A Jeanne in the Kitchen

The South, and New Orleans in particular, are famous for their bread puddings.  Truth be told, I always thought that bread pudding originated in the Southern part of the United States, but in fact, it did not.  Though bread pudding has become a staple dessert in both New Orleans and the whole South,  it is has actually been a popular and beloved dessert eaten all over the world for centuries.  Some form of bread pudding actually goes back as early as the 11th century.  For the longest time, it was known as “a poor man’s dessert”, since it is made from stale bread, milk or cream and eggs.   However today, it is a trendy dessert found in some of the most upscale restaurants all around.  Some of the different names it goes by are pudin or budin; capriotata in Mexico; and a Nelson cake or Wet Nelly, in the UK.  It can be made either sweet or savory (stuffing is a savory bread pudding), and you can use any type of bread you like.  The possibilities of making bread pudding are endless.  You can add whatever you like to the filling, and different countries all add their own specific personality and unique ingredients to their mixture.  The most important ingredients in any bread pudding, whether sweet or savory, are stale bread, eggs and either milk or cream.  It is important to use stale bread rather than fresh, so the bread can really soak up and absorb the liquid ingredients and the flavors being used.  According to “The Bread Pudding Queen”, Portia Little, (nope, I am not the queen of bread pudding – surprise, surprise) it is really important to measure your bread cubes loosely rather than measuring them specifically with a measuring cup, to help keep the bread pliable and more able to soak up the liquids.  Ms. Little is known as the Queen of Bread Pudding because she has over 1,000 recipes just for bread pudding, and is still adding to her collection.

I love bread pudding; always have.  But I really made it because I had some bread that needed to be used before going bad, and I just though making bread pudding would be a delicious use of that bread.  I also added some apples cooked with a little sugar, butter and cinnamon.  I had no idea that by adding the apples and cinnamon I was making my bread pudding in the traditional Belgian way.  I only learned that through doing my research.  It just goes to show, you can learn something new everyday, and even those of us in the know, still have a lot to learn.

All you need to make bread pudding is just a few simple, everyday ingredients.  I used bread rolls, but any kind of bread will work just fine.

After peeling and dicing my apples, I cooked them in butter, with sugar and cinnamon until they were soft and tender, about 10 minutes.

After the apples were cooked, I added them to my bread cubes and tossed everything together well.

I whisked eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla together to make my liquid and poured it all into the bread and apple mixture.  Really press the bread into the liquid to make sure it absorbs it all and soaks it all up.  Then pour into a baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Press again to make sure all the liquid is absorbed into the bread cubes.

Once all the ingredients are in the baking pan, and firmly pressed together, cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350* F for about 1 hour or until the top has formed a light crust and the liquid has evaporated and cooked into the pudding.

I always serve my bread pudding with a sauce, and usually it is a rum-caramel sauce.  Bread pudding is always best when served warm with a helping of sauce and whipped cream on top.  My sauce was made from butter, heavy whipping cream, sugar and rum.  I used Captain Morgan’s, but you can use whatever you like.  Rum, or other alcohol is optional, but I find it really makes for a rich and decadent sauce.

Your sauce is ready when it is a light caramel color and is thick and syrupy.  Once it starts to caramelize, it will burn very quickly if you are not careful.

From left over, stale bread to a rich and decadent dessert.  YUMMY!  Laizzez le bontemps roulez!

Jeanne’s Apple Bread Pudding with Rum-Caramel Sauce

4 or so cups stale bread, cubed and loosely measured

2-3 medium apples, peeled and diced

1 cup sugar + 2 TBSP for the apples

4-5 eggs

1-1/2 cups of milk or cream

1-2 tsp vanilla

1 TBSP cinnamon

2-3 TBSP butter

 

Preheat oven to 350*F

Spray your baking pan with cooking spray.

 

Cut the bread into cubes about 1-1 1/2 ” in size and set aside.

