Shrimp Cobb Salad & a Product Review

I'm cooking once again from May's edition of Cooking Light.  This one was found in the category of "SuperFast 20 Minute Cooking".   Just between you and me, it may have taken me slightly longer than that. 

My little guy loves shrimp, and my big guy does too, as far as that goes.  So including it a salad just makes sense.  I really liked the dressing that goes along with this, but I would make a little more next time...it didn't really go very far.  

Here's the recipe for you:

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• 4 slices center-cut bacon
• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon whole-grain Dijon mustard
• 1 (10-ounce) package romaine salad
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 cup shredded carrots (about 2 carrots)
• 1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
• 1 ripe peeled avocado, cut into 8 wedges

• 1. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan; cut in half crosswise. Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Increase heat to medium-high. Sprinkle shrimp with paprika and pepper. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shrimp to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt; toss to coat.
• 2. While the shrimp cooks, combine remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, juice, oil, and mustard in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add lettuce; toss to coat.
• 3. Arrange about 1 1/2 cups lettuce mixture on each of 4 plates. Top each serving with about 6 shrimp, 1/2 cup tomatoes, 
• 1/4 cup carrot, 1/4 cup corn, 2 avocado wedges, and 2 bacon pieces.

I also wanted to mention that I was recently given the chance to try Honest Tea's Zero Calorie Passion Fruit Green Tea.

I found this to be totally refreshing and delicious.  It's sweet without being overly sweet and a perfect mid-afternoon pick-me-up.  I love that it's got no calories and it's sweetened with stevia.  My husband and I fought over it shared it.  I will definitely be on the lookout for this in the stores. 

 

Sunday Musings and 3 Day Slaw

Happy Sunday to all of you, I hope you're having a nice Labor Day weekend.

Business first...remember my most recent cookbook giveaway?  The lucky platypus who won is...

  

Scrambled Hen Fruit

Hope to hear from her soon so I can get her winnings out to her! 

I did something kinda crazy lately and did something I usually don't do.  I went and bought a brand new cookbook!  

 That's "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea" by Martha Hall Foose, in case you can't see that little print :)

So here's the deal...I had seen so many references and recipes from this book on many of your blogs out there, I had to check it out myself, and check it out I did.  At the library.  Thinking there would be a handful of recipes I'd want to jot down. But no...I wanted to jot almost everyone (except most of the fishy ones, or ones with turtles or deer; I mean where am I going to get turtle for pete's sake)

So I checked my pay pal account and sure enough I had just enough money that had trickled in from Foodbuzz that I was able to order that bad boy from Wal Mart.  

So now I'm thinking, since I own the thing, maybe I should make a project out of it.  Nothing as strict as the Julie/Julia project.  But maybe just my lazy Sunday project.  Why Sunday?  Because lately when I'm off on Sunday, I've been spending it in the kitchen.  My kiddos spend every Saturday night at grandma's and I have Sunday mornings and most of the afternoon to do with as I will.  (don't worry, I'm not missing church, we do that on Saturday :D)  

So I've made a little badge like so...

and if you see it, it means I've been doing a little Sunday cooking out of my new cookbook.

So after blathering on about it so, I'd better offer up a recipe to make it worth our while.  

We're planning to have the inlaws over tomorrow for ribs and such, so I thought I'd make this slaw for the occasion. 

 My husband despises slaw so I never make it for just us.  Hopefully it's not genetic.  The author promises this will keep well for three or more days.    Although it's nothing really groundbreaking, I love this slaw...it's sweet and tangy, cold and crunchy.  And I love the onion added in there.

1 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp celery seeds

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1 small head green cabbage, shredded

1 small white onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly

1 cup shredded, peeled carrots

In small saucepan over medium heat, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard, celery seeds, and salt.  Bring to a boil stirrings until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from  heat and add the oil.  Cool until just warm to the touch, about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl or resealable food storage bag, combine the cabbage, onion, bell pepper, and carrots.  Pour the warm dressing over the cabbage mixture.  Cover and marinate for 8 hours, refrigerated, or up to three days.  

Asian-Palooza

I know, dumb post title. Just humor me.

Once again I have to put forth the disclaimer that I don't claim to know jack about authenticity of any type of Asian cooking. But I had seen a few recipes around I'd been wanting to try, so here goes! And I have to say that all three of these dishes ranked pretty high on the "easy to prepare" scale.

