Family Comes To Visit!

Yesterday morning, xmaskatie called me.
Seems her brother (my nephew), his wife, and their daughter were down visiting her
(about an hour and fifteen minutes away)
and would like to come up here to the beach, then visit with us.

Go to the beach, then come here for a late lunch.
Bring it on.


Oh wait a minute, RoRo, uh, I mean xmaskatie.
Just a minute here.
They're ... they're ... vegetarians.
I be damned if my lunch is gonna be tofu and lettuce leaves.

"Oh no," xmaskatie cheerily replies, "They're not vegetarians any more."
"Praise God," I cry out.
"Yeah, that's what I said too," xmaskatie responds.
"We've been cooking bacon for breakfast, pork chops, barbeque, steaks.
You name it, they eat it."

Well, that does make things a bit easier, doesn't it?

God, I can eat a vegetarian for breakfast and I'm still hungry.

Thank you David and Mary for finally seeing the LIGHT.

I decided to make coconut fried shrimp.

Here are my 3 bowls for dredging the peeled, deveined, butterflied, tails on shrimp.
On the left is flour seasoned with Adobo seasoning, salt, and pepper.
In the middle is 1 1/2 cups flour, some salt, 2 TB sugar, 1 egg + enough milk to make 1 cup liquid, and 2 TB Cap'n. Morgan's Coconut Rum.

On the right is coconut and panko bread crumbs.

Here's my dipping sauce for the coconut fried shrimp.
I have 2 slices of pineapple left in pineapple and cherry juice leftover from a pizza the other night, orange marmalade, and a jalapeno.

I mixed all in my Magic Bullet and added a bit of Cap'n. Morgan's Coconut Rum.

Not much to look at, but this pineapple dipping sauce is damn good.

And here are my coconut fried shrimp.

Here are Mr. Hawthorne's soft shelled crabs.

I made a fresh tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper salad, with sugar and vinegar.

Here's our spread.

This was so nice.
We all ate and ate.
Then nephew xmaskatie and his daughter went to swim in the pool while wifey sister-in-law xmaskatie stayed inside to drink wine with me and chat.
Much camaraderie and fun was experienced by all.

Here's my plate.
Soft shell crabs with my tartar sauce on the left.
Boiled shrimp at the top, with assorted dipping sauces:
1) Your regular ketchup, horseradish, worcestershire, and lemon juice.
2) My chili garlic sauce with grey poupon Dijon. Excellent.
On the right, my coconut fried shrimp with pineapple rum salsa.
At bottom, the potato salad xmaskatie sent up.
Thanks, xmaskatie!


This was a lovely visit with my nephew, his wife, and their beautiful daughter.
Thank you so much for taking the time out and coming to see us.


Mr. Hawthorne and I both enjoyed your visit soooooo much.

Rosie's Dinner. 06/08/08

This is the view of the sound and the smoke from the wildfires. It's gotten really thick and heavy. We like to leave the windows in our vehicles cracked a bit since it's so hot (103 yesterday) but then the ash gets all in our cars.

Poor Mr. Hawthorne forgot he'd left a bottle of red wine in his truck, so when I went out to start up the AC before leaving for a wedding the other night, I found an exploded bottle of wine. Blew the cork right out. About 1/3 of the bottle was pooling in his leather seats. We cleaned it up, but his truck still smells like a bunch of winos spent the night in it.

Since all my little Hawthornelets are home, Mr. H. and I decided to fix some of their favorites for supper. Soft shell crabs, coconut shrimp with a pineapple salsa, remoulade sauce, coleslaw, Dijon/dill potato salad, and pea/lettuce toss. I've blogged all the recipes before, but they're really good eats and bear repeating.

So, Notmuchofacook, I hope this will satisfy your appetite.

Here are the ingredients for the pineapple salsa: crushed pineapple, jalapeno pepper, pimiento, onion, and as you can see, I'm Semi-Ho'ing it with Captain Morgan's coconut rum.

Mix all ingredients, then add a splash of the rum.

Then I decided it needed a few more flavors so in went some orange marmalade, chili garlic sauce, and cilantro.

Next up, remoulade sauce:
Mayo, coarse Gray Poupon, vinegar, celery,onion, garlic, cayenne, cumin, coriander, capers,
and salt and pepper.