Dice the apples and cook with the cinnamon, 2 TBSP of sugar, cinnamon and butter until the apples are soft and tender, about 10 minutes.  Once the apples are cooked, add them to the bread cubes and mix well.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and the rest of the sugar and pour over the bread and apple mixture.  Combine thoroughly and make sure the bread soaks up all the liquid, by pressing it all together.  Pour into the prepared baking pan and really firmly press the bread mixture into the pan again to make sure all the liquid is absorbed.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour or until a light crust has formed on the top and all the liquid is gone.  Do not over cook or the pudding will be dry and tough.  You want it to still be moist in the middle.

 

Rum-Caramel Sauce

1 stick of butter

1 cup sugar

1 1/2-2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup of rum, or whiskey of your choice – optional

 

Cook the butter, sugar and cream in a sauce pan until the butter is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved into the cream.  Stir constantly in a figure 8 motion until the sauce is thick and a light caramel color.  This could take awhile.  So, be patient.  It is well worth the wait.  Add the rum or alcohol, if using, and mix well.  Once the sauce is done, add to the warmed bread pudding and top with whipped cream.  Enjoy this decadently delicious dessert, one slow, delicious bite at a time.

 

*** This is a recipe that calls for you to be creative and to add whatever you like in your filling.  Have fun.  Experiment.  There is no wright or wrong way to make a good bread pudding, unless you over cook it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.  I cook all the time, and by now you must know I absolutely love to cook and create new taste sensations in the kitchen.  Food and cooking are passions of mine, right up there with diving and swimming.  But every now and then, I like to step away from my kitchen and have others cook for me.  My anniversary is good time for that.  Besides getting a break from the kitchen and having someone cook for me for a change, going out every now and then also makes my creative juices flow even more.  I try new things and learn about new ways to work with food.  So going out to dinner is kind of like doing research or a little sabbatical for me.

As you know, we love seafood, and eat quite a bit of it too.  However, Denver is known more for its steak rather than its seafood, although there are some very good seafood restaurants here too.  One such restaurant is Bonefish.  Yes, Bonefish is part of a restaurant chain, and I much prefer unique, privately owned restaurants to chains, but some chain restaurants are good too.  Bonefish is an upscale restaurant that specializes in seafood, and there just happens to be one not far from our house, in Westminster, CO.  We tend to go there for special occasions.

As soon as we sat down, our server brought us some warm bread with olive oil and pesto for a dipping sauce.  I love bread and I love to dip my bread in olive oil, so this is always a good start to a meal.

Once the bread was brought out, we started our meal with a delicious corn and lump crab chowder.  It was just perfect for a cool fall evening.  It was nice and thick, just the way I like it too, especially topped with a little cracked black pepper.

Then our main courses came.  I ordered pecan crusted trout with a lemon butter sauce and a sprinkling of artichoke hearts, along with grilled asparagus and white Jasmine rice.  Larry had grilled shrimp and scallops with a garlic-tomato-lime sauce served with grilled Brussels sprouts and potatoes au gratin.  Both were cooked to perfection, although I had to ask for a little more sauce for my trout, which the server graciously brought out immediately.  What can I say, I am a “saucy” kind of girl.  My wine choice for the evening was a smooth, light, semi-sweet Chateau St. Michelle Riesling that paired perfectly with my trout.

After we had finished our delicious dinner, we told our server we were celebrating our anniversary.  A few minutes later, the manager came out with a card that the whole staff had signed and a box of truffles and wished us a happy anniversary.  That extra special little touch just made the evening.  The restaurant, the manager, the chef and the whole staff just went above and beyond our expectations and made our evening very special.  Thank you to all.

 

 

 

Anyone who has ever eaten in a Mexican restaurant is familiar with fajitas.  They are a platter full of sizzling meats with peppers and onions, served with warm tortillas and a are a staple in any Mexican restaurant, anywhere you go.  They come in beef, chicken, shrimp or a combination thereof, as well as other meat and seafood combinations.  This is the modern version of fajitas.   The modern version is completely different than the traditional version.  Traditionally, fajitas are only made with skirt steak.  In Mexico, fajitas are known as arracheras.

