Taco Tuesday Night Part Two

One of my favorite Christmas presents that I received this year is the Southern Living Annual Cookbook that my mom gave me.  I had requested it after seeing quite a few recipes that I liked on myrecipes.com from the magazine.  Back in the 90s, my mom had given me two of these cookbooks, but she had stopped doing it since she also gets them every year.  As soon as I opened the present, I began flipping through it.  I came across a taco recipe that looked like something that Rick and I would enjoy.  It was for Tempura Shrimp Tacos.  I was also excited about it because it would also be a nice break from the leftovers that I've been eating since I returned from NC.  Like other Southern Living recipes, it can be found on here on myrecipes.com.  It was originally published in the September 2009 issue.  

I had never played with Tempura batter before, but it sure was messy!  I accidentally followed the directions on the box instead of the recipe so I used the whole box instead of just a cup.  I upped the amount of fajita seasoning.  We still thought that the end product was rather bland.  The Mexi-Cole Slaw was pretty good, but in Rick's opinion, nothing can top the Asian slaw. I don't know that we'll be having it again because while it wasn't bad, there are so many other recipes that we like better!


Tempura Shrimp Tacos
Ingredients
1 pound unpeeled, large raw shrimp (31/35 count)
1 cup tempura batter mix (I used McCormick's)
3/4 cup cold light beer
2 teaspoons fajita seasoning mix (I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of Old El Paso)

Vegetable oil
12 (6-inch) fajita-size flour tortillas, warmed
Mexi-Coleslaw Mix (see below for recipe)

Directions
Peel shrimp; devein, if desired.

Whisk together tempura batter mix, beer, and fajita seasoning in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.

Pour oil to depth of 2 inches into a Dutch oven; heat to 325°. Dip shrimp in tempura batter, shaking off excess. Fry shrimp, in batches, 1 to 2 minutes on each side or until golden; drain on a wire rack over paper towels.

Serve in warm tortillas with Mexi-Coleslaw Mix and desired toppings (We used cilantro, salsa, and sour cream)



Mexi-Coleslaw Mix
Ingredients
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon fajita seasoning (I used a tablespoon)

1/2 (16-oz.) package shredded coleslaw mix
Salt to taste

Directions
Stir together cilantro, mayonnaise, lime juice, and fajita seasoning in a large bowl; add coleslaw mix, stirring to coat. Season with salt to taste. Cover and chill 30 minutes to 24 hours.

Home for the Holidays Ham Rolls

One of my favorite things about coming home for the holidays (aside from my mom's Ghiradelli brownies and dill dip) are the Hall Rolls that she makes.  We usually have them as "hold overs" until our lunch is ready.  My mom makes the night before, but the only problem with that is they are so hard to resist!  While she was preparing them this year, I learned that she originally got the recipe from Irene Craig who was one of my music teacher in elementary school.  According to my mom, Mrs. Craig served them at a faculty party.  I've had other versions of these rolls, but what I think makes this recipe so much better is that the ham is shaved instead of chopped.  I hope that you enjoy them, too!

Ham Rolls

Ingredients

1 stick of butter softened

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion finely chopped (around 1/4 cup)

1 package of party rolls (the long and skinny ones)

1 4 to 5 oz package of shaved deli ham

1 4 oz package of sliced Swiss Cheese (almost shaved)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix together first 5 ingredients in a small bowl.  Slice whole package of party rolls in half.  Spread both sides of rolls with the mustard mixture.  Top one side of the with small pieces of ham.  Cover ham with Swiss Cheese.

Place the rolls on a baking sheet.  Heat in the oven until cheese is melted (around 10 minutes).  Remove and cool.  Once the rolls have cooled, cut them apart.

Evilly Sinful Christmas Side: Four Cheese Macaroni and Cheese

Unlike at Thanksgiving, my mom and I actually cook for Christmas.  This year, Rick went home to visit his family, and I headed up to North Carolina to spend time with mine.  Since moving to the Low Country, I don't get to see a lot of snow, and I was happy to see that a little bit stuck around from last week.  As soon as I saw the snow, I called Rick from the road to tell him.  My dad suggested that I bring Rick a snowball home in a cooler so that he could experience it, too.  

I had to share a picture of the Nativity Scene that my mom made

for one the plays that she worked on!

Christmas for me has always meant Christmas Eve with my dad and Christmas with my mom.  For Christmas Eve dinner last night, we had a standing rib roast, and I encrusted it like the one that I did for Rick and I!  My mom and I do a lunch for us, and since it is just us, we have a ton of leftovers!  We pretty much have the same menu every year....ham and a turkey breast, Nanny's potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing. She also always does sweet potatoes in honor of my grandfather.  Last week, my mom asked me if I wanted to add anything to the menu, but I couldn't think of anything.  She said that she wanted to do macaroni and cheese, and my immediate thought was of a recipe for Cru Cafe's 4 Cheese Macaroni and Cheese.  I had made this recipe one time before for our church potluck dinner after finding it in an issue of Low Country Living magazine.  I emailed it to my mom so that she could buy all of that evil cheese that goes in it!  I'm happy to report, though, that Cru Cafe has the recipe on its website!  Here it is!

