What I Made: June 15, 2012

Friday was one of those days that as I was running errands, I wanted to stop at every fast food place I could find.  I'm trying to recollect every place I squealed at when I passed, but here's a tentative list:

• Columbia Gyros
• Potbelly's
• Starbucks (which I did stop at and get a iced latte)
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Culvers
• Five Guys
• La Caretta (Mexican deliciousness)
• Subway
• Potbelly's
• Arby's
• The Bread Basket (some of the best homemade bread in the area)

Somehow, I managed to get home without over-indulging in anything other than a soy latte (with whip), but then my lunch seemed lacking.  I had planned a salad from the April 2012 issue of Food Network.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Warm Butter Lettuce Salad with Hazelnuts

Let’s Get Together Thai Shrimp

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – September 11, 2011

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Let’s Get Together Thai Shrimp recipe originally published in Taste of Home – August 2011.

I love Thai curry dishes and consistently make the same recipe over and over again.  This one made me read the recipe twice.  Yes, it is the basic curry base with shrimp, but it also has cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and cashews.  That sounded too good to pass up.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Let's Get Together Thai Shrimp

The shrimp looks perfect.  The curry sauce isn’t overbearing the dish and has a great color.  The rice and cashews totally complete it.  I was absolutely proud of the way this dish turned out and kept my fingers crossed that it tasted as good as it looked.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo and Roasted Asparagus

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – August 25, 2011

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For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of the Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo recipe, please click here.

For a commentary-free and printer-friendly version of the Roasted Asparagus recipe, please click here.

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo recipe originally published in Cooking Light – September 2011.

Roasted Asparagus recipe originally published in Cooking Light – September 2011.

I love alfredo.  I REALLY love it.  Unfortunately, it has got to be one of the least healthy pasta dishes you can make.  Weighed down by cream and butter, it is one of those meals that we can only have once in a blue moon.  So imagine my excitement when I was presented with a healthier version of one of my favorite dishes.

You Want Me to Cook?
Shrimp Alfredo and Roasted Asparagus

Now I know what you’re thinking… it doesn’t look as good without alfredo sauce oozing all over the plate.  Trust me though.  It didn’t need it.  I didn’t get as pretty of a plating (or picture for that matter) but it still looked pretty close to that from the magazine.  I certainly wouldn’t push this away from me at the table.

Shrimp Korma and Basmati Rice

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – June 17, 2011

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Recipe originally published by MyRecipes via e-mail on June 15, 2011.

For reasons I don’t quite understand, I don’t like spicy food.  When I came upon this recipe, I was excited since I had a bunch of basmati rice I needed to use, it was chock full of vegetables and it didn’t have tablespoons of curry powder in it.  This is important for the heat factor but also for a certain individual’s gas factor (not mine, mind you).

© You Want Me to Cook?
Shrimp Korma and Basmati Rice

Yummy, right?  It looks very similar to the original picture, although my curry sauce is slightly more red and brighter.  That is because of the type of curry powder I used, which I’ll detail in the ingredients section.  It was thick, chunky and smelled fantastic!  That is everything I want out of a curry… and more.

Thai Noodle Bowl with Shrimp

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – May 4, 2011

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Recipe originally published in Every Day with Rachael Ray – May 2011

After yesterday’s post, I realized that I have another continuing theme in the dishes I select – curry.  I’m cutting myself a little slack on this one since it is a soup.   

I love a good soup on chilly days and this one intrigued me because of the rice noodles.  I’ve not been able to find them (or bought the wrong ones which is most often the case) so I was on a mission to find them.  I found them in the most surprising of places – tucked away in a grocery store that has one of the tiniest Asian sections ever.  The rest seemed like a perfect dish for me: the sweetness of coconut, saltiness of soy sauce (even if I used a reduced sodium blend), spice of curry, and tasty shrimp.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Thai Noodle Bowl with Shrimp

On one of the first cold days of fall in the Chicago-area, I’m staring at this picture wishing I had a bowl.  It is a spicy and creamy (yet not heavy) soup with color and texture.  It looked perfect and smelled fantastic.

Cajun Shrimp Lasagna Roll-Ups

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – March 3, 2011

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Recipe originally published in Simple & Delicious, December/January 2011.

I love lasagna.  I love Cajun food.  I love shrimp & cheese.  This recipe could have quite possibly been written with me in mind.

That being said, I hate having to make rolls.  They never turn out as pretty as they are supposed to be.  Also, it usually is ridiculously messy.  Add to that, REGULAR lasagna is time consuming to make because you have to cook the noodles, make the sauce, make the filling and assemble.  However, the attraction to the cheesy, Cajun, shrimp with lasagna noodles blinded me to all of this and I excitedly started this recipe.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Cajun Shrimp Lasagna Roll-Ups

Look at this picture and tell me you don’t think it looks delicious.  I’ve been flipping back and forth between my picture and the published picture and I gotta tell ya… it looks pretty close.