First up is this Hot and Sour Noodle Salad I saw at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies.

The boy and I really enjoyed it. I was surprised at how much of this he ate considering it's got a bit of spiciness going on. I made mine with regular thin spaghetti and thought it turned out just great. We had ours warm, but I'm sure it will be great cold tomorrow.

I think the fact that the black sesame seeds look like little bugs sitting up there just adds to its charm.

I've always been a fan of the crab rangoon. Just would like it so much more without the crab!

Here they are made to order for people like me.

The filling is nothing more than cream cheese mixed with some crushed garlic.

The recipe is at RecipeZaar.

I'm not sure why this next picture turned out so orange-y. This is even after it was auto-fixed. Oh well.

I saw this Crunchy Romaine Toss at All Recipes.

It's got crunched up ramen noodles in it that you brown in butter with some walnuts...how fun is that!

I personally liked this salad. It actually made me want to eat my broccoli. No one else in the family was too thrilled about it though.

I used one of those bags of chopped romaine and that was just the right size with a small head of broccoli.

Braised Beef Brisket and Cucumber Salad

As promised, here is Tyler Florence's braised beef brisket. Which may or may not be his, incidentally. When I went to the Food Network site to find it, the recipe had been removed. So this one comes from RecipeZaar (click there for recipe) and claims to be his. If it's not, I apologize.

This brisket has a pretty easy prep, and the aroma in the house during it's cooking was a bit maddening.

The recipe instructs you to strain off the veggies and toss them, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Then I wouldn't have had this bowl full of yummy stuff with that fun little half garlic head.

So in the end, how did it compare to PW's brisket? I hate to say it, but hers wins, hands down. This one makes a nice meal, no doubt. But I won't be waking up at 2 a.m. thinking about it, unable to go back to sleep. Maybe hers is better because of the long marinading time, or cooking it low and slow. I dunno, all I know is I big time puffy heart love it!

I've been seeing lots of Ellie Krieger recipes floating around. This cucumber salad is one of them. It was pretty good, maybe a little salty.

I'm not sure if I'm crazy about Ellie overall. I guess she's okay if you like little pixie haircuts on cute pixie faces, perfect skin, and calm demeanors. If you're into all that. Whatever.

Christmas Food Round Up

Hello out there kiddies, hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. I'm still sitting here digesting so I thought I'd post up a few of the yummies we had today.

First up is this Winter Apple Salad based on the one I found at Under the High Chair.

I gave this about a 7 out of 10 for yumminess. It may have been an 8 or 9 if I hadn't burned the pomegranate reduction beyond any point of recognition and had to just skip it.

I used 3 apples in mine instead of just one. I really loved the mixture of tangy with sweet along with the crunch of the pecans. It was a hit with me.

I also had the opportunity to try this lovely cheese from the folks at Beemster.

I'm no cheese expert at all, but I enjoyed the X-O (which stands for extra old) quite a bit. It had a nice mellow flavor.

We also had an Eggnog Custard Pie from Jamie Deen. This concoction has 1/4 cup of rum in it, and for a girl who only occasionally enjoys a watered-down margarita, that packs quite a punch!

I think if the rum were decreased, and maybe prebake the pie crust a bit so it's not quite as soggy, it would be pretty good. I gave this one a 4, mostly based on the looks of finished product.

I saved this one for last because the picture is so crappy, but it was so delicious!

It's a cranberry roasted garlic risotto, and I found this one at recipezaar.

I replaced a little of the chicken broth with white wine, otherwise followed their directions to the letter.

It's so easy, no fussing, just put it together and throw it in the oven. This is one I'll be wanting to make throughout the year. I give it a 9.5, only subtracting 0.5 because I want to eat more of it but can't!

Emeril's Black-Eyed Pea Salad

I've never been a huge black eyed pea fan. I don't hate them, but by themselves they just sort of taste like dirt. Although dirt would be horrible, but I'm just confusing myself.

But I learned at the Dixie Cafe that I really like them in a cold vinegar based salad.

I could go there and order their large marinated black eyed pea salad, eat half the basket of rolls, have some iced tea and be a happy girl.

So when I saw this recipe "Emeril's Potluck", I thought it would be something I would really like. I have to say I wasn't disappointed. The addition of bacon doesn't hurt matters at all. I think the addition of some green beans would be awesome, too, I may try that next time.

