Monday, April 07, 2008

shrimp & grits casserole


The March 08 issue of Cooking Light had this recipe for shrimp & grits casserole. How fun is that? I thought it was a fun idea. So I made it. It was good! The grits were really creamy. I think I'll make this again, except I may cook the grits only as a casserole, and cook the shrimp separately. This was really "shrimpy."

I dotted it with Sriracha and served it on a bed of spinach that I cooked with bacon, shallots and garlic...(cook some bite size pieces of bacon, remove bacon and dispose of all but 1 Tbsp of bacon grease. Cook a shallot and a couple cloves of garlic in bacon grease until starting to brown, add spinach and cooked bacon and cook until spinach is wilted.)


Here is the casserole recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup uncooked quick-cooking grits
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1 (3-ounce) package 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites
1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp, coarsely chopped
Cooking spray
Hot pepper sauce (optional)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Combine milk and broth in a medium heavy saucepan; bring to a boil. Gradually add grits and salt to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cook 5 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in Parmesan, butter, and cream cheese. Stir in parsley and next 4 ingredients (through shrimp). Spoon mixture into an 11 x 7–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until set. Serve with hot pepper sauce, if desired.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

STL food bloggers potluck!


This pretty pretty picture of my mini meatloaf cupcakes was taken by Jonathan Pollack at a potluck he and his wife, Stef from Cupcake Project, generously hosted at their home on Sunday. Jonathan is a wonderful photographer with a camera set-up that gives me major lens-envy. Check out his site! Hire him!

So yes, I made the famous meatloaf cupcakes. Pretty much the same as here. I did make some colorful mashed potatoes for little extra pizazz...one batch was orange, made by adding lots of paprika, and one batch was bright yellow, made using turmeric and saffron. As always, they were delightful.

The potluck was fun! I got to meet a whole bunch of fellow food bloggers from the area. A great group of peeps, though I admit I didn't get to talk to everybody. I did get the buffet line going, though...


That dish I am lunging eagerly for has some potato flatbreads that Nupur from One Hot Stove made. She had a curry sauce and several fixin's to go with them. Man those were good. (EDITED TO ADD: Nupur sent me the link to her blog entry on how to make these glorious nibbles. In her e-mail, she adds: "But I posted this recipe such a long time ago, and the way I make it now is a little different :) The patties that I made had a little turmeric, ginger and garlic in addition to the ingredients mentioned. The curry- I skipped the tamarind and jaggery (unrefined sugar) because I served the chutney on the side.") I could have eaten them all night. Except there was so much other awesome food to eat, too...including some amazing desserts. I guess you'd expect as much from a gathering of food bloggers, huh? Still...I needed another stomach. For real. For instance, check out Kelly's Tyler's Ultimate mac & cheese. Barbaric Gulp indeed! Also, you can see more of Jonathan's photos from the evening (they'll make you drool) by going to his website and entering the code FOODBLOG in the box below.

Here's a list of all the blogs representin' at the potluck (Oh geez I hope I got everybody...please yell at me if you were there and I failed to give a shout out):

smith family recipes -Margaret recaps the potluck, and here's the recipe for her dish, the fabulous "Unnamed Italian Dish."

sounding my barbaric gulp -Kelly's recap and recipe for her dish, Tyler's Ultimate mac & cheese.

the kitchen at serafina studios -Kristen & Gabriel put some photos and such of the potluck up here.

resourceful living

miss food snob -Amy posts her lemon tart recipe here.

ZiNur -Natalia's coconut rum cake was a huge hit...like marriage-worthy. Here's her recipe for this "Bienmesabe."

show me vegan -Lisa brought Orzo with Roasted vegetables!

i digress...

becky and the beanstock

one hot stove -Nupur, as mentioned above, made divine ragda patties. She writes a bit more about the potluck in this post, after some awesome-looking "dosas" which I need to try. now. Also, notice one of my favorite photos from the night...the date-tamarind chutney being poured (by moi!) onto a ragda patty. Money shot!

everybody loves cheese

veggie venture

cupcake project -Stef made yummy-shmummy lavender cupcakes.

stl today's recipe exchange

It was fantastic to meet everyone. I hope we do stuff like this more often. Please check out these blogs. they rule the Lou!