Crummy pictures/yummy recipes

Like so many other things, I'm blaming my worse than usual food photography on the pregnancy. These are recipes I've made in the last couple of months that I loved but was just too sick to blog about. Enjoy!


Light Brioche Burger Buns from Smitten Kitchen

Delicious! When there were no more patties left, I started eating these with a little butter. Oh my, that sounds delicious right now!


This is a favorite dessert of mine. Not sure if it's ever made it's debut on my blog, but even if it has, it deserves to be showcased twice. It's that good. Although, this is the last piece. It took me that long to get around to taking a picture. Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse Tart from Bon Appetit.


Linguine with Shrimp Scampi from Barefoot Contessa

I love this stuff. I'm the only one in my family who does. So I either have to eat the whole thing myself or host a girl's lunch. This time I felt no desire to share, so I ate this for dinner for a whole week. Yum!

Don't judge by the picture, this recipe was so delicious. Peach and Crème Fraîche Pie from Smitten Kitchen. It was fun making my own creme fraiche, too.

Celebrating the "Mexicanity" of the Quesadilla

I got to spend some time with my Aunt Gayle a few days while I was in California and we had some good talks. I really enjoyed our time together. She took me out to lunch at this place called Salsa Brava. She suggested we order these shrimp quesadillas and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them since. This morning at 11 am after Sophie went down for her nap I set out to recreate this delicious twist on the classic Mexican dish. I was not disappointed.

I only changed a few things in this recipe. I added a bit of chili powder to the shrimp before I broiled them. I also added a squeeze of lime juice when I was tossing the shrimp with the oil. I made four quesadillas with the ingredients in this recipe, not 3 like the recipe suggests. I sliced up an avocado and served the slices on top of the quesadilla wedges. I also served them with sour cream. Mmmmm.... I know I won't stop thinking about these quesadillas anytime soon.

Shrimp and Tomatillo Quesadillas

2 red bell peppers

1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Vegetable oil
6 9- to 10-inch-diameter flour tortillas
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cups (packed) grated Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeños (about 8 ounces)
1 cup (packed) grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)
6 medium tomatillos , husked, thinly sliced

Char bell peppers over gas flame or in broiler until blackened on all sides. Remove from heat. Enclose peppers in paper bag. Let stand 10 minutes. Peel and seed peppers. Cut into 1/4-inch-thick strips. Set aside.

Preheat broiler. Toss shrimp with 1 tablespoon oil. Place on baking sheet. Broil shrimp until just opaque in center, about 2 minutes. Cut shrimp lengthwise in half. Transfer to bowl.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush 2 baking sheets with oil. Place 2 tortillas on 1 prepared baking sheet. Place 1 tortilla on second prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle 1/4 cup chopped cilantro over each tortilla, then 1/3 cup Monterey Jack cheese and 1/3 cup cheddar cheese. Arrange 8 tomatillo slices atop cheese on each tortilla, then bell pepper strips and shrimp, dividing equally. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese over shrimp on each tortilla, dividing equally. Top with remaining 3 tortillas, pressing lightly to adhere. Brush tops of tortillas with oil. Bake quesadillas until cheese melts and tortillas are crisp, about 10 minutes.

Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges and serve.

Serves 6.

Shrimp Pad Thai

Our last cooking club for this year was last night at Erin's house and we had such a good time! The theme was erotic ingredients, and we had some pretty crazy stuff there! Just kidding! The theme was exotic ingredients. The food was great! My exotic ingredient was fish sauce. It's been in my cupboard for a long time and I finally decided to use it. Fish sauce smells like feet.

I made Shrimp Pad Thai and it was pretty good. It comes from my Everyday Food cookbook, so it's like Thai Food for Dummies, but it was pretty decent. Another unusual ingredient for me in this dish was rice stick noodles. That was the first time I had ever used those as well. Bobby feels strongly that Asian food is best eaten in Asian restaurants and I'm going to have to agree that Thai, Chinese, and Japanese cuisines taste better when it's prepared by the pro's. It was fun to give it a shot though, since I can't get Thai food anywhere around here.