Shrimp Etouffee (my first time at cooking shrimp....fancy that!)

I was a vegetarian for the first 20 years of my life.  I have never had chicken, turkey, pork, and if you don't count the bite of steak that I tried, and immediately spit back out (it bounced back at me when I bit into it!  It freaked me out!) I have never had cow either.  But I admit it, I dig the seafood.  I LOVE sushi.  Salmon is my all time favorite, and tuna is pretty yummy too.  But since I didn't start eating the stuff until a few years ago, I'm still learning on the best ways to prepare it.  This is where the Whole Foods Market, recipe section on their website comes in.

There was a sale the other week on shrimp.  I figured, what the hey!  I like shrimp okay, and it was a cool grey day.  What better time to try out this Shrimp Etouffee recipe?  I gather my thoughts and all the ingredients.  I halved this recipe because I was just feeding me and the monkey and there was still plenty of leftovers, but here is the original one, so do with it, what you will.

-6 Tablespoons butter
-3 Tablespoons flour
-1 cup chopped onion (and we all know how well I measure things like vegetables.  I just threw in an entire medium sized onion.)
-6 green onions, chopped
-1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (again, I tossed in whatever I happened to have.  I enjoy my veggies, and you can never have too many in my book.)
-1/2 cup chopped celery (see above.  Whateves!)
-2 cup water/stock (I used vegetable stock and it was yummy.)
-3 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined (my comments on this to follow.  And remember, I only used a little over a pound because I halved the recipe.)
-1/4 cup chopped parsley
-Salt and pepper, to taste
-1 bay leaf
-Tobasco sauce, to taste
-Hot cooked rice (you can go back to my older posts to see how I make my rice.  Or read directions on the box.  I used brown rice, cause that's how I roll.  Unless I'm making sushi.  Then white rice is the tops!  But I digress.)

Here we are!  What a nice looking picture, right?  I spared you all by not posting a much less desirable picture of the shrimp deveining process.  Oh lord.  It made me realize why I had been a vegetarian for as long as I had.  It was a very humbling (and time consuming!) few moments, and made me realize how homogenized it is to purchase ready packed, to go, portions of meat.  I think way less people would eat meat if they had to be the ones to a) kill the creature they were about to consume and b) ready it to be consumed.  So I had a nice little time with these little shrimp, recognizing what they had been, and appreciating how yummy they were going to be, all the while being exceedingly disgusted at the entire deveining process.  But I was determined to move forward, and so I did.  Onward!

 In a skillet, (I used my favorite cast iron pan) melt the butter over medium high heat.  Once melted, add the flour, and continue to stir and blend until the flour and butter mixture is a deep golden brown.  Like so:

Add the vegetables, and cook until tender.

Stir in the water/stock, shrimp, parsley and seasonings.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked.  I did it for 20 minutes and it was PERFECT!

Serve over hot rice.  If you want to be a fancy pants, I saved some fresh parsley and used that as a garnish (because I am nothing, if I am not an aspiring fancy pants in the kitchen.)  And let me just say, it was worth the shrimp prep because this dish is silly easy and SO GOOD!  This just darted to my list of go to dinners, along with the miso tofu num nums, pizza, and veggie tacos (in our house, we like to call them toncos).  So kudos to the Whole Foods Market website, with all it's recipe action.  Now, back to rehearsals and gathering other seasonal recipes to try out.  Coming soon, (thanks to a free cookbook that is all cheesecake recipes) I'll be exploring the wide world of the cheesecake, so start knitting your excited caps.  Fancy Pants Cheesecakes are on the horizon.  So close, I can almost taste them.....

I know....I know....

So it's been a little while.  Life happens, work happens, and then THIS happens:

Yup.  You guessed it.  I'm in a SHOW!  This isn't JUST a food blog, you know.  It's "Stuff I Like, By Me!"  I love theatre.  And I love musical theatre.  I always have.  I was singing Annie before I could talk (just ask my long suffering family), and memorizing children's books that my parents read to me, long before I could read.  I could fake cry with the best of them, and I have never had a problem projecting my voice.  Some call it loud, I just say that my voice "naturally carries".  No matter which way you spin it, I love the theatre and I have been lucky enough to be cast in many a show since the age of 11.  Take this gem if you will.  Here I am in my first REAL show.  It was for the Community Children's Theatre (which has long been disbanded, which is a pity because it was the only thing going on for children's theatre for many years.)  It was a musical production of "Robin Hood", circa 1992.  I was "Beth".  Yup, there was a character in Robin Hood called "Beth".  Well, in this show anyway.

