Shrimp Stir Fry

It has been an unsettled yet interesting year thus far.  Life has thrown a few curve balls but in our true spirit, we have lobbied them back successfully.  We still managed to spend most of the month of May in Florida and Aruba so I'll share some of those foodie adventures.  Earlier this month, my husband had his gallbladder removed.  Despite all of the horror stories folks managed to share with us about this procedure, the only problem was a nasty reaction to his pain medication.  Other than that, the healing process was problem free.  He is back to enjoying food and is quite pleased that nothing seems to be bothering his stomach!

The discharge nurse suggested a bland diet for a couple of months then slowly start introducing fats and spice.  That didn't happen!  Butter, olive oil and coconut oil were all introduced within a day of post surgery.  Garlic pepper was included with his first solid food the evening of the surgery.  The first week, I made various pasta stir frys for dinner. 

Each stir fry was made with spaghettini and seafood (shrimp or scallops).  I added vegetables into the stir fry for the third dinner.  The shrimp stir fry pictured was incredibly easy to make.  It was a tasty,  low calorie, high protein meal.  The jumbo shrimp was frozen precooked so I thawed and removed the tails while the pasta was cooking.  When the pasta was cooked, I drained then heated a little olive oil in a non-stick fry pan.  I tossed in the shrimp and frozen Asian vegetable mix, stirring until warmed through.  Then I added the pasta, a small pat of butter (about 1 tsp) for extra flavour, and a light dash of garlic pepper.  This delicious stir fry, like most stir frys only took 15 minutes to put together.

The beauty of stir frys aside of being delicious is they are very quick to put together.  They are versatile too.  While rice and pasta are often added to stir frys,  quinoa or potatoes can be substituted.  Any meat or seafood can be used as well.  The choice for vegetables is endless.  Although I seldom add a sauce to my stir frys, it is easy to do so if desired.  A thin sauce adds another element of texture and flavour.  Worchestershire sauce, liquid aminos (soy free, low sodium) or soy sauce are all great ingredients to add extra flavour to stir frys in place of a thin sauce.  All the way around, stir frys get two thumbs up in my book!

Seafood Pasta

We spent Saturday preparing for our Superbowl party on Sunday.   Sam's Club was the perfect place to pick up a large container of sour cream, shredded cheese, pork loin, rolls, buns, veggie tray and cream cheese.   This weather is really playing havoc with my arthritis so my husband suggested a couple of short cuts like the veggie tray.  It was a much appreciated lovely gesture!  After shopping, it was time to make the pulled pork and chili while my husband set-up the games room.  I used one of my pressure cookers for the pulled pork so all that would be needed the following day was warming in the slow cooker.  We finally sat down for a breather.  My husband checked the weather forecast which quickly became cause for concern!  By 6 AM game day, the snow had started and it continued causing our number of guests to drop from twenty to nine.  Luckily we had tracking the weather so put out less food to begin with then adjust from there but we are still left with extra food.  Despite the weather, a good time was had by all!

It has been very much cooking on the fly here with the main focus on using up some of the pantry and freezer surplus.  This has triggered a bit of fun in the kitchen!  Last week, I wasn't feeling overly creative so pasta it was.  Pasta is one of those staples that goes with just about anything.  I toyed around using up a jar of home canned meat sauce but felt like something a bit lighter.  Seafood is one of my favourites for eating light. 

I settled on making a brown butter sauce.  Then I added jumbo shrimp and scallops.  Both are tasty, low calorie sources for protein.  The dish was almost ready when my husband suggested adding in a little Kraft Herb & Garlic shredded cheese.  This cheese has a nice flavour with a creamy texture when melted.  The end result was an tasty seafood pasta.  There was enough of noodles left over for the following night's side dish that warmed nicely and still had a lovely seafood flavour. 

Crab Cakes for Two

Crab is such a lovely seafood - sweet, tender, low calorie, high protein and delicious with hot drawn butter!  I absolutely love crab, specifically king crab legs.  I am rather picky about crab preferring fresh or frozen to canned.  Canned crab is fine for crabmeat dip but that is about the extent of our use for it.  I will often bring home a few crab legs from a restaurant meal when possible but for most purposes, we buy froze king crab legs from Elite Gourmet Food Service that delivers to the door in southern Ontario.

I thoroughly enjoy sitting down to a plate of king crab legs, leisurely savouring each succulent morsel.  My husband, on the other hand does not enjoy cracking crab legs!  In order to use crab meat as an ingredient, the legs must be cracked open releasing the tender, sweet meat.  This is not a difficult task but it is a bit time consuming.

I bring water to a boil in a roasting pan then add the frozen crab legs.  Most of the leg pieces have the larger knuckle where it was attached to the body of the crab.  I crack the cooked crab legs according to their segments, pulling connective tissue to help release the meat.  I also use a thin tipped fork to help release the meat and kitchen shears to open segment portions that refuse to crack open.  Once all the crab legs have been cleaned, I break the larger chunks up depending on how they will be used.

Crab cakes are a delightfully tasty way to use fresh or frozen crab meat.  Like many homemade favourites, there are as many ways to make them as there are cooks.  The big debate appears to be which is best, baked or pan fried.  Baking reduces or eliminates the butter for cooking but at the same time removes the flavour the butter imparts to the crab cakes.  We prefer pan fried crab cakes.  They are easy to make, a tender and tasty seafood main or make them smaller for an appetizer.  Our recipe gives a yield of four crab cakes just perfect for two.  We like Breton crackers for this purpose but you can substitute with your favourite cracker. 

Crab Cakes for Two
recipe by: Garden Gnome

½ c Breton Bites, original whole wheat, crushed
1 egg
4 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
3 tbsp Miracle Whip (or Miracle Whip Clone)
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 tbsp finely chopped green onion
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley (optional)
8 oz (226 g) crab meat pieces
1 tbsp butter

Whisk egg, lemon juice, Miracle Whip and garlic pepper together.  Stir in crab meat and green onions.  Gently mix being careful not to break up crab meat.  Mix in crackers.  Divide into four equal portions (mixture will be stickly).  Heat butter on medium heat.  Place each crab mixture portion in heated butter and flatten.  Fry until golden brown, about 5 minutes each side.  Remove from fry pan.  Drain and serve.

Makes 4 patties
Serves 2

Nutritional Value per serving:
298 calories, 14 g total fat (7g saturated fat), 177 mg cholesterol, 726 mg sodium, 468 mg potassium, 19 g total carbohydrates (2 g fibre, 4 g sugar), 25 g protein

Our Seafood Feast

Today's diet tip:  Substitute salad dressing with a splash of fresh lemon juice for a fresh, sparkling flavour without the calories.  This will cut 45 calories or more!

We eat a lot of fish at home, at least once a week but often two or three times a week.  Our fish of choice is locally caught yellow lake perch, pickerel and bass but we also eat a lot of cod and wild salmon.  When we bought our vacation home in sunny Florida in 2010, I fully expected to be eating a lot more seafood when there!  That certainly has not been the case especially when eating out.  We have discovered several excellent BBQ joints so ribs are the order of the day.   Our favourite seafood restaurants in Florida is Harry's Seafood Bar and Grille and Red Lobster.  We discovered during our recent stay that Long John Silvers isn't too bad (I pick the coating off). 

Fish and seafood is a dieter's delight because it is so low in calories.  You can have a nice filling piece of fish without breaking your calorie budget as long as it isn't coated and deep fried.  I like coated and deep fried fish though but never eat the coating.  About the only fish I will eat coated is yellow lake perch but that is just a very light coating to begin with.  I also don't like shrimp or any other seafood coated and deep fried. 

We were at our vacation home for most of October, home for almost three weeks then back to our vacation home for five weeks.  I decided to make a seafood feast during the first part of our stay.  The night before we had been to Red Lobster with friends for their crab leg feast so I brought home the crab legs I couldn't eat to make a crab meat salad.  Imitation crab meat salad is good but imitation crab itself has a higher carbohydrate content as well as food colouring.  Real crab meat is the healthier, lower calorie choice!

Our seafood feast consisted of bacon wrapped scallops (169 cal/3 scallops), steamed littleneck clams (168 cal/4oz), baked mahi mahi (93 cal/3 oz), crab meat salad (140 cal/half cup) and steamed asparagus (26 cal/8 spears).  This dinner as shown would have been 596 calories at the full amounts but we had less asparagus and clams.  We also had a small garden salad (not shown) at 20 calories sprinkled with fresh lemon juice instead of dressing which made up for the calories cut by smaller servings.  It would have been lower omitting the bacon by about 100 calories.  At any rate, a healthy meal under 600 calories is always a good thing whether or not you are counting calories!

Shrimp on the Barbie

Congratulations to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine Elizabeth Kate, nee  Middleton, Dutchess of Cambridge on the birth of their first child, a son!

Shrimp on the barbie is a phrase made famous by Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee, 1986) in a series of television advertisements by the Australian Tourism Commission that ran from 1984 through 1990.  That phrase has always stuck in my mind so I get a little chuckle every time we grill shrimp.  Shrimp is ever so easy to cook on the grill because it has it's own built in timer, changing from grey to pink orange-pink when cooked.

Shrimp is generally viewed as being expensive, and in many cases it is unless you live near a local source.  Here in our corner of beautiful Ontario, Canada I buy frozen raw shrimp mainly from Elite Gourmet Food Service but if I am out, I buy Zipperback Black Tiger Shrimp shrimp at No Frills in 454 g (1 lb) for $8.  This shrimp has a firm texture with mild flavour perfect for grilling.  It is deveined ready to thaw and cook.  Three bags of this shrimp will comfortably serve four adults.

Quite often shrimp are cooked on skewers on the grill but we like using a grilling basket instead.  The grilling basket takes a lot of the fuss out of grilling shrimp.  Pictured is the thawed jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp shortly after putting onto the grill in the grilling basket.  These were the 16/20 count shrimp, the perfect size for grilling.  I didn't use a marinade although one could be used with this method.  I lightly sprayed the grilling basket with cooking oil then placed the prepared shrimp in the basket.  As you can see the raw shrimp is grey in colour.  As it cooks, the shrimp changes colour and the flesh turns opaque.

Shrimp cooks rather fast on the grill.  It is important to not over cook the shrimp as this will cause the texture of the shrimp to become rubbery.  Using a grilling basket allows you to quickly turn the shrimp with a flipping motion.  The cooked shrimp turns a beautiful orange-pink with golden overtones.  This mouthwatering shrimp is delicious as is or served with home canned seafood cocktail sauce.

The shrimp was part of dinner celebrations for our youngest's birthday.  It was a milestone birthday, a reminder of time marching on!   We enjoyed the delicious meal on the deck, letting the cooler summer breeze brush our shoulders while enjoying simply being together.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate such a special day!

A Few Easter Goodies

One thing is always for certain whenever we get together as a family and that is an abundance of good food!  Last Saturday was no different when eleven of us celebrated Easter and two of the little ones turning a year older.  The weather was warm and sunny, perfect for the little ones' Easter egg hunt.  Our meal consisted of spiral cut ham, homemade baked beans, homemade creamy coleslaw, home canned green beans,baked potatoes, home canned pickles, a vegetable tray and fresh baked bread.  Appetizers were deviled eggs and seafood.  Dessert was birthday cake.  It was a wonderful gathering!

