Shrimp Risotto

I made Shrimp Risotto last night for the family.  This is officially the fourth recipe from the Cuisine at Home magazine that I received in the mail.

I apologize for the mediocre photo.  I didn't bring my camera and so this is off my phone.

It was really delicious and I don't even like rice.  It was voted "make again" by all.  Only downside was that is was listed as an easy to prepare "midweek meal".  It wasn't difficult to make, but it was time consuming with multiple steps.  Might be a Friday or Saturday night dinner in the future, although if I made the Chive Gremolata that is sprinkled on top, ahead of time, it would have made things a little quicker and easier.

You will notice in the photo above that I used green beans instead of the peas listed in the recipe below.  Now while peas are probably my favorite vegetable, Krissy hates them and has been know to pick peas out of tuna noodle casserole one by one, ringing her plate with a circle of peas.  So for her...I switched it up.

Also, please note that I doubled the recipe since I was feeding 5 adults (Luke at it too!)

Shrimp Risotto
with Chive Gremolata

Shrimp Stock
1 lb medium shrimp
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped leek (green portion)
9 black peppercorns
4 fresh parsley sprigs
2 bay leaves

Peel and devein shrimp, set shrimp aside.  Place shrimp shells and remaining stock ingredients in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer stock for 10 minutes.  Strain stock through a colander into a bowl; discard solids.  Return stock to pan over low heat.

Risotto
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup chopped leeks (white portion)
1 cup dry arborio rice
3/4 cup dry sherry
1 cup frozen peas
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in large saute pan over medium heat.  Add leek whites, sauté 2 minutes. Stir in rice and sauté for 2 more minutes.  Do not allow rice or leeks to brown.

Deglaze pan with sherry, stirring until liquid evaporates.  Add 1/2 cup of warm stock; stir until absorbed.  Continue adding stock 1/2 cup at a time until all the stock is used and rice is tender, 20-25 minutes.

Stir in peas and shrimp, cook until shrimp are pink and firm, about 5 minutes.  Season risotto with salt, cayenne and nutmeg.  Off heat add 2 Tbsp butter and Parmesan.  Garnish with Chive Gremotla.

Chive Gremolata
3 strips thick slice bacon, diced
2 Tbsp minced chives
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp minced garlic
Salt to taste

Cook bacon in skillet until crisp.  Drain and cool.  Combine bacon with chives, parsley, zest, garlic and salt.

Enjoy.

Homemade Caramel Sauce

I have been into making homemade caramel sauce.  I think it might be my new thing.

I had my mom up recently and was planning on making a pie for desert only to remember that morning....my oven doesn't work.  Duh!

That made for a quick dessert change.  Something that can me made on the stovetop.  I ended up making caramel.  I am working on perfecting a sauce.  So each time I make it, I try a different recipe.  Hopefully, some day soon I can post the perfect caramel sauce recipe.

This is the water and sugar boiling away.  A key to making caramel is to not touch it too much.  It doesn't need to be constantly stirred like many other sauces.

This is the finished sauce and I also made a raspberry coulis (coo-lee).  Which is basically a strained raspberry sauce.  Very smooth and very yummy.

BW just had raspberry sauce over his ice cream.  Mom just had caramel.  I had both.  Raspberry and caramel are so good together.  I think raspberry caramel is a product in my future.

I promise to share the best of the caramel recipes when I get it find tuned.

Card of the Week

Made this card for my cousin's new baby girl.  I didn't follow any inspiration, just went with it.  I'm pleased with the final product and the welcome for baby Sam.

Happy week-end everyone.

Classic Pot Roast

Leslie...as requested here is the Pot Roast recipe.

As I mentioned recently, I received a copy of Cuisine at Home.  I wanted to evaluate a few of the recipes before making the decision to subscribe or not. I've already made the BLT Pasta.

For the second recipe I decided to make the Classic Pot Roast.  It was very good and very easy as you cook it in a slow cooker.  I guess you don't call them crock pots anymore.

(Currently, I am oven-less, so the slow cooker has become very important around here.)

My variations and comment are in italics.