There are a couple of things that make this recipe one that I save for special occasions.  First, it is rather labor intensive.  Be prepared to grade some cheese.  Also, (and someone may have a suggestion to make this process go quicker..if you do, please comment!!!) it takes forever for the heavy cream to reduce. What I do to help it along the way is to use a sauce pan with a larger radius so that there is more surface area to heat the cream.  I also turn the heat up to a medium high for a little while to get the cream to barely boil and then reduce the heat back to medium so that I don't scorch the cream.  I swear it 3 hours!!!   Despite these complaints of mine, it is a delicious dish!


To reheat any leftovers, do it slowly on the stove while adding milk.  Be sure to stir while slowly reheating it (think low setting).  For ours on Christmas, we used elbow-shaped pasta.  Because my mom has sulfur allergies, she got us organic brown rice pasta.


Cru Cafe's Four Cheese Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
8 cups of heavy cream, reduced to 4 cups
1 pound dried orecchiette pasta
1 cup pepper jack cheese, hand grated
1 cup cheddar cheese, hand grated
1 cup fontina cheese, hand grated
1 cup mozzarella cheese, hand grated
1/4 cup olive oil
For final cooking
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, hand grated
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, hand grated
1/2 cup fontina cheese, hand grated
1/2 mozzarella cheese, hand grated
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Reduce cream to approximately 4 cups by
simmering over medium heat in a medium sized sauce pan.  Bring several
cups of well-salted water up to a boil over high heat and cook the
pasta until al dente.  Cool down rapidly in cold water then drain
well.  Coat the pasta lightly in olive oil to prevent sticking.  Set
aside.

Grate all the cheese, keeping them in separate piles.  Once the cream
is reduced, whisk in the four 1 cup quantities of cheeses.  Heat over
low heat until the cheese is fully melted.  Set aside.

In a big mixing bowl, combine the remaining cheese, pasta, and cheese
sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste and mix well without breaking up
the pasta.  Pour into a casserole pan and bake until lightly brown on
top (about 20-25 minutes).

Taco Tuesday Night!

This weekend, I was craving tacos.  I didn't want anything fancy, just straight out of the Old El Paso Box type of taco.  I don't think that I've ever made them myself as an adult, but I do have fond memories of them from my childhood.  When I mentioned it to Rick on Saturday night, he surprised me with baby back ribs so tacos got postponed until last night.  Even though I had told him about my box taco plan, Rick said that he knew that I'd probably end up doing something different.  Of course, he was right...well, sort of.

When I stopped by Publix on my way home from work yesterday, I picked up an onion to cook with the ground beef that Rick was bring over and pre-shredded lettuce.  As I was headed toward the aisle with the Mexican food products, I passed the seafood counter and noticed that snow crab legs were on sale.  An idea popped into my head!  What about crab tacos???  Sounded yummy to me!  I ended up getting just one cluster so that we could have one "special" taco and the rest would be the normal ones.  Obviously, Rick knows me very well!  I decided to grab a lime to go with the crab legs and opted for the half hard tacos and half soft taco combo box. 

I didn't tell Rick about my surprise special tacos until he came over for dinner.  I had also gotten some of that evil cheese dip that is like the dip they serve in Mexican restaurants so that we could have a pre-meal snack while I made dinner.

We were pleasantly surprised by the results of my crab tacos and I am including the recipe here.  I got 2 small, soft tacos out of one cluster so if you are wanting to do more, I'd use that as the guide (or dosage calculation for those nursing students out there ;) ).  I used dried cilantro instead of fresh because I was afraid that it would go bad over the holidays.  I'm not including the box taco recipe since they come on the box!  Enjoy!

Crab Soft Tacos
Ingredients
1 cluster snow crab legs (1 cluster makes 2 small soft tacos)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspooon dried cilantro
Garlic powder
Shredded lettuce
Salsa of your choice
Soft taco shells
Light sour cream

Directions
Cook crab legs in boiling water until cooked.  Remove crab meat from shells and place in bowl.  Add a dash of garlic powder, lime juice, and cilantro.  Mix together and drain excess lime juice.

Place desired amount of lettuce in the middle of the soft taco shell.  Top with half of crab mixture, salsa and sour cream.  Fold taco and enjoy!

Cookies for dogs???

Today's blog entry isn't actually something that I made, but rather, it's part of the Christmas presents that my dear friend Kelly is making for her family....well, at least the furry members anyway!  I went over to her place (she lives across the street) to hang out for a bit after the sad basketball game against Texas on Saturday afternoon, and she was busy in her kitchen.  She had borrowed my rolling pin, and I got to be her assistant while she was making "Human Friendly" dog treats. 

The first ones that she made were cookies. They did almost look like chocolate chip cookies, and I did sample one of the vegan "chocolate chips" (not Katie friendly in my opinion).  She also made a "biscotti"with peanut butter and melted the vegan "chocolate chips" to drizzle on top of them.  For some odd reason, I felt the need to sample these, too (maybe because this time, they did look exactly like biscotti), and they were actually pretty good.  Kelly found the recipes on foodnetwork.com.  Here they are!

