....is Barbecue Shrimp & Cheddar Grits

I started to write my own intro for this recipe but the book the Barbecue Shrimp came from did a much better job....

Barbecue shrimp, one of the four or five best dishes in all of New Orleans cooking, is completely misnamed. They're neither grilled nor smoked and there's no barbecue sauce. It was created in the mid-1950s at Pascal's Manale Restaurant. 

I know the amount of butter and pepper in this recipe seems fantastic. Be bold. This is not a dish you will eat often - although you will want to.

Serves 4-6. (I may need a new cookbook holder.)

For the Shrimp

Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Food

1-1/2 lb Shrimp, Deveined, Peeled

(Leave the Tails!)

2Tbsp White Wine

1-1/2 tsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

3 Cloves Garlic, Chopped

2 Tbsp Ground Black Pepper

1 tsp Paprika

Pinch of Salt

1-1/2 Cups of Butter

Place Shrimp in a large skillet over medium heat, pour Wine, Lemon Juice, Worcestershire Sauce & Garlic over them. Bring the liquids in the pan to a light boil and cook, turning shrimp over with a spoon every 2 minutes, until all the brown grey color in the shrimp is gone. Don't overcook! At the first moment you think the shrimp might be done, they will be. Turn the heat to low.

Cover the Shrimp completely with a thin layer of Black Pepper. Ad the Paprika & Salt. Cut the butter into tablespoon pieces and distribute over the Shrimp. With a big spoon, turn shrimp over. Agitate the pan as the butter melts over the shrimp and emulsifies into the liquid at the bottom of the pan. When no more solid Butter is visible, remove the pan from heat.

For the Grits

Emeril Lagasse Shrimp and Grits

4 Cups Milk
2 Tbsp Butter
Salt & White pepper
1 Cup Instant Grits
2 oz. White Cheddar Cheese, Grated

In a saucepan, over medium heat, add the milk and butter. Season with salt and white pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil. 

Slowly stir in the grits. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for 5-6 minutes until the grits and tender and creamy, stirring every minute or two to prevent the grits from sticking. 

Add some water during the cooking process if the liquid evaporates to much. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Reseason with salt and white pepper if needed. Set aside and keep warm. 

Lagniappe....a little something extra
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Andouille Sausage, Diced
1/2 Yellow Onion, Diced

In a saute pan, over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the Sausage and render for 2 minutes, set aside. Add the Onion and saute until Caramelized. 

Serve the Grits in a bowl with the Sausage and Onion over the top and Shrimp around the edges. Be sure to have a small bowl to disgard of the shrimp tails as you go. This meal has some kick, the grits help cool it down some but if it's too much you can lessen the pepper (the barbecue shrimp recipe would disagree with me.)

....is Birthday Month Dinners

URGE, American Gastro Pub

The Milk Burger

The Garbage Burger

The Deconstructed Chocolate Stout S'More


Sammy's Woodfire Pizza & Grill

Sun Dried Tomato Pizza and Balsamic Chicken Salad

March Birthday Babies. :)

7:15pm Sunset, I Love Spring.


Eureka! Burger

Fig Marmalade Burger

Lost & Found - Hop Head Red

Chocolate Espresso Souflé Coffee Cup Cake

....is Couscous with Lemon & Sage

I had some frozen peas taking up space in the freezer, a quick search for ideas one what to do with them lead to this recipe. The cooking time was quick, only as long as the time it takes to boil water plus 5 minutes. It was a wonderful dinner, light and delicious.

The Couscous
2 Cups Broth
1/2 tsp Salt
1Tbsp Butter
1 Box Plain Couscous (about 5 servings)
1 Cup Peas

The Mixings
3 Tbsp Brown Butter
10 Sage Leaves
Salt & Pepper

In medium saucepan, bring broth, salt, butter to a boil. Stir in couscous, peas & cover. Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes.

In the mean time, Zest and Juice Lemon and set aside. Rinse and finely chop the Sage leaves, brown the Butter and as it turns a caramel color add Sage. This should bubble a little, remove from the heat as it calms down. Fluff couscous and peas, mixing in Browned Butter, Sage, Lemon Zest & Lemon Juice, Salt & Pepper.

....is Apple Walnut Crumb Cake, for Breakfast

This morning I'm over at The Breakfast Hub with this delicious recipe for Apple Walnut Crumb Cake.
It's an almost healthy sweet treat to start your day!!

....is St. Patrick's Day Guinness Brisket

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Ok....so it's a little belated but I hope you had a good one. Here's the meal I put together to get into the holiday spirit. I served it with Irish Soda Bread, a Guinness & a Little Stout Cake for dessert! Considering I took the bits and pieces of about half a dozen recipes to come up with what I wanted I'm pretty happy with it how it turned out. I have one note on the Sweet Potatoes below but other than that: pure deliciousness.

Ingredients

1 Beef Brisket, (2-1/2 lbs), Trimmed
2 Onions, Coarsely Chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, Sliced
1 Cup (or more!) Guinness Stout Beer
6 Red Potatoes, Cut in 6-8 Pieces
2-1/2 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Sweet Potatoes, Quartered & Coarsely Chopped
3 Heads of Baby Bok Choy

Brisket Rub

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

4 Sprigs Fresh Thyme

2 Sprigs Fresh Rosemary

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Honey

1 tsp All-Spice
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 

Prepare brisket by trimming the surface fat known as silver-skin. Combine fresh seasonings with Brown Sugar, Honey & All Spice. Pour Olive Oil onto brisket and season first with Salt and Pepper. Rub meat in  seasoning mix.

Drizzle Olive Oil into preheated Dutch Oven. Brown both sides of the meat, about 3 minutes per side. (Watch out for smoke! One side of my Brisket got a little more blackened than I would have liked).  If you need to add more Oil to prevent burning, do so. Remove the meat.

