At the Buzzer

April is National Grilled Cheese Month.  I almost forgot!  So, just in the nick of time, we celebrated.  But instead of a regular grilled cheese, this time I made Monte Cristo sandwiches.  Not the deep-fried kind like you get a Bennigans, but with French toast, similar to one I saw on a recent episode of Sandwich King.  This sandwich is easy to make...grilled French toast with ham, turkey, and grated gruyere cheese, dusted with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam for dipping.  And a nice little salad makes it dinner.  Happy Grilled Cheese Month!

And (drum roll, please)- LOOK WHAT I FOUND!  At last.  So, over the weekend, we had these raviolis again, only with crumbled cookies on top this time.  On the porch.  Good times.  Thank you, Wegman's.

Spring Break

And by that, I mean Spring has decided to take a Break.  It got cold outside again.  So for now, I am off the hook for finding and making light springy meals.

Instead, I made some good old down home delicious southern style Louisiana shrimp and grits.
Hooooo-weeeeee!

Oh, grits, how I missed you.  Recipe below:

It's Shrimp and Grits Time Oh Yeah

For the Grits:
Prepare grits according to package directions, but use milk instead of water (or a combination of milk and chicken stock).  Quick cooking grits are fine, but don't use the instant ones.  When the grits are done, stir in some grated cheddar cheese and butter until melted.  Sorry I don't have measurements here...do this to taste.  It's pretty hard to ever have too much cheese and butter in this situation, so just go for it.  You can always have a salad tomorrow.  Add some cayenne or tabasco if you want some kick. The grits will be all nice and creamy now.  Taste to see if you need more salt.  Grits need a lot of salt.  But still, be careful not to overdo it.  Pour all the yummy creamy cheesy grits into a baking dish.  Sprinkle more cheese (that's right) on top and bake at about 375 until the cheese on top is all golden and bubbly.  Yep.  You can use the broiler to get a crispier top but still keep the grits all creamy.

For the Shrimp:
My friend and neighbor, Michelle, used to make these shrimps at parties as an appetizer.  Then she moved away.  So, if I wanted to, I could pretend they were all my brilliant idea.  They're not my idea.  But they're SO so easy and fast and tasty.  So, thanks, Michelle! (Please come and visit us - we miss you!)
All you have to do is heat some olive oil in a large frying pan.  Add some minced garlic and cook for a few seconds.  Then, add some shrimp (I used a bag of Wegman's frozen uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp- thawed, rinsed, and dried).  Add quite a bit of Chef Paul's Seafood Magic seasoning and saute until shrimps are cooked through.  Sorry again for not having exact amounts of things.  You'll just have to play around with it.  The seasoning is a little spicy, but not so spicy that you need a glass of milk.  It's just right spicy.  Add cayenne if you want it to be glass of milk spicy.

Serve with a salad, or vegetable of your choice (I had grilled zucchini this time), and maybe a nice baguette.  Invite people over to join you for dinner, and listen to some Tab Benoit or Mississippi John Hurt.  Shrimp and grits night is one of my favorite nights.

Stuffed

Sometimes, we just have easy snacky dinners.  Cheese and crackers.  Sandwiches and a smoothie.   Last night, I wanted to keep things light and simple, so we had a spinach salad with strawberries and fresh mozzarella, some good rosemary bread with dipping oil, and some stuffed mushrooms.  I am positive there are more complicated and much tastier stuffed mushrooms out there, but these are really simple and quick.  I usually just serve these right out of the baking dish, but this time I copied Fireworks Pizza...they serve their stuffed mushroom appetizer on a bed of tomato sauce, so I did the same, and grated some parmesan cheese over it.  Points for presentation.  To make these, all I did was cook some Italian turkey sausage and combine it in a bowl with some bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese.  I took the stems out of some large mushrooms and filled them with the sausage mixture, put them in a baking dish, drizzled with olive oil, and grated some more parmesan on top.  I baked them at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes, heated up some Trader Joe's Pizza Sauce, and served as above.  Simple, filling, and pretty tasty for as easy as they are.  If you are more organized, you can chop up the mushroom stems and add them to the filling.  Sometime, I want to try using crab meat, too.  But that's way too complicated for a Thursday.

My quest for finding lighter springtime recipes continues.  You will be the first to know if I succeed.

