So you have 4 pounds of shrimp?

Two days, two glorious shrimp recipes. Last night was Penne with Shrimp and Herbed Cream Sauce http://http//www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/penne-with-shrimp-and-herbed-cream-sauce-recipe/index.html. I did not have most of the ingredients needed, so had to go to the grocery around 5:30pm. I get to the parking lot and it is full. On a Friday night. Granted it is a very busy shopping center but the Teeter is far enough from restaurants and the movie theater so there is usually parking. Not last night. Then I get inside and see why. FREE WINE AND BEER TASTING!! I love Harris Teeter. They do this about two or three times a year and the past few times I chance upon it I have been knocked up. Not any more! There are soooo many vendors with at least three or four wines per table that even someone with a much higher tolerance than me can get a decent buzz. Several years ago my sister and I happened upon this event and spent about two hours getting sloshed, I mean discovering the nuances of different grapes. Then we spent a good hour or two waiting for the buzz to wear off before going home. FREE WINE!!! Sadly this time I had to get back to cook dinner and take care of family. (grumble, grumble, stupid family interfering with FREE WINE!!). My new plan is to find out when the next tasting is going to happen, line up double baby-sitters and schedule a night out for FREE WINE!!

Ok, so back to the pasta, I used 2 lbs of shrimp and did not use as much heavy cream. Next time I will combine everything and then let the whole thing simma down (said like Cheri Oteri) for about 20 minutes like it did while we were eating. Doing that resulted in leftovers that were much better that last night's serving.

Tonight was Potato Soup with Shrimp and Corn http://http//www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/potato-soup-with-shrimp-recipe/index.html. I did use reduced fat milk, well 2%. I doubled the recipe so it took thirty seven thousand hours to prep and cook. Well, maybe more like 45 minutes of prep and 1 hour and 20 minutes of cooking. Once the potatoes are cooked, you can mash them up a bit. With the potato mash you can probably go down to 1% milk and still have a quality soup. I also added a bag of frozen corn to the pot. I did leave out the carrots and put in 1 1/4 cup of chicken broth (because I did not have bouillon) and the leftover clam juice from last nights shrimp dish (about 1/4 of a cup). Also, I sauteed the shrimp in a bit of olive oil, garlic powder and Old Bay seasoning instead of boiling them. Top with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and bacon bits and you gotta find a mama to slap because it is that good. I think I shall mosey on up to the Fresh Market for some of their kick ass cornbread and eat right for lunch tomorrow!

Last night we watched "Going the Distance" with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. Very, very funny. As the opening credits were rolling, no, even before that, at the menu with the picture of this:

Todd was all "Chick Flick." And at first appearance one would think so. Yeah, not so much. The only thing chick flick about this movie was that there was a guy and a girl and they were dating. That's it. This is not a movie you should watch with your parents. Or your grandparents. Or your kids. Or your kid's parents. Wait, . . . never mind that one. Maybe not even a first date either. Friends, yes. Prudish friends, no. Basically what it boils down to is don't watch it with anyone who is uncomfortable around discussions of a sexual nature. There. That being said, I thought this movie was hilarious and may even buy it. Charlie Day played Justin Long's roomie and friend "Dan" and was a riot. So there is a movie recommendation for you.

P.S. I am not allowed to make Congo Bars any time soon. Unless I have made a prior commitment to deliver 95 to 100% of them to a location that is not my mouth.

Soup and Cookies Part Deux

So today's soup was split pea with ham. Very easy in the crock pot but had to borrow my neighbor's immersion blender to make it all thicky and yummy. (See previous post about how I killed my blender making soup. Yes, soup. Not crazy margaritas but soup. Yes, it is sad.) Here is the link:

http://http//southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotsoup/r/bl17c5.htm

Yesterday my neighbor's son brought over some delicious cookies that he made for a meeting. Yes, 10 year olds have meetings. And they make cookies for them. He brought four but I had to do quality control in the front yard before bringing them in to the family.

And here is the recipe!

Thanks Josh!

The Fast and the Furious

I was a little ambitious when it came to cooking today. Ambitious then lazy. I have been wanting to try my hand at homemade butternut squash soup. I bought some cut up squash a couple of days ago with that "buy-me-now-before-I-go-bad-and-save-$2-and-risk-ecoli-poisoning" sticker on it for a little incentive. I started the process around lunch which was probably about 2 1/2 hours before the squash started growing limbs. After a delay of game (I realized I did not have enough chicken broth so made a mad dash to Trader Joe's where I ran in to get chicken broth and came out with two double bagged bags of yummies and drinkies because if you go to Trader Joe's you HAVE to buy wine. Seriously, it is a law) I finally cooked up the soup and ended up puree-ing the very soul out of my blender. Well, not so much the soul as the "coupling." I finished it off with a food processor and it turned out not disgusting. I would not go so far as to say "really good" but "passable" would be a good description. I think I mucked up the squash somehow so I am going to try again. So here's that recipe from foodnetwork.com which I cannot seem to copy and paste and do not feel like retyping at this point so I will link it:

http://http//www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/butternut-squash-soup-recipe/index.html

Then I decided that I cannot possibly decorate the tree without homemade cookies and eggnog. So I ended up making four tons of Drop Sugar Cookies. I love sugar cookies but hate, hate, hate, hate, hate rolling out dough so this recipe seemed like something I should try. Sadly I do not have a link so I will power forward and share:

Drop Sugar Cookies

6 cups all purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups butter softened (4 1/2 sticks)

3 cups of sugar

3 eggs

9 tablespoons of milk

6 tablespoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium/large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt until blended.


2. In large bowl with mixer at medium-low speed, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat until well blended. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture just until blended.


3. Drop by rounded measuring tablespoons (I used a regular spoon) 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.


4. Bake until edges are browned, about 13 minutes. Transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely.

I ended up freezing most of them but may need to borrow my neighbor's freezer if I need some ice. It made a lot of cookies. A lot. You can also add other stuff to the dough like chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips, or lemon zest/peel/juice. I would post a picture but they are asthetically boring to the eye even though they are yummy.

Soup's done. Cookies are done and now people have the nerve to ask me what is for dinner! Soup and cookies, that's what! Nah, the boy will not eat soup and as relaxed as I have been about his eating lately, I cannot justify cookies for dinner for a toddler. Not on a Friday.

While I was at Trader Joe's they were sampling this:

With this:

So that and a salad made up the very late dinner. Pretty good and you should totally check it out! That is if you have a Trader Joe's near you. And you are not a vegetarian.