EASY RECIPES AND STUFF

EASY RECIPE

I had planned to post my three grandma’s meatloaf recipe this week, but to be honest it didn’t work.  I think the problem was incorporating too much Italian style sauce into the meat mixture.  The final texture was somewhere between sloppy Joe and meat loaf.  Tasted good but looked awful.  I may try it again someday, but for now I needed a sure thing for the post.

So I turned  to Chef John for his go to garlic shrimp.  I watched Chef John cook his shrimp at the International Food Blogger Conference in Portland a while back, and it looked great.  So I dug up my event notes, and then viewed his handy youtube video.  Here is my take on Chef John’s garlic shrimp, this time served with a Caesar salad.

Since the name of my blog is easyrecipes I cheat whenever I can.  I figure anything I can do to make cooking great meals easier for my readers after a long day at work is good.  So, rather than make Caesar salad from scratch I used the Trader Joe’s Complete Caesar Style salad kit.  All I did was rinse and spin dry the romaine lettuce.   Okay, that was easy.

The key to his recipe is having all your components ready before you start cooking.  The reason is the shrimp  cooks up very quickly so you have to be ready to rock.

Recipe serves 4.

Ingredients

1 lb large shrimp (16 pieces)

1 bag Caesar salad kit (or knock yourself out and make it from scratch).

2 heaping Tbsp garlic – finely minced.

1/4 cup chopped parsley.

Juice of one lemon.

1 Tbsp brine from jar of Capers.

3 separate tablespoon size slices of butter.

1 Tbsp virgin olive oil.

1/4 to 1/2 tsp of dry red pepper flakes – depending on how much heat you want.

Dash of sea salt.

Preparation

Finely mince garlic.

Wash, dry, and chop parsley.

Juice lemon and to it add one tablespoon of Caper brine and stir.

Shell and de-vein shrimp.

Rinse romaine lettuce, spin dry and prepare the Caesar salad kit in large bowl.

Heat olive oil in a large iron fry pan until very hot but not burning.

Add shrimp to hot oil and level the shrimp out with tongs; fry for one minute and use tongs to turn shrimp over, add pinch of salt, and heat for one more minute.

Add red pepper flakes and garlic and stir shrimp for one minute to coat the shrimp and bring up the redness.

Add in lemon juice mixture and one tablespoon of butter and stir.  When the first tab of butter melts add the other two tablespoons of butter and stir mixture for one minute.

Add parsley and stir in briefly.

Plate the shrimp, add Caesar salad and in no time at all you prepared an awesome dinner for family or friends!

AND STUFF

My second Jack Fields and Amber Reyes action adventure novel VEYRON has been published in print and all e-book formats.  The new novel builds on the relationship established in GOLDPLAY and adds strong new characters.

The nonstop action in VEYRON takes Jack, Amber, Chuck, and new character Juval from the deserts of Arizona to those near the Red Sea, and then the final showdown in Montana.  If you like to read action novels while relaxing at the lake or beach this book is for you.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

EASY RECIPE

My quest for a new tasty but easy dinner recipe started with a cool Sunset recipe for Seafood and Chorizo paella.  I liked the idea, but since She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn’t eat clams and mussels I would need to keep looking.  I found a number of great recipes on the internet including Laylita’s Recipe and others.   I decided to start with Laylita’s recipe and add from others, and an idea or two of my own to create the easy Arroz con chorizo y camerones (Spanish chorizo and shrimp with rice) dinner.  This dish is easy to make, and has wonderful flavors.  The one possible hard item to find is the Spanish Chorizo.  It is more like hard salami than the Mexican counterpart which can be a little crumbly and granulated (like gooey browned burger).  Depending on your nearby grocery store you may need to substitute the Spanish chorizo with a nice spicy salami.

Shout out to my future son in law Carlos…. you like?

Recipe serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

1 lb shrimp -shelled and deveined.

8 oz Spanish Chorizo.

10 oz (dry) Mahatma Saffron Yellow Rice.

4 small tomatoes -chopped.

1 green bell pepper – diced.

1  medium onion – chopped.

3 cloves garlic – minced.

2 cups chicken broth.

1/2  cup Presidente Brandy Solera.

1 cup water.

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, and brown a few rings for accent.

1 Tbsp. Spanish Paprika.

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley – minced.

1 Tbsp virgin olive oil.

Preparation:

Prep shrimp.

Slice Spanish Chorizon into thin rounds.

Add olive oil to heated pan, and add onion, bell pepper and saute for a few minutes.