Fajitas, or arracheras, are a true Tex-Mex creation, originating along the Rio Grande borders of Texas and Mexico, sometime between the 1930’s and the 1940’s.  They are a blending of the Texas cowboy and the Mexican panchero foods.  When the cowboys would process the steers for meet, they often gave the Mexican ranch workers meat as part of their wages.  However, the cowboys often gave the least desirable parts of the cow to the ranch workers, which was the skirt part of the cow.  With necessity often being the mother of invention, the workers and their families took these skirt steaks that were tough, and tried different methods of making them palatable, which eventually led to the creation of arracheras, or fajitas as they are now most commonly known.  The word fajitas is derived from the word faja, which is the Spanish word for belt or girdle. A skirt steak is the the belt or girdle of the cow.

I grew up in Southern California and I grew up with great Mexican food as well, fajitas being among those wonderful foods.  I make fajitas quite often, and yes, I make the modern versions, using all types of meats and seafood, rather than just the traditional version of only using skirt steak.  Although I do make steak fajitas as well.  Last night, it was shrimp fajitas, served with Cubano style black beans (frijoles negro) over rice, with some tortillas on the side.  And of course, I had a margarita especial to make the meal complete.

I like using a lot of colors, and again, as you can see, a lot of vegetables too.  Chicken, Sausage and Vegetable Alfredo I used red, yellow and orange bell peppers, an Anaheim, or hatch chili, and jalapeno pepper, red onion and mushrooms, along with fresh oregano, thyme, sage and cilantro, and of course garlic, cumin, and salt and pepper.

Cook all the vegetables first, until they are tender, then remove from the pan and set aside.

I cooked my shrimp in the same pan, along with my herbs and spices.  I had some leftover pumpkin vinaigrette (optional) that I also added to the shrimp and herbs too, to add a little more zest to the dish.

Once the shrimp was cooked, I added the vegetables back to the pan and mixed everything together.  It is now ready to eat.

I love black beans, and I especially love them Cubano style.  Cubano style black beans, or frijoles negro, are cooked with cumin and lots of colorful vegetables.  I used corn, red pepper, jalapeno, garlic and red onion in my mixture, as well as more sage, cilantro thyme and oregano.

Cook everything together until the vegetables are soft and tender, then add the beans.  You can eat it as is, or serve it over rice.  I served the frijoles negro over white rice.

La comida Latino es listo.  Top with avocado slices and/or sour cream if you like, add a margarita or two, and dinner is served.

Because there are so many different versions of fajitas, I am not going to give an actual recipe, but it is basically a combination of peppers, onions, garlic, cumin, and the meat of your choice (or not if making it vegetarian) all cooked together.  Traditionally it is served with rice and beans and warm tortillas.  Desfruitas!

 

 

 

The weather is finally getting cool enough to bake and enjoy some hearty foods of the season.  I thought it was the perfect time to make chicken pot pies.  I load them up with “lots of stuff” as my husband would say, making them very filling and satisfyingly tasty. They are a complete meal all by themselves.  No need for anything else except a glass of wine, and you are all set for dinner.

I made my basic, go-to dough and let it chill for about an hour before I rolled it out to make my crust.  As my dough was chilling and setting, I cut and cooked my vegetables and chicken.  I used about 1 1/2-2 lbs of cooked chicken, 2 large carrots, 1 onion, 1 large russet potato, 1 1/2 TBSP garlic and about 1 cup of frozen peas.  I cut all my vegetables into a small dice.  When cutting vegetables, try to cut everything fairly similar in size to make it more consistent and to help everything cook more evenly.

Cook the potatoes, onions and carrots first, since they are heartier vegetables and need a longer cooking time.  Cook them for about about 10 or so minutes, or until they are soft and the onions are translucent.

