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Paella can be a very expensive dish. It has expensive saffron, several different kinds of meat, and seafood selections. You can go all out and make very expensive paella with lobster, expensive fish, imported chorizo and loads of quality saffron. A restaurant in Manhattan, Sofritos, even had a $1000 Paella. At our house, we love a good paella. I would love to make it more often, but to buy all the ingredients, it is pretty expensive. When we visited Paris a few years back, we ate at a wonderful Spanish restaurant. There, they had several types of paella, seafood, chicken, rabbit, and fish versions. Since having the paella there, I like to cook my paella in the same way. I don’t like to have too many varieties of meats in the dish. In this recipe, I have just used a seafood melody and a little chorizo as the meat in the dish. I recently found a 1 pound seafood melody, consisting of shrimp, bay scallops and calamari rings, for just $5 at my local Aldi’s supermarket. I have also seen the seafood mix in larger packages at Walmart and Spanish supermarkets. I also used Aldi’s chorizo for this dish. Their chorizo’s casing has to be removed, so the sausage crumbles when cooked. I liked it this way very much because it ran through the rice more evenly than having large slices. I used Badia brand saffron, an inexpensive Hispanic brand. It was about $2.50. I use 1/4 of this package in this recipe. You could also leave out the saffron, because there is plenty of flavor from the chorizo. All in all, after the Aldi’s special’s this paella was just over $10. Previously, I had been spending closer to $30 for this dish.(...)
Read the rest of Paella that Won’t Break the Bank and Weekend Events Part II (461 words)

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This is an easy recipe for spinach basil pesto bow tie pasta. I created a spinach pesto to add some more nutrition to a classic pesto. I saw a version of this recipe on a show I discovered on PBS, ChefClass. ChefClass is a very informative cooking show that “takes viewers inside The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes where thousands of students learn fundamental cooking techniques and professional culinary skills.” When I first started making pesto, I would buy pre-prepared pesto and add cream before tossing with the pasta. I never realized how easy making pesto was. It is so easy to make with a food processor. Using fresh spinach sauteed in olive oil makes this dish very delicious and nutritious. I also added some green peas. The peas help to make this dish even more like springtime. My son’s new favorite food happens to be shrimp. So I have been serving shrimp a little more often than before. The shrimp cooked with garlic and pepper makes a nice contrast to the fresh pasta.

Spinach Basil Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 lb peeled and de-viened fresh or frozen and defrosted shrimp
• 1 package bow tie pasta
• 1 lb fresh spinach
• a large bunch of basil
• 1 cup frozen and defrosted peas
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 cup cream or half and half
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• olive oil
• kosher salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Method

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions, making sure that you salt the water the pasta cooks in. Drain pasta.
2. Preheat a large skillet. Drizzle with olive oil and add fresh spinach. Saute until wilted. Add to your food processor.
3. Add pine nuts and basil to the spinach in the food processor. Pulse while adding olive oil, about 1/4 cup, until you have a good consistency.
4. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to shrimp. Add more olive oil to the pan you sauteed the spinach in. Cook the shrimp over medium high heat to get them slightly caramelized.
5. After you have cooked all the shrimp, you should have lots of yummy brown bits in the bottom of the pan, de-glaze the pan by adding the white wine. Scrape up as much of the brown bits as possible. Add cream and heat through. (You may have to add more cream to get a smooth consistency.
6. Remove pan from heat. Add pesto to white wine cream sauce. Stir to combine. Add pasta and peas, and combine well. Serve shrimp on top of pasta.

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I know, I know, you either love the oyster, or can’t stand it. So if you have an appreciation, keep reading, if not, that’s fine too.  I have loved oysters ever since I can remember. My parents use to take me to a local oyster restaurant and we would sit at the bar watching the big burly men shuck oysters at lightening fast speeds. As a little kid, I would finish off 2 dozen by myself. I loved the salty sea flavor. I have always been much more of a salty than a sweet person. Most of the time though, we bought oysters to eat at home. We ate them very often in the colder months and even had an oyster shell driveway, pretty dangerous for an accident prone little girl. I can’t remember a summer before my 12 or 13th birthday that I didn’t have scab knees all of short season.

Even though it isn’t actually necessary anymore, we still only eat oysters in the colder months. I have been in the mood for oysters for a while now. We hardly ever eat them out, because we can’t stop at just a dozen. If we fed our craving, we would go broke, so we purchase them by the half bushel at home.  We eat the majority of them raw. There are many other ways to make oysters, a good stew is one of my favorites that I will share another time.  I love to enjoy the oyster as close to its raw state the best. That is the beauty of this fried oyster. They are crispy on the outside and barely cooked inside, a trick I learned from my dad.I serve them with my favorite crinkle cut fries and spicy cocktail sauce.