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 boneless chuck roast trimmed and seasoned with salt and pepper (3-4 lbs) (I think you can use a variety of beef roasts)
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine (I used red wine as I like red with beef)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups sliced onions
6 medium carrots peeled and cut into 2-3 inch pieces
3 large celery ribs, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme (tie to together with cooking string for easy removal)
2 bay leaves

Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium high heat.  Sear roast on all sides, about 10 minutes total.  Transfer roast to 4-6 qt slow cooker.
Stir flour into sauté pan, cook 1 minute.  (IMPORTANT:  Make sure you have enough oil/juice in the pan for the flour or it will just get lumpy.  If you need more liquid, add more oil or melt some butter in saute pan first. You need to be able to make a roux with the flour. For a 1/4 cup of flour, you will need about 1/4 cup of liquid in the pan.)
Add tomato paste and cook 1 minute.
Deglaze saute pan with wine and cook until liquid evaporates to half.  Stir in broth and Worcestershire, bringing mixture to a simmer and scraping up any brown bits.
Transfer broth mixture to the slow cooker.  Add onions, carrots, celery garlic, thyme and bay leaves.  Cover and cook until meat is fork-tender.  High setting 4-5 hours.  Low setting, 8-9 hours.  Discard thyme and bay leaves before serving.

Serve with Mashed Potatoes as the gravy is yummy.

All I Want for Christmas...

I think I know what Ryan is going to need for Christmas.  At this rate, it will be 2 front teeth.

He also just ran the mile in 12:44.  Not bad for a 6 year old.

Welcome FALL

I completed a little fall project this week-end.  I'm so glad I was able to get something DONE.

I made a decoration for my front door to welcome FALL.

Here's how it turned out:

I'd love to show you my whole front porch fall decorations, but this is as far as I got.  Unfortunately, I have to wait until pay-day to get my mums and pumpkins.

I got the idea for this from another blog.  I swear I pinned it on Pinterest, but now I can't find it.  I would love to give credit to the originator, so if any of my regular readers recall seeing this somewhere, please let me know in the comments.

I can tell you that the original was far better than mine and she had the ribbons going over the top of the door and securing somehow on the other side.  It was a very cool look, but I couldn't figure out how adhere the ribbons to the door without putting holes in the door.  I came up with the idea to hang the ribbon from a wooden bar instead.

I very happy with how it turned out and both the girls noticed it right away when the stopped over.

So...Happy Fall

Quick Mini Apple Pies

I'm becoming a big believer in Sunday Dinners.  Last week was a delicious Pot Roast (more on that later) and I decided to make apple pie too.  I didn't want to make a whole pie as that would be too much tempting goodies around for the rest of the week, so I made two small apple pies...using a quick method I just kind of figured out as I went along.

I started with the two Corning-ware 16 oz bowls in their oven safe bakeware.  To make things even easier, I used at Pillsbury pre-made pie crust.  I rolled out it to make it a bit larger (by the way...always do this before using, it fixes the rolled up crusts odd shape where the one end is all curly).  I then cut it in half both ways to make four quarter circles. I placed two quarters in each dish with the pointed ends overlapping and letting the extra hang over the side.

Now it's apple time.  For the sizes dishes I used, I peeled cut and cored 5 apples.  I sliced these into a pot and added 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.  I stirred this up and cooked it on the stove top (medium heat) until the apples were saucy and tender (about 20 minutes).

To thicken the sauce, I put 1 tsp of corn starch into a bowl and added a few spoonfuls of the juice from the pan.  I stirred that up and added it back into the pan stirring until well distributed.  The sauce thickened very quickly.  I removed it from the heat and added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, stirring throughly.

I poured half of the apple mixture into each prepared bowl, put a few small dabs of butter over the top of the apples and then folded the overhanging pie crust over the top of the apples.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

I must warn you...my oven is acting up (service coming today), so your pies my brown up faster than mine.  Start at 30 minutes or so and then keep an eye on it.

Here is the finished product.  It was perfect and tasted exactly like apple pie. Which honestly surprised me.  Serve ala mode and enjoy.

Farmhouse Update #1

I haven't mentioned this before, but at some point BW and I will be moving out to his house at the farm.  This move has been pending for at least...two years.  BW's work-life just keep getting in the way when he spent a year and half working in Georgia.

In addition, we were also doing some repairs and remodeling that got halted mid-way through.

Now, that he is back home and working for himself, we are finally making some progress on the kitchen. This week, the countertops are finally being installed and we have picked out our backsplash.

You are going to have to use your imagination a bit as these are all just samples, but here is the idea behind the backsplash:

The bottom square tile is the countertop. (It is actually a grey/taupe color of Silestone called Amazon Leather.)    The middle section of the backsplash will be an 11 inch wide section of the blue, green and taupe glass tiles.  There will be a border of white subway tiles below and above the glass tile, with the subway tiles going up behind the cooktop.

Can you squint your mind's eye and see it?  I really like it, although this is the first backsplash I've ever picked out.  There is only one wall needing a backsplash as the rest of the kitchen is very open.

What do you think?