Once the carrots, onions and potatoes are cooked, add the garlic, peas and chicken and mix thoroughly.  Then make your white sauce or bechemal sauce.  You can either make it separately and then add it to your chicken and vegetable mixture or you can just make the sauce in the same pan along with the mixture.  I almost always just make my sauce in the same pan.  That way, I am getting all the drippings that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan.  For my bechamel sauce, I used about 1-1 1/2 cups of milk, about 3-4 TBSP flour, about 1 tsp each of salt and pepper and about 1 tsp each of fresh, chopped thyme and oregano.  Mix everything together and continue to cook at a low simmer for about 10 minutes.

The dough recipe is enough for four medium/large ramekins, with both a bottom filling and a top crust.  I find it is too much breading to have it come up the sides of the ramekins, so I just do the tops and bottoms.   Use the ramekins as the guide and cut your dough to fit the dish.  Spray the inside with cooking spray, then add your bottom layer.  Once you have the bottom layer in the ramekins, start spooning in the chicken and vegetable mixture.  I added about 8 oz of my filling and then topped it with another layer of my dough to make the crust.

I used a little extra dough to wrap around the edges of the ramekins as a seal and pinched the edges.  Once your have the crust in place score a couple of large slices into the top of the crust so it can breathe while it is cooking and won’t explode.  Then brush the tops and the edges with an egg wash.  The pies are now ready to bake.

For my egg wash, I used one egg and a little heavy whipping cream and them whisked them together.  Some people use water, others use milk, and some use heavy whipping cream.  I prefer using the heavy whipping cream because it has more sugar in it, which provides a little better browning, but it is all a personal choice.  There is no right or wrong way to make an egg wash.  Bake the pies at 375* F for about 1 hour or until the crust is golden brown and light and flaky.

Chicken Pot Pie

Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

6 TBSP cold butter, cubed

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

4-6 TBSP heavy whipping cream

 

Blend the flour, butter and salt in the food processor until it is light and crumbly and well incorporated.  Then add the egg and the heavy whipping cream and continue to process until it forms into a ball.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30-60 minutes, or up to 2 days, before using.

Once the dough is set, roll it out on a lightly floured surface and shape.

 

Chicken Pot Pie Filling

1 1/2-2 lbs cooked chicken, cubed

2 large carrots, small dice

1 medium onion, small dice

1 large russet potato, small dice

1 cup frozen peas

1 1/2 TBSP garlic

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup milk, add more a needed

olive oil and/or butter

3-4 TBSP flour

1 tsp each fresh thyme and oregano, chopped fine

 

Saute the carrots, onions and potatoes in either olive oil or butter, or a combination of both until cooked and the onions are translucent.  Then add the garlic, peas and chicken and mix thoroughly.  Add the milk, flour, salt & pepper and fresh herbs and combine well.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375*F

Spray the ramekins with cooking spray and add the bottom layer of dough.  Fill the ramekins with the chicken filling then add the crust and a rim to make a tight seal around the edges.  Score the top and brush with egg wash.  Bake for about 1 hour or until the dough is golden brown and is light and flaky.

 

**** When making a white sauce or a bechamel sauce, you want to use roughly equal amounts of fat (oil and/or butter) and flour, to make a roux, which will thicken your milk sauce.  Once all the ingredients are mixed in, bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 minutes to make sure the flour is cooked.

 

 

It’s official!!!!!  Fall is now here.  I love it!  The weather is not yet reflecting fall, and our leaves are only just starting to change colors, but the calendar says it is officially here, so I am going with that.   Soon houses and homes everywhere will be filled with the scents and flavors of fall.   This includes warm cinnamon and apples; lots of pumpkins and pumpkin pie; toasted pecans; maple syrup; and so much more.   I started some fall cooking a few weeks ago, but now that it is officially the fall season, you can expect to see a lot more seasonal cooking and baking from me.

