That's how I roll!- Shrimp Spring Rolls

This is my combination of my favorite Vietnamese restaurant's spring rolls and the ones you would buy at a sushi counter. Not fried, lots of colorful veggies, shrimp (I hate imitation crab!) and served with hoisin sauce with chopped peanuts! 

 ** These are so good my allergic-to-avocado-brother coughed, gasped, and sputtered through a half dozen before taking a break to let his airways open again! HA HA!

Ingredients

A sharp mandoline is a $10 piece of heaven in this recipe!!

• Rice wrappers
• Romaine Lettuce
• Shrimp
• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Red Cabbage (or Napa if you prefer) 
• Avocado
• Cilantro
• Bean Sprouts
• Jalapeno (The big mean one in the picture is a cayenne)
• Hoisin Sauce

Doing It

1. Using a knife, mandoline, veggie peeler, etc... get all the veggies you are using into small strips or shaved slices.
2. Cook shrimp (if needed and let cool) 
3. Rehydrate rice wrapper by passing it under the faucet for 1-3 seconds a side then lay it on a plate or cutting board. It WILL soften up! You probably aren't going to listen and soak it or something but don't be silly! Or be silly... they are cheap so go ahead and experiment! 
4. Lay a layer of lettuce, the spring roll is basically a bound together lettuce wrap!
5. I lay my flattest stuff first, just small bits of each layering the shrimp and avocado last. 
6. Roll the spring roll "subway sandwich style" Rolling one have over the spring roll, holding it tightly while you fold the sides in and then finish rolling until it is wrapped. 
7. Let sit a few minutes then cut in half at a slight diagonal! 
8. Serve with Hoisin! 

Notes

• People go crazy for these! I like to pour the hoisin in a bowl and serve the rolls all around on a plate. (See first picture) I made them for my nieces 1st birthday (yeah my family rolls like that!) and people still talk about them! 
• Practice Practice Practice!!!! No matter how many times I've done these my first one looks HORRIBLE! So I eat it right away!
• Most of this recipes time is prep. Buying shredded veggies and already cooked shrimp cuts your time in half!
• You can add or subtract anything you want!



Not my proudest examples but they look great after cutting!

• The avocado gets a little squishy.. the first time I bit into one with extra avocado I got a little weirded out by the texture! 

Ohhhh soooo nice! - Red Beans and Rice

*This is Roman, our 7 month old Berner. He's plotting how to get his paws on some awesome red beans and rice!


This is a pretty mild recipe (We had a few PANSIES at dinner)


The Oh So Nice Ingredients
1 lb Red Beans
14 oz pack smoked sausage *or Andouille links if you can find them!!! I couldn't :( *
1 lb of ham steak with bone and fat left on!!
**Bones from a roast with fat left on
2 medium onions chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
1 Fresh jalapeno  
1/4 cup beer
2 can beef broth
2 cans diced tomatos
2 bay leaves
2-3 cloves garlic diced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 cayenne or more

2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 salt
2-3 tbsp fine chopped onion
1 1/2 cups rice
3 cups water
 
Doing it!

1. Check beans for pebbles and sticks (not joking.. it happens.. very painful to bite a rock!!)
2. Pour beans into a large pot with at least 6 cups of water, Bring to a hard boil for 10-15 minutes and let simmer 1 hour. After an hour add to the crock pot
3. In a seperate pan add cubed ham, and sausage (I cut my sausage on a diagonal for maximum browning surface area) start to brown.
4. Chop onion, celery and 'pena and add to meat. If the meat begins to stick us beer to loosen from the pan.
5. When thoroughly browned add to a large crock pot and use beer to get all the stuck bits off the bottom of the pan then add to the crock with bones, tomatoes, broth, garlic, thyme, bay, pepper and cayenne.
6. Let cook in the crock pot on high for 10-14 hours 
7. Heat olive oil, salt and onion in a pan. Add rice, constantly stirring until the rice gains some color. Add water, bring to a boil, turn to low and cover for 15 minutes.
8. Serve beans over rice with tabasco close! Maybe some fried okra, corn bread, blackend shimp or fish, or salads!

