Real Weeknight Dinners: Pineapple Shrimp Stirfry

This is another easy one for busy days & post-work dinners!

Serves "us" -- i.e. two hungry adults and a toddler :)

Ingredients:
1 c uncooked rice (we used white long-grain rice)
1 lb pre-cooked shrimp
1 red onion
8oz pre-sliced mushrooms
3 stalks of celery
1/2 can crushed pineapple (or use more....the other half can goes to toddler food in our house)
1/2 cup peanuts (I used roasted, lightly salted because that's what we had -- add them to the pan earlier if yours aren't roasted already)
ground ginger
soy sauce
sesame seeds
peanut oil
rice wine vinegar (optional)

1. Get the rice started according to the directions on the package -- mine said to simmer it for 15 minutes in boiling water and then let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. Heat some peanut oil in a frying pan while you chop the onion. Allow the onion to soften in the oil while you chop the celery. Add the celery and then the mushrooms and then the peanuts.

3. If the shrimp is tail-on, pull the tails off as you add it to the pan. Sprinkle in the ginger, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. If the shrimp seems a little too strong, add a dash of the rice wine vinegar.

4. Add the pineapple in the last five minutes or so, allowing the juices to release from the fruit and thicken. If it seems like there is too much liquid, a pinch or two of cornstarch will help.

Memorial Day Menu

All three of us have been sick with some kind of flu-cold-plague for the past 10 days, so we haven't done much more than grocery shop, read, and fuss with our computers and hobbies and such for the past few days. I actually couldn't taste anything at all for two days, which was a pretty surreal experience. Oh, and Stella learned to crawl, but that's a subject for a different blog ;). Anyway, our menu for Memorial Day is nothing extravagant -- David cleaned the grill and is heating it up, and we're having Smooth Lemon cocktails, chips & salsa, Blue & Green Potato Salad, grilled corn a la Cook's Illustrated (basically brined and grilled, no husk), grilled steak brushed with bbq sauce, and Copycat Cobbler for dessert.

Smooth Lemon Cocktail
1 glass lemonade
1/2 shot vanilla vodka (we used Grey Goose that had soaked a vanilla bean a while)

Stir & drink, yum.

Review: Wholly Salsa: 2 of 5 stars
The salsa of choice this time is Wholly Salsa. I tried it because a combination of coupons and sales made it (and my favorite type of chips) practically free. It reminds me a lot of the salsa you get in Tex-Mex places. Mild, a little garlicky, a mix of chunky and smooth bits although this was a little too watery; a little addictive at first.

I think it needs more cilantro/lime and maybe a little better quality tomatoes to give it more zip. It wasn't as bad as the cheapo jarred stuff, but I expected better. The flavor didn't stand up to the hearty style of tortilla chips we favor -- I'll probably use the rest to cook with. The packaging is party-friendly, wide and shallow, but the lid doesn't fit very tightly.


Recipe: Blue & Green Potato Salad
This is my version of the blue cheese potato salad they sell at the Whole Foods Market deli.

1 lb red potatoes (I like the little ones, but they're harder to find)
1/2 C crumbled blue cheese
2 stalks of celery
2 scallions
4 T vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1 t brown seedy mustard
1 t thyme
1 t basil
1 t rosemary

All measurements are approximate....cuz that's how I roll.

1. Wash potatoes (I don't peel them, but then again, I almost never peel potatoes), then microwave in a bowl of water for 14-18 minutes.
2. Dice up celery and scallion while potatoes are cooking and collect other ingredients.
3. Drain potatoes when done, rinse a few times in cold water to cool them down for handling.
4. Chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces.
5. Mix all ingredients, allow to rest for at least an hour before serving; overnight is always better.

Grilled steak -- I had been curious about 'No Name' brand steaks, and had a coupon, so we gave them a try. The quality was really good, but I am not enough of a gourmet to know if there's much difference between them and the nice cuts I usually buy at Whole Foods. And gosh did I make a mistake by deciding to use bbq sauce! Maybe if had been cheaper/less delicious steak this would have been a reasonable course of action; as it was, the sauce just wasn't necessary and maybe was a little distracting. Some pepper and herbs would have been a better choice.


Recipe: Copycat Cobbler

This was my attempt #2 at the cobbler described here. It turned out quite a bit better this time, since I used actual self-rising flour instead of substituting baking powder mixed with regular flour. I used brown sugar instead of white, added about 1/4 cup of oats plus a bit more milk, and used a small bag of peaches, a half-pint container of blackberries, and two apples. I think if I did this again, I would try pre-cooking the apples -- even after 40 minutes at 350, the apples look a little firm. Delicious and worthy of second helpings. With just a bit more oats, I think this would be a reasonable copy of the mixed fruit cobblers they sell at Starbucks.