Baked Shrimp Scampi

I follow FoodieBride's blog and the pictures always make me hungry. The picture I saw on Sunday made my mouth water so the recipe was added to my menu for the week. I added pasta and it was delicious. I don't know why her husband didn't like it. :)

Baked Shrimp Scampi
Modified recipe from FoodieBride
1 lbs shrimp, peeled, deveined, and butterflied
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp dry white wine
2 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 1/4 tsp cracked black pepper, divided
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup minced shallots
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Zest and juice from one lemon
1 egg yolk
2 slices of 7-grain bread, processed into course crumbs
8oz pasta

Preheat the oven to 425.

Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Place the shrimp in a mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil, wine 2 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of black pepper. Let sit and prepare the topping.

In a small bowl, mash the softened butter with the garlic, parsley, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolk, bread crumbs (reserving some for the topping), 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper until well mixed.

Put the pasta in a medium baking dish. Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on top of pasta. Pour the remaining marinade over the shrimp.

Spread the butter mixture evenly over the shrimp. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs over the top and turn the broiler on for 1 minute or until golden brown. 

Serve with lemon wedges and dish with a slotted spoon to leave all the extra butter behind.

While the shrimp baked, I sauteed some zucchini.  I sliced the zucchini through the vegetable slicer I use to make fries.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in pan over medium heat.  Add zucchini, sprinkle with Garlic Pepper and a dash of Tony's.  Stir and cook until the zucchini is at the desired softness.

Pasta with Pesto, Shrimp and Sweet 100's

The wives in our group of friends started a recipe exchange this Spring. We use a Yahoo! Group to email recipe's weekly. Each person in the group takes a week and sends out 3 recipes. Over the past few months, I have added some great new recipes to my recipe box.

A couple of weeks ago, our friend Jennifer sent out this recipe. The same week, Ryan and I had dinner with her and her husband where she prepared this dish. It was really yummy so I tried it myself and it turned out great.

Pasta with Pesto, Shrimp and Sweet 100's
from Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
8 oz. Angel hair pasta
1 tbsp. Olive oil
8 oz. Large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp. Minced garlic
½ cup Pesto
1 cup halved sweet 100s or cherry tomatoes
Grated parmesan, preferably parmigiano-reggiano
Lemon wedges for garnishing

Fill a large saucepan ¾ full of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and add kosher salt. Add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until barely tender, about 4 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water.

Heat olive oil in same pan over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook about 1 min. Turn shrimp over, add garlic.
Continue cooking about 1 min. more. Add reserved cooking water and pesto and stir until mixed.
Add pasta and tomatoes, toss to combine. Season with kosher salt and pepper to taste. Divide the pasta btw. 2 plates and top with cheese. Garnish each with lemon wedge. Serve.

Not-Sagna Pasta Toss

I really like pasta. I mean REALLY. I could eat pasta every day. If I had to pick four foods that I could not live without, they would be cheese, pasta, bread and potatoes. Healthy huh? Ryan loves red meat sauce, and that pretty much only goes with pasta so it works well in this household.

Rachel Ray came through for me once again. Her Not-Sagna Pasta Toss from the Express Lane Meals book is fantastic. As with many of her recipes, there are lots of ingredients and doing the prep work first is the key to making it all work right and actually be a 30 minute meal. This is one thing I have learned about RR recipes. You must chop/prepare all the ingredients before you start to cook. It's also a really good idea to read through the whole recipe at least once. There are always a couple of twists and turns that you might miss if you aren't ready for them.

I like this one because it fixes up easy like spaghetti but it has a different flavor, a different twist, so I feel like I am cooking something different. Not that there is anything wrong with spaghetti, its still the household favorite. And it has all the ingredients of Lasagna but its not, so I can say that I cook Spaghetti, Lasagna (by Stouffer's of course) and Not-Sagna Pasta Toss!

I am just copying the recipe from the Food Network as I don't really change anything on this recipe. It's "yumm-o" (in the words of RR herself) just like it is.

Not-sagna Pasta Toss
Easier than lasagna, because it's not, this pasta, meat sauce and ricotta toss-up is just as hearty and comforting as the layered Italian fave, but it's ready in a fraction of the time and with much less effort.