** I had made a loin-end roast weeks ago, cut all the meat off, wrapped it up and stuck it in the freezer with bits of meat and fat left on it. Makes a HUGE difference but you could use hocks or bacon or my favorite get a cheep pack of neck bones and rub them with olive oil and salt, put them under the broiler until you get some brown or fat sizzling then add to your crock pot.

• Notes!!! 
• If you want it milder take the seeds and veins from the jalapeno.
• Spending the extra $0.50 on better beans is totally worth it. You will have less odd ball crunchy beans if none at all.
• The beer I used was a strong IPA. But unless its a stout I don't ever notice a difference in the end product with different beers (Stout would be AWESOME in this though!)  
• Really flexable recipe.. I've used left over smoked pork in it... no jalapeno and no ham... Its a great dish you can adjust for what you have. 
• If you like to add okra or sour cream to top things those would be great!

Mish-Mash: To Many Limes!!!

• So we had a bunch of vodka drinkers over (my people!) so I bought lots of limes, lemons, tonic and club soda, etc... NO ONE USED ANY LIMES!!!  
• I needed a dessert for a FRG Potluck so I googled lime cookies... found LOTS of amazing recipes and couldn't decide between a shortbread with glaze, standard 'tollhouse base' with lime and basil, and a cornmeal cookie. COULDN'T DECIDE!!! So I mish mashed them!! 
• Heaven resulted.  Great texture, no crunchy corn feel just more crumbly and soft at the same time! The basil isn't a huge part its just a refreshing hint of flavor that people probably won't be able to put their finger on! My favorite kind of flavor: SNEAKY!

Citrus-Basil Cornmeal Cookies

Cookie
1 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c cornmeal (I used Indian Head Stone Ground its pretty fine ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted BUTTER (REAL BUTTER)
1 c sugar
2 tbsp lime zest (2-3 limes required!)
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (My eggs were fresh and really big so you might add an extra tbsp of egg to get exact results)
3 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime zest
1/2 cup lemon/lime juice (whatever you scrape up)



Doing it:

1. Wake up in the morning and set out our butter and eggs so they are room temp ;) or put them in your pocket :D
2. Preheat oven to 350
3. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt 
4. In a separate bowl (*cough* stand-mixer *cough cough*) Combine BUTTER and sugar. 5-8 minutes (Until "fluffy" but not in a "that dog is really fluffy kinda way... just til it changes texture!)
5. Add zest, basil, vanilla, juice, eggs. Blend until just together.
6. Pour in flour mixture in 3-4 segments
   waiting til blended 
7. Scoop in 1in balls 2-3inch apart on parchment.
8. With wet fingers or a spoon spread out the mixture slightly
9. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are just brown.
10. Mix powdered sugar, zest and juice well.
11. Spoon glaze on to cookies. I like a half a spoonful and then a quick smear with the back of the spoon so its more completely covered. And to avoid little wells of glaze! 
12. Let sit 45-60 minutes to set glaze.  

Hints and such:

• Most houses in Northern NY don't have AC. INCLUDING ME!!! So it was pretty warm in the house.. by the last batch my dough was weapy... I don't recommend it
• Next time I make these I will probably use Almond Extract (Just because I love Almond and Lime together!)
• I'm a heavy glazer. Its a problem. But most of my glaze ended up under the rack.. 
• I don't have a zzzzzester at the moment due to a fatal dishwasher accident, scraping the limes with the points of a cheap serrated steak knife works fabulous!
• Yields 36 small cookies... or I ended up with 36... counting casualties and dough loss I would say close to 42-45 cookies :D I like cookie dough :D

SAY YOU LOVE CREPES!!!!!!!!

I DO LOVE CREPES!!!
 Little bit-o-pop culture...

Any-who...

Camera still MIA ... But my wonderful boyfriend lent me his.. Whose battery then promtly died and I forgot to get the charger from him... and he lives in New York... and I'm in Kansas...

SO STILL NO CAMERA!! BAAAHH!!

Sitting at home, I've got tons of homework, reading, cleaning, and emailing I need to do...