A couple of our kids (parents to oldest and youngest grandkids) surprised us with a gift basket from Barrie's Asparagus Farm. They have shopped there on several occasions so the farm is on our list of places to visit the next time we are in the Cambridge area.  Barrie's Asparagus Farm is located at 1236 Kings Road in Cambridge, Ontario.  They are fourth generation food producers on Cedardale Farm.  There is a farm market on site where they sell their own produce and products as well as fresh local produce, meats, cheese, honey, maple syrup, grains, baking, preserves, eggs, dairy and much more.  The gift basket was packed with some of their products made with asparagus.  Asparagus will soon be in season here which means I will be doing a bit of canning.  I'm always looking for new ways to use a long time favourite vegetable!

Asparagus is one of those vegetables that we don't get very creative with even though we eat a lot of it.  We prefer fresh asparagus either steamed or grilled.  I can just enough asparagus to use for making cream of asparagus soup.  The products in the gift basket included: vegetable crackers, kettle chips, stone wheat crackers, fusilli pasta with asparagus, asparagus tortilla chips, asparagus salsa and tomato asparagus parmesan pasta sauce.  All of the products in the gift basket except the vegetable crackers and kettle chips had asparagus as an ingredient.  The salsa, pasta sauce a pasta with asparagus are all products I could make as new products for the pantry at home.  I could like make the stone wheat crackers with asparagus as well.  The tortilla chips use asparagus flour which can be made at home from dried asparagus.  Oh the possibilities!

The kids that brought the gift basket also brought a shrimp and crab claw platter.  Our kid would actually like to give up their current profession in favour of becoming a chef.  Although that likely will not happen, she has been taking culinary courses.  She is currently learning how to make trays for entertaining including this beautiful seafood tray.  The presentation is stunning although the little ones did not quite appreciate the crab claws.  They were having no part of the claws at all but ate the crab as long as they could not see the claws.  The adults, on the other hand loved the shrimp and crab.  I thought it was a wonderful and unique presentation!

A couple of our other kids (parents to middle grandkid), brought the birthday cake.  Their little one was turning five while youngest was turning four.  They chose a birthday cake to highlight one of the toys all of our grandkids and in fact the kids still play with, Lego.  The grandkids love playing with Grandma and Papa's huge Lego bin and Lego is their favourite toy at home.  Their birthday cake was made to look like Lego pieces.  Isn't it precious?

The cake was chocolate with a marshmallow icing covered with fondant.  The top connectors were made from rice crispies.  Happy Birthday with the grandkids' names were written in cake decorating icing.  The presentation was really cute!  We took a lot of pictures of them enjoying their birthday treat.

Every holiday and some special days have traditional dishes but that doesn't mean you can't break from tradition or even create your own traditions.  Crab in some form, usually as an appetizer,  has been a long tradition in our family for most special meals.  Shrimp is usually served as well.  That's the beauty of these types of gatherings.  They evolve over time, forming new traditions but kept together through good company, lots of laughter and good food.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Thawing Shrimp

The holiday entertaining season is upon us.  To quickly  thaw frozen shrimp, place the bag or wrapped tray in cold water in the sink.  The shrimp will be ready to use in about 10 minutes.

Crabby Bill's Seafood Co. in Clearwater Beach, Florida

When we are at our vacation home in Florida we often meet up with family and friends who are either visiting or living in Florida.  Our vacation home is located about mid-way between Tampa and Orlando making it an ideal, convenient location for meeting up with family and friends staying at Disneyworld and it is in the general location that is popular with Canadian snowbirds.  We also have family in area that live here year round.  This is always special times for us because we don't get to see them very often.  Friends of ours live in Clearwater Beach, Florida for about 6 months of the year.  During our fall vacation in October we met up with them for a lovely chat over a rather tasty meal at Crabby Bill's Seafood Co.  Crabby Bill's Seafood Co has six locations in the Treasure Island area on the Golf Coast of central Florida.  We visited the Clearwater Beach location located at 37 Causeway Blvd in Clearwater, Florida.  Crabby Bill's Seafood Co was founded by Bill and Dolores Loder in 1968.  The current CEO is their son Matt.

We really enjoy our seafood, usually having one  to three fish and/or seafood weekly.  I have to say I was very excited when we decided to buy our vacation home in Florida.  That quickly turned into disappointment.  While we have found some good seafood offerings, they are not what I expected for Florida.  The warmer waters give a different texture to the flesh, almost borderline mushy so I tend to stick with firmer textured choices in seafood.

We ordered the gator nuggets ($7.99) as an appetizer.  This is pieces of gator tail dusted in seasoned flour then flash fried and served with stone sauce.  Gator has quickly become one of my favourites in Florida.  The texture is firm and the taste is almost like frog legs but with a bit more depth.  It is usually served breaded, deep fried and with a zippy sauce as an appetizer.  The stone sauce was nice and flavourful but lacked the zip normally served with gator.

One of our friends ordered the steamed shrimp, served cold as an entée.  The generous 1 lb shrimp portion was delicious looking.  It was sprinkled with a little seasoning salt something that really isn't necessary with shrimp.  Shrimp is often served with seafood cocktail sauce as an appetizer which gives a bit of zing to the shrimp.  On the other end of the spectrum, shrimp lends itself nicely to creamy based sauces.

