Spring in the Kitchen

This morning, while waiting for the car, I wondered around the internet for a little while. After a hop here & a skip there, I wandered over to Joke's blog, Same thing, But Different. He was writing about food, and there were a couple posts, one was risotto. Hmm a spring time risotto, the perfect use for my asparagus. So I commented that I would make that for dinner. That is a major commitment for me, especially before my first conversation with my husband. (He left the house early, I only said "grrmmph, lub u, didja sayme any coffee?" before he was on his merry way.) So I swirled it around in my head to try it on and when my husband came home and we had an actual conversation, it went along these lines.

HP: Hi I'm home, did you save me any coffee?
Me: Umm, maybe. How was your appointment?
HP: Fine, nothing exciting. Not much coffee here.
Me: Yeah, well. You drank a lot before you left.
HP: I didn't think I had that much. Are you going to...
Me: Sure ya did. What do you think of Shrimp & Asparagus Risotto for dinner
HP: Wow, that sounds good.

So now I had committed. My mysterious cheese drawer was woefully empty so I made my 3rd trip to the grocery store this week. I think I'm done that for a while. Eventually I decided to make dinner. I started late, which is never a good idea, especiallly with something that requires patience like risotto. Oh well.

How Kiki cooks Risotto:
At some point, not early enough, I pulled the stock & the shrimp out of the freezer to thaw.

Some time later, I open a bottle of dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio (or pinot gris, if you prefer). Poor a large glass of said wine, sip and contemplate the mess in the kitchen. Most of it was theoretically going to be cleaned by HP, so I leave it for him.

Realize that the wine that is going into the risotto needs to be brought at least to room temp, so I search for a clean measuring cup & poor 1/2 cup in; I leave that on the stove (not on a burner) so I'm not putting something cold into my risotto (a no-no). It dawns on me that all my chicken stock is still solid ice, so put it in the microwave to thaw. I start slicing my onion (I slice, then chop) I soon realize that I have much too large of an onion, so I stop, get some butter from the fridge and start the back burner with a little butter & a little wine so I can caramelize some onions since I have them sliced. Microwave beeps, what did I put in there? Oh yeah. Check on stock, still a large stockcicle. Zap some more. Have some more wine. Start chopping shallot, decide to grab another shallot to add to the onions that are caramelizing. check on stock. Almost done, zap. Chop garlic. Decide I want this to be garlicy, so I chop some more. End up chopping 5 big cloves. Pull stock out of micro and put onto stove to get it simmering. Put butter in pan for risotto & try to check that I have everything, drink a little more wine. When butter is melted, I add the onions, saute a little, then let soften. Next I pull Asparagus out of fridge, chop; get HP to peel shrimp & grate Parm. Shallots & garlic go in w/ the onions, I splash more wine into the onions caramelizing on the back burner and everything is happy. I have another sip of wine, and I'm working on being happy as well. Into the pot goes the risotto. It gets all pretty & glossy, then next goes the wine. It smells great going in. Bit by bit the stock goes in. Stirring, & sipping the risotto gets cooked. (With occasional visits to splash the caramelizing onions with wine)
Soon it's time for the big finish, first the shrimp, next the lemon juice & the asparagus. A little cheese, and finally a few asparagus tips that I held for decoration.
Gosh that turned out pretty! I really wish I had my camera in the kitchen (One of these days I'll be that organized) The soft pink of the shrimp and the bright green of the risotto against a soft creamy risotto back ground. A very thin slice of lemon and some fresh ground pepper and a small sprinkle of cheese and it's on the table. There is just enough wine left in the bottle for HP & I to have some with dinner. ( I may have sipped many times, but I did so in moderation.)

I have to say, it tasted as good as it looked; and a good dinner was had by all!

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Easter Candy Fun

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And the snack of the day is....

No dinner tonight, just snacks.

turkey meatballs in a mango-orange-ginger-bourbon sauce. I will say, the bourbon does matter. I used some Bookers that was given to me, but wish I was able to use the FAR superior Maker's Mark instead. Even with the inferior bourbon, the sauce was pretty tasty. A little sweet, a little spicy. Just needed a little on the sour side to be better (along w/ real bourbon) but I am currently out of Tait Farm ginger shrub. And what else did we make?

Hubby-Poo's hummus. Nothing different or unusual here. Just a great blend of acid/spice/base. His hummus is consistently good. Not much I make is consistent, though it is usually good!

Also on the menu: Another HP favorite, spinach dip. His recipe is from the Pensacola Junior League Some Like it South.

And finally, for dessert. I made brownies for grown-ups. They have a raspberry-Chambord icing w/ (hopefully) bittersweet glaze. I was improvising from a recipe for a chocolate mint brownie (that is out of this world). I left them in the fridge for the icing to set and haven't had a chance to taste them yet. I don't want to interrupt the meeting, but may need to before long. Since I was busy making these snacks, I didn't get a chance to eat much.

I was planning to take pictures of some of the spread, but sadly the battery on the digital needed to be charged.

And now for a quick gripe. As I indicated above, I am a huge fan of Maker's Mark Bourbon. I am even a Maker's Mark "Ambassador," spreading the love (of MM) whenever I can. (Any one interested in becoming an ambassador, let me know & I'll get you more info). Anyway, back to the gripe. A friend with a good heart, knows that I am a bourbon drinker, and while he is fully aware of my preference being the kind soul that he was, and in possession of some excess bourbon, he gave me the Bookers. First of all I have to say, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, yuk. It tastes like corn squeezings that were left in the still a little too long. Secondly, I'll add that, upon review of the Booker's very own website their bourbon is "truly the absolute best." I need to state for the record, that they are big fat liars. Thank You.

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I should be making dinner....

Actually, I should have made dinner an hour ago. I even had a plan for dinner.
Turkey Steak (a cut of the thigh.) with a crust of coconut, cinnamon, cloves, coriander... served with a carrot puree with ginger and shallot, based mainly on this. A little couscous for my starch and it would have been dinner. See, it sounds yummy--I really had the best of intentions. I was going to make dinner after my nap. HP is recovering from a cold and is snoring in the weee hours of the morning. A pillow over the head hasn't been helpful. So my nap didn't work out as planned. And it was 4:30. So diet coke and nachos were the snack to wake me up and get me cooking. After a little while I looked at my dear HP and said, "I think it's your turn to cook." and bless his heart, he is did. And not only is he making dinner (Turkey burger for me, Hamburger for him. He got "real meat" out of the deal, so he isn't suffering) He took the rest of the ground turkey and made 3 burgers for the freezer, so when we decide to have burgers we can just pull them out. AND he made, "like 100 meatballs" with the rest of the turkey. He has a meeting here tomorrow, which generally requires some refreshment for the poor board members, so meatballs it is. I will create a ginger-peach sauce and they will be the warm snack. HP is going to make some hummus. He somewhat follows the SouthBeach recipe (found here along with Baba Ganoush), it's yummy and good to have the around the house. I think I agreed to make brownies also. It will be "day 2" so I'm not entirely convinced the guests will ever see them.

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