Wow, this soup is so tasty!  This is the second time around making this soup. But, this time, I used the whole garlic cloves the recipe calls for.  You can adapt the garlic to as much or as little as you want depending on how much you love garlic!  This has become my hubby’s favorite soup, which is great considering it is so easy to make.

Ingredients

• 10 garlic cloves
• 1 lb of peeled uncooked shrimp
• 2 pinches of cumin
• 2 pinches of paprika
• 6 cups free range chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of cooking oil
• 4 slices of thick sliced french bread
• 2 tbsp of chopped parsley (garnish, optional)
• salt and pepper

So, put 1/4 cup of cooking oil into a large skillet over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic cloves into the oil.  (An easy way to remove the paper from the cloves is to twist it between your fingers as if you are giving it an indian burn.  It loosens the paper.)  Add some salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes.  Flip the cloves to brown each side.  After each side is brown, remove from pan and set aside.

Place the pieces of thick sliced french bread into the pan over the oil.  (I noticed that I needed to add a little oil to the pan in order to brown both sides of the bread.)  Once the bread has browned to your taste, flip and brown the other side.  Remove from pan and set aside.

Add the 6 cups of free-range chicken broth to the pan along with the 2 pinches of cumin and 2 pinches of paprika and give it a couple of stirs over medium-high heat.

Once the broth has just started to boil, add the 1lb of uncooked shelled shrimp into the broth and cook until they are completely pink.  This will hardly take any time as shrimp cook pretty fast.

Dish up into bowls, add the browned bread and garnish with chopped parsley.  Bon appetit!

Thank you to Serious Eats and Mark Bittman for the recipe.

…test your food IQ with Michael Pollan tomorrow on Oprah.  It is a MUST WATCH!  I love this guy.  He has written some AMAZING info about foods that you should and should NOT eat!   I have read some great articles he has written and was lucky enough to watch his video “Botany of Desire” on PBS.

Here are some links to check him out.

• The Botany of Desire
• Food Rules
• Michael Pollan

Let me know what you think!

Tonight I made my husband mushroom risotto.  It was very delish!  Of course, I changed a couple of things.  What can I say? I like to use ingredients that I already have. I used 2 cups of beef broth and 6 cups of chicken broth.  There was already an open container of beef broth in the fridge so why not?  Also, I misread the directions and only got 8oz of mushrooms instead of 1lb, and I didn’t get the dried mushrooms.  I know they would have been fabulous in the risotto, though.

The mushroom risotto recipe I used was adapted from Tyler Florence into a ‘Healthy & Delicious’ recipe.

Mushroom Risotto

- makes 4 to 6 servings -
Adapted from Tyler Florence.

Ingredients

8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, diced and divided
2 garlic cloves, minced and divided
1lb mushrooms
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoons dried thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2/3 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the chicken broth on medium heat and keep warm.

2. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil over medium heat and add 1/2 of the diced onion and 1/2 of the minced garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes or until they are soft and translucent. Add the butter, mushrooms and herbs and saute until the mushrooms are browned and almost completely cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.  Let cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Season again with salt and pepper and set to the side.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat and sauté the left over onion and garlic in a large Dutch oven until they are soft and translucent.

Add the rice and stir until each grain has been coated with oil and is a little translucent. Add the wine and cook until it is almost completely absorbed.

5. Add 1 cup of the broth that has been keeping warm  into the rice and cook until it’s all absorbed.  Stir often.  Repeat this step until rice is tender.  It should take about 25 to 40 minutes.

6. When the rice is tender, stir in mushroom mix, stir in cheese and continue cooking until melted. 

I was talking to a friend on the phone when she mentioned that she had recently had some soup that was so delicious.  It was made from beets, carrots and a can of coconut milk.  So simple but she didn’t have a recipe.  Her friend had made it for her so she couldn’t exactly tell me the recipe.  So here is my attempt at it.  We felt that the soup was missing the savory part so if you make this at home or even have an idea from reading what it could be, leave me a comment!

1. Take 3 red beets and cut the scaly part of the skin off and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Cut 2 carrots into 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Heat 2 Tbs butter in a large saucepan.
4. Throw in the carrot and beet mix and stir occasionally.
5. Once the carrots and beets are soft enough to cut in half with a fork, pour the contents of the saucepan into your blender.  Add about  1  1/2 C water and the can of coconut milk. (if this willnot all fit in your blender, add the coconut milk to the soup pan for later)
6. Blend the ingredients all together and liquify!  It may be a small challenge but you can do it!
7. Once you have liquified the beets and carrots, pour them into the soup pan and heat it up.  Salt to taste.