I've already worked out and ran... the internet is starting to bore me.... I don't have tv... I AM KINDA HUNGRY THOUGH!

Well not anything to eat will do; I want something chocolatey and decadent!

AND AND AND- I'll eat it with my cup of coffee and that will justify spending the time to make it... You know.. cause I need coffee to stay up to get all this stuff done.

YEAHH! That sounds right... Chocolate crepes with Cream Cheese and ChocoChip Filling... WOO!

Also they are ALLLMOST Fat Free and Mucho Delicioso



Crepe Recipe-
Egg Substitute
Flour
Cocoa Powder
Sugar
Milk

Filling-
1.5 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese (FFCC) (Use Philidelphia when using FF because the cheap stuff is grainy, sticky and weird)
1.5 tsp sugar
1 tsp milk
2 drops Vanilla
Mini milk chocolate chips

How to-
Combine crepe ingredients and mix REALLY WELL. Use a mini chopper, milk frother, or combine dry ingredients then slowly add the wet to prevent clumps and globs. They make your crepe gritty crunchy and ugly... CLUMPS ARE BAD!!! Pour batter into a greased or buttered pan. (I actually have a crepe pan and I rarely use it... even when making crepes. Its a waste of cabinet space) Cook on Medium-Medium low until solid.

Mix sugar into the cream cheese well THEN add the milk. (The milk disolving the sugar thats already mixed into the cream cheese helps things go together easier than stirring milk into FFCC which makes a gloppy mess... liking creaming butter and sugar right?). Add vanilla and chocolate chips!

Fill the crepe while in the pan. Loosen the edges of the crepe allllllll the way around and fold and roll til out of the pan and on a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar to make it pretty and to make yourself happy!!!

Warning: Acorn EXPERIMENT in progress!!!

Acorn Squish Pancakes
So my thoughts were.... I like potato pancakes I wonder if the same can be done for one of my new favorite friends the acorn squish!



Cooking with the Scientific Method!!- Cause I'm a big science dork!

Question- Can my acorn squash be made into an amazing pancake like creature??
Background/Research- Squish is delicious... and I like pancakes, and I know how to make latkes and potato cakes...
-Most squishes have a decent amount of starch, it should hold well together.
Hypothosis-If I add enough flour and eggs to my cooked and mashed squish it will hold together in a hot pan and will taste delicious!
Experiment-

1. Microwave squish til tender and come out of skin uncovered to release moisture
2. Mash squish and grate onion into the mash
3. Add 3/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup egg beater
4. Add salt, garlic powder, and nutmeg.
5. Heat a pan rubbed with OO
6. Glop (Glop is a technical term of course) a spoonful or two and spread it out to make it round
7. Wait til the Glop firms up and starts to brown
8. Flip and plate
9. EAT

Anaylsis- Great gold color, Smells great, Tasty, not as firm in the middle as I'd like though. Consistancy is really lacking and is still kinda fibrious and stringy.
Flavor 7.5/10, Consistancy 5/10 Apperence 8/10 Smell 8.5/10= Overall 7.25/10
Results/Suggestions- Squish needs more cooking to pull the liquid out and needs to be put in a food processor with the onion to get the consistancy right.

What?! My acorn squish pancakes/fritters didn't turn out bad but not great.... hmmm...

So I had a conversation with myself...

• HOW TO MAKE THEM GREAT?!?!?
• Top them with SHRIMP!!!
• (Shrimp can be 'not bad but great' still... How to make the shrimp great!??!!)
• Add hot sauces!!!
• ... K... but even tasty RedHot and Cholula don't make things GREAT... they are good... but would you really say GREAT??? hmm?
• Ohhhh screw it!! Add garlic and butter... anything is GREAT soaked in garlic and butter...
• Yup... that will work

Soooo I gave a few garlic cloves a rough smash and chop and cooked it in a pan with water* and RedHot til soft. Then tossed in a bunch of shrimp and butter for flavor! Let the sauce cook down and the shrimp get pink and firm.

 * This method has alot of flavor without have the extreme amount of butter that other scampi like methods have!

Baconed, Fish and Chicks

Tooooo good not to share!

