March 30th - Mardi Gras - Cook: Patrick

I knew I was going to have a busy Tuesday as I had scheduled a beautification session with my hairdresser.   Not sure how it happened but I left with a full head of my natural hair color.  Due to the fact that I was going to be a little short on cooking time, I needed recipes that would be fairly quick to prepare but still very flavorful.  I decided upon a salad, pasta and dessert.

The Menu:

Protein Plus (Salad) 

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Linguine

Frozen Raspberry Whip with Strawberries (This will link you to a historical blog that contains the recipe- This was delicious and very easy to make - so I had to repeat the recipe)

The salad recipe was from a cook book that Toffer purchased for me called Super Salads.  There are a bunch of salad recipes in here that have various benefits from healing to mood boosters.   

Protein Plus Salad:

Ingredients:

300g Cottage Cheese

Ground Pepper

1 Stalk of Celery - thinly chopped

1/2 Green Pepper - Cubed

10 Radishes - Quartered

100g of Walnut pieces

Directions:

Pour Cottage Cheese into a bowl.  Add pepper to taste, celery, green pepper, radishes.  Mix to combine.  Sprinkle with walnuts.

This salad was quite tasty and filling.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo with Linguine - From Cooks Illustrated:
If you don't have The New Best Recipe cookbook from Cooks Illustrated, you truly must get a copy.  None of these recipes have ever failed me.

Serves 4 to 6 - so you know I had to double the recipe. 

One teaspoon of red pepper flakes will give the sauce a little kick, but add more to suit your taste.

Ingredients

1 pound medium-large shrimp (preferably 31 to 35 count), peeled (and deveined, if desired), preferably Gulf or Mexican Whites

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or more, to taste)

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons table salt

1/4 cup Cognac or brandy

4 tablespoons minced garlic (about 12 medium or 8 large cloves)

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup medium-dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

1 pound linguine or spaghetti

Instructions

1. Bring 4 quarts water to rolling boil, covered, in large Dutch oven or stockpot.

2. While water is heating, heat 12-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, toss shrimp, half of red pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in medium bowl. Add shrimp to skillet and quickly spread in single layer; cook, without stirring, until bottoms of shrimp turn spotty brown, about 30 seconds. Off heat, stir to turn shrimp, and add cognac; let stand off heat until cognac warms slightly, about 5 seconds, and return pan to high heat. Wave lit match over skillet until cognac ignites; shake skillet until flames subside, transfer shrimp to medium bowl, and set aside.

3. Off heat, cool now-empty skillet 2 minutes; return to burner and reduce heat to low. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil and 3 tablespoons garlic; cook, stirring constantly, until garlic foams and is sticky and straw-colored, 7 to 10 minutes. Add remaining red pepper flakes, 3/4 teaspoon salt, sugar, tomatoes, and wine; increase heat to medium-high, and simmer until thickened and fragrant, about 8 minutes. Stir in reserved shrimp and accumulated juices, remaining 1 tablespoon garlic, and parsley and simmer until shrimp have heated through, about 1 minute longer. Off heat, stir in remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.

4. While sauce simmers, add linguine or spaghetti and remaining 1 tablespoon salt to boiling water, stir to separate pasta, cover, and cook until al dente; reserve 1/3 cup pasta cooking water and drain pasta. Transfer drained pasta back to now-empty Dutch oven or stockpot; add about 1/2 cup sauce (without shrimp) and 2 to 3 tablespoons reserved pasta cooking water; toss to coat. Divide pasta among warm serving bowls, top with a portion of sauce and shrimp, and serve immediately.

Julie is always such a sweetheart; she always calls to find out if the cook for the evening needs anything.  I'm usually quite diligent with my list but this time I happened to forget to purchase some fresh bread!  It cost a whole $2.00 but the loaf was a nice and needed touch to serve with dinner!  Carbs - Schmarbs!

We watched the Biggest Loser as always.  Darn it!  Red Girl is back!  Hate her!  Get rid of her!  However, I must give her credit were credit is due.  She's the only one there playing the game.  She had voted to get rid of Sam when they had the chance, all the other idiots voted off someone that would never have been a threat to winning the grand prize!  DUH!  Most o' dem Americans are sure smart!

Thank GOD for PVR's.  We managed to watch 2 hours of idol in about 30 minutes.  Fast forward through the crap singers that should never have even made the top 100 (Not a typo).  Heck, if Jude was a younger American woman and auditioned, they would have loved her unique voice and she'd probably be in the top 10. 

JULIE - YOU OWE US RECIPES!

Jude is making dinner next week!  I sure hope she takes Monday off and surprises us with something wonderful.

Have a Safe and Happy Easter Weekend!  Drive safely!

March 16th - Mardi Gras Taco Night - Shoppers Dan & Toffer

Well... sometimes things happen and you are so overwhelmingly busy, you end up not having time to plan for Mardi Gras Dinner!  Our poor chef Julie had to cater her mother's 40th (with 30 years experience) party this weekend and unfortunately this took up all her prep time for our group!

