Shea Center Appetizer Party

Tomato, Olive, Feta skewers

Jalapeno Souffle

Cilantro Pesto Shrimp

Crab Wonton Cups

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Caponata

Salmon Gravlax with Mango Salsa

Beef Carpaccio with Red Pepper garnish

Cheese Tray

Stuffed Dates

Lemon Bar

Chocolate Truffles

This party was a marathon of cooking. I literally cooked 24 hours, 12 hours straight for 2 days in a row. And while it was really fun, I'm exhausted! haha. We did 13 different appetizers and the menu is below. Sorry I'm not adding the recipes but I'm just way too lazy but at least I'm adding the photos right? haha The top three of the evening were the dates (now named Shea Apples haha) jalapeno souffle, and the cilantro pesto shrimp. I personally loved the chicken satay and the tomato skewers. I'd done something similar to this dish but I had stuffed the tomatoes. The skewer made it so much easier to make them!

Things that could have been different: Need to make sure about portion size. It needs to be bite size and a small bite at that. I think the pesto shrimp would be better alone and without a chip, avocado and BBQ sauce. Next time I need to make a lot more jalapeno souffles because those disappeared ridiculously fast. Like in 2 minutes a tray of 24 would come back empty. Make sure to toast the bread the day of. It got a little stale overnight and the thickness should be between 1/4 and 1/3 inch. Otherwise it's a little difficult to bite into.

Menu:
Chicken Satay w/peanut sauce
Dates stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in basil and prosciutto (Shea Apples)
Wonton Crab Cups (these tasted good but it's a bitch to make the wonton cups)
Beef Carpaccio on toasted bread
Gravlox (salmon) on water crackers with mango salsa
Cherry tomatos, olives, and feta cubes on a skewer with balsamic basil vinaigrette
Jalapeno souffles
Caponata bagel bites and bread toasts
Cilantro pesto shrimp
Veggie tray: cucumber, bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, hicama
Cheese cube tray w/crackers
Roasted Red Pepper dip
Aioli Sauce
Lemon Bars
Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I made this batch of ice cream because my birthday is next week and I want to make my own birthday ice cream cake. Since it'll take a little while to make this cake I made the ice cream ahead. And of course I had to snack on it a little until I make my cake.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can go on google and actually make your own. You usually need a coffee can and lots of ice and salt. If you want to make the ice cream cake coming up but not this ice cream, feel free to just buy some ice cream and use the method that will be up eventually.


Ingredients:
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
9 ounces vanilla sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean (optional)

Directions
1. Place the half-and-half and the heavy cream into a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.

2. In a mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the sugar and whisk to combine. Add split and scraped vanilla bean into mixture and stir.

3. Temper the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar by gradually adding small amounts of the cream mixture and whisking vigorously. Do this until about a third of the cream mixture has been added to the eggs. Pour the egg mixture back into the cream saucepan and mix vigorously. If you don't mix a lot during this process your eggs could scramble and your ice cream would be lumpy which is not good!

4. Cook mixture, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F. Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

5. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 4 to 8 hours or until the temperature reaches 40 degrees F or below.

6. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Stir in chocolate chunks by hand once machine is finished. Serve as is for soft serve or freeze for another 3 to 4 hours to allow the ice cream to harden.

Eggs and Bacon on and English Muffin

This is a scrumptous sandwich. I had one for dinner but it's great for breakfast or lunch too. It's filling but not overly so. This recipe is exactly the same as my fried egg sandwich but instead of bread, I used an english muffin. So if you want to make this one look up that recipe in October of 2009. If you don't like the frying egg method you could scramble some eggs and place that in the sandwich instead.

This sounds a little weird but I love the sound of bacon cooking in a pan. The sweet sound of it, sizzling away, browning and getting crisp. It's just so satisfying. haha ok rant over.

Tips for this sandwich:

1. Lots of bacon adds a great crunchy contrast to the rest of the dish so I suggest piling it on! haha

2. Try to keep the egg maintained into a small shape so it fits onto the english muffin. It'll over hang the edges no matter what but it looks prettier if you keep the egg small.

3. Covering the egg while cooking over low heat allows the cheese to melt better

Fettuccine and Shrimp with Pesto Sauce

I love the pesto in this dish because it tastes really bright and fresh. Sometimes I like to add cream to any left over pesto and have a creamy pesto sauce for chicken. Another good use for leftover pesto is to put it in a mayonnaise for a sandwich. It'll add a ton of flavor! Once you master this type of pesto you can change it up. Instead of parsley and pine nuts you could use walnuts, pecans, almond, and herbs like basil or mint. Plus I've always found that when people see pesto or hear pesto they think "oh this is going to be good" so you can use this to spice up appetizers for a party or something.

