Mr. Hawthorne's Dip.

When Mr. Hawthorne and I were at Harris Teeter yesterday, we always try as many free samples as we can get our hands on. One that we particularly liked was the Chipotle Lime Dip.
Mr. Hawthorne decided to buy it and try to recreate it at home.
His was not bad, but personally, I think I could've done better.

He started off with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, cilantro, and cumin.

Next, he added some sour cream, lime juice, and ground red peppers.

Not quite there. I suggested adding some of the roasted red pepper that I had, plus some cream cheese, and some Tabasco sauce.

Original on bottom.
Mr. Hawthorne's effort on top.
His was not bad at all. Needed to be sweeter.

I'll have to try my hand at it.

Guess what else Harris Teeter had.
Instant basil plants!



I planted the two basils in Miracle Gro potting soil, pinched the leggy tops off, and now I have fresh basil for use. I had it this morning on my BLT.

Rosie Experiments.

Remember several weeks ago when Mr. Hawthorne and I had lunch in Manteo?
I had the Jalapeno Poppers with a cream cheese/chipotle stuffing and I loved some of the flavors on my plate. I asked the owner about one in particular. I could figure out the pineapple salsa, but I didn't know what the squirty stuff was. See the brown, on the plate and over the jalapenoes? Well, he told me it's a habanero/mango sauce.

That's all I needed to hear.

First, I skewered some habaneros and a slice of red and yellow peppers.

Here's a VERY IMPORTANT hint I learned from Sandra:
Always soak your skewers first!
So, I soaked these skewers for about 30 minutes so they wouldn't burn.

Heat peppers over open flame to char the skin.
Oh MY GRAVY! I love having a gas stove now.

Blacken the pepper skins.

When they are totally blackened, POP the peppers INto a paper bag and seal so the peppers steam and push the charred skin off of themselves.
Takes about 10-15 minutes.


Scrape the pepper meat off of the charred skin.

Here, I have my red and yellow charred peppers and my habanero peppers in my Magic Bullet, with crushed pineapple, lime, and Mango to go.

More mango slices go INto my Habanero sauce.

Magic Bullet that bad boy.

I added the rest of the mango, the rest of the leftover crushed pineapple, because the Habanero mixture was a tad strong.

Here's dumb Rosie taking a whiff after she just finished whupping the smoked Habaneros in the Magic Bullet.

OOOOOhhhhhh. Baby.

ARRRRRRRRIBA!

My sinuses are now cleaned out.

Mr. Hawthorne and I went to Harris Teeter today.
These are Rock Shrimp,
$6.99/pound.
And we boiled them.


We'd never had rock shrimp before, so we ask our fishmonger, what do they taste like. Apparently a blend between shrimp and lobster.
They're called rock shrimp because of the rock-like shell they have.
And they do taste like lobster.
I googled them, and you don't cook them as long as regular shrimp.
Mr. H. threw them INto a rolling boil, seasoned water, (salt, pepper, Old Bay, vinegar) then cooked for under 2 minutes.
Took out and drained under cold water.

Here are my rock shrimp, my basil, my cilantro, my lime, and my homemade habanero/mango sauce. Whoot!

Dylan Strikes Again.

Youngest Hawthorne's name is Dillon. He has a friend named Dylan. Months ago, back in September, when this family was in the midst of a major upheaval kitchenwise, the two Dillons/Dylans were over here. Mr. Hawthorne and I had just bought 50 pounds of shrimp, which we had de-headed and I had sized INto 3 bags - small, medium, and large. Mr. Hawthorne got a big bag of large shrimp and cooked them on a hot plate on the bare floor in our non-existent kitchen. I made a ketchup/horseradish sauce with Lea & Perrins and lemon juice and placed it in the refrigerator which, at the time was at the top of my foyer and front steps going up to the living room. So, stoner Dylan comes in, sees the shrimp platter, asks if he can have some, I say sure, then Mr. Hawthorne comes in and sees this kid, eyes closed, moaning, feeding himself shrimp after shrimp. Dylan left 2 shrimp. Mr. Hawthorne was furious. Mr. Hawthorne ordered me (Heh, thought you would find that funny!) to go down to the freezer, bring up another pound of shrimp, and cook it. So I did. But I got the smallest shrimp I could find. This was not lost on Mr. Hawthorne. He was greatly pissed. SOOOOOO, ZOOOOOM several months forward to today. If you look at the pictures of yesterday's breadsticks, I had FIFTEEN breadsticks last night. Youngest Hawthorne, Mr. Hawthorne, and I had one each. So, that leaves 12. Ok, good with that. Today, Dillon comes over with Dylan, and I hadn't seen Dylan since the shrimp fiasco. "Oh, Ms. Ann, can I have some of those bread sticks?" "Why, sure." BREADSTICKS? GONE!

