Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

Let me let you in on a little secret. I generally don't like seafood. I realize this makes me an odd duck, so to speak, but really if seafood is on the menu I'll usually only eat enough to be polite. The Brain loves when we go to a wedding or a benefit or some function like that and a surf and turf platter is served. He somehow always ends up with extra surf. Crab legs, lobster, blecch. Sometimes I will actually enjoy a bi-valve. I do find mussels fairly delicious.

Because I am a nice and loving wife though, I will occasionally make shrimp. I can stomach shrimp. I don't need to worry about overeating it at least. And it falls massively in the Acts of Love category (from this fairly silly book). And I can see the nutritional benefits of shrimp. It's very low in calories and fat and yet it's super high in protein, selenium, and zinc.

So imagine my surprise (and the Brain's) when I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day! This Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta is really good! It's the yummy dinner I made before making the Daring Bakers' Bakewell Tart. The recipe comes from a magazine I found while waiting in line at Walmart called EatSmart with Ellie Krieger. (I'm starting to really like her and her book just got added to my Amazon wish list!) The tomatoes, feta and parsley give make it warm and comforting and yet somehow fresh tasting at the same time. It's the kind of meal that I could imagine eating on some Mediterranean island maybe.

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

From EatSmart with Ellie Krieger

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Two 14.5 ounce cans no salt added diced tomatoes, with their juices

1/4 cup finely minced fresh flat leaf parsley

1 Tbsp finely minced fresh dill

1 1/4 pounds peeled deveined medium shrimp

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2/3 cup crumbled reduced fat feta

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley, dill, and shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the feta over the top. Bake until the shrimp are cooked through and the cheese melts, about 12 minutes.

Serve over rice or orzo.

On a side note, I'm sorry I've been sporadic to say the least in my blogging. Downright negligent really. I was going through a bit of a dark moment. But I've realized that I miss blogging. I miss being involved with the food blogging community. So I plan on doing a bit more blogging in the future. Thank you for continuing to read.

Daring Bakers Blackwell Tart

So, yes, it's posting day for the Daring Bakers and after I spent the whole day with the Brain and made a super yummy dinner which I'll be posting on later, I decided I better get to it and make the Blackwell Tart. The hesitation comes in because the base of the tart is pie crust. They can make it sound all fancy and call it a shortcrust pastry and put egg yolks and sugar in it, but it's still a pie crust. And frankly, pie crust makes me nervous. So does the price of almond meal. But I really don't have a good excuse for missing the challenge and I already had some of this yummy plum-ginger jam in the pantry, so I rolled up my sleeves (or really changed into a tank top- turning on the oven in the summer turns our cozy little house into a sauna) and got down to it.

This was not a difficult challenge. I did have to grind up some almonds, but that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I have been reminded of how yummy my jam is. I also made an emergency substitution of vanilla extract for almond extract. The almond extract seems to be on vacation from my pantry. Grating frozen butter into a flour mixture in a really warm kitchen was a bit trying. Unfortunately, I blindly followed the instructions for the baking portion. The recipe says to pop it in the oven for 30 minutes and to add 5 minutes if you ground your own nuts. So that's what I did. And as you can see, my tart is a little teeny bit on the well done side of life.

So what's the verdict? This tart is delicious! And I'm totally going to make it again!

Here's the fine print! The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart.. er.. pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England. Make sure you check out the rest of the Daring Bakers. If you haven't already.

Bacon Waffles

Sometimes I can be not so bright. Yes, I managed to pull off all A's for the whole year in school despite my busy schedule. But that's books. When it comes to life I can be a complete moron. Sorry, I'm not going to go into the details on my silly little blog that I would be surprised if anyone still reads.

One fairly stupid thing I managed to do recently was place a whole stick of butter in the butter dish. This would not be stupid in and of itself, but see, I've been dealing with some personal problems by cleaning. And so I was soft-scrubbing the counters and rearranging everything and I moved the butter dish to the opposite counter. Still not stupid per se. But then I agreed to work the rummage sale at church(so much fun!) and decided to make these pork chops. Which wouldn't have been stupid if I hadn't put the crock pot right in front of the butter dish. D'Oh!

Three days later I noticed that my nice stick of butter had turned into a melty ball of nonuseableness. I don't think that's a word, but you get my drift.

Now because I've been kind of blue lately and dealing with some not so nice people, the first thing I thought to do with my melted stick of butter was to turn it into some comfort food. And comfort food it was. I pulled out my little waffle maker, thawed some slices of bacon, tweaked a recipe from the Joy of Cooking and did my best Paula Deen impression. The furry sous chef was hopping up and down waiting for the drippy edges that I would throw at her. And there are now 6 waffles in the freezer waiting for another day that I might need them.

Bacon Waffles

adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1 3/4 cups all purpose-flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 Tbsp melted bacon fat

3 eggs

1/3 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups milk

Preheat waffle iron. Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine bacon fat, eggs, butter, and milk. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in crumbled bacon and cook waffles according to your waffle irons specifications. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Daring Bakers do Strudel!

I gotta tell you I loved this month's challenge. Surprising as that might be for a person who doesn't like fruit or pie. And the whole time I was making it I imagined various grandmothers and great grandmothers in my family making it exactly the same way. But let's get the fine print out of the way...

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

This strudel was really not hard to make. I cut the recipe in half and it went together as easily as some people throw together a pie. And I have to tell you. The walnuts make the apple filling just that much better. I think they were my favorite part! Although I think the pastry was lovely and flaky and I really enjoyed the Cinnamon and sugar and rum traditional apple raisin filling too!