Shrimp is very easy to cook at home because it has a colour coded doneness factor.  Raw shrimp is grey but turns a salmony pink when cooked.  It can be boiled, steamed, or grilled.  Just don't over cook shrimp otherwise it gets rubbery.  To duplicate this recipe at home, choose large raw shrimp (frozen or fresh).  If frozen thaw.  Steam the shrimp in a steamer basket.  This keeps the flavour of the shrimp better than boiling in my opinion.  Remove the shrimp when the shell is a salmon pink and the flesh is opaque.  Cool.  Sprinkle lightly with seasoning salt.  Serve with a couple of wedges of lemon.

My husband ordered the grouper dinner ($19.99)  Grouper is a type of white fish that is fairly common in Florida.  The fish was served with mashed potatoes and green beans.  This is fairly close to the way I would serve grouper at home if I could find it.  Grouper is a mild flavoured fish with nice texture.  They are often used to make fish tacos and sandwiches in Florida so finding grouper in the grocery stores is fairly easy.

Crabby Bill's heavily seasoned the grouper with a seasoning salt that really took away from the mild flavoured fish.  In general, when seasoning fish use the like goes with like method.  Use strong herbs (eg. rosemary) and flavourings with strong flavoured fish like salmon and milder flavourings (eg. lemon, lemon pepper) with mild fish.  Never season fish to the point it masks its flavour.  The flavour should enhance rather than mask the flavour.

I ordered the frog leg dinner ($10.99) served with green beans and mashed potatoes.  The frog legs were delightful, something I always enjoy to the point I have cooked frog legs at home.  Frog legs are usually lightly coated with seasoned flour then deep fried until golden brown.  Crabby Bill's did a nice job with the frog legs.  I was impressed!

Quite often restaurants will resort to serving canned vegetable or use instant potatoes rather than the real McCoy.  I can always tell if the vegetables were canned because I pick up a metal taste.  Crabby Bill's did not do this.  The green beans were obviously cooked from fresh perfectly to al dente.  The mashed potatoes were also freshly made.  Now, I am not above instant potatoes for my emergency preparedness stock or home canned green beans (we eat a lot of those) but when I am paying for a meal in a restaurant, I expect the food to be cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate this particular restaurant in their small chain as a 7.  That means I would go there again but it wouldn't be my first choice.  The atmosphere was pleasant, and I got the impression most of the food served was cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients.  Freshly prepared food is the only reason I gave this restaurant a higher rating.  The service was adequate, somewhat friendly but definitely not top notch as they were quite inattentive which is surprising since the food is well worth the extra effort of good staff service.  The prices were decent with our total for four with drinks coming in at $93.58.  In general, this restaurant is a bit too heavy handed on the generic, season everything with, seasoning salt.  To me, that is a major flaw, a definite sign of a cook stuck in a rut, not interested in putting a bit of pizazz into his or her cooking.   The nice thing is all of the food we enjoyed there can easily be made at home.

Homemade Fettuccine with a Blush Fire Roasted Tomato Basil Seafood Sauce

Yesterday I wrote about my first adventure using my new KitchenAid® pasta sheet roller and fettuccine cutter attachments.  Both attachments were beyond incredibly easy to use.  I was at the ease of use and the results!  The next thing on my mind was the taste.  Trust me, there is no need to go through a bit of extra work only to end up with a product that doesn't taste better than store bought.

Earlier this year we enjoyed a delicious meal at a local restaurant that featured a blush seafood sauce topping linguine.  I set out to clone that recipe then I tweaked the seafood sauce slightly to use my gourmet home canned fire roasted tomato basil sauce, crab meat, cod and scallops then up scaled the garnish to use pan seared shrimp and scallop.  The end result is a mouth watering sauce perfect for topping homemade fettuccine.  It is light yet filling,  packed full of rich flavour while being lower in calories than a traditional spaghetti meat sauce.

The fettuccine took about 7 minutes to cook to al dente.  While it looked like cooked dried or store bought fresh in terms of colour and texture, the proof was in the tasting.  The taste of this  fettuccine was incredible!  It had a freshness that dried pasta can't achieve and none of the chemical flavour of store bought fresh pasta.  An added bonus as with many homemade foods, there was no pesky packaging to have to deal with.  In fact, this meal resulted in very little going into the garbage.  There was no packaging and only the shrimp and crab shells had to be discarded although the shrimp shells might have been ok in the compost as there were only six of them.  This is the time of year I keep and grind all egg shells possible for the garden.  They add calcium while controlling slugs and snails.

It is important to realize that home cooking has a positive effect on the environment.  A vast portion of waste from home cooking can go into the compost, resulting in very little going into the landfill.  It really is a win win by home cooking.  You get good, healthy, less expensive food while lessening your carbon footprint.  Nothing wrong with that in my book and quite frankly it is one more reason to cook from scratch at home!

Rotini with Roasted Tomato Basil Seafood Sauce

Michael Smith is my favourite Canadian chefs.  I am particularly fond of his wholesome philosophy of cooking without a recipe using whole foods (aka cooking from scratch).  Being laid up, I have enjoyed watching a bit of Food Network Canada so was quite intrigued by his seafood chowder with dill.  My dill has just been started so I have no fresh to use meaning I have to wait to try that yummy sounding recipe.  What stood out was his comment that anything that swims in water is fair came for a seafood chowder.  I decided to take this ideal a step further to create a roasted tomato basil seafood sauce for pasta.

I really started this recipe with a vague idea of what I wanted the end result to be.  We has recently dined at a local restaurant where I enjoyed spaghetti topped with a seafood blush sauce so that was my inspiration for this dish.  I used cooked seafood in my recipe, focusing on cod, shrimp and crab meat.  The premise was each would add texture and flavour without being overcooked and rubbery.  I used a piece of cod fillet that was about 5 - inches long, simply brought to a boil in salted water and cooked to opaque.  The shrimp was pre-cooked and frozen so all I had to do was thaw, peel and cut into pieces.  It was left over from our holiday celebrations so I wanted to use up some of it.