Add the Onion to begin deglazing. Once Onions soften slightly, about 3 minutes, add garlic. Continue to stir, taking care nothing is sticking to the bottom. Pour in Guinness, continue stirring, this should loosen most of the brown caramelized bits off the pan. Add Red Potatoes, Brisket and pour Broth half way up the Meat. Cover the pot and place in the oven, braising for 1 -1/2 hours.

Remove from oven, lift Meat to add sweet potatoes,* return beef to the dutch oven opposite side down. Braise an additional 1 hour, or until fork tender. (If your piece of meat is larger, you might have to braise longer, but you may need to add a little more broth if it is low. Meat should be falling-apart tender.

*I added the Sweet Potatoes at the same time as the Red Potatoes and they all but disintegrated. I don't think they need nearly as long to cook so I would recommend adding the halfway thru. The Red Potatoes held up fine.

Little Brother came home for Spring Break just in time for dinner!! I think he did that on purpose.

....is Apple Walnut Crumb Cake

Adapted from My Father's Daughter Spiced Apple Crumb Muffins

A friend of mine is vegan and it's incredibly hard for her to find baked goods that don't contain some form of butter, milk or eggs. I made it a goal to try and find recipes that were both delicious and vegan. (My first attempt at this was Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread followed by Phanouropita Cake and both were great!) I made this Crumb Cake for the first time this weekend, it was wonderful hot (I could hardly wait for it to cool!), I liked it the next morning cold and it was amazing reheated with ice cream for dessert. What is a good name of Breakfast for Dessert? Breakssert? Dessfast? ....it's a work in progress.

....is Irish Soda Toast?

Really just Irish Soda Bread the next day for lunch toasted with Gouda. I also put Tomatoes with Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper on top of the melted Cheese. It's the super simple and delicious recipe at PBS Fresh Taste. It went really well with the Guinness Brisket I made on St. Patrick's Day (post to follow).

4 Cups Flour
1/3 Cup Old Fashioned Oats {plus more for sprinkling}
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
4 Tbsp Cold Butter, cut into small chunks
1 ½ tsp Salt
1 ¾ Cups Well-Shaken Buttermilk
1 Egg, Lightly Beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together the Flour, Oats, Baking Soda, Sugar and Salt. 

Cut the Butter into the dry ingredients. (See my tip on cutting butter on the breakfast hub!)
Combine the lightly beaten egg with the buttermilk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix.

Cut an “x” in the center of the loaf with a knife and sprinkle oats on top.

Bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

....is my 201st Post & my 1st Giveaway

My little blog turned 2 years old this month! And this is my, 201st post. I decided to celebrate with a giveaway, my first giveaway. Eeek. I'll send the winner, selected at random, these lovely earrings from Peachtree Lane. You may recognize them from my March Favorites post. They're perfect for spring and they could be yours!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

....is Blackened Salmon & Cajun Green Beans

From one of our favorite chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli.

This is what happens when the Salmon at the grocery store looks wonderful and I ask my boyfriend 'how should we cook this?'. The results were delicious. It was also a super fast meal to make and it disappeared even quicker.

....is Orecchiette & Broccolini

This recipe is a collaborative effort from my architecture friend's visit. Since they came to San Diego in November we've remade it about a dozen times. Orecchiette is my new favorite pasta! It's suction cup shape holds a bit of the yummy broth, which also makes it prone to sticking to the side of the pot. It can be altered with infinite options, pick your favorite green, pick your favorite sausage, toss it together and enjoy.

1lb Orecchiette Pasta
4 Chicken & Apple Sausages, Sliced
1/2 Onion, Diced
1 bunch Broccolini
1/4 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes (Optional)
1/3 Cup Dry White Wine
1/2 Cup Chicken Broth, More as Needed
Salt & Pepper

In a large pot cook Orecchiette Pasta al dente. In a separate pan brown Sausage and set aside.

Saute Onion until golden. Deglaze pan with Dry White Wine and cook off the alcohol. Add Chicken Broth, Broccolini & cover.

When Broccolini is steamed return Sausage to the pan, add Pasta and stir to incorporate the flavors. Salt & Pepper to taste.

....is a Few Favorites, March TwentyThirteen

I took a little trip to Kansas at the beginning of the month, my brother is a freshman and we picked his birthday weekend to go out and visit. The trip also included a Jayhawks Basketball game at the Phog (Rock Chalk!), snow, and a couple walks down Massachusetts Street. 

The Dusty Bookshelf.

I could spend hours in here searching the shelves and petting the adorable cat in the arm chair.

 I love both the flowers and the Java Break Coffee shop they're from. There's something so pretty about flowers in the winter.

Peach Tree Lane

I don't own a pair of these yet, but they're on my list. I find them absolutely charming.

Nomads Boutique

Here's the biggest souvenir I've ever brought back on a plane from anywhere. It was found in an unlikely clothing boutique. I had to take out all the drawers and put them in a box and wrap the shelf part in brown paper in order to stay under the weight limits. It took a lot of soapy water and paper towels to clean it up. I'll have another post on the mini base we built for it. :)

The iOttie Sprinkle

Right before my trip I dropped and cracked my phone, I like my lightweight case but it didn't do enough to protect it. I did a little research and this case has more protection without the bulk, it's reviews were equal to the otter box commuter.

World Market Hobnail Ramekins

It's not that I neeeeeed these, I have ramekins, they match my dishes, they're lovely. These are just so darling and Easterly.

The latest city mugs, I bought the California one as a gift for my brother, it's bright and happy and will help keep him warm thru the Kansas winter. I guess they can only be found in stores (or airports) because I couldn't find a link for them.

Time to go ganache a stout cake  and figure out exactly how I want to cook my brisket.

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!