Ingredients: Serves 4
fettuccine (enough for person, about 1/4 box per person)
shrimp (5-6 medium per person)
olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 cups packed, stemmed Italian parsley
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
1 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add pasta to water after finishing pesto. Look on packaging to see how much time is needed and cook pasta to al dente.

2. To make pesto: Roughly chop garlic. In a food processor place the garlic, parsley, pinch salt, pine nuts, and cheese.

3. Process until they form a paste. Pour a small amount of olive oil into the machine while it's running. Continue to add oil until you have the consistency you like. Taste to see if more salt and pepper is necessary.

4. Drop pasta into salted boiling water. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Saute in olive oil for 1 minute per side. Seat aside.

5. Heat up pesto in a large saute pan. Add finished pasta and cooked shrimp into sauce. Heat another minute or two. Place into a bowl and top with extra parmesan cheese.

Taquitos

For this I used some of my frozen deer meat but feel free to use this method for any type of meat. If the meat is already cooked, skip the first step. You can prepare the meat a day or 2 in advance. You can also roll the taquitos ahead of time and keep them in the fridge but the longer they sit the more mushy they will become.

When rolling tortillas around meat they need to be really hot! you have to act quickly or tortillas will crack while trying to roll them. I started by heating 2 tortillas at a time and rolling them quickly. The faster you get with the technique, you can heat up more tortillas at a time.

Ingredients:
Deer Meat ( 1 pound meat makes about 15-20 taquitos)
2-3 tomatoes chopped or 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion sliced
chicken or beef stock (to cover beef)
corn tortillas
toothpicks
vegetable or canola oil
things for sides like avocado, chips etc

Directions:
1. to prepare meat: cut into small chunks and season with a pinch each of salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes. (if you have these spices already, s and p only is fine)
-Put a few teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and brown meat over medium heat. Once all sides of meat have a nice brown, caramelized color, add 1/2 onion thinly sliced. Cook for about 5 more minutes or until onions are soft and slightly translucent.
-Add 2 chopped tomatoes and enough stock to cover meat. Simmer over low heat for about 2 hours or until really tender. You may need to add more liquid to the meat during cooking so it stays covered.
-Allow meat to cool in sauce. Remove meat from pan and shred with a fork. Add a little of the cooking liquid to keep meat moist.

2. Heat 2 tortillas in a clean dish towel in the microwave for 30 seconds. Doing this as quickly as possible fill middle of tortilla with a cigar shaped amount of chicken. (it takes about 1-2 tablespoons of the meat) Once taquito is rolled seal using toothpicks. Try to get it across the open fold so the taquito won't unroll while frying.

3. Heat up either a large pot of oil to totally submerge the taquitos or a saucepan with about 1/4 inch of oil if your going to turn and fry. I used the turning method because it uses less oil!
-If cooking submerged heat oil to 350 and cook until taquitos are golden brown about 3 minutes. Remove toothpicks after cooking.
-If turning and frying cook each side of taquito for about 1 minute. After frying 2 sides take out toothpicks and make sure to brown all around taquito.

4. Serve with guacamole, beans, cheese, chips, anything that sounds good honestly. For a fun party snack do this same method but cut the taquitos in half or thirds for bite size pieces.

The Basic Omelet

An omelet is a good technique to learn but it takes time! I had to make a lot of omelets into scrambled eggs or plain throw them away because they were so horrible. Once your good at them they take about 30 seconds to make so you could use it for a cheap party food. You'd have to stand over the stove the whole time but if you have picky eaters, its' easily customizable.

For fillings: Make sure things are pre-cooked before starting the omelet and all filling are brought to room temp or better yet, re heated. Cheese needs to be grated or shredded for better melting. The eggs are worried about their cooking so the fillings need to be finished cooking. Some suggestions for fillings are peppers and onions, ham, mushrooms, broccoli or asparagus, tomatoes, and cheeses like pepper jack, parmesan, or swiss. Anything you like to eat with eggs can pretty much go inside an omelet.

For one omelet you can use 2 eggs but 3 is preferred. There's no need to add extra liquid to the eggs for a single omelet but if your making a lot and have a large batch of cracked eggs, add about 1/2 teaspoon of water per egg. You can also add herbs to the batter before cooking, things like basil and thyme taste really good.

10 step to the perfect omelet:

1. Put eggs at room temp for 10-15 minutes. Cold eggs don't make as good of omelets.

2. Crack eggs into a bowl and season with a pinch of salt

3. Mix up eggs with a fork

4. Heat a non-stick pan over medium- high heat. Lightly butter pan once heated

5. Add eggs to pan and with a rubber spatula stir for about 5-10 seconds. This forms a few curdles

6. Use spatula to go around edges of omelet and gently loosen egg. allow to cook 10 seconds.

7. Using handle tilt pan in a circular motion to bring runny eggs in the middle out to the edges to cook. Let set a few seconds then run spatula around edges again.