The crab knuckle is the joint where the crab legs attach.  It is a nice meaty section ideal for making seafood based soups, salads, dips and chowders.  The meat is not quite as sweet as the legs themselves but there is a lot of it.  One crab knuckle will give a yield of about ¾ cup of prepared crab meat.  The taste difference between using the crab knuckle even cooked from frozen when compared to store bought canned crab meat is far superior!

Method for cooking:  Pour about 3 cups of water into a small sauce pan.  Season with about a teaspoon of salt.  Bring the water to a boil then put the frozen crab knuckle into the water.  Allow to cook until the meat is opaque.  Remove the knuckle from the water with a slotted spoon and allow to drain before preparing.

The crab knuckle yields a nice sized piece of crab meat that has a lovely flavour.  Now doesn't this piece of crab meat from the knuckle look divine?  I was so tempted just to eat is as is but I resisted!

The easiest way to get the meat out of the knuckle is to use a pair of kitchen shears.  Cut horizontally from across the knuckle from narrow end to narrow end.  The meat shell can easily be peeled off leaving the tender, juicy crab meat.  Any remaining crab meat on the knuckle can be removed using the tines of a fork.  Cut the crab meat into bite sized pieces if using for soups, stews or chowder.  If using for dip, shred with the tines of a fork.

Home canned fire roasted tomato basil sauce formed the base for this seafood blush sauce.  I love basil and quite frankly grow several varieties because there is no such thing as too much basil!  You know that commercial where the lady says "I put the F on everything"?  Well I could say the same thing about basil.  The end result was a yummy, zesty seafood sauce just perfect for topping rotini.  If you notice, I generally do garnish homemade pasta dishes with fresh chopped vegetables that help to add nutrition along with texture.  I also garnished with a little Parmigiano Reggiano (aged over 24 months) and fresh ground pepper for flavour without adding a lot of calories or fat as well as fresh parsley for colour, flavour and digestive properties.

This sauce was a winner hands down!  I think the only thing I would change the next time is to reduce the amount of the roasted tomato basil sauce.  That would allow the seafood flavour to shine through a bit more.  Other than that, it really was an excellent sauce perfect for topping most pastas!

Roasted Tomato Basil Seafood Sauce
recipe by: Garden Gnome

12 jumbo cooked shrimp
1 small cod fillet (or other white fish)
1 crab knuckle

2 c 2% milk
¼ c evaporated 2% milk
1½ c roasted tomato basil sauce
8 oz pk sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp water or milk
1 tsp

½ small onion
½ small tomato
1 sprig fresh parsley per serving
1 tbsp fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano
fresh cracked pepper


Cook the cod fillet and crab knuckle in separate small sauce pans and cook until opaque.  Cool, then cut into bite sized pieces.  Sautée the mushrooms in the olive oil and butter mixture.  Drain.  Bring the milks to a simmer then stir in a slurry of flour and water or milk.  Allow to cook until thickened.  Stir in the roasted tomato basil sauce and mushrooms.  Bring to a simmer.  Stir in the shrimp, cod and crab meat.  Remove from heat.  Ladle the sauce over your pasta of choice.  Sprinkle on fresh grated cheese and fresh cracked pepper.  Garnish with fresh chopped onions, tomatoes and sprig of parsley.

Lemon Dill Tartar Sauce

My husband and I enjoy fish on average two to three times a week.  A good portion of that fish is locally caught perch or pickerel.  I like to fish and we have very generous friends who share their catch with us as well.  We also enjoy a multitude of fish that is not locally caught.  Our preferred methods of cooking are pan fried, broiled, baked and occasionally deep fried or grilled.  Surprisingly neither of us a big on putting anything on the fish when eating other than a little fresh lemon juice however, I occasionally make a basic tartar sauce to serve with fish especially if the kids are home. 

The other day I checked out the FoodNetwork just in time to quickly scribble out the ingredients for a zipped up tartar sauce.  There were no amounts given so I decided to do a bit of experimenting.  My clone recipe is not identical to the one used in that particular restaurant but it is quite delicious with a flavour that really pairs nicely with any white fish.  I served is with lightly coated cod.

Lemon Dill Tartar Sauce
recipe by: Garden Gnome

1 c Miracle Whip salad dressing
1 sm dill pickle, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp Frank's Hot Sauce clone
½ tsp dried parsley
¼ tsp Spanish paparika
¼ tsp organic granulated sugar
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce
pinch of salt and pepper

Chop the dill pickle in a food processor.  Measure the Miracle Whip salad dressing into a mixing bowl.  Stir in the remaining ingredients, mixing well.  Refrigerate 1 hour to let flavours blend.  Spoon into serving bowl.

Note:  This sauce will keep nicely for 7 to 10 days in the refrigerator.

Baked Cod with Bacon Wrapped Scallops

My husband and I both love our beef but we also eat fish once or twice a week, sometimes more often.  By far, we enjoy locally caught fish (eg. perch, bass, pickerel) on a regular basis.  Next to that is cod and Atlantic wild salmon.  Cod is traditionally used in beer battered, deep-fried, English style fish but cod can also be pan fried, baked or grilled.  I buy a good portion of the cod fillets we consume from Elite Gourmet Food Service.  True to their word, this is some of the best cod available. 

I made a simple seafood dinner consisting of baked cod and bacon wrapped Digby scallops.  Now, bacon wrapped scallops are usually served as an appetizer.  I decided to serve them as part of the main course instead along with a simple baked potato.  It was a very easy, oven based dinner that was surprising a lot more filling than it first appeared.  An orange sauce would have been nice on the cod which reminds me I need to can up a few jars.