Here in the United States, we tend to think of pumpkins only for pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin pie is certainly delicious, but there is so much more you can do with pumpkin than just pie.  What we call squash is known to the rest of the world as pumpkin, so you will find I use the two terms interchangeably.  Pumpkins, like their cousins in the squash family, are part of the cucurbita family or gourd family.  Spaghetti Squash with Sausage and Mushrooms  Pumpkins, or squash, are eaten all over the world and are a staple in many people’s diet.  They are very healthy for you as well as being very tasty.  Pumpkin is also very versatile.  There are s many different ways you can cook it.  I love pumpkin any which way it is cooked, and I tend to cook a lot of pumpkin dishes in the fall.  Dinner  was most definitely a meal of the fall season, complete with lots of of the flavors of fall.  We pulled some pork loin that we had already cooked from the freezer and I made a delicious pumpkin-apple butter sauce (I made my apple butter quite awhile ago.  It is almost time to make some more, and when I do, the recipe will follow)  with toasted pecans to top it off.  I served it atop garlic mashed potatoes and served it with roasted pumpkin and Brussels sprouts, also with with toasted pecans.

The ingredients for my sauce:  Apple butter (I made that quite awhile ago), dried apples (I had them already, but normally I would use fresh apples), canned pumpkin, salt, pepper, toasted pecans and pumpkin vinaigrette (I actually used my own that I made, but for the picture, I had a store-bought pumpkin vinaigrette.  This was actually the inspiration for me making my own).   This is a zesty, flavorful sauce that is perfect for a fall dinner.  I served it over pork, but it is also very good with chicken too.

Pumpkin-Apple Pecan Sauce

3/4 cup toasted pecans, chopped and set aside

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1.4 cup apples, diced small – dried or fresh is fine

1/2 tsp each salt & pepper

2/3 cup apple butter

1/2 cup pumpkin vinaigrette

Just mix everything except the pecans together and cook in a saucepan for about 10 minutes, at a low simmer.  Then top your meat with the sauce and add the toasted, chopped pecans.

 

Everything I need for my maple roasted vegetables.  I used kobaishi squash, but you can use any type of hard gourd-like squash or pumpkins you like.  I use a wide variety of squash and pumpkins all the time.  Their flavors are all pretty similar.

The recipe I was using said to cook the pumpkin first, then add the Brussels sprouts and pecans later and continue to cook for an additional 20 minutes.  Well, I tried that at first, but if I had continued to follow the recipe, my squash would have been mush.  So, after cooking the squash, I removed it from my pan and then cooked my Brussels sprouts and pecans and added the squash later.  From here on out, I will just cook everything all at once.

Maple Roasted Pumpkin, Brussels Sprouts and Pecans

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1 lb of your favorite pumpkin or hearty squash, skinned and cubed

1 lb Brussels Sprouts, cut in half lengthwise

salt & pepper to taste

2  TBSP pure maple syrup

2 TBSP olive oil

 

Preheat the oven to 400*F

Toss everything together and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the squash and Brussels sprouts are cooked and tender.

The flavors of fall – pork loin topped with a pumpkin-apple butter sauce with toasted pecans served atop garlic mashed potatoes, with maple roasted pumpkin, Brussels sprouts and pecans.  I served it with a chardonnay with hints of apples and citrus.    Let the fall season begin!

 

 

 

 

I love vegetables.  All kinds.  I have to really think hard to find a vegetable I do not like.  Because I love vegetables so much, and because they are so healthy for us, we eat a lot of them.  In fact, we eat a much larger variety of vegetables than a lot of vegetarians and vegans we know.  Strange as they may sound, it is very true.   It is recommended we eat at least five servings of vegetables per day.  Easy-peasy.    I always use a wide variety of vegetables in almost every meal I prepare.  I serve vegetables with more vegetables, and I mix all colors and textures of vegetables too, which also ensures we get a wide variety  of nutrients.  Often times, we have 5-7, or more, varieties of vegetables in one meal alone.  There is definitely no problem with us eating our daily recommended amount of vegetables in this house.  I could easily be a vegetarian if only I didn’t like meat so much.  I am definitely an omnivore and eat everything, so there is also a fair amount of meat in our diet as well.  My husband eats more meat than I do, and he wants it with every meal.  I am quite satisfied with eating it once a day.

