Quick and Easy Shrimp Scampi

Tired of the same-old same-old dinners, last night I whipped together a scampi-esque meal, but I used rice instead of pasta. It was a major hit! I don't really have any exact measurements; I just put the ingredients in until it "looked right" to me.

Ingredients:
~ 2 Tbsp. olive oil
~1/2 lb. pre-cooked, deveined peeled frozen shrimp (thawed)
butter or margarine (probably about 2-4 Tbsp.)
white wine (~1 cup)
garlic (I used powdered)
onion (I used powdered)
Italian seasoning
lemon pepper
dash salt

Directions:

1. Put enough olive oil in bottom of skillet to lightly coat entire surface
2. On medium-high setting, heat oil and add butter or margarine. Allow to melt.
3. Add shrimp.
4. Add garlic, onion, lemon pepper, dash salt and Italian spices. I added until the shrimp had a nice "coat" of spices on it.
5. Add wine and stir all ingredients well.
6. Turn heat up to high and allow to boil. Let boil until all alcohol has evaporated off and there is a level of "juice" left in the pan that is to your liking. Don't cook too long, though, or the shrimp gets rubbery.

I had enough juice left that I fished out the shrimp and served on the side separately, then poured the juice over the white rice I served as a side. Add a side of green peas, and you have a yummy, balanced meal. (Note: I have been strongly urged by Jamie to make this again!)

Frugal tip:

You can make a whole other meal if you have left over shrimp. Just add cold shrimp to the top of a garden salad, add some shredded cheese and some vinaigrette, and you have shrimp chef's salad for another meal!

Beef Tips and Gravy

I guess there's been some question as to whether or not anyone is reading. I think people are reading, just not posting!

Here's my favorite fall and winter recipe. Quick and easy and freezes well!

Beef Tips and Gravy

1-2 lbs of stew meat (I just buy one package, who knows how much is in it?)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sliced mushrooms
12 oz 7-up

Toss them all in a 9x13 pan. Stir it around a little to mix everything together. Cover tightly and bake at 350 for 3 hours (yes, three hours). Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or noodles.

To make ahead and freeze: Toss everything in a gallon sized freezer quality baggie (not a storage one). Smoosh it all around and freeze. On serving day, thaw, and follow the above directions. You can pre-prep several of these at once and have dinner in the freezer for several meals.

The end! This makes a great meal for company. It's quick and easy, requires little prep and clean up and since you put it on mid-afternoon, you have plenty of time to clean the house while dinner is cooking!

My brother's mother-in-law 's Gwen Curry

No recipe, just checking to see if anyone is reading here!

My mother-in-law's Lamb Curry

I don't have the recipe in front of me, but I think I remember it. I'll fix it later if I find a mistake. :-)

1 cup fresh coconut and 1 handful of cilantro (with or without stems) ground to a paste.*
sliced onion (1/8 of a big one? my mother-in-law's onions are the size of golf balls and she uses 1)
3 green chilies, slit in half lengthwise
1 tsp of crushed ginger and garlic (can chop then grind in mortar and pestle)
1 tsp coriander powder (can grind the seeds in a coffee grinder)
1/2-1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2-1 1/2 tsp salt
pinch turmeric
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
lamb shanks*

On medium heat, in oil, saute the onion, green chilies, and ginger-garlic paste (until the strong smell goes away). Add the coconut/cilantro paste. Fry it until it's dry. Add the coriander, cayenne pepper, salt, and turmeric. Fry for a few seconds. Add the tomatoes. Cover and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the tomatoes can be squashed with a wooden spoon. Add the lamb. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Add about a cup of water and cover and cook for 30 minutes. Or, transfer to a pressure cooker with sufficient water and cook for 4 whistles (about 20 minutes). Serve over rice or with flat bread (rotis, chapatis, even tortillas would be good.)

*I used to have an Indian mixer, but I burned out the motor. It was a good one because you could grind things finely without having to add a lot of water. This time I used a food processor to break everything up, but it was still a little chunky for our taste, so I put it in the blender with some water, and then had to strain it with a sieve. Once I used just the food processor and you could totally feel the texture of the coconut, which wasn't too pleasant with lamb. Last time I used the blender and the coconut was fine, but it took forever to cook out all the water. This time was perfect with food processor, blender, sieve. but if you have a food processor that grinds things finely than you're set. Anyway. Turns out my mixer had a reset button on the bottom. It's okay now.

*My mother-in-law doesn't do this, and I didn't the first two times I made it, but this time I boiled the lamb first and drained off the fat. Then I put it in the fridge until I was ready for it, and the remaining fat totally congealed and I just sliced it right off. It was way less greasy than the other times I made it. Lamb can be pretty fatty. So what I did was sort of poach it. I covered the lamb in water and covered the pan and brought it to a boil then simmered it for 15 minutes. I also cut down the cooking time later so it wouldn't be too overcooked, since the meat was pretty well done after the poaching. But since we used a pressure cooker, it was still plenty tender. This is just if you're concerned about your fat intake or don't like your lamb too greasy. :-) We do this with chicken and ground beef and lots of stuff.

White Bread

In response to Jenn's request for bread recipes, here you go! My mom noted on this recipe card that it was her first loaf of bread. And mine, too!

1 1/4 C warm water
1 pkg dry yeast
2 T soft shortening
2 t salt
2 T sugar
3 c flour (I'd bet on all purpose)

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, sugar, shotrening and half the flour. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Add remainging flour, blend with a spoon until smooth. Cover, let rise in a warm place 30 minutes. Beat 25 strokes, spread in a greased loaf pan. Smooth into shape. Let rise 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375. Bake 45 minutes.

OR

Dump liquid ingredients in your bread machine pan. Dump dry ingredients on top leaving out the yeast. Make a little well in the top of the dry ingredients. Dump the yeast in the well. Turn the thing on and let it do all the stirring, kneading, mixing, spreading and waiting. Go read my blog and enjoy your summer!