Some of the very best scallops come from Digby, Nova Scotia.  I can order fresh scallops from the fisheries there that will arrive at my doorstep the following day for about $85 dollars with shipping which works out to $1 per scallop.  The local grocery store price is about $2 per scallop.  I can also buy from Elite Gourmet Food Services a 5 lb box for $115.  While that sounds expensive that box will last us for quite some time because we tend to use scallops as an accent flavour to add a bit of something special to the meal (aka a treat).  I should note that my husband could easily polish of a box of scallops or a couple of pounds when I buy them fresh.  I like the sweetness of scallops and while I do enjoy scallops, I do not share his enthusiasm for them.   

Cod is very, very easy to bake.  Simple place the cod fillets in a baking dish.  Top with a little butter and seasonings (optional) then bake at 350ºF until opague.  They are ready for serving.  Top with orange or lemon glaze or serve simply with homemade tartar sauce.


Simple Homemade Tartar Sauce
note: I do not measure

Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
prepared yellow mustard
sweet pickle relish

Place about 1 c of Miracle Whip in a mixing bowl.  Squeeze about a half tsp of mustard on top then about 2 tbsp of relish.  Mix well.  Adjust the flavour if necessary by adding more relish. 

New Year's Day Surf and Turf

My husband and I have long held the tradition of a grilled steak with lobster dinner affectionately known as surf and turf in the restaurants as our New Year's Day meal.  The surf (sea) portion is the lobster while the turf (land) portion is the steak.  We live in beautiful southwestern Ontario where the weather can be blizzard conditions on New Year's Day but that does not stop us from firing up the outdoor grill!  The whole day is focused of surf and turf foods so it is a day long feast fit for a king leaving us so stuffed that eating the next day is almost impossible.

I made crabmeat dip as an appetizer.  This has has been a long time family favourite appetizer that I've been making it since the early 80's.  If I recall correctly I got the recipe from my husband's aunt who is actually the same age as he is.  She is every bit the sweetheart he is but that's another story.  This appetizer does make an appearance at many family functions throughout the year.  The dish is ever so easy to make a few hours ahead of time and as party dishes go is rather on the inexpensive side.  Once the topping is on the cream chees there is a tendency towards weepage.  The trick to preventing weeping is to press the crabmeat firmly to remove any liquid before making the topping.  Doesn't it look gorgeous on my new cheese server?

We bought a box of Cuban rock lobster tails from Elite Gourmet Food Service.  I have dealt with this company for several years now and while the prices are on the higher end, the quality supreme.  A box of 8 - 7 oz lobster tails cost $139 or $17.38 each.  Considering a T-bone steak was being served with each lobster tail the entrée cost per person was about $28 including potato and salad.  Before you splutter at the cost, this was actually a frugal meal.  If we wanted surf and turf, we would have to drive at least an hour each way, with the price of travel adding to the cost of the meal.  A nice surf and turf dinner in our area costs about $30 plus appetizer, drinks and gratuity.  At home the appetizers and drinks cost next to nothing but the cook always appreciates a gratuity (hugs or kisses only LOL)! A a meal goes, it is on the expensive side but it is once a year and this is the reason frugal meals are served the rest of the year.

It was rainy and cold threatening freezing rain yesterday when my husband bravely went out to start up the grill.  We have a charcoal and propane combination grill so I expected he would use propane.  Nope!  He fired up the charcoal side then once the coals were going put the potatoes on.  Shortly before putting the steaks on he added an apple wood smoking puck.  The steaks were grilled to medium rare.

I have cooked a lot of live lobster but not frozen lobster tails.  I boiled the lobster tails in salt water 1 minute per ounce.  The tails curled during cooking but they still tasted heavenly!  The next time I boil them I will use the skewer trick to keep the lobster tail straight for presentation.  Doesn't our surf and turf dinner look devine?  What a way to welcome 2012!

To boil frozen lobster tails:  Thaw the lobster tails in the refrigerator 8 to 10 hours or cover them with cold water in the sink to thaw faster.  Bring salted water (I used about a quart per tail and good splash of sea salt) to a boil.  Place the lobster tails in the boiling water and cook 1 minute per ounce of tail.  Drain and serve with hot melted butter.

Note: to prevent the lobster tail from curling, run a skewer from one end to another.  Split the soft shell and place skewered tails in the boiling water.  Cook as above.  Remove skewer for serving.

Shrimp Penne Rustica

We are in the midst of chaos here between me being sick and the move.  We started moving into our new home on September 1 while I was still experiencing a rather horrid allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was prescribed for an internal infection.  The antibiotic also affected my appetite so even though I knew I needed to eat, I couldn't.  While my stove and outdoor grill were still hooked up at our old house most of my cooking equipment was at the new house but the new stove and outdoor grill were not hooked up.  Essentially we have been living between two houses, neither fully functional.  My husband made the executive decision that our dinner meals would be eaten out until my stove at the new house was hooked up (tomorrow!) and we have done that with the exception of a lovely Italian roast I made in the slow cooker.  He's making headway getting the outdoor grill assembled but rain is causing delays.  I'm anxious to get back into the kitchen, cooking up a storm!

We went to Crabby Joe's for dinner with friends and the kids couple of nights ago.  Their food is good and the prices not bad, averaging $14 per entée.  I ordered a Greek salad because I still didn't feel like eating.  It was quite good but I couldn't finish it.  One of the kids ordered shrimp penne rustica.  The dish consisted of tender shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach, garlic and seasoned tomatoes, with penne in a light olive oil and herb sauce topped with toasted pine nuts and parmesan cheese.  I took a bite and oh my gosh it was delicious!  Now this pasta dish would be ever so easy to duplicate at home.  As soon as things settle down I going to work on a clone recipe.  I can see this dish quickly becoming a family favourite!