1 pound curly short cut pasta (recommended: campanelle by Barilla, fusilli or cavatappi Coarse salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 pound ground sirloin (I use Ground Turkey)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, eyeball it in your palm
Black pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice, eyeball it in your palm
1 teaspoon, several drops, Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup dry red wine, a couple of glugs
1/2 cup beef stock
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup fresh basil, about 20 leaves (i use a couple of shakes of dried basil)
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, a couple of handfuls, plus some to pass at table

Heat a large pot of water to boil for pasta. Salt water and cook pasta to al dente. Heads up: you will need a ladle of the starchy cooking water to help form sauce before draining.

Heat a deep nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan. Add the meat and break it up into small bits as it caramelizes. Once meat has good color to it, 4 to 5 minutes, add garlic, onions and red pepper flakes and season with salt, pepper, allspice and Worcestershire sauce. Cook another 5 minutes, deglaze the meat and onions with red wine, cook off a minute, then combine about 1/2 cup of stock into the meat. Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a bubble. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 5 minutes.

Place ricotta cheese in the bottom of a shallow bowl. Add a ladleful of boiling, starchy pasta water to the ricotta and stir to combine. Add a couple of handfuls of grated Parmesan to the ricotta and mix it in.

Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with cheeses. Add half the thick meat sauce to the pasta bowl and combine. Tear or shred the basil and add to the meat and pasta, toss again. Taste to adjust salt and pepper.

Serve bowlfuls of Not-sagna with extra sauce on top and more grated Parmesan to pass at the table.

"Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells"

I moved in to Ryan's house a couple of months before the wedding. Within weeks, I was in desperate need of new, easy and quick recipes. Ryan and I were both getting tired of Spaghetti, Poppyseed Chicken, Stouffers Lasagna, Pot Roast and Chicken Spaghetti. I think that is all I cooked the first few weeks of living together.

I had heard many raves about Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals (and I think my Dad had a little Food Network crush on her) so I bought her Express Lane Meals cookbook. This is a good cookbook that teaches you how to grocery shop. The premise is that you stock your pantry every couple of weeks then hit the grocery each night to pick up the perishables (meat, veggies, etc). I put my own twist on this, hitting the grocery once per week to get the meats, veggies, fruits for the week and trying to keep my pantry stocked with necessities as I run out -- like Cream of [fill in the blank] Soup, Tomato Sauce/Paste, Canned Veggies, Olive Oil, Vegetable Oil, Spices, etc. I got one of my favorite meals from this cookbook, one I will blog about one day.

Ryan bought me another RR cookbook, 2, 4, 6, 8: Great Meals for Couples or Crowds that has recipes written for 2, 4, 6, and 8 people (haha, bet you couldn't figure that out.) I found several great recipes in this cookbook, but our favorite has been the Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells.

Mega Meat-Stuffed Shells
Adapted from Rachel Ray

1/2 box frozen chopped spinach
8 jumbo pasta shells
3/4 lb lean ground beef (RR calls for meatloaf mix)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed and halved
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs
olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425.

Defrost Frozen spinach in microwave or in colander with hot running water. Wring dry in paper towel. Set aside.

Boil water for shells and cook according to package directions (6-7 minutes). Drizzle with olive oil. Set aside.

Brown meat with chopped garlic and onions. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and cook 5 minutes more.

Mix meat and spinach in a bowl. Add bread crumbs, egg and half the cheese (sometimes I add a handful of grated mozzarella too).

Fill the shells with the meat mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 11-12 minutes.

While the shells bake, heat halved garlic in one tbsp olive oil in small pot over low heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then remove garlic. Add red pepper flakes and cook one minute more. Stir in tomato sauce and let simmer until shells are done. (I typically add another dash of garlic powder, and normally some extra red pepper since Ryan really likes it.)

Place shells on plate and pour desired amount of sauce on top. Sprinkle with a little more cheese if you like.

