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?

Our favorite lasagna

Oh lasagna.  I think it is probably one of most expensive foods I make, and since we aren’t very good about eating leftovers, I can only justify making it every once in awhile.  I don’t stick firmly to a recipe, but it always seems to come out pretty tasty, so here is my most recent batch for your viewing consumption.

You’ll need:

• one box of lasagna noodles, cooked
• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 pound of sweet Italian sausage, removed from the casings
• 3 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 2 28-ounce jars of tomato sauce
• 32 ounces of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 2 eggs
• 5 cups shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan

Brown your ground beef and sausage with the minced garlic.  Add the jarred sauce, and bring your sauce to a simmer.  Spread roughly 1 cup of the sauce on the bottom of your lasagna pan.

Layer with three cooked lasagna noodles.

Combine the ricotta, eggs, grated Parmesan, and Italian seasoning.  Spread about half of this mixture on top of your noodles.

Cover with another cup of sauce.

Cover with a few handfuls of mozzarella.

Now repeat, starting with more noodles.

The last layer will be noodles, a little more sauce (just to keep the noodles from drying out), mozzarella, and the shredded Parmesan.

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before you serve it up!

Crock Pot Roast

I had been craving pot roast, and when I saw this recipe, it sounded really interesting – and it was awesome.  I made a few modifications, and it will now become part of our regular rotation!  Now you can add it to yours.

You need:

• 1 3 lb. roast (any type works, I used a bottom roast)
• 2 packages dry brown gravy mix
• 2 packages dried Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 package dry ranch dressing mix
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup water

Place beef roast in crock pot.  Mix the dried mixes together in a bowl and sprinkle over the roast.

Pour the water and wine around the roast, and cook on low for 8 hours.  Come home to this.

It just shreds apart – so cut it up a little, let it soak up a little gravy, and serve!

Beer Cheese Soup

If you have heard me talk about any of my dining loves, you have heard me talk about Mad Fox Brewing Company, IMHO the best restaurant around here and one of the best restaurants ever.  And I don’t even drink beer – so I’m saying that based on the food alone, and I hear the beer is just another great contribution.

We typically get the pizza every time we go (it’s great), but one night I branched out and ordered this fabulous grilled peach and watermelon salad, which was served over frisée with some strange but equally fabulous combination of balsamic and raspberry vinaigrettes.   But I digress.  Because that, as fabulous as it was, was not the best thing I had that night.  I ordered a cup of their beer cheese soup.

Oh man.  It was out-of-this-world good.  I had to recreate it.

Full disclosure – mine didn’t come close to matching that creamy alcohol-laced perfection.   But it was pretty yummy.  I made a big change from the recipe I used – I used a food processor to grind up all the veggies, and it made the texture a bit strange.  But the flavor was good.  Now you can make it too – but better yet, call Mad Fox and see if they have beer cheese soup on the menu.  You will love it!

You need:

Meanwhile, heat butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat.  Stir in flour with a wire whisk; cook, stirring until the flour is light brown, about 3 or 4 minutes.  Gradually stir in milk, whisking to prevent scorching, until thickened.  Remove from heat, and gradually stir in cheese.  Keep warm.

Stir beer mixture into cheese mixture.  Stir in Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and dry mustard.  Adjust for hot pepper sauce.  Bring to a simmer, and cook 10 minutes.

Serve topped with the popcorn (as above) or with soft pretzels – they were even better than the popcorn!

Oreo Bars

At this point, you would think any variation on the marshmallow/butter/crunchy combination wouldn’t take me by delicious surprise.  After all, I’ve been eating Rice Krispies Treats my whole life – and I have made Cinnamon Toast Crunch Treats more times than I can count.  But when I made these Oreo bars – wow.

After the first one, I didn’t think they were that great.  After the second one, I was sold.  Matt loved them, and others who tried them said they were delicious.  I believe Cory said these were the best thing I’d ever made.  So I got some ringing endorsements, and I think you’ll be a fan.  You’ll need:

• 2 regular size packages of Oreos, crushed fine in the food processor
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 bags of marshmallows

Combine the marshmallows and butter in a large microwaveable bowl.  Microwave in 60-second intervals and stir until they are combined.

Stir in the Oreo crumbs – slowly – and be prepared to use your arm strength.

and keep adding, and keep stirring.

Line a 9×13 pan with foil, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray.  Dump the mixture into the pan, and press flat with a glass or wax paper.

Cut into squares.  Or even rectangles as these are pretty rich and go a long way!

Chicken Fingers for Adults

Matt loves a good batch of chicken fingers.  So when I saw these “grown up” chicken fingers, I added them to the pile of recipes I had to try.  They were so good – and the dipping sauce was amazing.

For the sauce:

• 1½ cups mayonnaise
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tbsp. roughly chopped dill
• 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. dry mustard powder
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the chicken:

• 1,5 lb. boneless chicken breast tenders
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1½ tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. dry mustard powder
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 cups finely ground fresh breadcrumbs or panko
• Canola oil, for frying

Make the dipping sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise with the honey, dill, mustard powder, and lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper, and stir together until smooth; set honey-dill dipping sauce aside.

In a medium bowl, toss together chicken, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and mustard; set aside.

Place flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate shallow dishes; set aside.

Pour oil to a depth of 2″ into a 6-qt. pot; heat over medium-high heat.  Working in batches, coat chicken in flour, shake off excess, and dip in eggs; coat in breadcrumbs.  Fry chicken until golden brown and crisp, about 3 minutes.

Drain on paper towels.

Tastes like Lasagna Soup

Shortly after I joined Pinterest, I kept stumbling upon Paula Deen’s recipe for lasagna soup.  That seemed like a sign that I should make it.  And it’s good.  But don’t be misled.  It tastes like Lasagna SOUP.  It doesn’t taste like lasagna.  And that’s fine.  Turns out, I like lasagna flavored soup.

You need:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 (32-ounce) box chicken broth
• 2 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups large shell pasta
• 1 (5-ounce) package grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

In your large soup pot, combine ground beef, garlic, and Italian seasoning.  Cook over medium-high heat for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is browned and crumbles.  (I had a picture of this, but it basically just a shot of the steam over the beef, and you know what this part is supposed to look like.)

Stir in brown sugar, broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Add noodles, and simmer until noodles are tender (about 15 minutes).

Add parmesan.

Preheat broiler.  Ladle soup into 8 to 10 ovenproof bowls.  Evenly sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.  Broil soups, 6-inches from heat, 3 to 4 minutes, until cheese is browned and bubbly!

Yum!