Shrimp Remoulade

A few years ago, a friend gave me some homemade tarragon vinegar. In my search for recipes that called for it, I found this one for shrimp remoulade. I don’t know where I got it, so I can’t give credit where it’s due, sorry!

Remoulade sauce has many, many variations, and while the Louisiana kind can be either oil- or mayonnaise-based, it usually has paprika. It is most often served with shrimp, but it also works with crab cakes, fried green tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, or fish.

For me, this simple cold shrimp salad is the perfect summer dinner. And though I make my own tarragon vinegar now, I’ve seen it in the grocery store, so you don’t have to!

Shrimp Remoulade

2 TB Creole (brown) mustard, preferably Zatarain’s

1 TB paprika

1/2 tst cayenne

2 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c tarragon vinegar

1/2 c olive oil

3/4 c chopped scallions, including 2-3 inches of the green tops

1/4 c minced celery

1/4 c chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 pounds raw medium shrimp

romaine lettuce

Sauce:

Whisk together the mustard, paprika, cayenne and salt in a deep bowl

Beat in the vinegar

Whisking constantly, pour the oil in a slow, thin stream and beat until smooth and thick

Add the scallions, celery, and parsley and mix well

Cover and let rest at room temperature for at least 4 hours

Shrimp:

Shell and devein the shrimp

Rinse under cold water

Bring 2 quarts of water to a simmer in a large pot (add a little salt if you want)

Drop the shrimp in the water and cook uncovered for 3-5 minutes until pink and firm

Drain, let cool, then chill the shrimp until ready to serve

Assemble:

Mound the torn lettuce on individual plates

Arrange the shrimp on top, spoon some sauce on top and serve immediately

I use about 2-4 TB sauce for each salad, so you will probably have some left over. I like to let the leftovers come to room temperature before using.

Sewing Some Simple A-line Skirts With Zippers

I bought all the fabric I used SO long ago, and this summer all these skirts have been in heavy rotation.

I used an out of print pattern: Burda 8879. My friend had already cut it out, so I had to trace and modify it to my own measurements. Once I got that down, I was able to sew them up quickly.

Now I’ve been loosing some weight, so I need to rip the seams and take them in a few inches. That will involve reinstalling the  side zipper, but I’ll do it (happily) one day while I watch a movie or something.

Chai Spice Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing and Candied Almonds

I’ve been meaning to make carrot cupcakes for so long, but when I got those chai spices for a gift, it seemed like the time was NOW.

The chai spices are meant to be added to black tea. The mix has black pepper, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. If no one hands you a bag all mixed up, you could mix them yourself to your own liking. I used 2 TB total, so if I were mixing, I’d use 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ground cardamom, 1.5 tsp ginger and .5 tsp cloves. I’d probably add a dash of black pepper.

I like my carrot cake without some of the usual things like raisins, pineapple or nuts in the cake itself, so I based my recipe on this one from Paula Deen.

Chai Spice Carrot Cupcakes

2 c flour

2 c sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 TB chai spices or 2 TB combined total of cinnamon, ground cardamom, ginger and cloves

1 tsp salt

4 eggs

1.5 c vegetable oil

3 c grated carrots

1.5 chopped pecans, optional

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients

Add eggs and oil, and blend with a hand mixer until combined.

Stir in carrots and nuts, if using.

Line cupcake tins with paper liners, then fill almost to the top of the liner. Leave about  .25″, as they will rise when baking, then sink back down as they cool. I can’t remember how many I made! Sorry. At least 12, I can say that.

Bake at 375 for 20 min. Cool completely before icing.

I used the same cream cheese icing I used for my red velvet cupcakes. Instead of vanilla, I added .5 tsp almond extract to go with the candied almonds I was putting on top.

Oh! And I shouldn’t be excited about this, but I had my first big recipe experiment fail! I tried making ginger cream cheese icing with ginger simple syrup, but the ginger flavor was not coming through at all. The icing was getting watery, so I tried adding some ground ginger, but that didn’t help. I could feel a bit of heat on my tongue, but no flavor.

I want to try another time with fresh grated ginger. I was also thinking that the cream cheese flavor may have been overpowering the ginger, so I would try a simple buttercream. But like I said before, I don’t do a ton of improvising when I cook, so I felt kind of adventurous to have tried something that simply did not work. It may not make sense to be glad about it, but it felt like a happy first for me.

