Cookbookaholic

Shrimp Quesadillas: The Recipe

My trip up to Philadelphia for our Bottom Dollar Food Frugal Chef Class was so much fun! The Taco Sliders were so delicious and amazing. I hope you had a chance to make them for yourself for Cinco de Mayo.

The other recipe from the class was “Chicken and Refried Bean Quesadillas.” I wanted to try and do something a little different. I’ve had shrimp tacos a few times so I adapted the quesadilla recipe with shrimp. I thought they turned out amazing…so here’s the recipe.

Shrimp Quesadillas

1 pkg frozen Medium shrimp (thawed, peeled)

½ pack of Taco Seasoning Mix

2 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 Tbls. Butter

½ lime

Flour tortillas, burrito size

Shredded Mexican cheese

Onion, finely chopped

Black olives (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Thaw frozen shrimp and remove/discard shells. In a separate bowl, use half a packet of Taco Seasoning Mix and coat shrimp thoroughly. Set aside in refrigerator for half and hour (or more).

In a deep skillet, melt butter and then add minced garlic on medium-high heat. Stir garlic to keep it from burning. Add shrimp to the butter and garlic mixture, stir to coat the shrimp completely. After five minutes of cooking, squeeze the juice from the lime over the shrimp. When the shrimp have finished cooking, after 7-9 minutes, it should be opaque and slightly smaller in size. Put aside and keep warm.

In a shallow skillet on medium, heat a burrito sized flour tortilla until warm to the touch. Flip tortilla onto other side and add a layer of shredded Mexican cheese over the entire tortilla. As the cheese begins to melt, add the chopped onion and black olives. Using a spoon, place cooked shrimp on top of cheese on half of tortilla. Then fold tortilla over to “seal.” Continue to warm tortilla until the cheeses melt and then remove from heat.

Use a sharp knife to cut into triangle wedges and serve warm.

 

A Bit of a Dry Spell

I’ve had a bit of a dry spell for the past few weeks. One Saturday it was drizzling and as I got onto the Interstate, the bottom fell out. That little voice inside my head said “just go home.” It really wasn’t worth driving around in a monsoon. The next week, I found zero cookbooks. No one had them…and none had even thought about including them in their sales. Ugh!

This next Saturday was a tight timeline for me. I had to fly up to Philadelphia for the Frugal Chef Class. My flight was at 9:20am and I didn’t have a lot of time to hit the sales before I had to get to the airport.

As I did my usual Friday evening research, I come across an ad listing “a large collection of cookbooks.” Wow! Maybe I could just go to this one sale and be done? How cool would that be? One trip, pick up some great finds and the off to the airport. Too good to be true.

Looking more closely at the location, I see that this fantastic, answer-to-my-prayers garage sale is up in Salisbury. That’s a 45-minute drive back up the Interstate in the town where I work, no less. Just my luck. Here’s the best part…there’s no time listed. What? When are they expecting people to show up? Is it a 7am sale? 8am? That’s a total of an hour and a half going to and coming back from the sale. I had to think this through and make sure I had enough time to get to the airport, through security and to my gate in time. Plus, there’s a huge flea market located nearby. What if it’s all picked over by the local dealers by the time I make it up the road? What a huge gamble and a big chunk of time and mileage for just one sale. 

So, my dilemma is a choice between hitting this one sale 45 minutes up the road at an unknown time or trying to hit several sales in Charlotte before my flight. I really fretted over this decision.

In the end, I chose the sales in Charlotte. I had a list of six sales and a lot of hope. And believe me, that hope faded fast after the fourth sale. I found one Christmas with Southern Living: 2001.

Oh well, I’ve got to head towards the airport and get going. Maybe I’ll have better luck next week.

 

It’s Always Cinco de Mayo Somewhere, Right?

The things I do for you people. I took it upon myself to test out two margarita options in honor of this Cinco de Mayo. Usually, I shy away from bottled mixes. Can we all agree that those usually taste like bad cough syrup? But I got an email from Williams-Sonoma focusing in their “All-Natural” Margarita mixes. So, I decided to pit bottled mixer against a recipe using fresh ingredients. For the fresh version, I used a very traditional margarita recipe from the Viva Margarita cookbook in my collection by W. Park Kerr.  And for the bottled mix, I made a trip up to Williams-Sonoma and snagged the All-Natural Key Lime Margarita Mixer.

For my Viva Margarita selection, I chose “The Ultimate Margarita, or Uber-rita.” It called for fresh limes, tequila and Cointreau. I substituted Gran Marnier and also added in a splash of fresh orange juice (per the “Tequila Tip”). It was mind-blowingly strong. Instant buzz even…

With the Williams-Sonoma mixer, the one liter bottle professed to being made in small batches for fresher flavor. It contained key lime juice, tangerine juice (both from concentrate) and sweetened with agave syrup. All I had to do was just add tequila. It was sweet and, with half the booze, it was easier to drink. I easily had seconds (and thirds even).