Shrimp and Tomato Linguine Toss with Parmesan-Pepper Biscuits

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – February 24, 2011

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Shrimp and Tomato Linguine Toss recipe originally published in Simple & Delicious – December/January 2011.

Parmesan-Pepper Biscuits recipe originally published in Gourmet – October 2008.

So the question has now been answered… no, I haven’t actually fallen off the face of the Earth.  I really hate it when people disappear and when you finally catch up with them they say, “I’ve been really busy.”  Like the rest of us aren’t busy.  All I can say is this… when I started this blog; I was pretty much a housewife occasionally seeing clients out of our home.  I was “busy” but it was busy on my own time and it was much easier to write, cook and photograph food.  It was also a little hard to buy said food since there wasn’t much money coming in.

Then I got a job where I was SUPPOSED to be working 18 hours a week.  It became slightly harder to post every day, but I was managing several posts a week at least.  Suddenly, the 18 hours became 30 hours and I had to drop down to one post a week.  About a month ago, I was promoted and I’ve been working 65+ hours a week for at least the last 3 weeks.

So comparatively speaking, I’ve gotten much busier and that’s why posting has been nonexistent for several weeks now.

Now that I’m working so much, it is pretty hard to cook meals with seafood.  Fish simply tastes better when it’s freshly cooked and I’ve found it makes terrible leftovers.  Therefore, to get my seafood quota, I’ve been making a lot of shrimp.  The Shrimp and Tomato Linguine Toss seemed to hit the spot.  Of course, I wanted to make some bread and the Parmesan-Pepper Biscuits sounded delicious.

My finished meal:

© You Want Me to Cook?
Shrimp & Tomato Linguine Toss with Parmesan-Pepper Biscuits

I was really proud of the way the pasta turned out, although, I think the original picture looked yummier.  Still, it looked yummy enough that I couldn’t wait to eat it.  I was kind of disappointed in the “biscuits”.  I use parentheses because frankly, they weren’t biscuits at all.  They were more like crackers.  Still, expecting something else aside, they still looked and smelled great.





 

© Taste of Home

Obviously, I used different pasta – wheat.  Their picture just looks more fresh and light with a tad bit more color since they used the fresh basil on their dish.  There was no picture for the biscuits, which was a big reason why I didn’t realize they weren’t fluffy bread.  Of course, had I read the ingredient listing a little more closely, I still wouldn’t have made that mistake.

See, when I don’t follow my own rules, bad things happen.

Scalloped Shrimp and Potatoes with Onion Crescent Rolls

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? on February 11, 2011

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Scalloped Shrimp and Potatoes recipe originally published in Simple and Delicious, December/January 2011.

Onion Crescent Rolls recipe originally published in Taste of Home, Holiday Collection 2008.

When I saw the picture of the Scalloped Shrimp and Potatoes it was being served with sesame seed breadsticks.  I immediately began to scan my recipes for something similar – which I eventually found – but I could not stop my brain from wanting to make these Onion Crescent Rolls.  I looked at the shrimp recipe a little closer and realized that they would work well since there wouldn’t be much competing spice in the cheesy shrimp and potatoes.

© You Want Me to Cook?
Scalloped Shrimp and Potatoes with Onion Crescent Rolls

My only regret is that it doesn't have a lot of color to the dish.  The crescent roll kind of blends into the shrimp and potatoes.  Of course, that has nothing to do with taste or texture.  I just like my food to be pretty as well.

Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – January 31, 2011

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Recipe originally published in Cooking Light, January/February 2011.

I try to make seafood at least once a week, if not more, but I have a slight issue.  My husband and I can’t eat dinner together during the week (he doesn’t get home until 10PM), and fish doesn’t do well as leftovers.  Therefore, I usually go to shrimp since it holds up well to the fridge.

Of course, there are only so many ways to prepare shrimp and I try not to soak our seafood in buttery sauces (although they sure are good).  So when I came across a simple tomato and bread shrimp topping, I couldn’t wait to try it.

My finished product: © You Want Me to Cook?

Picture published with recipe: © Cooking Light

It doesn’t look too bad, although I’m wondering how they got their shrimp to look so pretty.  Mine are definitely cooked and pink, but they don’t have that golden color Cooking Light’s shrimp have.  Yet, I was still very excited to taste it.

Creamy Pasta with Pesto

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – January 20, 2009

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Recipe originally published by The Daily Recipe – Monday, February 10, 2003.