I went grocery shopping the other night (about 11pm) .  I wouldn’t suggest it if you can help it.  It was exhausting and did not have enough brain power to put some dinners for the week together in my head.  Anyway, while strolling along the meat aisle I found beef heart.  I thought to myself, “Hmm… Matt said he liked the beef heart he had at his favorite restaurant Andina, maybe I should give this a try.”  And so I did.  After searching and searching for the right recipe I finally picked one out.  But like usual, I gave it my own touch.  I fully expected to try it and let my husband have the rest of the meat all to himself but I was pleasantly surprised.

1. Rinse the heart and remove any fat and arteries then cut in 1/2″ thick slices
2. Dredge the slices in flour.
3. Heat the butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat then add the slices and brown each side for 45 seconds.
4. Stir in the onion, beef broth and red wine.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour.  Bon Appetite!

Ok, so first of all, this was my ‘accidental’ version of the Beef Heart Braised in Wine recipe.  Once you check out the link for the real recipe, you might laugh.  I had looked at so many recipes that I forgot what this one needed.  When I turned heat down to low to simmer I found that I had missed the carrots and potatoes.  And I just noticed that I also missed the thyme!  LOL  Guess that is what happens when you are cooking too many things at once!  I put the beef broth and red wine in shortly after I had started to simmer the meat.  Even with all the missing ingredients it came out very tasty!  I ate all my portion and my husband repeatedly made sure I knew how tasty it was.  Even better?  I paid about $2.40 for the meat.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Her name is Buttercup!  :D

*The lovely Buttercup*

Ok, I have wanted a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for a long, long, long time!  As long as I can remember!  Do I bake?  No!  But that is because I haven’t had a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer!

While we were in Cannon Beach over the weekend, I told Matt I wanted to stop by the Outlet Mall in Seaside to see the Kitchen Connection store.  While I was in their oooing and aawwwing over the beautiful mixers, I saw a sign that stated the mixers were refurbished.

refurbish [riːˈfɜːbɪʃ]vb

We were in Cannon Beach, Oregon for the weekend and couldn’t wait to have pizza at Fultano’s. I so love their pizza.  We make a point to stop by their each time we stay.  The day before we left, I told my friend that we would be stopping at Fultano’s.  She was jealous since she loves their pizza too!

While we were in Cannon Beach, we met up with a friend of Matt’s who suggested that we go to Pizza a’ Fetta.  ”It is a hundred times better!” he claimed.  Well, my question is, what makes that pizza better than this pizza?  It is always interesting to me to hear of other people’s ‘favorite’ pizza place.  My husband like more of a homemade style New York pizza.  The crust is thin, there isn’t a ton of sauce…well there just isn’t a ton of anything.  There is just enough.  His favorite pizza place is Apizza Scholls here in Portland.  What makes Fultano’s my favorite?  I LOVE their crust!!!  It is a crispy, flaky crust with cornmeal. I also love that their pepperoni pizza is loaded with pepperoni.  They use just enough sauce that I don’t notice it much and the cheese doesn’t take over the pizza (although I do love a lot of cheese on the right pizza).  It is also a bit nostalgic for me as well.  I grew up in Rainier, Oregon.  A pretty small town with only one pizza place and it was called Luigi’s.  They had the same crust.  The next town over they had a Pietro’s where they also had this crispy, flaky cornmeal crust.  It is a real treat to me when I am able to have it.

So…What makes a pizza for you?  Is it the crust?  Do you like extra sauce?  Or is it the crispy edges of the pepperoni?  Please comment!  I would love to hear from you!  Tell us your favorite pizza place, where it is, and what is it that makes them your most favorite pizza?

When I was a kid, I can remember my mom making chicken and dumplings.  They were so good!  Well, I decided that I would try making it myself.

I roasted a turkey breast for lunch meat, carved it and then threw the carcass in a pot with about 8 cups of water.  Boil the water and the carcass until it has condensed down to about half.  Add another 4 cups of water and turn the carcass over.  Bring to a boil again.  Keep it boiling for another 30 minutes.  Scrape at the meat on the bones.  It should fall off easily.  Start removing the bones from the soup.