I have adapted this recipe a little to our liking. I cut back the spinach (RR called for a whole box) because there was just more spinach than meat and we can't have that! I have found that this proportion of meat and spinach is enough to perfectly fill 8-10 shells. I also double the sauce (RR only used 8oz tomato sauce). Ryan really likes this simple sauce and covers his shells with it so the original recipe just didn't cut it.

This is now one of our favorites, and it looks pretty too! :)



Enjoy!

Mom's "Easy Spaghetti"

I love my Mom and Dad. They are the best parents James and I could have ever asked for.

Growing up, mom didn't cook too many new or different things (probably because Dad, James and I were pretty picky). Dad did most of the grilling. We ate dinner together almost every night but neither of my parents were what you would call gourmet chefs! We had a our favorite meals and we ate them often. They were pretty much the basics -- Crock Pot Roast (typically served on Sunday afternoon), Chicken Pie (this was not my fav, but James LOVES it), Spaghetti, Poppy Seed Chicken, Salmon Croquets (gross, again, James liked these, not me), Burgers, Pork Chops and Steaks. Pizza Hut and KFC were pretty regular parts of the "rotation"!

I think that--hands-down--Mom's Spaghetti was everyone's favorite. And by everyone, I am referring to Mom and Dad, James and Me, every youth group to come through Briarwood Presbyterian Church since 1980-something, every one of James and my friends (including my friends from Millsaps)... really, I mean everyone that ever tasted it. It was a favorite at Wednesday Night Pot Luck suppers and was made at almost every family get together on both the Davis and Johnson sides.

When it was the Davis's turn to bring dinner for Sunday night youth group, she really didn't have to think about what to bring. I remember a specific Sunday when Mom and Dad prepared the spaghetti for the youth group. One of the girls came through the line and only asked for the noodles... she "didn't like spaghetti sauce". Mom gave her a little grief -- "Are you sure?? This is really good sauce?" The other youth gave her the same riot act. She refused and sat down to eat her noodles. Several minutes later, she returned to the counter and asked for some sauce. She had tasted one of her friends and was convinced. It really is the best spaghetti sauce!

The reason this recipe is so popular with so many is that it doesn't have "chunks" of vegetables in it. For picky kids and teens, seeing "chunks" of things in their food is sometimes a turn off. Mom uses all dried spices for flavor making the recipe really easy to prepare and also very easy to double, triple (or cut in half for the newlyweds and empty nesters).

Mom's Easy Spaghetti was probably the first thing I learned to cook and was probably the first thing I ever cooked for Ryan. I am pretty sure it was this meal that made him ask me to marry him... okay, maybe not, but I like to think it played a big part!

Mom's Easy Spaghetti

2-3lbs ground beef or turkey
4 8oz cans Hunt's Tomato Sauce
2 6oz cans Hunt's Tomato Paste
1 tsp Garlic Salt
1 tsp Onion Salt
1/2 tsp crushed Oregano
4 whole Bay Leaves (She used to be able to find crushed bay leaves. If you can, use 1/2 tsp)

Angel hair pasta (we think this is one of the keys... using Angel Hair and not spaghetti or other thinker pasta)

Brown the meat and drain grease. In large pot (or crock pot), mix all ingredients and warm over medium heat. When it starts to bubble, cover and reduce heat. Let simmer at least 15 minutes. The longer it simmers the better. When using a crock pot, don't let it cook all day. I have found its better letting it simmer max 4 hours.

Prepare Angel Hair using package directions.

Remove Bay Leaves from sauce (especially if you are serving kids that will wonder why a leaf is in their food...)

Serve with your favorite garlic bread and top with your favorite cheese (we prefer grated cheddar or parmesan).

As previously said, this recipe divides and multiplies easily. It also warms up wonderfully as let overs. This spaghetti sauce also freezes well. It is a great meal to take to a family after a birth, surgery, illness, etc because it can go in the freezer and be brought out at any time.

I had a long, hard couple of weeks at work and Friday, I needed some "comfort food". Since getting a Pita Mozz with Feta Dressing from Keifers wasn't really an option, I whipped up some spaghetti. It definitely made me feel better!

Ryan's Plate (it probably weighs 5lbs)

My Plate