Alice in the Kitchen

New Orleans Shrimp 2.0

After I made these New Orleans BBQ Shrimp, I forwarded the recipe to my friend from New Orleans.

She responded, “MeeMaw Betty makes these in the oven….it’s basically a buttload of butter, a bottle of Italian salad dressing, and a ton of shells-on shrimp.  Awesome!”

Well dang, I thought.  That’s sure a lot easier than my recipe.  I googled it and found this recipe.  Dang, I thought again.  This is WAY easier.  I had to try it.

You should too.  It’s very good.  It’s different from the first recipe, but (easy)rich, (easy)buttery, and a (easy)delicious dinner!

You need:

• 1 pound shrimp, (mine were already peeled – and that was fine)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup zesty Italian dressing
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic

Preheat oven to 350.  Put your shrimp in a dish.

Add all your ingredients to the  shrimp and combine thoroughly.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread (to soak up that sauce)!

Slow Cooker Short Ribs

I have always liked beef short ribs, and when I had the Tortelloni di Michele at Filomena in Georgetown stuffed with those delicious shreds, I wanted to make my own short ribs at home.

So I found this easy recipe here and made it my own.  It was easy, and oh-so-good.  Better to be made a day in advance so you can refrigerate the sauce and skim off the fat (because you don’t need it – it’s so delicious without!)

You’ll need:

• 1 cup red wine
• 2/3 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 pounds beef short ribs

Combine first six ingredients (through black pepper) in the slow cooker and stir.  Add the ribs, submerging them in the sauce.

Cover and cook on low until the meat starts to separate from the bones.  Which for me, was after about 3 hours, but the recipe said 7-9 hours, so I kept cooking.This is about 3 hours in:And this is after 8 hours:As mentioned above, I separated the ribs from the sauce and refrigerated separately overnight.To serve the following day, I went ahead and shredded up the beef (it just falls apart) and added a little extra sauce for heating in the microwave.  Maybe not the most beautiful plate ever…

It was so good!  Served it with a salad to balance out the fatty meat.

Champagne Jello

SOLID CHAMPAGNE!  This is the one of the cutest ideas I have come across – and it was a hit for New Year’s Eve in our new house!

First, sprinkle 3 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin over 2 cups of cold white grape juice in a saucepan.  Slowly heat over low heat until the gelatin has melted, and add 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature – then add two cups of champagne, and add roughly 1/3 cup to each champagne flute (15 flutes for me).  This should leave about half of the mixture.

Float one hulled strawberry to each flute and chill for one hour.

After the one hour, blend the remaining mixture in a blender until it is frothy.

Top each glass with the remaining froth – about another 1/3 cup for each flute.

Chill for another 3 hours at least, and serve with a spoon… how great is this?