Another Yummy Dinner Chez The Hawthornes.

This is from last night. I don't know why Mr. Hawthorne felt obliged to take a picture of me at my computer. At least he figgered out how to turn on my digital camera and actually shoot a picture.
Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that he's always saying I don't do ANYTHING all day long except sit in front of the computer.
Gee, I wonder how the house is as clean as it is? I wonder how all those meals get out on the table? I wonder how all the bills get paid? I wonder how the laundry gets done? I wonder how the yard is taken care of? I wonder how the pool gets cleaned? I wonder why the dog is still alive?
So many questions.

So let's get on with tonight's dinner.

It's another stir fry night.
Going clockwise and starting at top left, I have chopped chicken breast marinating in cornstarch, buttermilk, with a bit of Tamari Sauce and a few shakes of Tabasco Sauce.
Next to that is shrimp.
And then some chicken stock.
Then red, green, and yellow pepper slices.
Some sliced almonds and cashews.
Onions, garlic, radishes.
Celery, broccoli, and carrots.

Remember the pizza dough Mr. Hawthorne brought home the other night from Corolla Pizza? Well, I took the other half and made bread sticks with it.

I know, they're very UNEVEN looking, but it's a lot of HARD WORK to make proper bread sticks. I SLopped them in a combo of melted buttah, peppah, and Parmesan cheese, then set in a warm oven to rise.

Here are the baked bread sticks.

375 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Here's Dixie in the foreground taking a little nap, then Youngest Hawthorne playing violent video games.

Some lovely Jasmine rice.

Starting with the broccoli and carrots, I started stir frying in olive and peanut oil. Then I added the radishes, celery, onions, peppers, and garlic.
Did I forget anything?
At the end of sauteeing, I added water to steam everything.

Here's the marinated chicken afryin' in the oil.

Next, I added the shrimp to the hot oil, cooked it, and added a bit of sherry.

Here, I'm adding the nuts to the shrimp and the
cornstarch/chicken stock mixture.

Add the rest of the veggies in.

Toss and stir fry.

Plate three ways and eat.
Bon Appetit!

Ivan Warning.

Ivan, consider this a public message to you. Stay the HELL off my blog. Do not leave your spamming, virus-laden comments. JUST.STAY.AWAY. If any of you see any comments from Ivan in my blog, do NOT open them. They could be damaging, plus he's an ass and has nothing to add except infection. I delete Ivan's comments as soon as I see them, but contrary to popular opinion, I do have a life outside of this computer, so I can't baby sit all the time. I'm getting ready to pursue that life right now. I'm off to Food Lion.

Back In Touch With Old Friends.

Here's an email I got just a little bit ago.

(And, yes, I know who it's from.) :

…..well the search for Caesar Salad didn’t turn up anything so I thought I’d ask you for your recipe – I have tons of them but have never made it and G loves it. Croutons too?

Pity all this time I didn’t know you hated windchimes, and just after your birthday, too - but since you like crosses and crystal there is the SWEETEST New Age shop close by and I’m sure they’d have something in crystals…or mermaids…or unicorns if it would make you feel better. Perhaps I could send them with Lane? I used to stop by there because the most bizarre cookbooks would turn up, as did these creepy women who always wanted to do “my reading”.

I responded with this:

I club fucking unicorns over the head with bricks or stones. Then I break the horn off and grind it into a powder which I snort. I get ridiculously high off of unicornhorn and hallucinate. M ... are you zeno?

New Cooking Class At The North Carolina Aquarium.

Today was my last cooking class in the current series at the
North Carolina Akworium in Manteo, N.C.

Chef Brett Owens of the Nags Head Restaurant, Prime Only,
presented the cooking demonstration.

