My bridal shower was this past Saturday, and one of the (many) delicious things my mom made was shrimp cocktail. Even though there were only 23 guests, she bought about 100 lbs. of shrimp. Needless to say, there were leftovers. Leftovers which turned into delicious Thai curry noodles with shrimp!
Recipe after jump…
I love baked things. I especially love baked things with browned, bubbly cheese and crispy corners. I do not love that when you boil store-bought gnocchi, it becomes and soggy mess. The solution? Bake the gnocchi in liquid-y sauce. The baking cooks them through without making them mushy. AND there’s melted cheese all over the top.
I am not Irish. I don’t have freckles across my nose or Guinness in my blood, tasty as it sounds. But, the Times’ Dining section featured Irish Soda bread last week that you cook in a skillet so that “the top and bottom crusts become crunchy and browned.” I’m a sucker for all things crunchy and browned, especially when it’s bread, and especially when it’s fresh from the oven.
I’ve only ever had soda bread once — in the metal trailer that was my elementary school’s cafeteria, on one of those “multi-cultural” days where kids get their parents to cook something “ethnic” for show and tell. And on that day, soda bread was paired with fried rice, fried plantains and far too many sweets. I honestly don’t remember a thing about it, except that I thought it was yucky.
The soda bread from the Times was anything but yucky. In fact, it was like a dinner-time coffee cake, bursting with sweet (the golden raisins) and savory (the fennel seeds) bits. The top and bottom were indeed crunchy, and the inside both moist and crumbly. Very yummy, and along with some soup on a lazy Friday night, a perfect meal.
Recipe after the jump.
There’s nothing better than having breakfast for dinner. Or, dinner for breakfast. Honestly, what’s better than a cold slice of pizza at 7AM? Do we feel a bit rebellious eating waffles with syrup when we should be eating steamed fish and veggies? I don’t know, but yesterday when the meal I started making quickly went into the garbage (due to some funky sausages), breakfast was the only thing my growling tummy had the patience wait for. (Yes, I am aware that I should not be ending my sentence with a preposition, but there it is.)
Back to breakfast. I had been trying to make potato pancakes, but the attachment on the food processor wasn’t being very cooperative. Mondays are the worst. Seeing as I had already massacred the potatoes, I decided to make my version of patatas bravas, or Spanish-style home fries.
I finished chopping up the potatoes and an onion and threw them into a hot pan with some olive oil. After they had begun to brown, or stick, as the case may be, I added some tomato paste, water, salt, pepper and some read chili flakes. I covered the pot and let them simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the taters were tender.
In the meantime, I whipped up my frittata. In keeping with my Iberian theme, I used some Linguica sausage, along with some non-Iberian torn basil leaves and ricotta.
recipe after the jump.
Yesterday I tried to make red velvet cupcakes with mascarpone/cream cheese icing. I say that I tried, and I guess one could say that I succeeded because I did, in fact, produce cupcakes. But they weren’t what I wanted. The cake was too greasy, the icing not stiff enough. Everything was just so eh, when red velvet cupcakes should be anything but eh. Red velvet cupcakes should be everything but eh. But, eh they were. And my faith in nytimes.com recipes in somewhat diminished. I’ll try again at some point — with less oil in the cake batter, less whipped cream in the icing.
On a side note - do you know how much food coloring a red velvet cake requires? NINE (that’s 9!) little bottles. Am I the only one that finds that absurd? Granted, the 1 bottle I used barely changed the color of the cupcakes, resulting a slightly reddish brown hue. But, still, nine is ridiculous.
Discouraged from sweets, I’ll soon try baking a cheddar jalepeno bread that’s in this month’s Gourmet. Hopefully, with better results.
So, I was supposed to be keeping this blog updated more often. But, I haven’t. Work is crazy, wedding stuff is its own full-time job. Thankfully, the planning will soon be over and I can get back to lounging on the beach, cycling and cooking on weekends. I seriously, seriously cannot wait. Not to mention the 2 weeks in Hawaii.
Since I’m a slacker, I’m posting my recipe for fancy Valentine’s Day pizza now…almost an entire month later. I’m not a huge fan of going out on Valentine’s Day. The crowds, the parking, the fixed price aphrodisiac menus designed to impress the newly coupled…It’s just not fun.
Keeping to tradition, I made Tom homemade pizza. This time, it was whole wheat crust, with chicken sausage, artichoke hearts, fresh mozzarella and sage. First, I brushed the dough with some truffle oil (yes, I own truffle oil). Then I piled on the rest of the ingredients and ground a LOT of fresh black pepper over the top. The earthiness of the sage and the truffle oil were perfect with the meaty sausage and fresh artichokes.
And I didn’t have to wash one dish. True love, indeed.
recipe after the jump
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