say this book is so complete that it makes even myself feel very confident I can do this.  Now I am still in the easy cheese section of the book, but am moving onto the intermediate next week when I can acquire some local ingredients I want to use.

As for the Chevre cheese - the recipe in the book is straight forward and simple.  However, I do like to see the process and the pictures in the book, although lovely are sparse for my needs.  I found this series of videos on YouTube and found it very helpful. 

Be sure to watch part 2 and part 3 before starting.

Happy cheese making!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I think my love of Strawberry Rhubarb pie began about 15 years ago on a family trip to Maine.  It was a great trip, and can I tell you those ladies in Maine know how to make amazing pies.  As luck would have it many of them sold pies from there kitchen.  So as we drove through the various towns and saw "Homemade Pies For Sale" we stopped.

Interestingly enough just after I posted about the Plant City strawberries, my sister-in-law gave me a new cookbook, and sure enough - it had a recipe for a Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  I could hardly wait to try it out. Now this is different from the Strawberry Rhubarb pie of my memory, but I optimistically gave it a whirl.

I think the pie turned out wonderful.  Better yet, it was very easy to make.

Here's the adapted recipe:

Stir together: 1 1/2 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 3 eggs - lightly beaten

Gently fold in 2 cups of sliced strawberries and 2 cups of chopped rhubarb.

Pour mixture into an uncooked pie shell

(You can use whatever pie crust you like.  I like Martha Stewart's Pie crust recipe, but I will admit with this I just used Pillsbury Pie Crust.)

For the top of the pie, mix together 1/2 c flour, 1/4 c sugar

Then cut in 1/3 c butter until crumbly

Sprinkle over top of pie.

Bake in the center of a 400 degree oven for 55 minutes.  Check crust at 30 minutes and cover if necessary.

Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting to allow the pie to set up.

Buttermilk Biscuits

I have to start out by saying that bread is one of my favorite things to eat.  I’m not sure if it is the texture, the warmth, the nostalgic feelings it evokes, or just the fact that I can eat butter or clotted cream with it.  I love bread – all sorts.  Over the years I have made various types of bread that I have come to be very happy with the outcome of, some that I used to make well, but not so much anymore, and others that still elude me.  I will try my hardest to share some of the things I’ve learned along the way, as well as recipes and techniques.  I will also be sure to tell you when I have found a great bakery!

Let’s start with biscuits!  Why biscuits you say – well I am a southern girl after all and my mother makes amazing biscuits.  But, like many good southern cooks – she puts a little of this, a dab of that, and a scant of something else.  No recipe, just by touch.  She made them so often that she knew how the dough should feel and she could make them blindfolded.  Me, well I will admit, I could not get the hang of it. 

I needed a recipe.  Actually I tried several recipes over the years with little success.  Well little success for what I was looking for.  I like a biscuit that is light and fluffy, but not doughy.  And I like the outside to be a bit crunchy, but not dry.  I tend to prefer a bigger (higher rising biscuit) as well.  You know just the perfect biscuit.  (Those of you from the South will understand this.) I must admit that a good friend of mine who I consider to be an exceptional bread maker shared her recipe for biscuits with me.  It was a Martha Stewart recipe that I had had for some time, but never tried.  Now I know some of you may be saying “Oh, Martha…”, but I’m telling you that woman knows just about everything, and if she doesn’t she knows where to find out.  So I will confess proudly that I have several of her cookbooks.

Below is the recipe taken from the webpage Martha Stewart Recipes where she also has a video demonstration of making the biscuits:

This buttermilk biscuit recipe comes from "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook"

• Yield Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk, plus more for brushing

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few large clumps remaining.
   
2. Pour in the buttermilk; using a rubber spatula, fold buttermilk into the dough, working in all directions and incorporating crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, until the dough just comes together. The dough will be slightly sticky; do not overmix.
   
3. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured fingers, gently pat the dough into a round about 1 inch thick, pressing in any loose bits. Do not overwork the dough. Use a floured 2 1/4-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits as close together as possible. (Use one cut edge as the edge for the next biscuit.)
   
4. Place the biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart on an unlined baking sheet. Generously brush the tops of biscuits with buttermilk. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until the biscuits are golden and flecked with brown spots, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack to cool.

This is a picture of the Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits I made this afternoon.  Use the recipe above and after you cut in the butter, add 3 cups shredded cheese.  Then finish out the recipe as above.

These are drop biscuits vs. cut biscuits.  To do that, instead of patting out the dough and cutting it with the biscuit cutter, use two large spoons.  One to scoop out a heaping spoonful and the other to push the dough off the spoon onto the baking sheet.