Here's their web site:

Prime Only

Our menu:

Prime Only Caesar Salad, made from scratch, "tableside"
and
Blue Crab and Parmesan encrusted flounder
topped with a citrus blanche (sic) de beurre.
(I believe that would be beurre blanc.)

Here's the arrrussuppeee for the flounder:

4 6-oz. flounder fillets

1 pound crabmeat
1 egg
1 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup fresh chopped basil
garlic powder (to taste)
2 oz. clarified butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine egg, melted clarified butter, garlic powder, and crab meat in

mixing bowl and mix by hand.
Add cheese and mix.
Add bread crumbs and mix again.
Spread a layer of the crab mixture on one side of the flounder fillet to cover the entire piece of fish.
Heat a non-stick saute pan and add butter.
Add the fillet with crab meat facing down.
Sear until brown, then flip and sear other side.
Place fish on baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes.

I'm sure I probably couldn't tell the difference between clarified and regular butter, but if you want to use clarified butter, heat your unsalted butter in a pan, then skim the white milk solids off that rise to the surface.
Then you have clarified butter.

Citrus "Blanch de Beurre" (sic)
(Citrus Beurre Blanc)

1/2 cup white wine
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 pound unsalted butter

In a saute pan, combine wine, lemon juice and whipping cream
and reduce by half.
Lower the temperature, then whisk in the butter slowly until melted.

Here's the plated dish.
Now, I'm sick and my olfactory system is all screwed up, but I'm pretty sure I'd like this. I just can't taste it, darn it all.
Chef Owens didn't put any basil in it, as called for in the recipe.
Also, there is no fresh blue crab now. It's out of season. So he used pasteurized crab meat. I couldn't taste to begin with, so I asked Mr. Hawthorne if he could taste the crab meat and he couldn't either.
Make this dish when crab meat is in season.
Mr. H. loved the sauce.

Next up:

Prime Only Caesar Salad, made from scratch, "tableside."

Now, I don't know how else one would make Caesar Salad except from scratch,
but here you go.

Caesar Salad

1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 small anchovie fillets
2 dashes tabasco sauce
4 dashes Lea and Perrins
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup olive oil
4 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1 egg yolk
1 large head of romaine lettuce torn
1 cup croutons

Now, apparently, Chef Owens doesn't make this often, since he's always cooking back in the kitchen. He even mentioned this fact (that he doesn't make this often) and apologized for it. And it was obvious, since he was referring to his notes with the ingredients, which are not in order.
I still liked him, though.
I can make Caesar Salad dressing in my sleep.

However, I digress.

Here are his instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, preferably wooden, mash the black pepper and the anchovies to form a paste.
Add one egg yolk.
Add mustard and garlic and mash together with the paste, making sure that the garlic gets crushed.
Add the rest of the ingredients except for the lemon and
whip until dressing gets frothy.
Add the lettuce and mix together in the bowl, then add croutons and squeeze the lemon juice on the salad and mix again.
Add more shredded Parmesan cheese.

And here's the lovely salad.

OK. Just let me say this.
I know Caesar Salad.
I make a kick ass Caesar Salad.
No one makes better Caesar Salad than I do,
except for Mr. Hawthorne.
That is all.

Now, I know I've already posted my Caesar Salad arrrussuupppee on this blog.
Go search for it and do a taste comparison.
For the record, there is NO comparison.

Oh, my homemade croutons kick ass too.
As in outoftheballpark.

OK, I don't mean to be bitchy or catty or anything.
I really liked this meal.
Mind you now, I am sick with a horrible cold and worse cough and probably tore something in my gut last night while I was coughing up my toes, but I'm sure the flounder tasted great. It looked good, and I liked the recipe. I will try the flounder, but will wait until I have REAL CRAB MEAT.

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering,
"What did Rosie and Mr. Hawthorne have for dinner tonight?"

Mr. Hawthorne thawed out the last two crab cakes left.
Perfect little rounds that he was so, so proud of.
He sauteed them, then plated them.

WALLAH!
Perfectly seared crab cakes, with a mustard emulsion, basil/celery infused oil, paprika oil, and wasabi paste.

And like I told the girls today who were helping Chef Owens plate the dishes, "Don't be so damn stingy with that
Citrus Beurre Blanc!"

Bon appetit!