Cajun Shrimp Pasta

I made this to use up some odds & ends: green peppers & garlic from the CSA, garden grape tomatoes, and the heavy cream from last week's creme brulee!

Quantities totally adjustable here depending on what you like and how much you're making. Sausage would be great in this too.

- Shrimp, peeled & tails off (or chicken or other protein)
- Cajun seasoning
- Sliced onion
- Sliced bell peppers
- Chopped garlic
- Chopped tomato
- Heavy cream (I really recommend not omitting this, but if you must...)
- Hot sauce
- Cooked pasta (I used whole wheat linguine)
- Sliced green onions (and/or cilantro) for garnish

Toss the shrimp with cajun seasoning. Sear in a hot pan in a little olive oil until just cooked; remove to a bowl.

Add onion to pan (with more oil if necessary), cook until starting to brown. Add peppers & a little more Cajun seasoning.

Add garlic, stir briefly, then add chopped tomato. Cook just until tomato softens.

Add some of the pasta cooking water to loosen things up (if you have some white wine open, that'd be even better). Add heavy cream and a good dose of hot sauce. Warm just until slightly thickened and add cooked shrimp.

Toss with hot pasta and garnish with sliced green onions (and/or cilantro, parsely, etc).

I drank a watermelon spritzer with this (watermelon juice + club soda). We've had a watermelon from the CSA in the house for oh...probably about a month now. You may think there's something wrong with that. It's just such a commitment once you cut it open! And our fridge space is always at a premium. So I decided to go ahead and juice it today. It was a little mealy so I think juice was the right way to go!

Shrimp, Eggplant & Bok Choy Stir Fry with Black Rice

We ate this before the chocolate - habanero creme brulee, so we could feel somewhat healthy...

- Marinated some shrimp in lime juice + zest, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a little honey and a bit of cornstarch.
- Cut a small eggplant into cubes, salted/rested/rinsed (really not sure how much difference that makes, especially with farm-fresh eggplant).
- Stir-fried the eggplant, adding a bit of soy sauce.
- Added some sliced bok choy stems, then the leaves.
- Removed the veggies, added a touch more oil, and stir-fried some garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes & scallions for a few seconds.
- Added the shrimp and cooked until pink.
- Added the veggies back in, plus some water & a little more soy.

Served with black rice, which I've been intrigued by and picked up a bag recently:

It's chewy, nutty and apparently has antioxidants & stuff. But so does chocolate, right??

Dark Chocolate - Habanero Crème Brûlée

A few days ago I was gifted a packet of "Habanero Sugar," something I haven't encountered before...

...and a voice from above said..."I bet that would make a bitchin' chocolate crème brûlée."

I listened to that voice.

I got a kitchen torch for my birthday and have only used it once (tried a basic crème brûlée recipe). For this, I used this chocolate crème brûlée recipe, "for two." It filled three small dishes, which was fine 'cause it was pretty damn rich (and the person who gifted me the sugar got some!). I used a 76% cacao chocolate. And I didn't bother straining the mixture.

I tasted the sugar first and it was pretty potent, so I decided to mix it half-and-half with regular sugar. Good move...it was just the right amount of heat and not overwhelming.

Oh my LORD this was good. Uber-chocolately and a nice kick from the habanero.