Shrimp & Grit Cakes

Shrimp and Grits: All fried and whatnot

1 diced yellow onion
1 diced red peppers
1 diced nugget of garlic
½ can of diced tomatoes
20 shrimp (medium), peeled
¼ Kielbasa sausage
¼ Bottle of cheap ass chardonnay
1/3 cup half and half

Stone ground grits
Handful shredded cheddar
1 egg
1 cup flour (with a splash of pepper and chili pepper)

Let’s do this shit:

1.Make grits as directed on package. Add cheese while still hot. Spread onto parchment paper, and put in fridge to cool quickly and harden.

2. In a large pan with a splash of EVOO in it, add onion, garlic, and red pepper. Let that simmer until the onions are transparent. Add half a can of diced tomatoes and a splash on the juice from the can.

3. Then add the Kielbasa (I dice it up into dime size nuggets), and shrimp.

4. Once the shrimp is cooked add chardonnay, half and half and bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer, let the mixture reduce a little, add salt and pepper to taste. I like to garnish with a little parsley.

5. Grab the hardened grit mixture out of the fridge. I like to use a cookie cutter to cut into smaller pieces, but the size of your grit cakes is up to you! I dip cake into egg, then into flour, then egg, then flour again. Then I fry them up! I serve the grit cakes on the side so that don’t become soggy while eating, but again that’s up to you!

This recipe is a cluster of different shrimp and grits recipes I’ve had over the years. I personally hate grits, but like any good North Carolina girl, you fry it and I will eat it! J

There is no leftovers when I make this however,I do buy my shrimp frozen, and they usually come about 50 medium to a bag. So I tend to only use about half the bag, therefore next week I will have a shrimp dish and not have to buy shrimp!

Also, last night we made Strawberry Sherbet. It was super easy!!! So I will post that recipe now too! Hell yeah boyfriend for buying me a Kitchaid ice cream maker, that shit is paying for itself!

Strawberry Sherbet Goodness

1 container of frozen strawberries (in sugar sauce)
1 Orange
½ Cup Half & Half

1. Thaw frozen strawberries, puree in the blender or food processer.
* if they do not come frozen in a sugar sauce, or if using fresh strawberries just add simple syrup until it is sweetened to your taste*

2.  Squeeze juice from orange straight into pureed strawberry mixture, add half & half.

3. Ice cream maker, on speed one, for 18 minutes.


This recipe is ridiculiously easy. I am assuming this would work with any ice cream maker but, assuming makes an ASS out of U and ME. So don’t take my word for it!

Jimmy is shoting Nazi zombies,I am obsessively typing grocery list

Weekly Menu

Meal Option #1: Shrimp & Fried Grit Cakes

Meal Option #2: Cartinas with rice

Meal Option #3: Corn Chowder

Meal Option #4: Crab Cakes

Meal Option #5: Cowboy Salad
Meal Option #6: BLT’s

Meal Option #7: Chicken pot pie soup

Fun Fun for Everyone: Orange Strawberry Sherbet



I will post pictures and recipes as I cook and have time. For now, I'm off to the grocery store bitches, it's that time of the week and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I'm makin manicotti bitches!

Okay, manicotti is not only a super easy, very forgiving recipe, but it is quick and people really like it! I choose to make spinach and sausage manicotti, because I have a weird fixation over that flavor combo but I’ve also done roasted red pepper and spinach, chicken and parmesan, if it tastes good stuffed in a giant noodle, go for it!!! I’m not Italian so if this isn’t your Uncle Lou’s recipe don’t be an asshole about it, it is supposed to be fun and easy, taking as many shortcuts as possible.

Ingredients:
Manicotti shells
Jar of spaghetti sauce (I like to beef this up a little with some extra spices and garlic)
Ground hot sausage
Fresh or frozen spinach
1 nugget garlic
1 medium onion
Container of ricotta
1 egg
Parmesan
Mozzarella
Italian spice blend
Parsley
Black pepper

Let’s do this shit: Start by dicing your onion, throw in a pan with a dash of EVOO, then let cook for a couple minutes on medium. Add ground sausage, cook until sausage is done. Before draining add spinach and let cook until spinach is well mixed in. Stain out all the fat, put in the refrigerator to chill.
*it doesn’t have to chill all the way but I don’t like to put it straight into the ricotta, or the ricotta will start to liquefy*

Bring a huge (the bigger the better) pot of water to boil, add manicotti, cook for approximately 10 minutes (check on the box for exact time). Mix together container of ricotta, egg, handful parmesan, handful mozzarella, dash of Italian seasoning, dash black pepper, and spinach/sausage mixture. Then stuff the manicotti, I use a piping bag because it’s mad efficient. Then top with a jar of spaghetti (I usually heat it up in the same pan I cooked the sausage mixture in to get all the loose ends that didn’t make it out of the pan, and jazz it up a little). Lastly, I top that shit with a handful of mozzarella and parmesan and pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes. I personally like my cheese a little crunchy on top, so I do turn the broiler on for the last 2 minutes! Garnish with parsley.