Faux Crab Salad Wraps

We are not huge sandwich eaters and never have been even when all of our kids were at home.  We like our burgers and BLTs or an occasional power sandwich.  My husband likes the occasional grilled cheese but for the most part we certainly do not eat sandwiches in the same degree as many families.  We use wraps as many would use sandwiches so I was quite happy to find Old El Paso Smart Fiesta whole grain tortillas.

Tortillas are easily made at home but it is convenient to buy them pre-made.  I like that I can buy whole grain tortillas for the same price as regular tortillas.  Old ElPaso is a brand I trust so I really am glad they introduced whole grain tortillas!  I like visiting the Life Made Delicious website more easy recipes using these tortillas. 

A couple of days ago I posted about faux crab dip.  I had a half of a package of the left-over imitation crab meat to use up.  I made faux crab salad wraps for lunch.  This is one application where I do feel the imitation crab meat works quite nicely.  It has a nice texture quite suitable for wraps.  I won't be using the imitation crab meat again is because of the high sugar content since my husband has impaired glucose tolerance.  I will substitute with a firmer textured fish for these wraps.  Of note though is the way I put the wraps together.  I placed the salad filling on a lettuce lined tortilla then wrapped with the lettuce first and over wrapping with the tortilla.  This technique prevents the tortilla from getting soggy due to the filling. 

Coconut Shrimp

Years ago at an alumni event I discovered coconut shrimp.  I was hooked on the first bite!  Oh my gosh they are so good.  So I decided to make them at home.  The trick to making coconut shrimp is two fold.  First you need large 16 to 20 count per pound uncooked shrimp peeled with tails attached.  The second tip is you panko bread crumbs, a crunchy Japanese style of bread crumbs.

Shrimp goes on sale here from time to time.  I usually buy larger shrimp either pre-cooked or uncooked.   Both may need peeling before using in dishes or serving.  My husband and I fried the coconut shrimp to a golden brown.  We served them with home canned plum sauce. 

I created my own recipe for making coconut shrimp.  It is really easy.  Just mix equal amounts of panko bread crumbs with flaked coconut.   Place about a cup of flour in a separate bowl then in another bowl whisk two eggs.  Dredge the prepared shrimp in the eggs then the flour then eggs and finally pat good with the bread crumb and coconut mixture.  Fry on medium high in peanut oil in about a half inch of oil.  Deep frying is an option but I didn't want to change out the oil for peanut oil, an oil I feel performs the best for coconut shrimp.  

Seafood Breader Mix (Foodie Find)

We eat a lot of local fish (bass, perch and pickerel) as well as non-local fish (cod, haddock).  My husband is always picking up fish coating to try in addition to our homemade fish coating.  As a result we have been able to tweak our homemade fish coating to give a couple of different results.  We have also discovered a lot of nice fish coating mixes in the process.

One of our foodie finds from Bravo in Florida was Dixie Lily Seafood Breader Mix.  This coating can be used dry as a breading or mixed with water to form a batter for fish, seafood, and vegetables.  The 24 oz bag cost $3.19 which is rather inexpensive as fish coating goes although it is still more expensive than homemade fish coating.

The main ingredients in any fish coating is flour, yellow corn meal or yellow corn flour, and seasonings.  Other ingredients such as powdered eggs, corn starch, baking soda, sugar and preservatives may also be added.  Fish coating really is a mix that can be made at home with simple then tweaked to get the desired results.  You can even make up a couple of different versions.  It will keep nicely in the pantry.

Cod is one of our favourite fish usually enjoyed deep or pan fried.  This is such a nice thick yet tender and flakey fish.  When we have cod in a restaurant we usually order it English style (beer battered) or broiled with orange sauce.  We tried the seafood breader mix on pan fried  Atlantic cod loins.  I served the fish with fresh cut French fries. 

The mix performed nicely giving a gorgeous golden coating without being too heavy or overpowering.  It was light yet tasty.  This would be a nice mix to create a clone recipe for.  I had best get doing a bit of tinkering in the kitchen!

Grilled Shrimp

Seafood is always a delight!  We enjoy it at home every chance we get but at our vacation home we indulge even more.  As they say when in Rome do as the Romans do!  Florida is almost synonymous with seafood so there is no end to finding great fish and seafood like crab legs and shrimp.   There is just no end of the opportunities to indulge on seafood!

My husband picked up cooked, tail on shrimp to grill as an appetizer with our New Year's steak dinner.  Shrimp can be purchased pre-cooked or cooked, peeled or unpeeled, fresh or frozen.  It is usually served by the count if frozen as in 36/45 per pound or simply by the pound fresh.  Both cooked and uncooked shrimp can be grilled.  Grilling imparts a slight smokiness to the shrimp while adding gorgeous flavour.

Peel the shrimp if necessary and remove tails.  Thread the shrimp onto skewers. If using cooked shrimp it should be warmed through just until grill marks appear.  If using uncooked shrimp, grill until the shrimp is pink with characteristic grill marks.  Carefully remove from the skewers.  Serve on a bed of leaf lettuce with seafood cocktail sauce garnished with a couple of thin wedges of lemon.

JD's Restaurant & Lounge, Indian Rocks Beach, Florida

The exterior decor of a restaurant can help influence whether we stop in or not.  Now don't get me wrong because we have found some excellent restaurants that have very non-de-script exteriors to the point that if you didn't know it was a restaurant you'd drive right on by.  Some exteriors though just warrant a closer look to see what's inside.  So it is with JD's Restaurant & Lounge!