Human Friendly Dog Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1/4 cup carob chips
1/4 cup honey
2 to 3 tablespoons water, as needed

Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.


Put the flour, cornmeal, wheat germ, and cinnamon into a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, carob chips, honey, and 1 tablespoon water. Use your hands to mix the ingredients together and form a smooth dough. If it feels too dry, add more water. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest 10 minutes. (Can be made ahead and refrigerated, just let it warm up a bit before rolling.)
Dust your counter with some flour and roll the dough out until it is 1/4-inch thick using more flour as needed so it doesn't stick. Cut into shapes using a dog bone shaped cookie cutter, or use a knife to make the same shape. You can re-roll the scraps and cut out more cookies. Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cookies are well browned. Remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.



Peanut-Carob Isabooscotti
Ingredients
2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
2 pinches ground cinnamon
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup milk
1 cup carob chips
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.


In a large bowl, combine that flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Place the peanut butter in a medium bowl and microwave at high power to soften, 5 to 10 seconds. Whisk in the milk, then stir the mixture into the dry ingredients.

Shape the dough into a long, flattened log and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes; remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice the log crosswise on an angle into 1-inch-thick pieces. Set the slices on their sides (they should look like biscotti) and bake until crisp, 10 to 12 minutes more. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Melt the carob in a microwave or on the stovetop over low heat. Thin the melted carob with 1 tablespoon water, if needed. Using a spoon, drizzle the melted carob over the biscuits

A Christmas favorite: Black Pepper-Crusted Standing Rib Roast

The first time I made this perfect dish was for Christmas. Instead of going to North Carolina, I had to stay in South Carolina that year, but luckily, my mom came into town so that I didn't have to spend the holiday alone. I love this recipe so much that I actually asked for an electric knife for Christmas one year so that it would be much easier to cut. The Roasted Red Onions are a must!!!!

And of course, I've made it for Rick. While I like my steak rare, Rick prefers his medium to medium well. Slowly but surely, I'm winning him over to the rarer side!!!  What I do with his is heat them up in the oven in a cast iron skillet to get his steak more done (note the differences in the pics!). When I make this, I always, always, always have to make horsey sauce (sour cream, horseradish, a little garlic powder). I don't really make many changes to them because they are so awesome! I do adjust the time so that my roast is on the rare side, and also, I usually use a smaller roast than the original recipe calls for.  Last night, I used a 3.6 lb one. 

You can find these recipes on epicurious.com here and here!

 
You can see mine here, and if you look closely, it just might twitch for you!  Rick's is in the background (note the burnt Texas toast--lol!)


The rib roast!!!

Bon Appétit | December 2002

Yield: Makes 8 servings Ingredients: 1 8 1/2-pound standing rib roast (weight with bones), top fat trimmed Vegetable oil 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 2 tablespoons cracked or coarsely ground black pepper 4 large garlic cloves, minced 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 1/4 cups low-salt beef broth 1/2 cup dry red wine Preparation: Place roast, fat side up, in roasting pan. Brush exposed ends of roast with vegetable oil. Sprinkle roast lightly all over with salt. Mix 8 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons cracked pepper, minced garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in small bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons pepper butter for sauce. Spread remaining pepper butter all over top (fat side) of roast. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover roast and reserved pepper butter separately; chill.) Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Roast rib roast until instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of meat registers 125°F for medium-rare, about 2 hours 45 minutes. Transfer roast to platter and cover loosely with foil; let rest 30 minutes (temperature will rise slightly as roast stands). Strain pan juices from roasting pan into measuring cup. Skim off any fat from top of pan juices; discard fat. Return pan juices to roasting pan; set pan over 2 burners. Add broth and wine to roasting pan and boil over high heat until liquid is reduced to 1 1/4 cups, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pan, about 6 minutes. Whisk in reserved pepper butter and remaining 4 tablespoons plain butter. Season with more salt and pepper, if desired. Surround roast with Roasted Red Onions. Slice roast and serve with sauce.

The onions!!!

Bon Appétit | December 2002

You can cook the onions up to one day ahead. Just before serving time, rewarm them in the oven while the roast rests.

Yield: Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

3 pounds small red onions (about 9), halved through root end, then cut into 3/4-inch-wide wedges with some of core attached to each
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Preparation:

Position 1 rack in bottom third and 1 rack in top third of oven and preheat to 450°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with foil; butter foil generously. Arrange onion wedges cut side down on prepared sheets. Brush onions with melted butter. Mix thyme, salt, and pepper in small bowl; sprinkle over onions. Drizzle with vinegar. Cover baking sheets tightly with foil. Roast onions 20 minutes. Reverse baking sheets from top to bottom and continue to roast until bottoms of onion wedges are brown, about 20 minutes longer. Remove foil. Using spatula, turn onion wedges over; cover with foil and roast until bottoms of onions are brown and edges are slightly crisp, reversing position of baking sheets after 5 minutes, about 15 minutes total. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate onions on sheets, covered. Rewarm uncovered in 350°F oven until heated through, about 15 minutes.)