I started off wanting to making just a simple chicken, broccoli, mushroom Alfredo, but it turned into much, much more.  Along with the chicken, broccoli and mushrooms, I also added carrots, red peppers, both white and green onions, Anaheim peppers and a jalapeno pepper, along with sausage, basil thyme and oregano.  So just in this one meal alone, I used eight different vegetables and three different fresh herbs.  I also added some sausage as well.  This is very typical of how I cook.  Because I love so many different kinds of food, and I am definitely NOT a picky eater, I always add more.  More is better, right?!  (Not always, but often this is the case).

I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco that I shredded and cooked my sausage and set them aside.  I sliced all my vegetables and sauteed them together until they were cooked and softened.

If you do not want to add any meat, the vegetables alone would make a great meal in and of themselves, served with Alfredo sauce and pasta.

Once the vegetables were all cooked, I removed them from my pan and made my Alfredo sauce.  In the same pan, with all the drippings from the vegetables and sausages, I poured in about 1 cup of a dry white wine.   Let the wine reduce down to about half, then added about 1 1/2-2 cups of heavy whipping cream and mozzarella cheese.

Add the vegetables and meat, mix well and continue to cook at a low simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the seasonings and herbs.

Once it has all cooked and the sauce has thickened a bit, it is ready to add over your favorite cooked pasta. Because this is a thick, hearty sauce,  I would recommend using a heavier pasta, like fettuccine or farfalle (bow-tie).  Add a little garlic cheese bread, more cheese to the pasta if you like, and serve with the wine of your choice.  I used a light, crisp viognier to help balance out the meal since I served it with a heavy, hearty sauce.  Mangia!  (The wine is from one of our local wineries, that is only about 5 minutes from where we live.  It is from Turquoise Mesa Winery, in Broomfield, CO).  This is definitely one of those meals where there is no specific recipe and I just used what I had on hand.  We always have a wide variety of vegetables.

Garlic Alfredo Sauce

1 cup dry white wine

1 1/2-2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

salt & pepper to taste

1 TBSP garlic

1-2 TBSP butter, + more after the sauce is cooked as a finish (optional)

 

Saute the garlic in butter for about 2-3 minutes.  Add the wine and reduce by about 1/2.  Add the heavy whipping cream and cheese and mix well.  Add salt and pepper to your taste, and any additional seasonings and/or herbs and mix well.  You can use this sauce as is, or serve it with vegetables and/or chicken, sausage, shrimp or scallops, and serve over cooked pasta.

*** I almost always serve a garlic-herb cheese bread when i make this meal, and I add the leftover butter from my bread to my sauce.

 

 

Everyone in America is very familiar with the beloved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup candy.  Reese’s candies have been around since 1928.  They are an American classic originating in Hershey, PA by the HB Reese Candy Company, which Mr. Reese founded in his basement.  Although he had a lot of different candies, his peanut butter candies were his most popular.  In 1963, the HB Reese Candy Company merged with The Hershey Chocolate Company and history was made, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were born.  Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are among the most popular candies in America today.

Enter the challenger, the new “kid” on the block, The Kirkland Brand Peanut Butter Cups from Costco.   Almost everyone knows of Costco, and most people love the Costco brands, myself included.  They have created their own brand, the Kirkland brand, and they have a wide variety of delicious, very good quality food products, including their version of America’s beloved peanut butter cups.

Both the favorite, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and the challenger, The Kirkland Brand Peanut Butter Cups, are delicious mouthfuls of milk chocolate that have a peanut butter filling.  Both are irresistible, and make it very difficult to stop at just one.

The contenders sit side by side on my kitchen counter, ready for battle.  Both are slowly peeled from their foil wrappers, and are ready for battle.  The favorite is wrapped in gold and the contender in bright red.  Both are prepared for this epic fight and have plenty of backup just in case one accidentally gets eaten before the finish of the battle.  Both are prepared to put up a good contest to defend their honor.  Both contenders go to their prospective corners.

They meet, bite mark to bite mark, and size each other up.  They look pretty evenly matched, although The Kirkland Brand has a little more pizzazz to it’s bite.  Both contenders are ready.  Let the battle begin.

