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.

Patty Melts!

So we've still got some lovely corn and tomatoes from this week (I used some in a re-do of this meal). But we've also got a whole bag of onions. And I recently came across a post on Pioneer Woman's site about patty melts, at which point there was no turning back.

I have a patty melt problem, and I'm not ashamed. I order them pretty much whenever I see them on a menu, and I'll take them over a regular burger anyday. It's a delicious marriage of a burger and grilled cheese, with sauteed onions. Sometimes with thousand island dressing, sometimes not. I think I started ordering them at Plato's Diner in College Park...it was my post-steelband-rehearsal treat. I get one nearly every time we eat at our local Double T Diner in Catonsville, despite the fact that they have a 30-page (or so) menu. Paper Moon also makes a fine one (I keep trying to order something different there because the rest of the food is amazing, but I usually can't resist the Pull of the Patty). One of the best ones I ever had was at in Tyson's Tavern in Baltimore (which I couldn't remember the name of, and rob and I just spent several minutes racking our brains and Yelp until he finally remembered that...and it's closed now!). Anyway...it came on marble rye, accompanied by sweet potato fries, and it was swoon-worthy.

So, yeah...I have a problem. They're delicious. A patty melt may not be the first thing one thinks of for a food blog focusing on dishes with local organic produce, but...gotta use those onions!

For the uninitiated, here's all you do:
- Saute/caramelize some onions
- Make a burger to your liking (I enjoyed Pioneer Woman's suggestion of adding some Worcestershire)
- Sandwich it all with swiss cheese on rye, sourdough or  marble rye (which I used), and grill it in some butter until crispy & oozy.
If you want an actual recipe, check out the Pioneer Woman one...and use as much butter as your conscience will allow (I didn't feel the need to use quite as much as she does).

First time I've ever actually made one, and I was pleased!

My only "complaint" is that I wish the bread was thicker. Safeway didn't have any rye or marble rye that wasn't thin-sliced.

And instead of fries...more roasted pink potatoes!

There, I used some more local organic produce. :-)

Pink Potatoes!

I love vegetable surprises. Yesterday's pickup included a bag of red-skinned potatoes (seems we're getting potatoes every week). Thought I'd make some home fries for breakfast today, and when I sliced them, voila!

Had some regular potatoes too so I mixed them together. Here's an easy way to make home fries/roasted potatoes if you're also making bacon:

Cook your bacon in the oven on a foil-lined sheet pan (about 15 minutes at 400 usually does it). When it's done, remove the bacon to paper towels and toss cubed potatoes onto the pan to coat with the bacon drippings. Season with salt and whatever else you want (at the moment I'm in love with Penzey's Turkish seasoning), put back into the oven and roast until browned & crispy, turning once.


Happy breakfast!

Potato - Cranberry Bean Chowder

We got something new last week: fresh cranberry beans in the shell!

They lose their pretty color when cooked, so I figured I'd throw them into a soup. This was thrown together on a whim - no measurements, no plans...but that's usually what a good soup is! Went something like:

- 3 strips of bacon, diced, cooked in large pot until crispy, reserve bacon
- Chop 1 onion, 1 carrot & 1 celery stalk, saute in bacon drippings
- Chop a few potatoes into small cubes & add to veggies
- Add 1 box of chicken broth & some water to cover
- Add shelled beans
- Simmer until beans & potatoes are cooked (these took only about 20 minutes)
- Puree about a third of the soup in a blender. Add some cream & heat through.
- Add bacon. Season with pepper, chopped basil, dash of hot sauce

Seemed like more of a winter soup, but it was good!

Quick Eggplant Parmesan; Summer Tomato Sauce

Made this one a couple weeks ago...a quick version of eggplant parmesan:

We had half an eggplant which I sliced, dipped in beaten egg and then in a mixture of panko breadcrumbs, garlic powder, salt & pepper (& maybe some other stuff). Laid these on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil, and baked for about 20 minutes. We also had onions & garlic from the CSA, so I chopped & sauteed those and added them to store-bought pasta sauce. Spooned this over the slices, topped with mozzarella cheese and put back in the oven just to melt the cheese. Sprinkled with chopped basil.

Not quite the "real thing" (and I'm not sure that there was actually any parmesan involved), but all the tastes are there and it was much easier & lighter than the fried/baked version.

We also started getting tomatoes the last couple weeks, so tonight I chopped up our stash (including some grape tomatoes Amy's been growing in the garden):

And made a simple pasta sauce with onions & garlic (also from One Straw) sauteed in olive oil, plus basil from the garden: