Combine the first 8 ingredients together in a small saucepan, and stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by 1/3, about 15-20 minutes.
Recipe based on Giada DeLaurentiis
While with 20th Century Fox I was transfer to New Orleans and remember the first time everyone said Steve we are going suck-dat-head pinch-dat-tail for lunch this afternoon you in? Sure why not, well they came in with a huge bag and a pile of newspapers. Spread out the news papers and dumped the bag. I watched in amazement not quite sure what to do, being a Yankee and all. They laughed and gave me a quick lesson and I was soon diving in wolfing them down. I got to tell you the suckin dat head part not my favorite but I tried.
I just grab some crab boil pack and boil them up following the instructions but here is a great recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2009.
Prep Time:1 hr 30 min — Cook Time:23 min — Serves:10 to 12 servings.
How:
Place the peppercorns, coriander, clove, and allspice into a spice grinder and grind for 10 to 15 seconds.
Fill a 40-quart pot with 5 gallons of water and add the freshly ground spices, salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, paprika, onion powder, thyme, oregano, dry mustard, dill weed, and bay leaves. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, approximately 40 minutes.
Rinse the crawfish thoroughly in the bag in which they arrived to remove excess dirt and mud. Put the crawfish in a large container and fill with cool water. Stir to remove dirt from the crawfish. Transfer small batches of crawfish to a colander and rinse under cool running water. Pick out any debris or dead crawfish. Once all crawfish have been rinsed, discard dirty water, and return the crawfish to the container. Repeat this process 6 to 8 times, or until the water is clear.
Once the seasoned water comes to a boil, add the potatoes, corn, garlic, and sausage. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the crawfish, cover, and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pot to sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Drain well and serve immediately.
I had these dinner rolls in the freezer left over from a recent holiday. We don’t eat much bread these days and did not want it to get freezer burned so I decided they were perfect for sliders.
Potatoes and Brussel sprouts – Prepare separately but you can cook together
Slice potatoes to about ¼ in width. Microwave for about 1-2 minutes
Slice Brussel sprouts in half
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle desired spices and herbs toss to coat well
Roast at 400-450 for 20-35 minutes or until done.
Sliders
Form patties and cook to desired doneness (grill, broiler, pan fried you pick)
Add cheese if you want to melt
Place on roll top with lettuce, tomatoes and condiment
In the 1940s, Walter Anderson formed White Castle and made sure it’s image was as pure and clean as possible.
He also wanted his burgers to be as low cost as possible so he made them small and came up with his own streamlined and efficient cooking process that is still unique in the business today.
The small 5 cent burger that he came up with is what is now affectionately known as a Slider and has become its very own sub-category of burger. White Castle sells its own original burgers under the trademark Slyders, these will always be known as the first and the best.
I think that I mentioned before that Lyn gets to pick a meal a week that is off her strict diet. She picked Pan Seared Seas Scallops. I had never made sea scallops had used bay in stir fry, I could tell you about someone making Szechuan scallops for their as it turned out to be in-laws and forgetting if they had put in the pepper and added again, boy was that spicy, but I won’t. Anyway….
Turn on exhaust fan
Heat pan on high until hot
Tipping away from you add oil
Add scallops cook for about 2 minutes
Add butter and flip the scallops cook for about 2 minutes
Remove from pan and serve on bed of roasted veggies we had eggplant, zucchini, red pepper and tomatoes drizzle with some balsamic vinegar.
Ingredients
Flip and add butter for another 2 minutes
Plate up
Bay scallops and sea scallops are closely related members of the same family of shellfish. Both make extremely good eating. Gourmets particularly prize bay scallops, which are much smaller than sea scallops, for their tenderness and the sweetness of their flavor. Because they are smaller, bay scallops require considerably shorter cooking times and benefit from gentler methods, while sea scallops stand up to fiercer heat. In both cases, overcooking renders them tough. Bay scallops are in short supply because of the degradation of their habitat by pollution. Vendors offer both types packed either “wet” or “dry.” Choose dry ones if possible—they are in their natural state. Wet scallops have been soaked in phosphates, which affects their flavor and causes them to absorb water which they give up in cooking.
Scallops are two-shelled marine mollusks that actively swim through the water, propelling themselves by opening and shutting their shells. The large round white muscle that they use to do this—sweet-flavored and naturally very low in fat—is the part that we eat (in Europe the delicately flavored orange roe is also highly prized). Unlike clams or mussels, scallops are unable to shut their shells completely, and cannot survive out of water. Harvesters therefore normally shuck them as soon as they are caught and place the meat on ice.
Lyn got to choose 2 of her meals that are not from her strict diet this week, she reached her half way goal and that is what they do for you at that point. Let you taste real food as she calls it. Heck, it is working, every week she losses a pound or more and that is the good way it stays off. Now I like her just the way she is but get a Yes Dear look if I say something. Anyway she chose Pan Seared Sea Scallops but whole foods also had Haddock on sale and while surfing the net she found this recipe. As I am not that adventurous when it comes to fish, Haddock should be fish and chips, swordfish and tuna steaks should be grilled, salmon well there are a lot of ways that my palate has been introduced to so when she showed me this recipe I said why not give it a try on Sunday. It was our pregame meal which turned out to be disappointing, the game not the meal this was light, flaky and just right.
Spicy Oven-Baked Fish and Sweet Potato Chips
From BHG.com
Makes: 4 servings
Prep 20 minutes Bake 425° 20 minutes to 25 minutes
Cut fish, prepare milk flour and bread crumbs. Place the sweet potato fries in oven on 1/2 cookie sheet.
Dip in Milk, Flour back to Flour and then coat with bread crumbs
Add the fish to the other half of cookie sheet and return to oven.