Oh yeah!  Check me out!  I remember my tights that we had to dye in tea, and the "chain-mail" vests, which were actually knitted garments that had been spray painted silver.  Anyway, this was the first show I had to really audition for, and above all, sing a song in order to get cast!  Well, lucky for me, I was cast.  But I digress.

The show I am currently working on is called "The Drowsy Chaperone" which you may have guessed from the above picture.  It played on broadway from 2006 to 2007 and won the tony for best book and best score.  It's a silly and fun show, and I'm just thrilled to be a part of it.  There are many familiar faces to those of you who see theatre in Charlottesville, and even if you are not a fan of theatre, much less, musical theatre, I think you will enjoy it.  It runs from December 9 through January 16.  I'll be posting more about it as we get closer to opening, and hopefully I'll have some more time to cook in the month or so, leading up to it.  Until then, I'll be learning my notes, and looking for yummy fall recipes.  And maybe be carving a pumpkin or two.  Who can say?

The PBJ bar!

Sometimes, I have ideas.  Sometimes, I have silly ones, big ones, wee ones, improbable ones and unstoppable ones.  I had a group of friends over to my house yesterday for a brunch type thing.  I was feeling exceedingly lazy, and exceptionally poor.  How best to pick a food to serve when you are feeling these things, I ask?  Some may say, "who needs food when you have mimosas?" (Unfortunately, this is a question I also asked yesterday, and 24 hours and two bottles of seltzer water later, I think I finally get it.)  Some people may also say "just go to Bodo's, stock up on the crowd pleasing carbs, and be done with it!"  No sir.  Not this day.  I wanted comfort food.  Something fun and childlike but with a twist!  And this my friends, is what I came up with:

The peanut-butter and jelly smorgasbord!


So much goodness all in one place!  I assembled fresh ground, honey roasted peanut-butter and almond-butter from our neighborhood Whole Foods, two types of crackers (a ritz style and a wheat), raisins, chocolate bits, honey, agave syrup, sliced bananas, mixed berry jelly, and finally gram-crackers.  Then, I dug in (before the guests arrived, yes.  I had to make sure this wasn't a wonderful, awful idea.)  It was everything I wanted.  The almond-butter with raisins on a wheat thin, the peanut-butter with banana and honey on a ritz, and for dessert, peanut-butter and chocolate on a gram-cracker.  Each one was so yummy, and it was the perfect different kind of snack to share.  The reviews were positive and to top it off, there wasn't much remaining at the end of the party, so that helped with the clean up.   See my friends, sometimes my ideas work out pretty well.  Sometimes they end up like the potato leek soup that I made that one time, where I didn't wash the leeks well enough, and the soup had so much sand in it that the only person that would eat it was my darling dad.  But sometimes, yes, sometimes things of beauty come out of it all.  Like knowing that leeks harbor massive amounts of sand, and also knowing that you are never too old to appreciate a good PB and J.

Lasagna experiment, or how 90 minutes at 375 saved my dinner.

Not all experiments turn out as well as the miso glazed num num episode.  This is a story about one that turned out fine, just not as golden as I would have hoped.  But now I have a great jumping off point for the next time.  Let's start at the beginning.

I ask Monkey (AKA my boyfriend) what he wants for dinner, every day I cook.  The past three answers have been an emphatic "Lasagna!"  My only lasagna experience (aside from eating it) was making a vegan version years ago with a friend.  (My vegan days, which are happily over and we shall never speak of again, lasted for many many years due to a dairy allergy from childhood that I outgrew and then I discovered the joy of cheese, yogurt and Ben and Jerry's.  But I digress.)

I have a large tool belt of "go to" recipes, but lasagna is not one of these things.  Okay, let's try this out.  Epicurious took me down a long road of recipes and I picked this one from Self magazine, 2005.  I tweaked it.  As per usual.  I don't do measuring when I cook if I can help it, so here we go!

What I used:

1 rounded cup of ricotta
1 tbsp thyme
1/2 tbsp basil (dried)
1/2 tbsp oregano
3 plus cloves of garlic

Mix all these things together and set aside.

Looks tasty, right?  And it is!  I could have used a little more garlic, but I can't ever have too much garlic, so use to your taste.  Also I sprinkled a little black pepper and salt.

