Recipes

Tropical Kitchen Island Breezes: Seafood Stew

On June 16, 2009, In Food, Home, Recipes, By LisaT

After wrestling with the instructions and millions of bits and pieces in which my kitchen island from Target arrived, I triumphantly took a long, hard look at the vast acreage of counter space I had acquired. Success!

The purchase was a special treat to myself, for cutting back on my restaurant outings. Also, the free shipping and online discount made it a no-brainer. Especially when I heard the UPS guy lugging the box up the stairs to my apartment front door. “I thought someone was dragging a corpse,” I told him after thanking him and subsequently ripping the box open virtually immediately.

To celebrate, I’m preparing a seafood stew for dinner this evening. It’s one of those grab-bag-type recipes I love so much. In case you’re interested:

Ingredients:
-A handful of frozen shrimp
-1 bag of Trader Joe’s mixed seafood: shrimp, calamari rings and sea scallops
-1 cup of frozen sweet corn
-1/2 cup of white wine
-1 can of Select Harvest Light Maryland-Style Crab Soup
-Handful of chopped red onion
-Handful of chopped cilantro
-Pat of butter

Directions:
Simply toss the whole business into the Crock Pot and let cook for a few hours. You can cook about 1/2 a cup of rice to go with the whole business once the stew is done. Make sure to invite over friends to help enjoy the bounty.

Calorie-counting folk neither allowed nor welcome! Sorry, but this ain’t a fat-free kitchen, y’all.

Tagged with: Apartment • Cooking • Food • Home • Kitchen • Recipes • Seafood

Memorial Day Chocolate Cupcakes

On May 26, 2009, In Food, Holidays, Recipes, By LisaT

To represent all the military graveyards my parents took me and my sisters to all over Europe when we were growing up, I baked a delicious batch of chocolate frosted cupcakes and decorated them with little white chocolate crosses. Nostalgic, appropriate and yummy, they were a huge hit at the bbq.

Here’s the recipe—it’s definitely a keeper. To save time, I just used my trusty Duncan Hines whipped chocolate frosting.

Tagged with: Baked Goods • Chocolate Cupcakes • Cupcakes • Dessert • Food • Holidays • Memorial Day • Recipes

Chocolate Layer Cake Compulsion

On April 30, 2009, In Food, Photo Gallery, Recipes, By LisaT

A sudden craving for chocolate cake resulted in me whipping up a Duncan Hines instant creation. It wasn’t from scratch, but I did add a thin layer of jelly and fruit in between the two cake layers to give it an extra something. And judging from the reaction on Dan’s face after he took his first bite, I’d say I hit the mark. As you can see, it’s already halfway gone. I figured I’d better take pictures before it disappeared completely. Which is in about five minutes.

Tagged with: Cake • Chocolate • Dessert • Layer • Recipes

Tiny Turkey Burger Time

On April 29, 2009, In Food, Recipes, By LisaT

All these commercials on TV for Burger King and Jack in the Box’s mini-burgers had me hankering for some myself. So I grabbed some dinner rolls from the grocery store and used my trusty turkey burger recipe to make these little sliders.

With a side salad of tasty strawberry tomatoes purchased this weekend at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market and spinach, it turns out three is the magic number of baby-sized burgers that Dan and I each ended up eating. They were delicious and I’m guessing fairly healthy, since that Jennie-O ground turkey is all over The Biggest Loser and stuff.

It was all I could do to keep myself from making a cake to top off the evening. Thankfully, I was pretty tired. But next time, I’m going to employ the baking tin for mini-cupcakes I bought the other week from Bed Bath & Beyond so Dan and I can enjoy a well-balanced tiny meal.

Tagged with: Recipes • Sliders • Turkey Burgers

Red Velvet Cupcake Saturday

On April 18, 2009, In Food, Recipes, By LisaT

Earlier this week, I decided I would make red velvet cupcakes at some point this weekend. A little treat to myself after a long week.

Googling “classic red velvet cupcake recipe,” I stumbled upon a blog I’m adding to my list of blogs to check out on a regular basis, Brownies for Breakfast. As an added bonus, she happens to live in Savannah, coincidentally my hometown (well, Richmond Hill, to be exact.)

Her red velvet recipe was simple and ended up being very delicious. The only thing I would caution is that you take care when mixing up the ingredients because I didn’t realize I was spattering the batter and ended up with what looked like a mini murder scene. Luckily, I was dressed in all-black, which I would recommend you do any time you decide to mix these up.

But I give the recipe two thumbs up. I used whipped cream cheese frosting from Duncan Hines, since I had a coupon for the stuff and wasn’t feeling quite homemaker enough to whip it up from scratch. Also, I wonder if it’s because the batter is so liquid that the cupcakes end up being so dense and filling. After just two, I was actually full, which was quite amazing.

Here’s a link to Everything old is new again: red velvet cupcakes.