20-25 minutes until fries are golden brown and fish flakes with fork
Serve it up
Other recipes from stevesacooking.com you might find interesting
Dijon Myer Lemon Glazed Wild Salmon
Oven Roasted Ribeye Fajita with roasted veggies.
I took a small Ribeye out of the freezer not knowing what I would do with it other than knowing that I would pan sear and oven roast. I am still on my own for meals since Lyn is still on her special strict diet and living up to my promise to eat well. Ok Ok sort of living up to it I have days that I have reverted to a meat and potato guy but for the most part…… Anyway she made herself a Fajita and went to the bar to dig in it was then I noticed she did not use the tortillas and asked are you going to use while batting my eyes. No, it must have been two seconds until I figure out my finished meal. By this time the steak had been removed from the oven and had sat for at least 7 minutes so I slice up thin dished out some of the roasted veggie and topped with steak and a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese.
Ingredients:
Ribeye Steak
Roasted Zucchini, Summer Squash and Baby Roma Tomatoes
Two small tortillas
How:
Season the steaks with salt and pepper and bring to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 425 rack in center.
Heat the oil over medium heat in an oven proof pan.
Sear the steaks for about 3-5 minutes.
Turn and place the pan in oven for about 7 minutes.
Remove cover very loosely with tin foil and let set for 5 minutes before serving.
Slice thin against the grain
Roast vegetable at 450 until desired doneness
Heat taco add veggie and meat
Serve
Ingredients:
How:
Served with corn salad and what else a couple Baby Roma Tomatoes, the slice cucumber never made it to my plate. What one’s got to munch you know.
It was a Saturday morning 7:45 AM and I dropped Lyn off for her appointment and drove across the parking lot to Stop and Shop to grab most of what we needed for the week in groceries. The store was empty not being my typical store I was unfamiliar with the layout and so where many of the employees out of three asked none knew where the raisins were. I have taken to a full beard these days and one kid kept pushing me toward the razors. Anyway I could not find a small box of cherry tomatoes so I grabbed a huge 2 labs box of Baby Roma figuring I would think of something. I did and during halftime yesterday I roasted most thinking I would make a small batch of tomato soup. Lyn made a corn salad it was soooo good but she can’t remember how and I threw a few in my Avocado Tuna Fish Melt and store the rest for a now very small batch of soup.
Ingredients:
How:
Spread tomatoes on roasting pan or cookie sheet cover with parchment paper.
Drizzle with olive oil
Sprinkle salt and pepper and pepper flakes
Toss to coat
Place in 450 degree oven and roast 30-40 minutes until desired doneness
Summer time is time for beer butt chicken which I find a lot easier to make than setting up the Rotisserie on the BBQ and when winter rolls around I could still make it outside but roasting in the oven takes over. Besides I save grilling steaks and fish for winter standing in the snow is a lot better when you only have to flip a steak. I liked the looks of this recipe when I saw it and the results were pretty darn good for a wicked easy recipe. I did substitute smoked paprika and went strictly with powders and as promised this was great. Next time I might add some brown sugar and try the paste slightly drier. You should try this if you have a crock pot.
Place all of your ingredients in a small bowl and stir in water by the teaspoon until a paste forms. Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray and place the chicken in, breast side down in crock pot. Down rather than up give you moister breast.
Coat the chicken inside and out with the paste. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours or on high 3.5-4.5 hours. Make sure the thickest part of the thigh registers at 180 degrees. Wow, how simple is that? You can use the leftover chicken to make a variety of recipes like Rotisserie Chicken Soup, Chicken salad or Chicken club sandwich.
The only downside and it is minor that I found was the skin was not crispy Next time I will try breast up to see if the skin crisp any – Crispy skin was not as important to me since I mostly do not eat it. Aren’t I the healthy one? Also my crock pot has a rack will try on that so it does not sit in drippings. Will update as time goes on.
Served with coleslaw and potato chips.
Adapted from Busy Mom
Lyn got the Flu, you know the one that they just declared an emergency in Boston for the over 700 reported cases, have tents set up outside hospitals in the south you know the Flu that is taking over our nation as the global warming (is real, no it’s not) affects our weather. I am sure that if you listen close enough to the talk shows and pretend real new stations you will hear something like it’s not actually a flu that is causing this it is more that the cost of oranges has risen effecting the supply of vitamin C and if the government would just stop taxing orange skins this would not have happen. Anyway…….
I bought a rotisserie chicken the other day was running late and needed a quick meal when I gazed the aisle of fried food or old pasta dishes and the thought of well-preserved food in the frozen aisle I settled for the rotisserie chicken with the thoughts of making a quick soup for Lyn with the leftovers. The time came to make it and when I pulled it out of the frig noticed the left over brisket the gears started to turn. Chicken soup and beef barley soup.
Note: I really did not measure anything
Sauté the onions, carrots and celery in olive oil until the onions are tender
Add the garlic stir until you can smell about 30 seconds
Add basil and stir then add broth
Add chicken
Add water to cover
Bring to boil and simmer until done at least 45 minutes
You can cook rice or noodles to serve with
Freezes great
Saute the onion in olive oil until soften add garlic until you smell about 30 seconds.
Combine everything else in a pot bring to boil reduce to simmer for about an hour
Serve with cilantro on top cause my wife like that
Add barley and simmer for about 30 minutes
You could ad any vegetable you want and if you like crunchy add last 30-20 minutes of simmering.
Barley
Barley is a wonderfully versatile cereal grain with a rich nutlike flavor and an appealing chewy, pasta-like consistency. Its appearance resembles wheat berries, although it is slightly lighter in color. Sprouted barley is naturally high in maltose, a sugar that serves as the basis for both malt syrup sweetener. When fermented, barley is used as an ingredient in beer and other alcoholic beverages.
Gourmet Dad, Don’t Let The Title Fool You 