Julie sheepishsly sent out an email on Tuesday indicating she could make pasta or we could cancel with a heavy emphasis on the CANCEL! We all know how much Julie loves to plan, prep and cook  for the group and who are we to deprive her of one of her guilty pleasures.  She has more, but this is not an adult content blog, so we'll leave those out!  I read between the lines and made a recommendation that we have a TACO NIGHT and start the rotational schedule next week with Julie!  The overwhelming response was a yes, and Dan and Toff gathered up the required ingredients to make it happen.  Julie was happy with this as she will get to satisfy her urge to cook for us next week! Let's hope her 7 course meal is worth the wait!

Taco Night is so much fun! We each take turns prepping in the kitchen! I prepped the ground beef and the shells, Toffer prepped the cheese (He was a little gassy!) and salad, Julie prepped the lettuce, tomatoes and jalapeño peppers, Dan prepped the sour cream and the plates.

Once everything was laid out, the feeding frenzy began!  We were like Piranhas being presented an injured feeder goldfish! When we got a taste of our savoury tacos, we just kept on eating and eating!  Poor Toffer had to stop stuffing his face so he could catch his breath!  Julie added that eating Tacos is like eating Chinese food, you get filled up but moments later, you want more!  Julie also has a secret technique she uses to camouflage the number of tacos she actually eats in one sitting!  Combining a soft shelled taco and a hard shell taco, both with fillings in them does not make it only one Taco!  It has to count as at least 1.5 Tacos!  I think I ate about 5 Tacos, Dan must of had a similar number.  I would guesstimate Toff at 6 and Julie won the prize.  She ate 17 tacos!  Just kidding, she most likely hovered at 5 as well!  We had to stop ourselves from devouring the remainder of the soft shells as Jude was working late and she would have missed out on having any tacos! 

Upon Jude's arrival, she sat at the table, tablespoon in hand and just shovelled spoonful after spoonful of ground beef mixture into her mouth.... You would have thought she was on Survivor for 29 days and just won a reward challenge!  We were all in disbelief!  Thank god she was amongst friends and no one will ever find out about her table manners! I repeat NO ONE!

We watched The Biggest Loser!  Come on Black Team, a 5 pound advantage and you lose the weigh in!  Really!  You guys got way to cocky in the gym and did not put in the required effort to stay above the yellow line!  This even motivated the Blue team to work harder. This was clearly evident by the weight loss Blue team put up on the scale!  The blew the Black Team out of the water!  I sure hope we are approaching Make Over week soon!  Some of these contestants could really use one!

American Idol - All the guys suck with the exception of probably 2 of them!  The girls are way better and there are a few of us that have picked out favorites!  I'm thinking Shiobhan will go far in the contest!  Most likely final two with Crystal!  These two have talent and are unique!  Don't get it wrong this year America!

Till next week!

March 9th. Mardi Gras Cook - Dan the Man!

Hi Everyone - My apologies for the delays in updating the blog.  Some of the chefs are a little slow on sending in their recipes!  Not to point any fingers but Jude and Julie - You know who you are!  Yesterday was Dan's turn to cook.  I'm pretty sure he did not spend hours contemplating his menu selections like I usually do.  He most likely pondered what would be quick and delicious and decided upon a BBQ'd Steak Dinner.  The methodology behind his menu choices is that we just recently purchased a brand new puppy! 

He's a male Chinese Crested.  We named him Tico and he just turned 3 months old today.  What a great little addition to our home!  He's friendly and absolutely adorable! 

The Menu:
Rib Eye Steaks
Rice
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Cookies & Cream Cake
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

No need to elaborate on any of the recipes!  Dan zipped out on Tuesday to Cumbrae's to purchase some fantastic Rib Eye Steaks and hit other local shops for the remainder of his items!  You should have seen the size of these slabs of meat!  The carnivores were out in full force at Mardi Gras!   Dan barbecued the steaks as the weather is finally becoming more like spring. All other menu items were simply prepared in the traditional manner.  It was rather quiet as we all gnawed away at the Rib Eyes.  Don't get me wrong here, the steaks were cooked to perfection - They were HUGE and one needed to take the time to savor every morsel! 

Tico was also a great source of entertainment as he just loved everyone and would bounce from person to person spreading love!

Can someone please explain why the Biggest Loser always has to be a 2 hour production!  Yesterday's episode was pathetically overdone!  Did we really need to spend that much time seeing the contestants going to work and was all that product placement a true necessity?  Enough with the filler already... this is almost just as bad as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol!  Let the contestants do what they need to do and go to the vote!

Next week is Julie's turn to cook!  She's going to be extremely busy this weekend with her mother and the family gathering so we are not 100% sure what Julie will conjure up as her menu.  It may simply be some comfort food!  Can you say Shepherd's pie......