Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Shrimp Cocktail

I just asked my husband, James, if he had taken a picture of the shrimp cocktail when I made it the other night. He told me that he didn't, but why did I want it. I explained that I was going to put the recipe on the blog and he said, "There's a recipe for shrimp cocktail???".....

I actually didn't realize that there was a "recipe" for shrimp cocktail either, until I wanted to make it the other night and I thought maybe I could find some spices and special things to put in the boiling water. And, boy, was I right! It makes all the difference in the world!

This recipe is from an amazing restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan called The Chop House (part of Main Street Ventures). It's so good. They make their own cocktail sauce, but I recommend buying the already made McCormick version of the HOT cocktail sauce.



Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 1
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 2
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 1

Shrimp Cocktail
(Serves 4)
1.5 lbs shrimp, jumbo preferred (shell on, but cleaned and deveined if possible) 
1 cup cocktail sauce
2 lemons (1 whole, 1 cut into wedges)
1 Tbs salt
1/2 cup onions, coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
1 Tbs peppercorn
2 bay leaves
Water

In a large pot, add water (enough to boil shrimp in), salt, onion, celery, peppercorn, and bay leaves. Cut one lemon in half and squeeze juice into pot. Bring to boil. While water is heating up, peel shrimp (if not done so already), leaving tail on. Drop shrimp into rapidly boiling water and stir. Cook shrimp for about 4 minutes. Drain and add shrimp into ice water immediately to stop the cooking process. If necessary, replace water with new ice water until shrimp are chilled. Serve on ice (optional) with cocktail sauce and lemon wedges.

Cocktail Sauce
3/4 cup tomato ketchup
3/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Juice from one small lemon
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Refrigerate in tightly covered container.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies





These were a regular Christmas time treat in our house growing up. I never ate them, mind you, because I was afraid of them as a child. No reason why. Just was. But now, yum. They are "easy" so to speak: my mom shared the recipe with me, but I have added a few tricks to help out.

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): nada
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): pretty dang short
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): took my twice, but now easy as pie :)

Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies
12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 oz bag of butterscotch chips
12 oz bag/can of chow mein noodles
12 oz bag/can of roasted, salted peanuts (no skin)
Milk (optional)

In a large pot, add half of the chocolate chips and half of the butter scotch chips. Put pot over low heat and melt together, stirring from time to time to mix. When completely melted, add half of chow mein noodles, half of peanuts, and dash of milk to help stir. While mixing everything together, try and cover everything in the chocolate mixture as much as possible. While hot, take two spoons and form clumps of mixture onto wax paper to let cool. Repeat with second half of chips, chow mein, and peanuts. Allow to cool on wax paper, and cover to store.

A couple of notes here:
1) The chocolate needs to still be melted and hot while you are forming the cookies onto the wax paper, which is why I feel this better to do in batches. I actually did it in 4 batches, instead of 2.

2) Be careful not to burn chocolate.

3) Can be made without the peanuts.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Stuffed Baby Yukons


I have been loving cooking, and food, so much recently. This dish was part of our family Christmas tasting dinner menu that my dad and I put together. It was so fun! These are little mini versions of a twice baked potato basically. But they look really pretty and cute too, and are great for entertaining. They can even be a finger food!

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 4
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 4

Stuffed Baby Yukon Potatoes
(serves 6 sides- 2 potatoes per person)
12 baby Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 inches across)
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme (dried will work too)
Kosher salt and black pepper
1.5 oz bacon (1-2 thick slices), cooked until crispy and crumbled
3 Tbs thinly sliced fresh chives
1/4-1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/4-1/3 cup grated Parmesean cheese

Heat oven to 425 deg. Toss potatoes with olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 of the thyme. Bake potatoes on baking sheet in oven about 20-25 minutes (until tender). Remove from oven and let potatoes cool.

When potatoes have cooled, slice off the top of each potato, and use a small spoon or melon baller to scoop out/hollow the inside of the potato, transferring the insides to a mixing bowl. In the bowl, mash the potato with the bacon, 1/2 of the chives, creme fraiche/sour cream, remaining thyme, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Using a small spoon and your fingers, fill the hollowed potatoes with this mixture, forming a small mound. Sprinkle with cheese.

Return potatoes to 450 deg oven and bake until the filling heats through, 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining chives and serve warm.

Oh, and yes, in case you were wondering, that is a bottle of Stags Leap, my all-time favorite Cab, and a Christmas gift from my amazing father-in-law!

Search Feature!

New and improved to the cheeseformeplease blog: a search feature. It's still a work in progress. But now, at the top of the blog is a search box, where you can type in keywords, such as "chicken", or "breakfast" and, hopefully (knock on wood), the corresponding blog post recipes should come up. I'm still working on it, but it should be up and running this week :) . YIPPEEEEE!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Chicken Saltimbocca

Oh my. I just logged onto my "blog" to see that I haven't posted anything since September. Embarrassing! It's amazing how fast life will pass you by if you let it. And we have let it. Now, this doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking. But, it does mean I haven't been cooking much new. Mostly repeat recipes and meals for this family over the last couple of months.

But ladies and gentlemen, after a brief hiatus, I am back! And ready to cook!



My family was just here from Michigan and for our "Christmas dinner", my dad and I cooked a series of small plates. This first post is a modified version of a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Chicken Saltimbocca. It's basically thin chicken cutlets rolled up with yummy stuff and then cooked in chicken broth.

Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 4
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 4

Chicken Saltimbocca
(6 servings)
6 3-oz chicken cutlets, pounded evenly to flatten
6 super-thin sliced pieces of proscuitto
half bag or so of fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup grated parmesean cheese
About 2 cups of chicken broth (low sodium if possible)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
salt/pepper
olive oil

After pounding out the chicken cutlets to flatten, place them on a workspace, season with salt and pepper, and top with a piece of the proscuitto. In a small saute pan, add 1 Tbl olive oil to pan over medium heat, and saute spinach. Then remove from heat, take spinach and arrange in even lay across each chicken piece, on top of the proscuitto. Sprinkle the Parmesean cheese over the spinach. Then, starting with the small end of the chicken, roll the chicken and toppings, and secure with a toothpick.

Heat 2 Tbl of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Add the chicken broth and the lemon juice, and then using a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the browned bits up. Bring the liquid to the boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes, turning chicken 2-3 times throughout. Transfer the chicken to a platter, and continue to simmer liquid over high heat for 2-3 more minutes. Serve without toothpicks, and drizzled with chicken broth liquid.


Oh this is so yummy. And very salty, I might add, so try and use the low-sodium broth if you can, but if not, don't worry about it.

* NOTE: I'm going to put this in another post, but save the liquid from the pan when done with this dish. Just put it in some tupperware and put in fridge.