Now on to the candied almonds.

I used this recipe and they were so easy. I almost didn’t make them, but they were so good that I know I will make them again. I had a ton left over, but they went fast when I took them to work.

I was glad I read some of the comments or I think I would have taken them off the heat too soon. It starts out like this, just nuts in thick syrup, simmering away.

And you wait and stir until the sugar coating on the almonds gets so dried out it has some white color. Once it’s to that stage, you spread them out on a baking sheet and separate any stuck-together ones.

They pretty much come out of the pot looking like that. Yum. I put some in a sealed plastic bag and pounded on them with a meat pounder. After the cupcakes were iced, I dipped the tops into a bowl of the crushed almonds. I added all those cinnamon-y sugar crystals to the bowl, too.

Adam said they were the best cupcakes he ever had in his life, and not as a figure of speech, but really the best cupcakes ever. So there you go!

I’m Excited About: We Live to Eat! Restaurant Week

This is the first year of this event, and it takes place Sept. 12-18. I’ve spent a good part of today looking at menus, and I have three restaurants I’d like to visit. Well, really, there are more, but I think three reasonable for one week.

The participating restaurants are offering $20 two course lunches and $35 three course dinners. On a bit of a tangent, I love fixed price menus! Not so much on a day like Valentine’s day, where you aren’t going to get the best food or the best value, but at other times, I love them.

With a fixed price menu, I feel compelled to order the most interesting offerings. And I sort of like being confined to just a couple choices, usually ones that I may not have considered if I was ordering from the full menu. I’m a sucker for a steak, man, what can I say? It’s hard for me to resist ordering a big hunk of beef.

And, continuing along this tangent, I have to just say that MiLa’s $20 three course fixed price lunch is the greatest deal in town. I still think about the coconut panna cotta with roasted strawberries  and mint oil I had there once. Ah! And I would have never ordered that if it were next to a chocolate dessert. I’m a sucker for chocolate, too, you see.

OK, so back to Restaurant Week and where I’d like to go. First is Restaurant August. They don’t have a menu posted, but I have never been and I’d really like to go.

Second is Cafe Adelaide. I already know I want the duck tasso-arugula flatbread and the charred sage brined pork.

Third is Mike’s on the Avenue, which I confess I didn’t even really know about before my menu perusal. But their lunch menu looks great, and bonus! The lunch is three courses as well as the dinner!

What I’ve really got to have there is the lilikoi cheesecake, which is a passion fruit cheesecake. Oh, yes, please, thanks. I’m sorta koo koo for passionfruit, and you just don’t see it used much without mixing it with other tropical fruits. I really prefer it on its own. I found their recipe for this dessert online, and while I’d love to make it, I’d like to try it at the restaurant first.

So I’ve got to start making some reservations! I feel so lucky to live in a city with such great restaurants, and an event like this is a great time to try some new places.

I’m Excited About: Prioritizing, Spilled Milk, Pile o’ Fabric

1. I realize I spend too much time doing little errands and tasks, like going to the grocery store for just a few things. It isn’t very efficient, so I’m trying to be more organized. I want to pick one day each week to do most of the cleaning and make one big weekly trip to the store. That way I can focus on working on bigger projects, and I think it’s going to help me get more done! Yay.

2. I’ve been loving the podcast Spilled Milk. It’s about food, and it’s silly and funny.

3. I ordered some half yards of solid fabric to use for zippered bags and other projects. And yes, I washed and folded them and then stacked them in a rainbow. It makes me so happy to look at that pretty little stack. Brody liked it too.

Panzanella

The idea of a bread salad always sounded good to me, but the reality was soggy bread. Not so yummy.

A recipe from July 2011′s Cook’s Illustrated sounded great, and dealt with the whole mush factor by cubing and toasting the bread before throwing it in with everything else. So, on the bad side, you gotta heat up your kitchen a bit, but on the good side, this panzanella is so delicious.

I wanted to do the classic bread, tomato, olive oil, fresh mozzarella and basil thing…in part because my basil plants are OUT OF CONTROL and I already have a bunch of pesto in the freezer. So I followed their basic recipe but used what I had instead.

Panzanella

Toss 6 cups of cubed baugette in 2 TB olive oil and then toast it on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Chop 2 large tomatoes and drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving the liquid.

