chicago

my mom and I flew in and out of chicago to attend my good friend kaitlyn's wedding in holland, michigan. It is about a 3 hour drive to holland from chicago and we stayed at the palmer house in chicago for a night. we walked to see "the bean", had a delicious steak dinner, walked around a little and then we cuddled up in the king sized bed and watched movies. 

simple pizza sauce for margherita pizza

Simple Pizza Sauce

4 small tomatoes
3 - 5 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp dry basil
1/4 tsp dry thyme
1/4 tsp dry oregano
1/4 tsp dry parsley
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
sea salt
finely ground pepper

start a pot of water to boil

01:  cut the core out the tomato
02:  scoop out the seeds
03:  turn the boiling pot of water off, and place the tomatoes in the pot for about 8 - 10 mins
04:  transfer the tomatoes to a bowl of icy water
05:  the skin of the tomato should then fall right off
06:  place the "meat" of the tomato in a food processor or blender
07:  add garlic, herbs, vinegar, salt and pepper
08:  blend the ingredients into a good saucy consistency
09:  let the sauce sit for at least 2 hours, or even better over night.

i love this sauce for a margherita pizza, but add a list twist with some clumps of freshly minced garlic cloves! it is so good!

fried shrimp

on this trip home to new orleans, i decided i had to find a way to get some louisiana seafood back to los angeles with me. i actually bought a cute little cooler bag, and froze some shrimp we had gotten from the bayou that morning and some frozen crawfish tails and then put a couple freezer packs in the bag and everything was still frozen solid 6 hours later when i made it back to los angeles. so of course we had to have fried shrimp! [the others we made cheese and bacon wrapped shrimp that we put on the grill!]

Fried Shrimp

1 egg
tabasco
yellow mustard
zatarain's seasoning
shrimp fry

peel, de-vein, and butterfly your shrimp. make sure to wash them really well, then dry them. make sure to get as much of the moisture off of the shrimp as possible [this is the most important part]. this will allow the egg wash and batter to stick to the shrimp better and not fall off while frying.

mix the egg, about 10 shakes of tabasco, 2 - 3 good squirt overs of mustard, and about 2 shake overs of zatarain's seasoning. [by squirt and shake overs, i mean i usually gage by how big my bowl is, i shake and squirt lines across the whole bowl] the egg wash is mostly about color, you want it to be a yellow-orange color. if you are doing a lot of shrimp, you may want to add another egg.

put the shrimp in the egg wash, then toss a couple in the shrimp fry. make sure to get the batter in the butterfly of the shrimp and under the bottom of the shrimp, then place them on a platter.

heat your oil to 375 degrees, then use a small clump of batter to put in the oil to test if it is ready. if the batter floats after just a second or two of being in the oil, then you are ready to go. place a couple shrimp in, and fry for 3 - 5 minutes or until golden brown. let them hang over the oil for a minute to get some of the excess off, then lay them on a platter covered with 2 - 3 layers of paper towels.

crawfish etouffée

while in new orleans for my sister's college graduation, a friend brought my dad some freshly boiled crawfish. so my mom peeled the crawfish and we made crawfish etouffée. although we usually use frozen crawfish tails because it is so difficult to do fresh crawfish, as it goes with anything, fresh is always better.

Crawfish Étouffée

2 sticks of butter
1 cup finely chopped white onion
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
1 tablespoon mined garlic
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry thyme
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups of chicken stock
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 pinch of cayenne
1 - 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

cooked white rice

melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter, add in onions and celery. once tender, add in garlic. cook for another minute, then add in spices (minus cayenne) and crawfish. cook for another minute or two then add in tomatoes. blend in flour, then whisk in chicken stock. add Worcestershire sauce, green onions, and cayenne. cook for 20 minutes. fold in parsley and 1/2 stick of butter and you are done.

serve over cooked white rice and with french bread.

PS: one of our "secret" ingredients is hidden in one of the pictures but not listed ... see if you can find it!!