Add garlic and tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes and vegetables create a paste (stir often).

Add chicken broth, water, Sherry, and Spanish Paprika and stir.

Add rice  and stir.

Add Spanish Chorizo and simmer for fifteen minutes.

Add shrimp, flat leaf parsley, and lemon juice, stir, cover, and simmer for 8 minutes (or until shrimp is cooked and rice tender).

If necessary add more moisture during cooking.

AND STUFF

This year I have been fortunate to have attended two wonderful weddings. The first was in Phoenix and the second at the Veteran’s Park in Redondo Beach. In both weddings the brides were beautiful, educated, and wonderful ladies. Both weddings had wonderful family members living the joy of the special event. And both weddings had hundreds of friends in attendance as witnesses and celebrants.

During both weddings I occasionally felt a lump in my throat, and a little misting in the eyes. Normally the emotion could be explained by the beauty and happiness of the occasion, but not in this instance. The groom in Phoenix was wearing his United States Marine Corps dress uniform, as were many of his wedding party. In the second wedding the groom was dressed in his United States Army dress uniform, and so too were many of his wedding party and friends. They were young, and vibrant, but one could sense they had seen, felt, and sacrificed much during their service.

Those wonderful men represented a huge group of American men and women who have served their country in the Armed Forces. For some there will be no wedding, and there are others who will not be at their son, daughter, or grandchild’s wedding.

As we enjoy our family and friends this Memorial Day weekend, let’s take a moment to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

AND STUFF

I need to do a quick shout out to everyone!  I have been crazy busy getting the final touches done on my new novel VEYRON so as you may have noticed I have been an easy recipe slacker!  Now other than doing the fun book signing events that I can work into a normal schedule, I am again free to work on new easy and tasty recipes.

So, what have I been doing? Well, it started slow enough -over the last 12 months I drafted and refined the storyline for VEYRON.  Then things began to pick up as we needed to get a cover design concept together and then work with people to make it a reality.

Next, there was the rewrite after the editor did his work, and then another read through, and second cleansing by a second editor.  Then off to the printer, and another read through on the bound book.  We gave the go ahead for production and we were off.

Once the novel was imprinted we could send it to the computer gurus to begin the conversion into the e-book format.  And today I am happy to announce the e-book version was approved and sent off to all retailers.

So now, I can get back to improving the quality of my meals, and hopefully yours.

Good Eating and Table Talk,

Roger

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EASY RECIPE

So here you are, everybody is going to mom’s house for a pot luck dinner, you don’t cook….  what are you going to do?  How about an easy desert…… Easy Pound Cake With Custard and Fruit.

Ingredients:

Pound Cake – Homemade or store bought.

Custard – Bird’s Custard Powder was provided by Uncle Bill.

Frozen raspberries – this provides a little juice when thawed.

Fresh peach slices.

Sherry (optional) – 1 tsp for each serving.

For Pound Cake:

3 C all purpose butter.

3 C sugar.

6 eggs.

1 C butter.

1 C buttermilk.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

1 tsp lemon extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda.

Preparation: 

I have never baked before today.  So I didn’t have a go to recipe for Pound Cake.  No problem.  I went to my friends allrecipes.com and in moments I had a tested great recipe for Pound Cake.  But, since this is all about easy recipes, if you want to pick up a cake on the way home from work, that’s fine with me.

Heat oven to 325 degree.

Grease a 9 or 10 inch baking pan.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl beat butter and sugar.

Add one egg at a time to the butter mixture.  Beat each egg as it goes in to mix. Add buttermilk and mix.  Add the flour and gently mix all together.

Pour the mixture into the grease pan and place in the pre-heated oven for 90 minutes or until the cake pulls away from side of pan whichever is first. (allrecipes.com says not to open the oven door for the first 60 minutes).

When done let cake rest on counter for 10 minutes.

Custard:

Prepare custard per instructions on Bird’s Custard can.  My Uncle says to double the amounts so you have plenty custard for everyone.  He also recommends keeping the custard a little on the runny side so it can flow over the fruit.

Fruit:

Thaw the raspberries in a bowl so the juice is preserved.

When cake is set up cut it into nice little squares.  Plate cake, and drizzle a little sherry on top.  Add the raspberries and peaches.  Top the desert with custard and enjoy Uncle Bill’s English Trifle.

AND STUFF

Coming soon my second Jack Fields and Amber Reyes adventure.

Good eating and table talk,

Roger