Are you wondering why I didn’t link to the original recipe?  Well there are many reasons which I’ll cover throughout today’s post.  This was one of the first recipe e-zines I ever subscribed to.  They were decent recipes for beginners, but honestly, a lot of it was buying box stuff and jazzing it up.  I progressed past that pretty quickly.  Then I realized they were running the same recipes over and over.  Maybe not every month, but when recipes look familiar and you get them 365 days a year, that’s pretty bad.  As they were less creative with their recipes, they started continually trying to sell me tchotchkes.  Now I have no problem with people selling stuff from their blogs.  I hope one day this blog can generate revenue (please pass the blog along!), but most of my recipe e-zines I get sell stuff like pots, pans, ingredients… you know, stuff I can use while cooking.  Not plastic fart machines – not that I have anything against fart machines – I just don’t want to be bombarded daily with it in my Inbox.  Oh yeah, and there was a little incident of every time I would access their website, I’d get a virus notice from my software.  It was time to say goodbye.

Cue Andrea Bocelli…

This was one of the recipes that I really enjoyed from their site.  It was simple, yet incredibly tasty.  Also, it exposed me to pesto – an ingredient/sauce that seems really scary when you are considering using it for the first time.  When you look at the ingredient listing it is basically pureed basil with a little olive oil and garlic.  That can absolutely terrify a novice chef as well as a picky eater.

My finished product: © You Want Me to Cook?

Picture published with recipe: None

Another issue I had with The Daily Recipe was that they never published pictures of their recipes.  Now, I am far from a professional blogger, but even I take pictures of the dishes I create.  How can you be a professional blogging company, write/publish recipes for said company, and not take pictures of what you make.  It doesn’t make sense!

Putting that aside, even though my photo is a little far away (another one of my first photos) it still manages to look delicious.  A delicate pasta with a light sauce that showcases the shrimp.

Chili-Lime Shrimp

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – August 18, 2010

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Recipe originally published by myRecipes daily e-zine “Dinner Tonight”.

There’s not much to this dish.  There are three basic ingredients: CHILI powder, LIME, and SHRIMP.  Shocking, right?  I went through a period where all I wanted was citrus in my food.  (It was very similar to my mushroom phase, which I’m still in, but not as intense as before).  I didn’t make any changes to this recipe, I just elaborated on the ingredients and equipment needed.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe: © myRecipes.com

I was really proud of the way this dish turned out.  Of course, it wasn’t like I was making Baked Alaska, a soufflé or Coq au vin.  There’s only 6 ingredients and it’s mostly sauté and stir.  But cooking shrimp takes attention to detail or you could end up with little rubber pieces in sauce.

Shrimp Francesca

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – August 26, 2010

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Recipe originally published by AllRecipes in the daily e-zine “The Daily Dish”.

Another dish that can be served as a main dish or an appetizer!  I decided to serve this over a bed of brown rice and eat it as actual meal.  This was a recipe created by one of the website’s readers.  As I was scanning the comments, so many people were complaining about the calories.  At 391 calories, I can think of a lot worse meals to eat.  I also found it interesting that you don’t cook the shrimp in the butter, but you bake it and use the butter as a drizzle.  I decided to go for it.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe: © AllRecipes.com

Not bad, right?  I removed the tails from my shrimp.  I always do unless the recipe specifically tells me not to do it.  I just don’t like having to stick my fingers near my mouth while I’m chewing to pull it off.  With my talent for hurting myself, I can absolutely see me biting my finger.

Havarti Shrimp Quesadillas

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – July 30, 2010

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Recipe originally published in Taste of Home, June/July 2010.

These quesadillas can be cut up into smaller sections for an appetizer or eaten as an entrée in larger portions.  I had never bought/used Havarti and was a little nervous because of the cost.  I mean, who wants to pay $5 for a brick of cheese and screw it up!  Fortunately, it is meant to be sliced and served so I really only needed to worry about burning the tortillas.

My finished product:

Picture published with recipe: © Taste of Home

The end result was fairly similar, but at the time I didn’t have a grill pan so I didn’t get the pretty grill lines across it.  Interestingly enough, I found these to be a little bland.  Although they weren’t bad, I definitely had to eat them with a salad and had guacamole and salsa as a side.

Trattoria-Style Shrimp Fettuccine

Recipe modified by Gretchen Wilson – April 2010

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Recipe originally published in Good Housekeeping, February 2009.

Every time I turn around, I’m being told to eat dark, leafy greens – specifically spinach.  My problem is that I really don’t like spinach salads and I don’t care for frozen (and usually soggy) spinach.  When I stumbled upon this recipe in Good Housekeeping, I decided to go for it – and I’m so glad I did!  The baby spinach is perfect in this dish and while it is substantial enough to eat for dinner, it is equally perfect for a light lunch.

Picture published with recipe: © Good Housekeeping

My finished product:

I always get really excited when my dish looks almost exactly like a published picture.  If I don’t say so myself, I think it looks even better.  My spinach looks much more crisp and tasty and there’s a reason for that.