Birthday Burger

I just came across this photo of Rachel's birthday burger from last October.  It's too good not to post, so here you go.

We grilled olive burgers (our version uses green olives and cream cheese) and served them on those fancy pretzel buns.  Home made french fries, fresh from the garden carrot planks, dill pickles and apple cider rounded out the meal.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Shrimp on the Smoker

Back in July, we smoked up a special batch of shrimp.  Now that it's winter, and cold, I'm going to post it to remind us of warmer days.  Plus, I'm hoping to make Ben hungry.

We had gotten some ocean run coonstripe shrimp from the Rowes and I wasn't quite sure how to cook it, never having cooked shrimp before.  Besides that, Rachel doesn't prefer seafood so I was putting it off.  But since we already had the smoker fired up for some chicken and red peppers, I decided we might as well add some shrimp.

I used a spicy garlic brine based loosely on one that claimed to be useful for seafood.  This also helped the shrimp complete its final thaw.  I'm not sure that shrimp would thaw today, even in the house (with a low of -8 degrees F tonight).  They looked pretty tasty even before I put them on the smoker.

 It didn't take long to smoke/cook these on the charcoal smoker.  With a little applewood smoke and the heat of the charcoal, they were done in about ten minutes.  We ended up eating these cold at Philip's first birthday party and I thought they were excellent.  I don't recall if Philip liked them but Peter had a particular affinity for the shrimp.  Rachel even said they were ok.  I did also try them warm and they were good that way - they seemed buttery, even though we never put butter on them.  The smokiness was just right. 

Here's some of the chicken that we did at the same time.  The chicken was smoked with apple and honeysuckle.  It took about 5 hours, but it was also well worth it.

Happy 3rd Birthday to this Buttercup Squash Soup

Sometime in the past (I'm not exactly sure when, so it's safe to say that it's at least a year or more in the past), I received some frozen pureed pumpkin and squash from Steve and Rachel. Now, at last, it has become time to use them.

I found a bag of buttercup squash in my freezer and decided to make a soup with it. Now that it's feeling all fall-y outside, my mind turns to squash soups and roasted vegetables and crock pot pork shoulders, which, coincidentally, is what I happened to have for dinner the other night.

The soup is the only thing I took a picture of, though. And here it is in all it's glory, dressed up with some slivers of red bell pepper and a couple dollops of goat cheese.

I used the recipe here, and it was just about the simplest soup I've ever thrown together. Having a bag of pureed squash (instead of raw chunks) helped a lot.

So, thanks to Steve and Rachel for the squash, and thanks to the squash for a delicious soup.

Ever wished your coffee cake was a little more...caffeinated? If not, it's only because you were never lucky enough to think of it.

It's unclear whether the extra caffeine or the smooth coffee flavor won her over, but Hazel is a fan.

Also, here is a map. Of Sorth America. That is not a typo.

Coffee cake recipe credit goes to mom, who clipped it from a USA Today some time ago and has been keeping it in her purse for several months so she could pull it out and drool over it. 

Adventures in Smoking

Just a teaser - more to come.

Kimchi

Yes, you read the title correctly. We've ventured into Kimchi territory. Even though neither Andy or I have even eaten Kimchi, we thought it would be a good idea to make some. And by some I mean a lot.

Andy slaughters the Napa cabbage.

 

We ended up buying this on Amazon. Anyone interested in making Kimchi should definitely just borrow some of this from me. You can't tell from the photo, but this a really big bag, and we only used a little bit. 

Chile powder, ginger, onions, garlic, miso paste, fish sauce, and a little apple juice.

I took a long time to take this picture (alla mom) and when I finally finished, Andy admitted the onions had been making his eyes water the whole time but he'd been trying to smile nicely. Sorry Andy, hehe. 

For anyone interested, we used the Foodie with Family recipe for Mak Kimchi. 

Almond Butter

This is going to be a really boring post. Only a couple pictures (and not even of the final product) and a few sentences masquerading as a recipe. BUT, the end result is so good that I think you should read it anyway. And then go make some almond butter. (You do need a food processor to do this, so if you don't have one you should probably come visit me and use mine. While you watch the kids and I take a nap.)

So here's the "recipe" - pour some unsalted almonds (I used raw but next time plan to roast them for a bit to see which way I prefer) into the bowl of a food processor. Turn it on. Wait for longer than you think necessary (about 10 minutes maybe), scraping down the bowl every few minutes. Just when you think it's going to be too dry and clumpy and you must have used bad almonds or you may even need a new food processor, all the oils will release and you will have almond butter. If you like you can add a little brown sugar or honey once the nuts are ground (see second photo) but before it actually turns into butter, and last time I also added cinnamon which I've really enjoyed.

I've been eating it on bagels, apples, pretzels, spoons...I'm guessing roughly 10% of my current body weight is thanks to almond butter.