Thanks Courtney and Linda for such a fun challenge!
Please check out the rest of the Daring Bakers.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

Sometimes things work out beautifully. Take for example this quick, easy and supremely delicious recipe for chicken thighs. Beautiful. Spicy. Quick. Perfect.

Sometimes things do not work out perfectly. Like, say sitting behind a woman at the opera who's hair was eerily reminiscent of the Weight Watcher muppet for Hungry.

(image curtesy of http://www.shrinkingsisters.com/)

Things didn't work out so well for Carmen and Don Jose either.

Or say, that I just got clearance to work out because the whole Wilma situation was a year old last month. That worked out beautifully. That I then managed to break my fibular sesamoid bone in my foot is not so beautiful. And it's a nice hearty break. Hello crutches. We'll be spending a lot of time together for the next 3 weeks. grrrr.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs

from Cooking Light

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.
Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Flattened Chicken Breasts with Piquant Basil Sauce

Oh my. Yet again I have disappeared from the bloggosphere. But I can for sure say that I am now back for good. How can I say this? Well, my semester ended and I earned another 4.0 GPA. And I no longer have to stress about last minute deadlines and PowerPoint presentations and reading philosophies. I actually even cooked tonight. And I'm not talking spaghetti. But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, let me point you in the direction of the lovely Susan over at Not Quite June Cleaver. I won her April Spring giveaway and she sent me the cutest apron ever!! My wonderful friend A is modeling it for me because unfortunately my physique trends more towards Julia Child's than Giada De Laurentis. But it's a beautiful apron and my friend A loves it tremendously and I have a wee bit of apron envy. I also received a neat vintage pie tin, a recipe booklet, and some very cool heirloom seeds. Thanks Susan!

The other neat thing Susan did was to post this delicious pie recipe. See the Brain's friend Mac just opened a pizza joint and bakery called The Pie Factory (which if you're ever in Sandusky you should check out because it's seriously delicious and won second place in the Sandusky Pizza Bake Off!) Anywho, Mac has a delicious raspberry cream pie. And I keep wanting to go buy it, even though I don't like pie typically. So I was telling Susan about it and she gave out a recipe that's similar. The crust on Mac's pie is a shortbread crust, but I like Susan's too. Her recipe is here.

Ok, so today has been all about 7th grade. Remember 7th grade? Awkward. Uncomfortable. Hormones running amok. Still a kid, but not really. Well, today one of the 7th graders I taught took his rifle (hunting is very big here and all the kids seem to have rifles) and stole the neighbor's truck and last it was on the news he's driven to Kentucky. This kid is a good kid. He had a little trouble focusing in class, but the other kids seemed to like him and he seemed to enjoy them too. Unfortunately they searched his locker and found his diary and there are 31 students and faculty that he "threatened" in this diary. Now the media is calling this a "hit list". I challenge you to look at any 13 year old kid's diary and not find scribbles about how they don't like people. I'm fairly certain that my entire diary in 7th grade was filled with ramblings about how much I loved Chris S. and Brian B. and multiple pages on how John M. was a big fat jerk. And Mrs. Juntenan was a horrible teacher. (I lost touch with Brian, Chris and John by 9th grade and I'll still tell you that Mrs. Juntenan was the very worst teacher I've ever had.) And besides the boy asked a family member to watch after his pet turtle. He's not the twitchy could-be-killer the media is making him out to be. So I'm worried about the kid and I'm starting to get annoyed at stupid hillbilly people making ignorant comments on the local newspaper website.

Then, my best friend T. is going through a divorce. Her hopefully soon to be ex husband is a real jerk and she's having a hard time. So by the time I got off the phone with her and had heard about the 7th grade boy, I needed to pound something. I chose chicken breasts. I was spending some serious time searching through my plethora of cookbooks and I wasn't finding anything good until I remembered this recipe my friend Scott made for me when we both worked at Victoria's Secret in Chicago. We had both picked up Celebrating the Midwestern Table by Abby Mandel on clearance at Borders and he invited me to his apartment for dinner. It was common back then for him and I to invite each other over for dinner. It was always good company and good food, and the best cheap wine we could afford. We were poor college kids after all.

So flattening these chicken breasts had dual purpose. I got my worry and frustration out and it took me back to the happy days of college in Chicago. And the chicken was exactly as good as I remembered it. Tomorrow will be a better day, it has to be, I still have one breast left over for lunch!

Flattened Chicken Breasts with Piquant Basil Sauce

adapted from Celebrating the Midwestern Table

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 tsp honey

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

6 Tbsp chicken broth

cooking spray

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbsp julienned basil leaves

One at a time, place a chicken breast half between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound it to about 1/8 inch thinness. Repeat with the remaining breasts. Place on a plate and set aside.

Combine the honey, mustard, vinegar, and chicken broth in a small dish and set aside.

Spray a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place the breasts seasoned side down in the hot skillet two at a time. Cook for 2 1/2 minutes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the top (uncooked) side and gently flip over. Cook for 2 1/2 more minutes until done. Transfer the cooked breasts to a platter and tent with foil. Repeat with the remaining two breasts.

Once all the breasts are cooked and on the platter, add the honey mixture to the hot skillet. Cook for about 20 seconds until slightly thickened. Return the breasts to the skillet, spooning the sauce over them. As soon as they are warmed through, transfer them to a warm serving platter and garnish with the julienned basil. Serve hot.

Sorry, no cheesecake.

Well, yet again I have become overwhelmed and did not participate in the Daring Bakers challenge. The cheesecakes that are springing up all over the net are lovely, but there won't be one here. Go check out all those people who did participate.

The good news is that this is my last week of classes for grad school. I am doing another full-time substitute teaching gig, but I'm pretty sure after this week my schedule will lighten up considerably!