What? You want amounts?

(I got this recipe from Lucky 12 Tavern, so it makes a large amount.
I scale it down for the home.)

1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup yellow onion, chopped
1 cup white vinegar
1 oz. capers
1/2 TB minced garlic

4 cups mayo
4 TB coarse ground mustard
1/2 TB Kosher salt
1/2 TB black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander

Mix first 5 ingredients in food processor until smooth.
Transfer to bowl and combine all ingredients.

Now for the coleslaw.
I grated green and red cabbages, carrots, and chopped some red onion.

Sprinkled in some sugar.

Then I poured in some cider vinegar.

Added in a little mayo and some salt and pepper.

Mr. Hawthorne likes to add in a bit of oil at this point. He says it makes the coleslaw keep longer.

Now this is my all time favorite potato salad. And special thanks to Maxine for the recipe which I never quite follow but I'll give to you anyway.

2 lbs. potatoes, sliced
3 1/2 TB rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 TB Dijon mustard
6 TB canola oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

Cook potatoes until just tender.
Drain.
Transfer to large bowl and add 2 TB vinegar to hot potatoes and stir gently.
Combine remaining 1 1/2 TB vinegar and mustard in a small bowl.
Gradually mix in oil.
Add chopped dill.
Mix into potatoes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with dill sprigs and cucumber slices.

I've started on my dressing here.

I used cider vinegar since I was out of rice wine.
And it's important to add the vinegar to the hot taters.

I'm whisking the oil into the vingar/mustard mixture.

Pour the dressing over the taters.

Add in the fresh dill and toss gently.

Now I'm starting on my shrimp batter.

1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup beer
1 egg

I just liked this picture of the egg in the beer.

While I was doing everything else Mr. Hawthorne was doing the "shit detail" as he calls it.
He peeled, deveined, and butterflied my shrimp, leaving the tails intact, then artfully plated them.

Here are the ingredients for my seasoned flour:

flour
salt and pepper
granulated garlic

onion powder
adobo seasoning
cayenne
cumin

Here's the assembly line for the shrimp:
Shrimp at top left.
First they get dredged in the seasoned flour.
Then the beer batter.
And finally a mixture of coconut and
panko bread crumbs.

Dredging through the seasoned flour.

Plopping in the beer batter.

And doing all this with a puppy on my back.

Finally, dredge the shrimp through the coconut and panko crumbs.

I placed the shrimp on a baking dish and refrigerated for at least 30 minutes.

Beautimous shrimp.

And here are my perfectly fried coconut shrimp.

Mr. Hawthorne is preparing his soft shells:
first dredge into seasoned flour, then egg, then another seasoned flour.

The first flour is seasoned with Old Bay and Adobo seasoning.

The second flour is a 50-50 mixture of all-purpose flour and semolina flour, salt and pepper, adobo seasoning, and blackened Cajun seasoning.

Action shot of crabs in the eggs.

Another exciting action shot of crabs in the flour.

Lovely soft shells.

Drain on paper towels.

Next, I'm making my green peas, onion, mushroom, and lettuce toss.

Mr. Hawthorne deftly tosses his shrooms, not to be confused with tossing one's cookies.

Saute the shrooms and then add in the onions.

Add in frozen peas.
Canned peas do not exist in my world.
They are an anathema.

After the peas are just heated through, add in the lettuce, turn the heat off, cover, and let the lettuce wilt a bit.

Then I decided to add in a bit of fresh mint and basil for good measure.

Dixie likes to be in on the action.
You never know when I might drop a tasty morsel.

Finally, here's my spread.

Top left is a tarragon aioli and the coleslaw.

Next row is Dijon/dill potato salad, pineapple salsa, remoulade sauce, the peas.

Bottom is coconut fried shrimp and soft shell crabs.

Isn't this pretty?

This was quite a feast.

Malt vinegar, or fish and chips vinegar, is always good on fried fish. Try it.

Two Hawthornelets and Daughter's friend Sam enjoy the spread.

Here's my plate. Looks like I forgot the coleslaw.
I knew something was missing.

Here are all three little Hawthornelets.
Four if you count Dixie.

And the next picture is of the leftovers in case you were wondering.