Jenni Speaks

My daughter is a good cook.  She gives me lots of ideas and has gotten me to move away from recipes and 'wing it'.  She sent me an email about her weekend cooking along with a photo and I wanted to share.

See this lovely cinnamon toast snack I have here? Would you believe I made that bread from scratch using nothing but my own two hands and a wooden spoon?? Must say, making homemade bread is pretty satisfying! I made my first batch this weekend from the starter that Kat gave me. It's not perfect by any means, but it is edible and even pretty tasty so I'm darn proud of my efforts :-) Did not get much rise, I'm blaming the cold for that, but the texture is still pretty decent. It's a full 24 hour process, and a little messy, but not that much work overall surprisingly.  (Nan speaks:  I am really looking forward to tasting this bread she is now baking.....hint, hint, hint)



Also had one more kitchen success this weekend that I have to share because it was easy and amazing - baked coconut shrimp! Really simple, don't even need a recipe really - take the peeled, deveined shrimp (we also took the tails off, although I know it's prettier presentation with them on). Coat them in flour, then egg, then a mixture of panko breadcrumbs and shredded coconut seasoned with S&P. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray and bake at 400 for 10 minutes (I ended up flipping mine and giving them an extra minute at the very end).

 For dipping sauce I used a mango coconut sauce from HT (its basically mango puree with chilis and coconut) thinned out with a touch of rice vinegar and soy sauce. Seriously, amazing, came out nice and light and crispy -and the leftovers were good, too. Next time will chop up the coconut shreds a bit since they were a little large, but beyond that wouldn't change a thing!

Nan again:  (I found a photo from a similar recipe on about.com.)  This recipe is so going in my recipe queue.  I have some lovely Mexican Wild Blue shrimp from Trader Joes'....they are from Gulf of Mexico of course, so have that sweet pop in your mouth).

Tomatoes, again

I wanted to share with you a way to have yummy tomato-based meals all week, almost work-free.  I found this in a Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine.  Here is the link if you want to print it off.

I opened two large cans of whole tomatoes, dumped them into an oiled roasting pan.  I pulled the tomatoes apart with my hands, discarding the hard stem ends.  Stirred in some jarred mince garlic and drizzled some olive oil and stirred.  Then I roasted it for an hour or a little more at 400.  Next time I will probably go down to 375, because the tomatoes did begin to burn on some of the edges.

Now let this mix cool and you can refrigerate it for up to a week.

So far I have stirred it into canned soup, and made a tuna marinara sauce for pasta.  The tuna dish is wonderful for this winter.  I made it for lunch today.  Simply opened a can of tuna in olive oil and dumped it in a pan, added some spoonfuls of roasted tomatoes, thinned it down with water, and simmered it until my pasta was done.  I topped the dish with just some panko crumbs straight from the package.  This was really, really good.  I think I am going to keep roasted canned tomatoes in the fridge this winter.

It is all in the simmering

Now that summer tomatoes are gone, I am once again faced with canned tomatoes.  No more BLT's and lovely sliced tomato plates.  Just stews and soups and pasta sauces.

If you notice, most of the recipes that call for canned tomatoes include the words....sautee onions, garlic, green pepper, add canned tomatoes, heat for 10 minutes.  Quick.  Tasteless.

I have become a fan of the Hallmark Network Show, Mad Cooking with Lucinda.  She is personable and her food is based on the basics.  And she simmers her sauces.  Not for ten minutes, but for at least thirty.  So I tried it. 

I made a fish stew yesterday.  I chopped my onions and green pepper and started them in some hot oil in my ceramic glazed cast iron dutch oven.  Tossed in some minced garlic from a jar.  When it began to caramelize, I opened two cans of tomatoes (in the pantry I had one can "stewed" and one can diced with garlic and olive oil.)  I lowered the heat to simmer and went to my computer to make some scrapbook pages.  I did also toss in some fresh cilantro.

Much later I added some water and some chunks of flounder.  Trader Joe's had a package of flounder chunks, designed for tacos.  Poured a glass of wine and relaxed from my scrapbooking frenzy (I made 14 pages yesterday for a Christmas gift project....whew). 

Just before serving, I stirred in some red wine vinegar.  I threw a handful of chopped cilantro on top of each serving and then squirted some squeeze-bottle lime juice (the best money-saver around) over it all.

Restaurant quality, thank you very much.

(If you want to add some shrimp or other shellfish....remember to do it at the end so it does not overcook...)

Gourmet College Football Weekend?

Now that is surely an oxymoron, I always thought.  Auburn games have generally been at night, so we would leave Charlotte early morning and drive straight through, stopping at the grocery on the edge of Auburn to get a contribution for a tailgate we might have been invited to.  I felt I was lucky to get a decent meal the whole weekend, much less a healthy one.

Well, that changed this year.  Auburn vs Arkansas was a midday game. My lovely SIL's niece works at the local Golf Club and got us the apartment over the golf school.  We drove down Friday and stayed at the apartment two nights.  Gourmet dining room on the property.  My oh my.  Good food, good friends, and we won the game.

Along comes Auburn vs Georgia, another afternoon game.  Miracle of miracles, Larry got a room at a Holiday Inn Express in Auburn.  We drove down Friday, checked in, and drove into Opelika's historic district for a dinner at Cafe 123.  Oh my.  I don't think a restaurant in Charlotte or Atlanta could beat that meal.  And the service was impeccable...no begging for a glass of water or refill!  We went back Saturday after the game and it was just as good.  According to the server, the chef never went to culinary school, he just knows how to cook.  A tiny little storefront on historic Opelika's main street.  Heaven.