8. Repeat step 7. Then allow to cook, untouched for 10 seconds

9. Loosen omelet and jerk toward you slightly. Fold over 1/3 or so of omelet so you get the trifold on the plate

10. Then switch your grip to an underhand and slid onto a plate 1/3 of way. Tilt pan to fold over omelet onto itself.

And that's your omelet. It takes practice so be patient. If this technique is a little confusing go to youtube.com and look up julia child making omelets. She does a great job of teaching it.

Duck and Dumplings Demolished

These are pictures of my plate while eating duck and dumplings with my cousins. It tastes so good! I was going to video tape making the dumplings but we were just to hungry to bother using the camera. I think the dumplings have come out the best I've made them so it's definitely all about practice if your trying to learn this dish.

Deer Stew with Rice

My friend Susan gave me a bunch of venison (fancy term for deer meat) and it's a little cold out so a stew sounded fantastic. I've made beef stew before on here (recipe in October on this blog) and I'm using pretty much the same recipe but with a few twists. So if you want to make this recipe follow the october directions but use these as additions to those directions.

Random fact: did you know that when your making deer stew your actually braising it? weird right? If you make this you can impress your friends with that fact haha. and when your friends or family say "what, why or huh?" you can explain the following. Braising is cooking (meat, fish, or vegetables) by sautéeing in fat and then simmering slowly in very little liquid. Stewing is to undergo cooking by simmering or slow boiling. So while beef stew is a stew it is more specifically a braise because stewing tends to use a lot of liquid. warning: when you say this make sure you don't sound like a know it all haha!

Twists to previous stew recipe:
When first browning the deer meat I seasoned it with salt and pepper and also a little cumin for smokiness and a little red pepper flake for some kick. I used a teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper flakes.

The other difference was that I added a little wine to the braising liquid. Only add a maximum of a 1/2 cup because the wine can overpower the rest of the dish easily so be careful! For the liquid I used 1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, 2-3 cups of beef broth, 1/2 cup of red wine, and a little water to make sure the deer was covered in the pan. It's important in this recipe that all the meat is covered with liquid or the piece(s) uncovered will not get tender!

To cook the rice for this dish: melt a pat of butter in a saucepan. Add a cup of rice and salt and toast for about a minute. Add 1 cup of water and 3/4 cup of stew liquid after adding potatoes and water to stew. Bring to a simmer and cover and cook about 15-20 minutes or until rice is tender and cooked.

Shrimp, Lobster, and Crab Risotto

I made this recipe to get rid of a ton of seafood in my fridge. They feed us real well on the plane to Las Vegas so we always take the leftovers and I was lucky enough to snag all the seafood. This recipe is just like my garlic shrimp risotto in September so if you want to make this, look it up there. The only difference between the two is that this used a lot of precooked seafood instead of raw shrimp. So instead of cooking the shrimp before the risotto, make the risotto first then stir in the seafood with the cheese at the last minute or two just to heat through. To make it pretty you can chopped green onion or chives like I did but it tastes just as delicious without the garnish.

Bosenberry Thumb Print Cookies

I made this batch of cookies as a Christmas present for my cousin Alexa. I'm going to make a different cookie each month this semester and send it to her at her school in colorado. "go CU!" haha I'm excited to work with her favorite tastes and flavors and it'll be a challenge to send them through the mail without them getting destroyed. I happened to have bosenberry jam in my cupboard so I used it but feel free to use any type of jam you like. Make sure it's seedless because the seeds will add a crunch that isn't good in this case. This recipe makes about 30 cookies so multiply if your serving a lot of people. These cookies go surprisingly fast so you might want to make extra!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar, extra sugar to garnish
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash. Just use a paper bowl for this
Fruit, seedless jam of your choice

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Then add the vanilla.

3. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and salt to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together.

4. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper. Take a small spoonful of the dough and roll into a ball with your hands. Squash into a disk about 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick and place on sheet pan. Do as many cookies as possible per sheet, making sure to leave 1 inch between cookies.

5. Now put your thumb into the middle of the cookie and make a small hole or well. Repeat this for all cookies. Now using a spoon fill the holes with a little bit of the jam. Don't over fill or it will ruin the look of these cookies, you'll use about 1/4 teaspoon of jam. Repeat for all cookies.

6. Brush egg wash around edges of cookie. This acts as edible glue for the next step. Now sprinkle the edges of the cookie with extra sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes or until edges are slightly golden. For more even cooking, make sure to rotate the baking sheets in the oven.

Prime Rib Hash

This one was to use up the last bone of prime rib from christmas. I took the meat off the bone then used the bone itself to flavor the sauce. You don't have to use the cream in the sauce if you don't have it but it adds a great mouth feel while eating this dish. If you don't have prime rib you can use any left over meat and bones to make this dish. The bone isn't necessary for the sauce but it does add a lot of flavor so if you have it, add it!