Ingredients

• Shucked Oysters, 3-4 dozen
• 1/ cup flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon old bay, or any other cajun or seafood seasoning
• vegetable oil for frying

Method

1. Preheat cooking oil to medium high. Combine flour, cornmeal, and seasoning in a large bowl. Toss oysters in batches, about 12 at a time, to coat well.
2. Fry oysters in hot oil just until golden brown.

Tip: The sound of the frying oyster will change when it is done, when the sound changes, evacuate quickly. This should take less than a minute.

Cocktail Sauce

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon horseradish
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

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This is a delicious dish perfect as an appetizer or main course. We had bacon wrapped shrimp at two of our favorite restaurants on our recent trip to Gatlinburg over the Christmas holiday. My son loved them so much, I decided to recreate them at home. They were too easy to make. All you have to do is wrap the shrimp with bacon, and secure with a tooth pick. Either grill them, or broil them in your oven. They have to be cooked over high heat, so that the bacon crisps, without making the shrimp overcooked and rubbery. I love the bourbon sauce at some of the chain restaurants, so I modified a copycat bourbon sauce to get the recipe shown below. I used my favorite, Country Bob’s all purpose sauce in this sauce to make it extra special. You can also just use a steak sauce to get a very similar result. You can either brush the shrimp with the sauce before cooking, or just use it as a dipping sauce. The sauce is so rich, we just used it as a dipping sauce.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Bourbon Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

Shrimp

• large or jumbo raw shrimp, cleaned, peeled de-veined, and tails removed
• sliced bacon, cut in half
• toothpicks

Sauce

• 1/3 cup diced sweet onions
• 1/2 teaspoon finely diced garlic
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup steak sauce, I used Country Bob’s all purpose sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup apple cider, or apple juice
• 1/2 cup Bourbon
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce

Method

1. Preheat grill, or oven broiler. Clean shrimp, then wrap them in bacon, and secure with a toothpick.
2. Combine all ingredients for the sauce in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then reduce to medium heat. Reduce the sauce by half, or until it has thickened. You can use the sauce as a glaze, or as a dipping sauce.
3. Grill or broil shrimp until bacon crisps, and shrimp is firm.

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This is a delicious recipe for the classic Italian dish of red wine risotto. The rice isn’t exactly red, its more of a dark brown, but don’t worry, if you want red risotto, I will be posting that recipe soon. Its a roasted red beet risotto, which is one of my all time favorites. Now back to this dish. Red wine risotto is made with a good dry red wine and wonderfully flavorful porcini mushrooms. You can also use white or bella mushrooms, if you cannot find the dried porcinis in your local grocery. However, using the dried Italian mushrooms adds such a wonderful earthy flavor. You start by reconstituting the dried porcinis in hot water. The mushrooms make a wonderful broth that you add to the risotto. I l like to finish the dish with an addition of fresh or frozen spinach for color an added nutrition. You can add shrimp, as shown in the photo, or omit it, and serve the risotto along side grilled salmon, or any other dish of your choice. I love one dish meals, so I just throw some shrimp in at the end for a perfect one pot, easy cleanup meal.

Red Wine Mushroom Risotto Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package Arborio rice, about 1 1/4 cups
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced finely
• 1 cup dry red wine
• about 12 leaves fresh basil
• 1 small package dried porcini mushrooms
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 1/2 lb fresh or frozen and defrosted spinach
• 2 tablespoons butter
• olive oil
• kosher salt
• About 6 cups chicken stock, simmering
• peeled and deveined thawed shrimp (optional)

Method

1. Bring stock to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.
2. Add porcini mushrooms to a bowl, and pour boiling water over them. Let them reconstitute.
3. Preheat a large skillet. Drizzle with olive oil. Add onions and a little kosher salt. Add Arborio rice, and more olive oil. You will need to add quite a bit of oil, enough so that every bit of the rice is wet with oil. Saute the rice until the edges are translucent. Add garlic.
4. Add the red wine, and stir until the rice absorbs it. Then add enough stock to cover the rice. Turn the heat to low. Stir the rice frequently, to prevent sticking and develop creaminess.
5. Add the mushrooms and their stock, being careful not to add the last bit of stock at the bottom of the bowl. Dried mushrooms almost always have a little sand in them, and we don’t want that in our rice.
6. Continue to add a little stock at a time, as the rice absorbs it, and until the rice is tender.
7. When the rice is tender, and has absorbed the liquid, add shrimp. When the shrimp turn pink, add defrosted or fresh spinach. Stir until wilted. Add butter and cheese. Stir to combine and melt cheese. Finish the dish by stirring in the fresh basil at the very end.

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