Add 3 pinches of sage and thyme, 5 pinches of rosemary, 1 bay leaf split in half and salt and pepper to taste.  When you have 15 minutes left, you can make the dumplings to drop in to the soup.  They will take 10 minutes to cook.  So… I was going to make these dumplings from scratch… but…my 4 month old was not having it!  Bisquick just happens to have a dumpling recipe on the box so I have to admit, I used bisquick.  You want a small mixing bowl.  Add 2 cups of bisquick into the bowl along with 2/3 cup of milk.  Once you have mixed this together, drop chucks of dough into the soup.  Do not cover.  Cook for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Tonight I made rosemary pork chops.  Sooo yummy!  This is another one of our favorites and a simple recipe.  You are going to need some rosemary, salt and pepper, cooking oil, and pork chops.  For the salad you need a package of baby spring mix salad, some chevre (goat cheese), red grapes, red onion, and red wine vinegar.

Ok,  it’s pork chop time!

Heat your large frying pan on medium heat.

Take your pork chops, place them on a plate and pat them dry with a paper towel.  Weird?  Yah, but thanks to Julie Child, I have found that they brown better when the meat is dry!  Put 2 tbs cooking oil in the pan.  If you can get the oil to crack by adding a drop of water, then the pan is hot enough to put the chops in.  I put the bone side in the middle of the pan because it tends to take longer to cook the meat around it.  When you have the pork chops in the pan, sprinkle salt, pepper and rosemary on top of the them.  Cook each side

of the chops for approximately 4 minutes.  If you are unsure that they are done, cut a slice into the middle to check for pinkness.  Cook for another minute if it is still pink.  Place on the plate and bon appetite!

Now it’s time for my most favorite salad!

Take a red onion and make about 5 paper thin slices across the onion.  The slices should makecircles of onion but I won’t tell anyone if you don’t get circles out of it.  Put the slices in a sandwich size ziplock bag.  Put about 1/2 of red wine vinegar into the ziplock bag.  Squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can.  This will be your red wine marinated onions.  You will want to be marinating them while your pork chops cook (approx. 20-30 minutes)

Next, take about 15 red grapes (that’s should be enough for 2 salads) and after rinsing, slice each one in half.  After adding your baby spring mix salad to your bowl, add the grapes.  Now when you bought your chevre, you either decided on the chevre crumbles or the package of solid chevre.  If you bought the solid chevre, take a fork and slide it back and forth over the cheese.  This will crumble the cheese over your salad.  Add as much as you want.  I love a lot of it on my salad.  If you got the crumbled chevre, just go ahead and throw some on your salad.  

Ok, now time to drain the marinating onion.  But before you do so, you will need a cup or small bowl.  Pour the red wine vinegar from the ziplock bag of onion into the small bowl or cup.  Now, take the onion out and disperse it among the salads.  With the red wine vinegar in the cup, we want to pour some of that across your salad.  This will be your salad dressing so don’t pour too much.  Now pour about 1 tsp of olive oil over your salad.  All done!!  Now go enjoy your dinner!

• pork chops
• cooking oil
• salt and pepper
• rosemary
• baby spring mix salad
• 15 grapes
• 1/2 red onion
• chevre
• red wine vinegar

Tonight I am making shrimp tacos.  One of my favorites.  It is sooo simple, so yummy and pretty quick to make.

Take 1lb of  shrimp and peel the shells off.  I usually get the 16/20 shrimp.  Once you have taken the shells off, rinse the shrimp.  I think this helps to get pieces of shell that I missed off of the shrimp.  It is no fun eating the shell.

Heat a small skillet medium/medium high heat with 1tbs oil.  Drain the shrimp and place into the pan.  Add a pinch or two or salt and some pepper and just 1 pinch of cumin.  If you like spicy you can add a couple of pinches of cayenne pepper or some red pepper flakes.

Stir the shrimp around to fully cook them and to mix in the seasoning.  As soon as the shrimp are completely pink they are fully cooked.  Be careful not to over cook the shrimp or they can be rubbery.

While the shrimp cook, cut about 2 cups or 2 handfuls of cabbage. I prefer red cabbage.  Slice them thin enough to fit in your taco.  Next, slice up an avocado.  Again in slices small enough for your taco.  Mmm… I am getting hungry!

Put about 6 corn tortilla’s in between 2 paper towels and microwave them for 30 seconds.  They should be nice and soft after that.  Add your shrimp, cabbage and avocado to your tortilla. I double my corn tortilla’s.  That is how they do it at the mexican restaurants.   We add salt and pepper on top of the avocado and then some hot sauce.  Yucatan Sunshine sauce.  It is SOOO good on these tacos!

ENJOY!

1lb shrimp

2 c slice cabbage

1 avocado

6 tortilla

1tb oil

1 pinch cumin

salt and pepper