My camera is on vacation right now... I went to see my parents and it decided to stay with them! Or I left it on accident...

Tonight playing in the kitchen I made some awesome fish and chicks! Chick Peas that is! I love when I dump things together recipe comes out sooo well!

Bad phone picture... sad sad sad ... cause it was AWESOME

Baconed Fish and Chicks
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 can chick peas/garbanzo beans
1/2 can diced tomatoes in juice
1 tbsp Real Bacon Bits
3-5 oz tilapia or other white fish
Thyme, salt, garlic, butter

Rub down a small baking dish with OO. Drain your chick peas and add them, add undrained  tomatoes, bacon and a sprinkle of spices. Mix well.
Add your tilapia or other white fish on top and put it in the oven at 375 til the fish breaks easily.

I like to wait til the fish is almost done then rub the top of it with butter for extra flavor!

Tale of 2 Thighs!

If you ask someone what their favorite part of the chicken is I bet they say a breast, thigh, wing, or leg. BUT THEY ARE LYING!!!!

Most people enjoy the skin the most they just don't want to think about it. Why do we love on the bone fried chicken? Cause its a piece of chicken with the skin dolled up with flour and fried! Good roast chicken? Cause its been cooked til the skin is crispy and melted its fatty flavor into the meat. Same thing goes for the perfect bird at Thanksgiving no matter if he is fried, roasted, or smoked.

Two recipes I love to make that utilize the fatty, skin covered, dark meat of my all-so-loved chicken quarter!

Roast Chicken, Peachy-Keen and Black Bean

Chop half an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and half a really ripe peach and add it in to a olive oil rubbed baking dish lined with foil or a ceramic dish like my treasured Le Creuset bakeware. Black beans cook up wonderfully but they back on and stick horribly.

Add in a whole can of black beans and a 1/3 cup of chicken broth. Rub your chicken thigh down with EVOO, salt, pepper, thyme, and a little cayenne if you want some heat.

I never time how long to bake things since I rarely make things exactly the same every time. I also use what ever cut of meat I have on hand and that can make things tricky. I have a cheap (yet reliable ) meat thermometer that I trust. I cook this dish til the chicken skin is thin and crispy and juices run clear. 

The flavor the chicken gives the black beans is wonderful! I had this with a favorite Oklahoma Red Wheat beer! 

If you wanted to make this a dish for two just throw another quarter in there and make a light side. There is enough black beans for two people.

Butter-Nut-Squish Your Chicken!

I love butternut squash! In the grocery store they are seriously expensive but worth it. At a farmers market I usually get them for less than .75 cents a pound which is dollars below the super markets. BETTER yet sometimes my dad will grow them then I get all I want!

Butternuts can be hard and slippery and a pain in the @$$ to peel but there is an 'easy' way that works pretty well.

Use a veggie peeler to peel the whole thing then cut it in half seperating the long part from the ball part at the end. Then cut those pieces in half the long way. Use a spoon to scrape the seeds out of the ball part just like you would a pumpkin on Halloween.

Cube your entire butternut, quarter a medium onion, and put on an oiled, RIMED, pan or cookie sheet with a chicken quarter or two. The bigger and more chicken the more flavor.

Bake at 375-400 depending on if you have a hot oven or if you like to play with it alot. If you're patient 375 should work just fine. If you're like me ... turn it to 400 and check on it and stir at least once.

Butternut roasted with chicken is wonderful by itself with no help but it can also be turned into a wonderful soup just as easy.

SOUP
You can chop your onions or pull them out if you don't like big chunks. But i like big chunks! Some squash might look burnt and the onions might look a little fried but with so much fat and carbs they are really just caramelized into wonderful food!

Wait til your chicken cools til you can handle it. Then, pull the meat and put it in a pot with the squash and onions.

Add chicken broth and squish your squash until its the right consistency of soup you like. If you like traditional butternut squash soup, put the whole lot in a blender and add broth til a desired consistency appears. I LIKE IT CHUNKY!!! This soup is wonderful just like it is BUT for a tastebud shocker or to really impress people add a half a tsp of cumin and a squeeze of lime and its a whole different ball game. Just as wonderful though.