Amber’s Shrimp Pad Thai

We love Thai food, so Friday night I decided to make a Shrimp Pad Thai recipe Amber had given me. The original recipe comes from Cooking Light, but she changed it up a bit.  Warning… if you like bland food you will not like the wonderful burst of flavors in every bite of this dish.

Shrimp Pad Thai

Time to make: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

8 ounces uncooked flat rice noodles (pad Thai noodles, but linguine or spaghetti will work just fine)
2 Tbsp dark brown sugar (I used light brown)
2 Tbsp lower-sodium soy sauce
1.5 Tbsp fish sauce (on the ethnic food aisle at Publix)
1.5 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1.5 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Sriracha or chili garlic sauce (LOVE this stuff! find it on the ethnic aisle at Publix)
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup green onion pieces (2 inch)
8 ounces peeled and deveined large shrimp
5 garlic cloves
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped unslated dry-roasted peanuts
3 Tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil
2 eggs

1} Cook noodles according to package directions; drain.

2} Comine sugar and next 5 ingredients (through Sriracha) in a small bowl.

3} Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion pieces, shrimp, and garlic; stir-fry 2 minutes or until shrimp is almost done. Add cooked noodles; toss to combine. Stir in sauce; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly to combine.

4} Whisk egg and scramble in a bit of butter. The way I cook this is in my 6 inch cast iron pan. I let the egg mixture cook like a pancake, flipping it when mostly set on top. Then I cut the egg “pancake” into ribbons. But scrambled would work just as well. We LOVE this will fried rice too.

5} Arrange noodle mixture on individual plates; top each scrambled egg, bean sprouts (Amber likes to add these in at the very end of cooking for just a minute or so), peanuts and basil.

6} Enjoy the burst of flavors.

Three things I love about this recipe… you can do all the prep work earlier in the day, it’s quick to cook and it makes your kitchen smell wonderful… the garlic, lime, basil!

Oh and by the way… we had a little left over and Mark ate it cold for lunch the next day. He said it was just as good cold.

seafood paella

Seafood Paella has become a quiet-stay-at-home New Years Eve tradition for Mark and I. That is if doing it two years in a row qualifies as a tradition. Regardless, we LOVE it. And since I took a couple of photos of this beautiful dish, I thought I would share the recipe with you. It’s one of those recipes that you really can’t mess up and if you experiment with it you will come up with your own unique combination. You will find as many Paella recipes as there are ones for lasagna. But here’s how I make it.

1 large pkg. Vigro Yellow Rice (yes I cheat)
Vegetable or Chicken Stock ~ replace the amount of water on rice package with the stock.
1 cup dry white wine
1 Spanish onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sweet red pepper, chopped (I have used green pepper also)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 (15-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
1 Spanish Chorizo sausage, thickly sliced
1/2 bag of frozen peas, thawed
seafood medley ~ make your own combination of shrimp, scallops, mussels (a must for how they make the dish look and taste), clams, firm white fish, and/or stone crab.

Way back in the day Paella was a farmer’s dish, made over an open fire with rabbit as the meat, but I prefer chicken or just seafood.

The Process:
Heat some olive oil in a LARGE skillet or paella pan. I use Mom’s well-seasoned cast iron skillet. LOVE IT.
Brown the chorizo sausage and remove from pan. Set aside.
If adding chicken (I use boneless breasts), this is where you would brown it, remove and set aside.
Saute onions, garlic, red/green pepper and mushrooms.
Add tomatoes, rice, stock, wine, chorizo and salt & pepper to taste.
Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Add chicken and fish, cook for 5 minutes.
Add scallops and shrimp, cook for 5 minutes.
Add clams and mussels, cook for (you guessed it) 5 minutes.
Turn off heat.
Sprinkle peas over top, cover and let sit for 5 minutes or so or until the peas are hot.
Garnish with a little fresh parsley or cilantro.

If at any point you run out of broth add a touch more broth or wine. Mark thinks it’s perfect when the bottom begins to form a crust… not burnt but crispy. I am still working on perfecting that. Feel free to change it up. Make it with just mussels or only shrimp. Like I said it’s one of those recipes you can customize to your tastes.

Serve with warm crusty bread and enjoy!

sandy’s black bottom cupcakes

Back here I made these little cups of deliciousness and thought it was about time that I responded to your request for the recipe.

Cupcake Batter
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda

Blend oil, vanilla, and vinegar together.
Add water.
Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, sugar, and soda.
Add to oil mixture.
Beat well.
Fill paper baking cups a third full with batter.
Top with a heaping teaspoon of filling (recipe below).
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Makes 20 cupcakes.

Filling
beat together:
1  8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
mix in:
1  6 oz pkg chocolate chips
1 cup coconut (optional)

I add a cherry on top of the filling and use dark chocolate chips.
Enjoy!

julie’s fruit of the bayou

For my 50th birthday last month, 5 friends and I went to Orlando for a girls’ weekend, which involved food (the reason for this post), movies (the YaYa Sisterhood & P.S. I Love You), games, girl-talk, laughter, tears, the making of crazy hats, shopping, and indoor skydiving! It was a great time of celebrating friendships and making new memories together.

Julie made this incredible seafood soup. She generously shared her recipe with me so I could share it with you. The recipe is from the 1986 cookbook, “Even More Special” by the Junior League of Durham, North Carolina. Please note I wrote the units as .5 cups (as in point five cups) not 1/2 cup…just didn’t want you to use 5 cups of butter!

Julie’s Fruit of the Bayou
.5 cup butter
1.25# fresh scallops
1.25# fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup mushrooms, sliced in half
.5 cup dry white wine
1 T chopped shallots
.25 cup flour
1 cup light cream
1.5 tsp dried rosemary
.5 tsp worchestershire sauce
.5 tsp salt
.25 tsp pepper
.25 tsp dried basil
.25 tsp fennel seed
few drops hot pepper sauce

In a large skillet, melt butter. Add seafood, mushrooms, wine, and shallots. Cook over medium to low heat for 7 minutes. Stir in flour. Add cream to skillet and cook until thickened, stirring continuously. Add rosemary, worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper, basil, fennel seed, hot pepper sauce and stir.

You can prepare ahead to this point, refrigerate, then just heat up the next day.

ENJOY!!!