Whisk together 1-2 TB balsamic or red wine vinegar, 2-4 TB olive oil and the reserved tomato juice. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the cooled bread and toss to coat. Let stand for 10 min or so.

Add the chopped tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and chopped fresh basil. Eat it up!

This was the best right after I made it, but still good the next day for lunch. And if you are lucky, a little kitty will help you with your leftover baugette.

I gotta say that I get so happily geeked out over Cooks Illustrated! Adam made fun of how it’s written, but I love their scientific approach to cooking, and everything I’ve made has been worth making again. Their lemon bars kill all other lemon bars.

Sparkly Fabric Cuff

Anything shiny, glittery or sparkly makes me so happy.

I’ve had these assorted color, hot fix Swarovski crystals around forever and I just could not figure out what to do with them because they felt so special to me. Because I’m a goof like that. But I finally decided to do something, anything, so I can just look at them all the time, giving me a shot of happiness. So much better than staying in my craft stash. Sheesh.

This project also get me to use the pearly snap inserter I’ve had for awhile.

I love the plain muslin with the crystals. I’ve got some more cuff ideas a-brewin’…

Hollygrove Produce Box

I’m a pretty recipe-driven cook as opposed to an improvisational cook. I give myself credit for being able to pick good recipes, to tweak recipes, or to combine recipes. And while I’m not a picky eater in the sense that I don’t like a lot of foods, I do have strong preferences of how I like dishes or what I like paired together.

I’m OK with that, and I’m usually happy with what I make, but I’d like to move a little bit towards the improvisational end. Be a little more creative, a little more seasonal.

I always thought that getting a produce box would not only get me high quality produce, but would nudge me into some new combinations or new foods. And this week’s Hollygrove Market and Farm box looked so great, I finally bought one!

Peaches, tomatoes, limes, green peppers, eggplant, lima beans, sunflower sprouts, Cajun grain rice, button mushrooms and chanterelle mushrooms! Yum! I like all that stuff.

I’m trying to keep things fairly simple, so last night I sauteed both kinds of mushrooms and made a mushroom and swiss omlette. No hot oven! I was so hungry and tired after work, I didn’t take a picture. Nom.

I’m Excited About: Quotes, a Tiny Bag, the Beach

1. A few New Yorker magazines ago, there was an article about Jaron Lanier, a kind of technology guru-guy. I really liked some of his ideas, and they’ve been popping into my head now and then.

He said, “The thing about technology is that it’s made the world of information ever more dominant, and there’s so much loss in that. It really does feel as if we’ve sworn allegiance to a dwarf world rather than to a giant world.”

And the article goes on to say that Lanier “complains that technology has taken over our lives but that it has not given us enough back in return. In place of a banquet, we’ve been given a vending machine.”

Now, on my days off, I like to wake up slowly. I make a cup of coffee and fool around online for at least an hour and often longer. I watch some TV or movies pretty much everyday online, too. And I’m happy with all that, for the most part. I like all that stuff and I don’t feel the need to give it up.

On the other hand, I have been working on making things in a more regular way, and I’ve been getting so much satisfaction from that! I just want to keep making sure that I balance out what I consider passive things with active things. A vacation from my laptop…I don’t know about that. Maybe someday it would be a good experiment.

2. Oh, the zippered bags! They never stop! I made this small one with a 4″ zipper for my earbuds. I used some of my favorite vintage barkcloth.

3. I’m also excited that Adam and I took a day trip to the beach in Mississippi. It feels so good to get a change of scenery! And sadly, some of my summers have gone by without a single one, even though you can get there in about an hour. They may not be the greatest beaches in the world, but geez. It’s still the beach!

Shelby Lee loves to go swim, dig in the sand, stalk birds, etc. She entertains me. And my sun umbrella is one of the best things I’ve ever purchased.

Beaucoup Bags

I’ve been working on more zippered bags!

I started by cutting a bunch out. I have tried a rotary cutter before, but never really got the hang of it until now. And now I love it and want a much bigger cutting mat so I could cut without having to rotate the mat or the fabric! New tools: gateway to more, bigger, better tools. Yup.

And the work might look done, but I still need to close the inner seam with hand stitching. I’m going to watch a silly movie and finish them tonight! That is the plan. My other plan of baking this week kind of fell to the wayside, so I could at least get these ten bags done.