Here's Emeril's recipe:

5 cups cooked and drained black eyed peas ** (how to make those below)

4 sliced crisp bacon crumbled, reserve fat

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 cup evoo

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

3 tbsp finely chopped green onion

2 tbsp finely chopped jalapeno

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1 1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp essence of Emeril (I used seasoned salt)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

1. combine peas, bacon, 3 tbsp fat, and all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Toss and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Stir occasionally.

2. all to sit at room temp 30 mins before serving.

**soak 2 cup dried black eyed peas 4 hours. Drain and place in large saucepan. Add water to cover by 2 inches and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and cool.

Barley Salad

Hope everyone has had a nice relaxing Memorial Day. We had a little family get together and grilled various and assorted meats, and I put together this unusual salad to go along with it.

I saw Alton Brown praising all things barley on one of his episodes, and this was one of the dishes he made. He is using "hulled" barley which I couldn't find. I think it is somewhat less processed than the pearl barley that I used.

You have to start with 3 1/2 to 4 cups baked barley. Alton says to combine one cup barley with one tbsp unsalted butter, tsp kosher salt and 2 cups boiling water. Cover very tightly and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Remove cover and fluff with a fork. (apparently this step is very important...don't skip it or he will hunt you down like a dawg!) Picky girl child actually liked this...as is!

The dressing is easy enough. It's 3 tbsp of fresh orange juice with a little kosher salt and 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil. (I think for kicks a splash of some sort of vinegar would be great in there too).

Next combine the barley with: 1 small head of chopped fennel, 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, 1/2 cup grated parmesan, 4 slices crumbled (cooked) bacon, 2 tbsp fresh parsley, and fresh ground black pepper.

Combine it all with the dressing, and refrigerate about 1 hour.

I really enjoyed this dish, and thought it was a nice change from the usual pasta salad. Would definitely try it again!

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans

This week was my MIL's birthday, so in lieu of buying her a present like a normal person, I offered to make her lunch. We had this spinach salad with our lunch that everyone seemed to like.

The salad itself consists of a bag of baby spinach, 2 apples chopped (I used gala) and tossed with a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a cup of chopped celery.

The dressing is a combination of 1/4 cup apple juice, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar , 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, 3/4 cups canola oil, and 2 tablespoons poppyseeds.

When you combine everything together, you'll have leftover dressing.

For the nuts, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/2 teaspoon, garlic salt, 1/8 teaspoons cayenne pepper.

Stir over medium heat about 2 minutes.

Add 2 cups of pecans (or walnuts if you prefer) and stir around over med heat about 4 minutes.

Ooh, an action shot!

After the pecans are removed from the heat, sprinkle them with a tablespoon of sugar so they'll be all sparkly.

These are pretty good just for snacking on by themselves!

Blog Party!

Two yummy foods for the price of one in this post!

I got the chance to get together with a couple of people from work a few days ago for a non-work related visit. I mentioned I'd been wanting to try this scone recipe, and Janice made us a yummy orzo salad, so lunch it was :) Although I was never quite able to nail her down on the recipe I think it went a little something like this one from epicurious (with the addition of some cherry tomatoes, halved): 1 lb orzo 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted 1 1/4 cups feta (6 oz), crumbled 1 cup thinly sliced scallion greens Cook orzo in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender, then drain well in a colander. Whisk together lemon juice, oil, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl, then add hot orzo and toss. Cool orzo, then toss with pine nuts, feta, and scallion greens. Season with salt and pepper. It was quite tasty...I love those pine nuts in there! Next was the apricot orange scones. (oddly enough, I learned that scones are pretty much just biscuits....go figure!) The recipe is from Ina Garten, and the original contained cranberries (which I'm sure would be lovely).

Aren't they cute like buttons? I found the dough really sticky to work with and kept having to add flour, but it seemed to work out okay. I'll definitely want to make these again soon. Monday perhaps!

You can click here for the recipe. I'll have to say I didn't bake mine quite that long (more like 15 minutes) partly because I rolled my dough out a bit thinner, and partly because my oven is possessed by satan.

With the combination of pleasant company, lovely food, and cute babies, I had a really nice afternoon and we're hoping to make this a regular happening.