The crowd favorite, wrapped in gold is looking a little flat and does not have as much style and flair as the challenger, but we all know it is substance rather than style right?!  Is the peanut butter filling of The Reese’s cup good enough to beat out the challenger?  Can it stand up to the taste test? The judge has nibbled equally from both.  She has let the chocolate and peanut butter flavors melt in her mouth to get the full essence and consistency of both.  She takes another nibble from each contestant and weighs in again.  After there is nothing left of either contender, they fought to their deaths and gave their all, the verdict is in.  And the winner is ……… Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new winner in the house!  After careful consideration, and quite a few tastings later, the judge has decided the new kid on the block, The Kirkland Brand, is the winner.   What lead the judge to her decision you might ask.  There were actually a few factors that lead to her decision.  She liked the lighter, fluffier appearance of the Kirkland Brand for one.  She thought it had a little more personality than the tried and true Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.  But more importantly than the appearance, the judge really thought the peanut butter filling in the Kirkland Brand had a better, more “peanut buttery” taste and had a creamier consistency, again, more like actual peanut butter than the favorite.  It just melted in her mouth.  Though she still loves the favorite, it is not HER favorite.  The judge prefers the challenger, The Kirkland Brand, hands down.  I’m off to Costco.  I need more peanut butter cups.

We  love shrimp and we eat it a lot.  We also eat bacon wrapped shrimp quite often as well.  To make it different, I make and use different sauces, depending on my mood and what I have on hand at the time.  This time I made it with a delicious,  fresh tomato-herb vinaigrette.   This gave the shrimp a little bit of a Spanish flair, since this vinaigrette is found all over Spain.  By adding a little Spanish paprika to the dressing, you are also adding a little of the Spanish terroir, or personality of the land, to the dish as well.  You can use whatever type of tomato you like.  Whatever type of tomato you use will give the vinaigrette a slightly different personality each time, which makes it kind of fun and different.  This particular time, I used Roma tomatoes, but it would be also be delicious with heirloom tomatoes, or perhaps yellow sunshine tomatoes, or grape tomatoes, or any other tomato of your choice.  Use your imagination and play around a little.  Have fun experimenting with different kinds of tomatoes and trying the different flavors of each one.    This vinaigrette is just as good on shrimp as it is on salad and/or chicken too.

I served my bacon wrapped shrimp over wild rice, then added some green beans with toasted almonds and served it all with a cool, crisp chardonnay that had hints of apples and melon, for a perfect end of summer meal.

I just put all my ingredients into the food processor and blended everything together until it was a slightly chunky-liquid mixture.  I made my dressing first, because I also marinated my shrimp in it before wrapping them in the bacon and skewering them up.  I only marinated them for about 15 minutes.  The acidity from the tomatoes and the vinegar will “cook” the shrimp, like a ceviche, if left in too long.  If they “cook” from the acidity, then cook again on the grill, they shrimp will become tough and rubbery and over cooked.

Par-cook the bacon on a baking sheet for about 15-20 minutes in the oven at 350* F before wrapping the shrimp.  You want it to be soft and pliable.  Also bacon takes longer to cook than shrimp and you definitely do not want to eat it raw.  By par-cooking it first, then wrapping the shrimp, it will cook up just right on the grill without over cooking the shrimp.

Once I had all the shrimp wrapped and skewered, I poured the rest of the vinaigrette on top of the bacon, then let it chill in the refrigerator until I was ready to grill it.

Tomato-Herb Vinaigrette

3-4 medium sized tomatoes of your choice, cut into a medium dice (or about 1 lb, depending on what kind of tomatoes you are using)

1 1/2 TBSP garlic

1 TBSP Spanish paprika

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

3-4 TBSP sherry vinegar

3-4 TBSP red wine vinegar

1 tsp each thyme, basil, oregano

Put everything together in the food processor and blend for about 1 minute, or until everything is liquified and well blended.   It will still be slightly chunky, and that’s perfect.  It just adds more character and texture to either your salad or to your marinade.