Who knows if Williams-Sonoma will keep this product beyond Cinco de Mayo? If not at the store, I would hope it would always be an available online option. There were two other flavors, Morello Cherry Pomegranate and Mango Passion Fruit, in addition to the more traditional Key Lime flavor. It seemed a little pricey at $14.95 a bottle, but I think you could get more than three generous batches for the cost. For special occasions that call for an easy drink with a sweet margarita, I think I would definitely splurge and grab another bottle. What’s that old saying? It’s always Cinco de Mayo somewhere, right? Wait….that might be the tequila talking!

Taco Sliders: The Recipe

Back in mid-April, I met with several Philadelphia area bloggers for a Frugal Chef class. I called it “Cinco de Mayo on Little Dinero” and the whole idea was to make fun recipes with fresh meat, produce and store brand items from Bottom Dollar Food. We get the recipes from the amazing Chef Dan D’Angelo. He’s the Executive Chef over at the Art Institute of Philadelphia’s Culinary Arts School.

 The event was a lot of fun and the kitchen smelled so good….

 Last night, I finally got around to making the Taco Sliders. Just think about taco seasoned meat formed into hamburger patties with a chunk of spicy cheese melting and oozing out. They were really, really good—and what a fun and new way to enjoy Cinco de Mayo! They’re compact and full of flavor—plus, they’re kid friendly. (Dunc loved them!!) And, you get to top them with your traditional favorites like salsa, black olives, tomatoes and dare I say it? Guac!!

**FYI: For my version, I used two pounds of ground beef, two packages of Taco Seasoning Mix and left out the parmesean cheese and cilantro. This gave me a total of 15 taco slider patties.

Taco Sliders by Chef Dan D’Angelo

1 1/12 pounds ground beef

1 1/2 packs of taco mix

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and cilantro  

2 small garlic cloves, crushed with a garlic press

6 ounces Cheddar, Pepper Jack, cut into 1/2-inch cubes any kind of cheese  

8-10 (2-inch; a.k.a. party size or dinner) soft rolls

Gently combine meat, taco mix, cheese, parsley mix, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper with your hands. (Do not over mix). Form 3 oz. of meat mixture into about 8-10 meatballs. Push a cheese cube into center of each ball and encase meat around cheese, then slightly flatten each ball to a 2-inch diameter. 

Broiler directions: Preheat broiler. Put half of sliders on an oiled rack of a broiler pan and broil, turning over once, until just cooked through (no longer pink), 4 to 8 minutes total. Repeat with remaining sliders. 

Grill directions: For easy entertaining, go with a gas grill. Preheat all burners on high, covered, 10 minutes, and then adjust heat to medium-high. Grill sliders for 4 to 8 minutes, turning once. 

Stovetop: Cook in a skillet on med-high heat for 4 to 8 minutes, turning once.

Toppers: lettuce, sliced tomatoes, Salsa con queso, sliced raw onion and/or sautéed golden brown onions, salsa, pickled jalapenos, refried beans, avocado or sour cream

 

Mine were amazing! I even adjusted the spiciness of the cubed cheese and gave the hubby a hotter habanero cheese…hee-hee.

 

Here’s a picture from last night’s festivities, I made one topped with tomato, onions, black olives and picante while the other had a dollop of guac. Just amazing…you should really give these a try.

Watch Out, It's Easter!

For this Easter, I’m excited to head up to our annual Winston-Salem trip. I’ve recently been promoted and I’m not going to hold back when I make my run through the Moravian Book and Gift Shop. I’m hoping to treat myself to some new additions to my collection. They usually have a nice selection of local Moravian church cookbooks and I can’t wait to get my hands on them!

First the bad news: Kernel Kustard has closed their downtown location. Then, I find out that the original one has closed as well. Bummer! I just absolutely loved the ice cream that featured caramel corn. Now it’s gone forever…unless Blue Bell ever decides to bring back their version (fingers crossed).

Anyway, back to the Moravian Book & Gift Shop. On Saturday afternoon, I had some free time away from hubby and the boys and I drive back over to Old Salem. I head downstairs to the bookshelves and look through the local church cookbooks. Is this humanly possible? I think I’ve already got all of them. I do notice that the stack featuring the Raleigh Moravian Church cookbook has a burgundy spine and the cover is printed with burgundy ink. The one in my collection has navy blue cover ink and spine. Plus, it looks a little thicker. Could this be a new revised and expanded version?

I think it’s worth the investment to find out! Here’s the new burgundy one:

Okay, so at least I have one in my grasp. I head upstairs and take a look around the rest of the store. There’s a bookshelf that catches my eye—look what’s on it!

It’s the cookbook from my church, New Beginnings Moravian! We sold our last 20 copies to the Old Salem Museum organization and here’s one of the final copies. Still looks amazing….should I? Nah…I’ll let someone else pick it up and find out how awesome it is.

Okay, so I didn’t get to walk away with a ton of cookbooks this time around. But I am slightly thrilled that I have such a “current” collection. Now, I just need more Moravian churches to kick out a new round of cookbooks! I’m looking at you Peace Moravian….