2011 Wrap-up - June and July

We didn’t cook the entire month of June. Jim worked, we had two birthday weekends, one nephew graduated from high school and welcomed our nephew Drew.

Hello, Drew!

Two nephews born within a month - it was a great summer to be the aunt and uncle.

Abel on the left, Drew on the right.

The first couple of weeks in July we also were busy with the 4^th at a friend’s house - we did take Emeril’s potato salad, which Jim had made before - and our oldest son’s birthday. But, we managed to cook a couple of weekends.

　

07-17 Robin’s Shrimp Risotto and Salted Butter Tart

Shrimp Risotto with Peas

When I was still in school, my step mom and I made homemade toffee to add to the Christmas cookie tins. I was in love from the very first spoon lick. The rich and smooth butter that is highlighted with the salty bits, covered in sweet, silky chocolate … pure heaven. Salted caramel may surpass my love of chocolate. Combine them, and score! (or should I say Skor - one of my favorite candy bars to this day.) I love this so much, that both of my desserts in July were Salted Caramel based. The first a tart, the second Gravel Road Ice Cream - salted caramel with smoked almonds.

The Salted Butter Tart was my first venture in making caramel on my own. Whether you’re making a dry caramel with just sugar, or adding butter, caramelizing sugar requires patience. You have to heat the sugar at a low temperature until it liquefies and make sure you remove it before it burns. If it overcooks a little bit, it gives the sugar an almost mocha flavor that some people like, but another minute too long and it’s ruined. After caramelizing the sugar, add cream, which sizzles and pops and makes the caramel form hardened lumps. (No matter how slowly I pour the cream into the sugar, this always happens.) Then re-heat to get the lumps to liquefy again. Even though this takes a lot of time and patience, I find it worth every moment over the stove and every burn from sizzling caramel. All commercially made caramel now just tastes like an overly sweet sauce that barely tastes like caramel. The picture does not do this dessert justice.


Salted Butter Tart

07-24 Jim's Puerto Rican Beef & Plantain Pie, Spinach Salad (Emeril's Potluck) and Peanut Butter Fudge
The first time eating plantains. They're interesting - they look like bananas, but taste like potatoes.
We used what we call fake meat - a soy-based meat substitute.

Puerto Rican Beef & Plantain Pie

Spinach Salad with  Mandarin Oranges

Peanut Butter Fudge

07-31 Robin's Tempeh Sloppy Joes, Zucchini Fries and Gravel Road Ice Cream (Jeni's)
The sloppy joes were decent, but the zucchini fries were amazing, and because they're baked, probably a little healthy. I don't think kids would even notice they were good for them.

Thanks to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Columbus’ North Market, I re-fell in love with Salted Caramel. As soon as her ice cream recipe book was available, I bought it, hoping her recipe for Gravel Road would be in there. It is. If you haven’t had Jeni’s Salted Caramel ice cream, take a trip to Columbus or Nashville, stop by the Green Dog Café in Cincinnati or order some online, and do so as quickly as possible.


Tempeh Sloppy Joes, Zucchini Fries and Mashed Potatoes

2011 Wrap-up - May

May started our busy summer of 2011. We were in Columbus two of the five weekends in May. May 8, Jim ran his first 5K, the Columbus Cap City. I was so proud of him. He did a great job training and finishing in under 35 minutes.

Jim raising his arms in victory as he approaches the finish line.

Jim and Kathy celebrate after finishing the Cap City 5K.

We then welcomed our nephew, Abel, to the family May 11. I was there for his birth, and all of us traveled back to Columbus to spend some time with him Memorial Day weekend.

Meet Abel

Jim’s birthday is also in May, and we always go to Olive Garden for that, so not a lot of cooking going on.

05-22 - Robin’s Tempeh Etouffe (Fresh Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes) and Lemon Icebox Pie

This was my first foray into cooking with tempeh. It was pretty tasty. It can be difficult to find in Northern Kentucky, so we don’t have it often. I thought the Lemon Icebox pie would be nice and cool after the spiciness of the etouffe. It was an Emeril recipe, so it was the perfect combo of tangy and sweet.

Tempeh Etouffe

Lemon Icebox Pie

05-01 Robin’s Portobello Mushroom Tourenado (Double Take) and Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Jim says this is one of his favorite meals that I made. It was delicious, but took a lot of work. The tourenados were a stack of separate dishes I had to cook. I wish I’d had our cast iron skillet when I made the pineapple upside down cake, but it was still delicious.

Portobello Tourenados

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2011 Wrap-up - April

At the end of April, Jim and I went to an educational class about spices at the library. They combined this with a food sampling from the Kenton County ESL class. It was a lot of fun, educational and free. The trifecta! We talked with the chef after the class, and she was impressed with Jim’s attempt to make a sabayon cake and his knowledge of saffron.

04-24 Jim’s Smoked Salmon & Potato Casserole
Green Bean Salad
Strawberry Sabayon Cake
(All from Emeril's Potluck)

Again, delicious. Smoked salmon can be a little much in large doses, so I recommend making half the recipe. After one day of leftovers, I was tired of the taste, and I love salmon.

Smoked Salmon & Potato Casserole and Green Bean Salad

Sabayon cake is tricky. You have to let the cake soak in the alcohol marinade without getting too soupy. We haven’t perfected that yet, thus no picture, but eating the mistake cake was delicious.


04-17 Robin’s Shrimp and Cheesy Grits
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

My mom mentioned eating Shrimp & Grits on Friday, and that was all I could think about eating. This was amazing. One of my favorite dishes that I’ve ever made. I think I used
Bobby Flay’s recipe for the shrimp and Paula Deen’s recipe for the grits, using facon of course.

Southern Shrimp and Cheesy Grits

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

04-10 Jim’s Grilled Vegetable Lasagna and Strawberry Shortcake (Emeril's Potluck)
Even though I’m mostly vegetarian, I’m not a fan of a lot of vegetables, especially raw. But this lasagna was fantastic. I could definitely get my veggies in every day with this.

Grilled Vegetable Lasagna

Strawberry Shortcake

04-03 Robin’s Slow Cooker Ziti Casserole
(Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)
Easiest meal to make ever. I don’t have a picture of dessert…. Maybe just cookies out of a box. J Update: We had spumoni ice cream with this.