Next I chopped up a ton of vegetables in the amounts of:



1 carrot
1 large zucchini
1/2 a yellow onion
1 green pepper
8 mushrooms
1 broccoli crown

For the remaining ingredients, I used one box of oven ready lasagna noodles that had been in the kitchen cabinet for longer than I care to admit, 3/4 jar of pasta sauce (it would have been an entire jar, but we had used a bit for pizza sauce the other night. Desperate times.) one 32 oz can of crushed tomatoes (to make up for the lack of tomato sauce remaining) and 1 large chunk of mozzarella, grated.   now the layering begins.

Start with coating the bottom of your pan with sauce.  Then layer the noodles, veggies, and top off with dollops of the ricotta mixture and a nice handful of the mozzarella.  Repeat these layers (I think I fit in 4 good layers?) and end with noodles, sauce and parmesan on the top.

• Having finished this layered beauty, it was time to put it in the oven (pre heated to 375) and bake!  Now, this is where it got tricky.  The recipe I used said it only needed to bake for 50 minutes.  As poor Monkey and I discovered after  each crunching our way through a small piece, this was not nearly enough time.  "That's it!"  I thought to myself.  "I am officially a failure in the kitchen.  One of the most foolproof foods you can throw together, and I can't make it."  Back in the oven and 40 more minutes later, I realized I was wrong.  It was good.  Quite good actually.  Maybe more cheese and sauce and less veggies for next time (I was trying to make this on the healthy side, but who am I fooling?  Cheese is what makes the world go round and why try and use less of a brilliant thing?)  Lesson learned my friends.  You can never have too much garlic or cheese in the world.

Miso glazed num nums

Ah miso, such a rare, misunderstood, mysterious thing you are.  Frequently found in the dairy section or hiding in a cooler in your neighborhood health food store,  I love you and I want to share my love with everyone!  Here is a little something I made last night (much to the delight of my darling boyfriend, whom we shall call Monkey to protect his identity.)  Since this is cooking and not baking, the exact measurements are much more flexible so feel free to add, subtract or mess with as you see fit.  That's exactly what I did and this is what I came up with:

Miso Glaze from Whole Foods Market website (the actually recipe was "miso glazed catfish and bok choy" but I"m not the biggest catfish fan, being a dedicated follower of salmon, so I took some of these ideas and ran!)

What I used and you may need, if you make this like I did.  This fed two very hungry people, and there was enough left for lunch for two less hungry people.

3 bunches baby bok choy (or one large bunch of regular bok choy)
1 lb (ish?  1 pack?  Whatever.) of extra firm tofu.  I let it sit between a few sheets of paper towels and between two plates with two heavy jars on top of it, to force out any excess water.  Once again, whatever you want.
10 or so shiitake mushrooms (because I LOVE them)
1 bunch of scallions.

For the Miso glaze:

2 tablespoons oil (I used olive)
3 tablespoons white miso (like the picture above)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons warm water

Whisk these four ingredients together.  Slice tofu into thin, wide strips, and place into a baking dish.  Brush half of the glaze onto the tofu, making sure to coat and get both sides, and set aside.

While the tofu is lounging in it's own yumminess, saute scallions and mushrooms in a little olive oil.  Add baby bok choy (chopped up into a manageable size) and a little bit of water. Cover and let steam for 3-5 minutes, or until the bok choy is done just enough to your liking.  Add the remaining glaze and mix in.  Turn down and let simmer while you go back to the tofu.

Now, I will say in retrospect, I will choose to bake the tofu in the baking dish because Monkey and I decided that the tofu was a bit oily because I chose to fry it.  Nonetheless, it was yummy and you do what you want.  So I fried it on a high heat, turning it over after 3 or so minutes on each side.

So it was really yummy, and I can only imagine it would have been yummier still if I had a) let the tofu sit in the miso glaze even longer or b) baked the tofu which would have burnt off less of the glaze so there would have been even more to spoon over the finished product.  I also served it over brown rice, which I'm assuming all of you fine folks can figure out how to make (hint, follow the directions on the box.)  In any case, this was a really well played experiment!  Monkey loved it and said this one of, if not my best meal experiment yet!  And if Monkey is happy, than by golly so am I.  So take away from this, that miso is SUPER yummy, and a really great addition in stir fry recipes.  And now for the final product!

Miso Num Nums

Editors note:  I made this dish again because I've been craving it ever since try number once, only this time I baked the tofu in the miso glaze at 300 for 45+ minutes.  AW, MAN it was EVEN BETTER than the first time!  I had never tried baking tofu before and I could see this being an awesome and healthier way to enjoy tofu, as opposed to frying it (when I often tend to fill the house with smoke anyways, so perhaps it's best I stick to the oven for this dish.)  I would imagine any kind of marinade and tofu, baked at a low heat for a long time, will undoubtably be yummy.  Anyway, I am once again full and happy, and that's kind of the point of it all, am I right?

The most epic blueberry pie recipe (and gosh darn if she ain't a looker too!) Part two: the filling

Okay, did we survive that part okay?  Are we ready for the easy part?  ("Wait, that wasn't the easy part?" you ask.  I know my friends.  It was easy.  And yet, this part is even easier.  Who would have thought it possible?)  The filling.  Now, I can not take the tiniest bit of credit for this recipe.  My dear friend (who we shall call "Miss P" to protect her identity) made this one day for me and my boyfriend and after having had multiple pieces, we both said "hold the phone!  We MUST have this recipe!"  So she was good enough to pass it on.  I have no idea if she made it up or from whence it came, but we are just happy to have it.  So here we go.

You need 1 pre-baked pie crust.  Since the recipe we just used made two, (and when was two pies ever enough for anyone I ask?) I just doubled the filling recipe below so do the same if that's how you are going to roll.  And let me just say, do it.  You will be happy you did.  Also, go ahead and brush the crust with a little egg white before you embark on the filling journey.  Ready?  Okay.

-Whisk together in a tiny bowl and set aside:
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

-In another small bowl, mix together and set aside:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
-Optional, zest half a lemon and add that too.  I did and man oh man, was I happy I did!)
A pinch of salt
A pinch of cinnamon (once again, optional, but why not, I say?

-Other things you will need:
5 cups blueberries
1/2 cup water

Measure out 1 cup of blueberries (use the softest ones, or if you are me, ignore that point and just measure out a flipping cup of blueberries.)
Put them in a medium sized saucepan with 1/2 cup water.  Cover and bring to a boil,  Reduce to low and simmer, stirring constantly, until berries begin to burst (I hate that word, but there's just not a better one for us to use at this point) and juices begin to thicken, 3-4 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Gradually add cornstarch mixture to berries, stirring constantly, than add the sugar, lemon, salt and cinnamon mixture.  Return to stove and simmer 1 minute or until mixture becomes translucent and thick.

Now, I have to confess, this is where I panicked.  There was nothing "translucent and thick" happening with my blueberries.  I turned the heat up a little and not much was changing, surely not in the minute that the recipe said.  So I threw in a little more cornstarch and I think that and the combo of the slightly higher heat joined together to make some thickening magic!  Whoo hoo!  Now, back on schedule.

Remove from heat and immediately and gently, fold in the remaining 4 cups of blueberries.  Immediately spoon into pie shell and set aside for two hours at room temperature.

Oh dear lord.  Its so beautiful!

There you have it my friends.  Fresh blueberry pie made from scratch, crust and all.  Now don't be greedy and save some for your friends.  They will thank you for it.  Mine did.

How can I eat a thing of such beauty?  Oh, alright.  If I must.

The most epic blueberry pie recipe (and gosh darn if she ain't a looker too!) Part 1: The Crust.

I love pie.  Pie is the perfect dessert, breakfast, snack and sweet option in my book.  I'll take if over chocolate any day.  The combination of sweet cooked fruits, or perfectly spiced pumpkin or sweet potato, combined with a flakey crust....mmm....but I digress.  I am a very busy lady, and the fact that I found the time to make this pie, not once in a week, but TWICE?  Yes, that speaks to just how flipping easy and how AMAZING TASTY it is.  So here you go followers.  Here it is with my little tweaks.  Let us begin with the pie crust: 

Foolproof Pie Dough
Cooks Illustrated, November 2007

Makes enough for one 9-inch double-crust pie
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour  (This time I am subbing 1 cup of whole flour, we will see how it goes.)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar (for round two, I left this out.  I like my sugar left in the filling and not in the crust, but that's just me.)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into small bits
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

This is where the recipe and I differ.  I do not have a standing mixer, so I used my pastry cutter (which I love dearly, and I like to get my hands dirty so it's much more fun in my mind.)  So you can either:
a) process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

Or b) mix everything in in the same steps listed about, but do it with a pastry blender.  Like so.  Then:

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

Here is where the fun begins.  When you have waited exactly 45 minutes (I'm not good at doing all this ahead of time, okay?) bring out the dough and roll it out into a roundish shape, big enough to line a pie dish. Preheat your oven to 350 and line the pie crust with parchment, paper, wax paper or aluminum foil.  They say you should fill the crust at least two-thirds full with pie weights, dry beans or rice.  What did I do, you ask?  I'm lazy and I didn't have any of these items, however I did cover the edges of the pie with foil so it wouldn't burn, which I hoped would redeem me in the eyes of purists.  Anyways, place pie crusts in the over for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, cool a few minutes and (if you were a good girl or boy and actually used the pie weights) remove the weights carefully.  Since I did not, the pie had puffed up a bit from the bottom of the dish.  However, not to be deterred I followed the next step which was to poke small holes in the bottom of the crust, remove the foil from the edges and return to the oven for an additional ten minutes.  Then I removed them from the oven and let cool.

So pretty, right?  Yay for the pice crust!  Okay, now round two.  Pie filling.

Quick Update

I know.....I know....It's been a bit since I've written.  Tomorrow I will have a lovely blueberry pie recipe to post complete with pictures, but since this blog is called "things I like, by me", I thought I would do a little shout out to my friends who don't read this blog, but are currently staring in "13 the musical" at Live Arts.  It is really great.  Really great!  It is freaking awesome what some good musical direction can do and this show's music is hard!  The entire cast (from what I can tell) is under the age of 21, and the show was written by Jason Robert Brown who wrote "The Last Five Years", "Songs For A New World" and "Parade".  While chatting about the show afterwards with friends over a few drinks, we decided this was the show that "High school Musical" should have been.  Smart, funny, good music, and so much more about what it's really like to be in high school.  So you only have a few more days, but go see it.  Really.

Rockville discoveries

So some of you may know that I have been doing some Whole Foods training in scenic Rockville MD.  It has been really eye opening and I've been loving all the crazy amount of info I've been learning about, everything from food safety, to public speaking.  But something I did not expect to find, was The Silver Diner.  A crazy 1950's looking diner, right off of an ugly strip of road containing huge brown office buildings, and starbucks locations that look like they were built in 1987. This place is a treasure, my friends!  We have started to go there every week before class, and I've tried something different each time.  Like this:  Yummy poached eggs, home fries and VEGGIE SAUSAGE PATTIES!  They also have veggie bacon, a slew of gluten free items like waffles, and a ton of low carb and healthy options.  Open until 3am, and serving local items like greenberry's coffee and star hill beer, this place would thrive in C'ville.  They have locations all over VA and I would be interested to know if they all were as awesome as this one.  Here are some more pics to give you all an idea.

Yummy homemade granola with fresh fruit and low fat yogurt.  mmmmm.....nothing gets me like having healthy options at a greasy spoon.  So if any of you find yourself in an area that has a Silver Diner, check it out!  Great stuff, good mission, and some darn tasty food if you ask me.

Runny Yummy Eggs

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, and now that I have been sick on the couch for the past two days, I have my chance.  I love poached eggs.  I know, there are those of us that can not handle the thought of a runny egg.  Now I, on the other hand, love a little something to soak up with my sourdough toast.  But they are just so frigging hard to make!  They always crack, and even those little "egg poachers" just don't do the job as well as my dad does.  So I took a lesson from the wise man and threw all those silly contraptions by the wayside.  Let's do this the old fashion way.  A nice deep pot of boiling water, a little ramekin and a slotted spoon.  Some people say you need a thermometer to get the perfect temperature of water, but I say to heck with that!  I'm lazy folks.  So I brought the water to a boil and then reduced it to a simmer, cracked my egg carefully into the ramekin, and slowly slid it into the water.  3 minutes later, I had the PERFECT poached egg!  I  haven't yet had the courage to poach more than one at a time as of yet, but with a little time and patience, I feel that I may be able to tackle that task.   Now, I leave you with my beautiful creation.  Now where is my toast.....

Let's start at the very beginning...

There are so many things I love. Cooking, eating, watching movies, spending time with those dear to me, enjoying theatre (as an active participant or as an active audience member,) traveling and many more. I have some lovely friends who also have these blog things, and I have toyed with the idea of having one of my own for awhile, mostly because I have had the pleasure of enjoying some freaking amazing examples of my interest listed above and I would love to share them with others. Recipes, great plays, good bands, these are all things I have been lucky enough to stumble upon and I depend on others to enlighten me with their experiences as well. So here we are. Enjoy or ignore me, but feel free to give me your feedback.