JD's Restaurant & Lounge is located at 125 Gulf Blvd. in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.  The colourful exterior beckons you to enter, promising a delightfully enjoyable time.   The building is painted bright orange, yellow and turquoise!  A grand pirate stands guard ready to greet you and there is a giant, friendly octopus the kids are sure to love.  The Downing family has owned and operated JD's since 1985.  JD's is a casual dining featuring a lot of extras like live entertainment with exceptional local artists performing at their piano bar and on the back patio.  They offer breakfast from 8:00 AM to 11:45 AM, an early bird menu from 12:00 noon to 6:00 PM and beach basket lunches from 12:00 noon to 4:00 PM.  There is a kids menu for those 12 years old and under.  Happy Hour is from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM.    JD's gift certificates are available as well.  The restaurant is closed on Mondays.

The interior of JD's is every bit as much fun as the exterior.  Folks are warned of possible neck injury trying to read all of the signs, sayings and jokes hanging from the ceiling throughout the restaurant.  The decor is eclectic and just down right fun.  The waitresses are extremely friendly and very attentive.

We ordered the potatoes skins with bacon and cheese sauce as an appetizer.  These tasty potato skins were delightful!  We also ordered a crab cake as an appetizer.  It was large enough to share between the four of us.   I ordered the fish fry entrée with 3 large pieces of cod served with choice of soup, salad or coleslaw and coice of mashed potatoes and gravy, French fries, baked potato, spaghetti or vegetable.  My husband ordered the all you can eat fish fry with clam chowder while I ordered mine with the garden salad.  The thick cod pieces were thin breaded, fried to a beautiful golden brown. 

One of our kids ordered the 1 lb snow crab legs.  The entrée came with a choice of soup, coleslaw or endless salad, and choice of potato, spaghetti or vegetable.  Aren't those crab legs gorgeous?  They were every bit as tasty as they look!  I know our kid really enjoyed eating the crab legs.  I took lots of pictures of the crab leg experience.

Our bill came in at $88 including the tip and drinks for 4 adults.  This is quite a reasonable price given the quality and amount of the food as well as the wonderful service that we enjoyed.  I highly recommend a stop at JD's if you are in the area.

JD's was just a very enjoyable dining experience all the way around!  What attracted us in the first place was the exterior decor but what will keep us coming back is their great food combined with their friendly and fun atmosphere.  JD's has made it onto our must visit when in the area list of restaurants. 

Brano's Italian Grill in Cocoa Beach, Florida

We tend to eat out a lot more when we are on vacation even at our vacation home where we tend to have company staying for extended periods of time.  A lot of the homemade meals at our vacation home are breakfasts and lunches with the occasional homemade dinner.  The nice thing about this is we get to experience a lot of nice restaurants that serve as inspiration for later home cooking. We love our pasta dishes so I am always looking for a bit of inspiration to come up with something just a little different in a pasta dish.  What better place to look than in a restaurant that specializes in classic Italian pasta dishes?

Brano's Italian Grill is located at 3689 North Atlantic Avenue in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  It is a smaller restaurant set back from the road a bit but don't let that fool you.  This restaurant that specializes in classic Italian pasta dishes is a definite gem!  The atmosphere is warm and welcoming.  The wait-staff are friendly, attentive and very efficient.  The wonderful pasta dishes are tasty and nicely presented.

We visited Brano's on Christmas Eve with a couple of our kids.  It was busy but the food and service was excellent!  With an appetizer and drinks our bill came to $91.21 for four adults which isn't a bad price for what we enjoyed.  The only negative thing that I can say about Brano's is the overuse of dried parsley flakes as a garnish.  It was virtually on every dish we ordered.  It was even on the salad, the soup and the bread so it was rather redundant.  Other than that we had no complaints so this restaurant has made it onto our must visit when in the area list.

We ordered the shrimp & crab parmesan dip served with warm pita bread (not pictured) as our appetizer.  It was a lovely, rich tasting appetizer to start the meal with.  Entrées are served with your choice of soup or salad and dinner rolls.  The salad is simply romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers & onion with your choice of dressings but it is nicely presented.

One of the kids ordered the backened snapper with shrimp entrée.  Sides included mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables on a bed of baby greens.  Blackened refers to a Cajun seasoning  blend used to coat the fish before pan frying.  You can buy prepared blackened seasoning or make your own blend as desired for home cooking.

One of our kids ordered the Fettucini Alfredo with chicken entrée.  And doesn't it just look scrumptious?  Alfredo sauce is simply a bechemel sauce (white sauce) with parmesan cheese added.  It is rich and creamy, a true comfort food.  What was a bit different with this Alfredo sauce was the consistency.  It was thinner than most Alfredo sauces giving an almost borderline stoup to borrow from Rachel Ray's favourite saying.  A stoup is thinner than a stew but thicker than a soup.

This would be a very easy dish to duplicate at home.  I think the only thing I would do a bit differently is to sear the chicken for a bit of colour and flavour.

I ordered the spaghetti your way with a plain meat sauce (not pictured).  It was delicious!  My husband ordered the veal parmigiana.  This gorgeous entrée came with a serving of spaghetti with a choice of marinara or marsala sauce.  He had the marsala sauce.  The veal was smothered with a marsala wine and mushroom sauce then topped with a wonderful coating of parmigan cheese.

This too is another easy to duplicate dish at home.  Veal cutlets can be purchased already breaded or you can easily bread them yourself.  Marsla is an Italian fortified wine very similar to a port wine.  The marsala spaghetti sauce is essentially a marinara sauce with marsala added for flavour and body during the cooking process.