Leftover mania:
I usually have leftover manicotti stuffing, so I freeze it. Then I get a piecrust and make quiche out of it! I simply add the guts to the piecrust, and add a mixture of 5 whipped up eggs (add a dash of milk when mixing the eggs). Bake until the eggs are solid, usually about 35 minutes.

My creepy grocery obsession.

To preface this whole entry, I love cooking so weather or not I have a videogame obsessed boyfriend, chances are I would still be cooking a lot. However, there is nothing better to me than to have someone sit down, and enjoy a meal I cooked.

I am not an organized woman. My clothes are in piles on the floor, sometimes the dishes sit in the sink for a day or two, and often I forget to get gas until inevitably I am running late and have to stop resulting in becoming even later. When it comes to my menu for the week though, it is thought out, neatly planned with a number of different things kept in mind. To start off, when planning my menu I always make sure there are things that can be made with leftovers, aka I make a roasted chicken, then use the leftover chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches. This cuts down on the fridge real estate, and also ensures that I secondly, do not make the same proteins multiple times in the week. This is important because no one wants chicken 7 days a week, and also because it would be expensive to eat steak 7 days a week. Lastly, I try to even out the menu: 2 soups/ stews, 2 salads, 2 major meat meals, and 1 day of sweet leftovers or drunken late night pizza. Final note on my menu making madness, I never plan meals to be on certain days, it has been in my best interest to make the menu, give meal options, and then on the night I FEEL like making that meal, it gets made. No sense in stressing about it, life’s too short.

Grocery shopping is my absolute favorite thing to do all week. I know, I’m weird.  On that note, when I plan a menu (it is typed up), I just go ahead and make a shopping list. Now time for the super obsessed part- I type it up, and categorize it, by aisle/department. I know this sounds weird but, I know the layout of my grocery store so, it was kind of a no brainer! I never have to run around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for things.

               This is a preview of what my menu/ shopping list looks like:

Weekly Menu

Meal Option #1: Chili

Meal Option #2: Potato Soup

Meal Option #3: Taco Salad

Meal Option #4: Enchiladas

Meal Option #5: Steak and green beans

Meal Option #6: Penne ala vodka with grilled chicken

 Are you out of something? If so list below:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

^^^ A printed out copy of this bad boy goes on the fridge, notice I put a space for shit we need? My boyfriend/brothers/friends are notorious for not telling me when they use the last of something, so this way we avoid that problem. Now for my epic shopping list.

Groceries

Produce:

Shredded lettuce

Tomatoes

Avocado

Green beans

Meats& Protein:

Bacon

Chicken

Ground beef

Steak

Hot dogs

Aisles 1-4:

Can Cream of Chicken

Black olives

Penne Noodles

Vodka sauce

or Spaghetti sauce

Aisles: 5-9:

Tortilla chips

Cereal

Hot dog buns

Dairy:

Cheddar

Mexican Cheese

Sour Cream

Cream Cheese

Butter

Parmesan

Milk

Frozen section:

Shredded Hash Browns

Misc:

Vodka

Heavy Seas- smoke on the water

              

A smidge overboard, okay, but organized, fuck yeah! So I do have a pretty hefty stock of frozen meats and canned goods, so that does keep my list smaller. I also make large quantities of stuff so I can freeze the leftovers so when I’m not around the boyfriend doesn’t have to eat Papa Johns. Also, I cook with beer, A LOT, like whenever I can find a reason to put it in. I do not think that the recipes I make would be bad without beer, but it just adds this dimension of flavor that I truly enjoy. I could go on and on about beer cooking, but I’ll leave that for another post.

               I will conclude this post by posting my recipe for Chili:

Ingredients:

½ lbs ground beef
½ Ibs hot sausage
1 diced yellow onion
1 nugget of fresh garlic
1 can whole tomatoes (drained)
1/2 can tomato sauce
1 small tomato paste can
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can pinto
1 can black beans
½ bomber bottle of Heavy Seas smoked porter
    (^ any smoked beer will work Victory Otto, also pretty amazing)
 Cayenne pepper, red pepper (yes they are different things), Cajun seasoning, paprika, Italian  seasoning, black pepper
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar

What to do:
Dice onion, break up garlic (dice, crush, doesn’t really matter), add ground beef and sausage, brown. Drain out fat, return to pot. Then add everything, ½ can sauce, paste, whole, and diced tomatoes. (I personally use canned beans but you could use dried beans if you want, I digress) Strain beans of their goo, rinse them off, and add to the pot. Then add spices, and beer. Simmer down now, and let that shit cook on med-low for a least an hour, the longer the better! Serve it up with a dollop of sour cream, and a hefty amount of cheese!

Leftover Mania:
Chili cheese hot dogs for lunches