Cooking Light

Well, Spring is here.  And, for me, this presents some mealtime challenges.  Because as you can probably tell from the contents of this blog so far, I like cooking big pots of warm comforting wintery things.   I am a fan of soups and stews and heavy pasta dishes.  I am not crazy about cold meals and salads and crisp raw vegetables.  But, I am determined this year to find some new lighter easy meals for warmer weather.  And I am going to try to take advantage of things we have in the garden or can buy in season at the farmer's market. 

We started yesterday by making a nice light springtime pasta:  Linguini with a mushroom lemon basil sauce.  It was really easy, and it turned out great.  But when I decided to make it, I had a feeling Daphne would refuse to try it, because she has turned against mushrooms, which she used to love.  I had to be strategic. So I went into the playroom looking exasperated, and asked her if she knew anything about zesting lemons, and telling her I needed help inventing dinner.  Inventing was the magic word - Daphne loves inventing -so we got right to work.

Before we started cooking, I let Daphne play around with the ingredients a little.  I sent her out to get some basil leaves, and had her invent a "Daphne Sample."  (Daphne Samples are little one-bite things she likes to put together with various ingredients we happen to have at mealtime.  She wants to sell them someday at something like a lemonade stand as her "business.")  She jumped at the chance.  First, she just put some salt on some raw mushroom slices and ate those.  She liked them!  Then, she decided to get fancy, and rolled up a mushroom slice and grape tomato in a basil leaf with a little salt.  She was about to eat it, but Kev came home so she gave it to him.  But that's OK...by then, she was TOTALLY into cooking this meal.

Here she is, finishing the sauce with a little fresh basil.  That's my girl!

We had to serve this meal three ways.  Kev's dish had the works.  Mine had no tomatoes but lots of parmesan, and Daphne's had no tomatoes or cheese.  But it worked out nicely, everyone liked it, and we'll definitely make it again.  And it was VERY springy!

Linguini with Mushroom Lemon Basil Sauce
 Ingredients:
Linguini noodles (I used Wegman's fresh pasta)
1 stick of butter
2 cloves of garlic, minced
10-12 large button mushrooms, sliced
salt
1/2 cup white wine
3-4 Tbsp lemon juice
fresh basil
lemon zest
parmesan cheese
grape or cherry tomatoes

For the sauce:
Melt the butter is a large saute pan.  Add the garlic and mushrooms (and salt) and cook until softened, about 10 minutes.  Add the white wine and gently simmer the sauce to reduce.  Meanwhile, boil some water for the linguini, add salt, and cook the pasta.  When the pasta is almost done, reduce the heat on the saute pan and add the lemon juice to the sauce, tasting as you go to make sure it isn't TOO lemony.   Reserve some pasta water, drain the pasta, and toss it into the sauce.  Add a little pasta water to bring it all together (maybe 1/3 cup).  Add a little bit of lemon zest and fresh basil (we just tore it into small pieces and dropped it in), and toss.  Serve with parmesan cheese and tomatoes if you like.  Yum!


As Kev said, this would be good with shrimp.  Maybe next time!
  

Dear Ricotta Cheese,

I am so sorry that I misjudged you all these years.  You see, I never liked the cheap lumpy substitutes I was exposed to in the past.  But YOU, smooth and delicious Bel Gioioso Ricotta con Latte from Wegman's, YOU are delicious.  Thank you for allowing me to make this giant dish of lasagna to share with my family (at least the ones who will eat things with melty cheese).  I promise to continue to make you part of my meal plan, and to extol your greatness to anyone who will listen.  And if I ever make it back to the Dream Cafe, I most definitely WILL order the Cloud Cakes.  You are nothing like Cottage Cheese.

Your friend and fan,
Tara

PS.  And like almost everything else, you taste better when eaten on the front porch. Recipe below.

Lasagna on the Porch with Kev

Aaaaah, yeah.

Mommy Loves LASAGNA!

Layer the following ingredients in a baking dish, cover with foil, and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour.  Then remove foil and continue to cook until the cheese on top is all bubbly.  You can use the broiler for this if the lasagna is heated through. Yep.

1. Kev's Sauce  (follow this link to the recipe)
2.  Cooked lasagna noodles (I used fresh Wegman's noodles)
3.  More sauce
4.  Cooked ground Italian turkey sausage
5.  Bel Gioioso Ricotta con Latte
6.  Shredded mozzarella cheese
7.  Grated parmesan cheese
Repeat from number 2 in as many layers as you want.  Leave out the ricotta on the top layer, but use lots of mozzarella and parmesan, and sprinkle on a little dried oregano if you want.  Bake according to directions above.  Let it sit for several minutes before cutting.  It's even better left over.  Next time I will make two and freeze one for later.