Ingredients:
1 prime rib bone, meat removed
handful of frozen french fries cut into chunks or a baked potato cooled and chunked
1/4 onion sliced thin and caramelized

For Sauce:
2 cups beef broth
pinch each of rosemary, thyme, red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp cream
1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour

Directions:

1. Place bone in a hot sauce pan with a teaspoon of olive oil. Brown all sides of beef bone over medium heat to get brown bits in pan.

2. Add beef broth and herbs to pan, making sure to scrap up brown bits from pan, and allow to reduce by 1/4. Remove to a measuring cup and allow to settle and remove as much fat as possible

3. Melt butter in pan and then whisk in flour. Allow to cook about 2 minutes. pour in cooled liquid and allow mixture to thicken. When it coats the back of a spoon, add the cream and allow to cook another minute before serving. Make sure to taste the sauce for salt and pepper seasoning before serving. Don't let the cream cook too long or the sauce will taste weird.

4. While making sauce caramelize onions in another pan. Once they are close to done, add potatoes and a pat of butter and cook over medium heat until potatoes are warmed through.

5. Once sauce is finished and right before serving. Add beef to potato pan and toss to heat through. If you cook the meat too long it will become overcooked and dry out. Pour potatoes and meat into a bowl or serving dish and cover with sauce.

Shrimp and Fettuccine with Marinara Cream Sauce

I made this as a quick lunch using pantry staples to get rid of some left over seafood. It only took about 20 minutes to make and the simple flavors are really satisfying. I find it silly to go out and buy ingredients to get rid of other left overs so I love to use things I already have in the pantry or fridge to create a new dish. Sometimes I need to buy other ingredients but there's a weird satisfaction for me to not go to the grocery store.

When it comes to pasta it's key to cook the pasta but keep it slightly firm. Cooks and chefs say cook it until it's "al dente" which in italian literally means "to the tooth". This means that the pasta is cooked but still slightly firm when taken out of the pan. It sounds silly to take out the pasta while it's still hard but then you put it into the sauce pan. Allowing the pasta to finish cooking in the sauce your going to serve with it lets the pasta soak up the flavor of the sauce. If the pasta was really soft and tender when you cooked it more, it would fall apart while you were trying to eat it. Now if your going to serve something really basic like spaghetti with butter and cheese you would cook the pasta to your finished liking because it won't have extra time to cook.

Ingredients:
1/2 jar marinara sauce
2 Tablespoon cream
small handful of fettuccine
Parmesan cheese
3-4 large pre-cooked shrimp per serving

Directions:
1. boil a large pot of salted water.

2. Add fettuccine and cook about 8 minutes. Look at package directions for specific time.

3. In another pan heat up mixture of marinara sauce and cream. Season with salt and pepper and for a little heat add some red chili flakes.

4. Add cooked shrimp and cooked pasta to sauce pan and cook another minute so shrimp heats and pasta soaks up flavor.

5. Place into a bowl to serve and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top. Feel free to add other veggies or a side of garlic bread.

New Cooking Tools and A New Year

This Christmas I was lucky enough to get lots of cooking items. I got a beautiful cast iron enameled dutch oven, saucier, ramekins, candy thermometer, titanium peeler and a scale. I now have so many more options with these few things. I'm so freaking excited to use them! So far I think I'll make something braised like beef stew in my dutch oven, a fancy sauce for some type of fish or seafood with my saucier, maybe custard for my ramekins, another attempt at chocolate taffy with the candy thermometer, something with veggies for the peeler but I'm a little scared too use it because it's so sharp and I'll need to use the scale for all those recipes. See how many options I already have? Now of course you can make all these things with your own pots and pans. My new items just allow me to continue being creative with food.

To kick off the new year I decided to put up some of my favorite quotes about cooking and food.

"Whether it's mac and cheese or steak au poivre, everyone has one dish they can make." Whitney Klein

"No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize" Julia Child

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook” Julia Child

“(On what her longevity is attributed to) Red meat and gin.” Julia Child

"What's with all the drizzling of sauces on food these days? why don't cooks just dump the sauce on? I want to read on a menu, chicken dumped with marinara sauce" Jerry Seinfeld

"Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table."
The Anarchist Cookbook

"You don't sew with a fork, so I see no reason to eat with knitting needles." Miss Piggy, on eating Chinese Food

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may work. Anonymous

Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow they may make it illegal. Anonymous

"Food should be fun" Thomas Keller

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” W.C. Fields

"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie." Jim Davis

"Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you!" Tommy Smothers

"When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste." Laiko Bahrs

“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.” George Bernard Shaw