Shrimp wraps

 

I began by making a home made salsa. It was red peppers, green onions, tomatoes and seasonings. This cooked for about 30 min. I added fresh ground pepper to it also right at the end.

 This is all of the parts minus the rice to the shrimp wraps. I am writing this blog the next morning and I am salivating just looking at the pictures. It was SO good. definitely better then my first attempt, which is saying a ton, because my family LOVED the first ones. In the red bowl is a dipping sauce I made. It is cayenne pepper, ginger (fresh ground), garlic (also fresh), soy sauce and olive oil. It seems easy enough to make, but I had to boil it from 3 cups down to 1/4 cup, stirring the whole time. This took about 45 min.

A smart person would have been doing the salsa and dip at the same time. Well I am not that person. I did them at different times, which made for a very long cooking time, lots of standing in front of the stove

Mmmm. The dip I ate with the wraps, but also poured over white rice. Both ways were really good.

This is the final product. I think I have said it, but this was so very good. It is one of my dishes that I could eat over and over. I also love the changes to the dish. Adding the dip, salsa and cayenne pepper really were great additions to this dish.

Rougeh loved it, kids loved it and I loved it. Score one for mommy!

Salmon

Today's dinner was blackened salmon with lime garlic butter, peppered Jasmine rice and blanched green beans in a garlic sauce. Sorry the green beans were gone before I could get a picture of them.

I had to make the lime garlic butter a day in advanced so the flavors can marinate together. I heated olive oil and grated lime rind into it. Blacken the lime rind, then add the salmon skin side down. Cook and flip, and add the lime garlic butter to cooked side. Finish cooking and plate. Add a little more lime garlic butter after plating.

The rice was made with only some fresh cracked pepper. It was really good, I have never made rice with only pepper. I think I will be doing this again.

Finally the green beans. I blanched them. While they were cooking I made a quick garlic butter, by liquefying garlic and adding it to butter. I then blended until emulsified. Drain the green beans and add garlic butter. Cook for just a moment more so the butter melts.

The food was really good. But, then salmon has to be made pretty bad to not taste good. Though I have had many plates of bad salmon, which is just sad. The rice was a great compliment to the sweetness of the green beans and they both worked really well with the salmon.

Tonight for dinner I think I will be making the shrimp wraps again. Both the kids and Rougeh are asking for them again. YAHHHH.

Chocolate Cake

Benjamin and Jasmine woke up today and wanted Chocolate cake. Who am I to tell them no?

We looked on line and found a chocolate cake recipe that sounded good. Harder to do then one would think. Had to get one that is egg free. With Jasmine and her severe allergy to eggs, this was essential. I have many that I have used often, but per this blog, I wanted one that I have not used before. The whole cooking experiment comes in here. So on went the search for and egg free cake recipe that also sounds good.

We were lucky because, not only did the recipe sound good, it was easy to make. Benjamin measured out everything himself. The only thing that I helped with was the liquids and mixing. Then of course the oven parts.

Decorating is done and now to eat! Mmmmm, lunch of champions.

Too many to name

So where to start on this blog?

Let's start with the green beans. They were wonderful. Blanched then topped with a heavy cream sauce and bacon. How could that have gone wrong? Heart attack waiting to happen, but worth every bite.

Next, baked and breaded fish. Good but could have been better. The recipe did not add seasoning to the breading and I think it could have had quite a bit more flavor then it did. But all in all good.

Next was rice with grilled cashews and white raisins. This is yet another recipe that I would have never thought of making on my own. When making the rice I used almond milk instead of water. This was Also really good.

The final new item in full meal of new items. Deconstructed cinnamon rolls. This is where each part if the roll is made separate but plated on one plate. It is eaten with all items together, but looks very different then a typical cinnamon rolls. It tastes a bit different also because the flavors are not cooked into each other. This gave a much stronger flavor of each of the ingredients.

So out of the four items that I made today all four were successes. Merry Christmas to all!

Spinach lasagna

Today's meal was spinach lasagna. This tastes much better then it sounds. As a kid I really did not like spinach. As an adult though I have really learned to enjoy it. Now pair that with pasta and cheese and you have a melted gooey dish.

Benjamin even put it at the top of my dishes so far and the very best of all my lasagnas. He even too seconds. Jasmine who typically likes her lasagna plain ate two helpings of it. So I guess it was a success.

Only side note, Rougeh worked late last night so he had his dinner re heated. Not so good second time around.

Fish Tacos

I give up on titling my blog on the number of the day I have cooked. Too much work to figure out which day number it is, so from now on it will be based on items cooked.

So by the given title you know I made fish tacos. Now I did not do this in any sort of typical manner. First they were made out of Mahi Mahi and not Cod. Second, we had no cabbage, so cilantro was the substitution there. Then we added, tomatoes, green onions, salsa, lime and lets not forget the garlic stuffed olives. Interesting combination to be sure, but not bad

The Mahi Mahi was grilled with Cheyenne pepper and lime to perfection. Shredded it after it was fully cooked, and ate it on the corn tortillas. It was great.

We also made Ginger bread cookies, for Santa. We attempted a ginger bread house also, but two problems with that, we did not over cook the house, which is needed so it is solid enough to hold the toppings.  Then came the issue of WAY too much stuff being put onto it. End result, house was too heavy to hold up to what the kids wanted on it, But the kids LOVED eating the house and all the toppings.

Day 15

Clams.

Clams are good steamed, bar-b-qued, baked, and just about any way they are cooked. I boiled them with water, butter, onions, pepper, and wine. They were so good. Just squeeze some lime on it and it is a meal. Four pounds of clams lasted 10 min and fed four people to contentment.

I paired it with some steamed Green Beans which is my favorite veggie to eat. Calling Green Beans my favorite is saying a lot because I avoid veggies like I would avoid sitting on a red ant hill. Both are equally painful for me. That being said I enjoy green beans. They are so tasty steamed in herbs. No butter or salt needed.

How could we have finished off such a great meal? Easy a fresh orange.

On a side note, I made pull apart bread for the first time about five days ago and have made it three more times since. The kids love it. I have added raisins, nuts and dried fruits. It really is a great treat.