Yesterday, I shared Barb’s Baked Eggs with you – today I’m giving you another of her fabulous recipes! Many thanks to Barbara Fenzl for allowing me to share her Les Gourmettes cooking class recipes with the masses.

Barb made shrimp sliders in class, I made shrimp burgers, with the same recipe and bigger buns, at home. My family went crazy for them!

One super-smart thing Barb does with her sliders – is she cuts out the center section of the King’s Hawaiian rolls, making them a more manageable size. When you eat it, you get less bun in each bite and more shrimp.

She saved all the center portions of the buns from all six of her classes and used them in her Thanksgiving stuffing. See, I told you she was super-smart!

King’s makes hamburger buns too, so I used the buns in place of the rolls, changing the sliders to burgers. Either way … Delish!

Note: I was feeding a crowd, so I doubled the recipe and made 12 burgers out of 2 pounds of shrimp. The recipe, as written, would have made 6 burgers and makes 12 sliders. Don’t let the photos vs. the recipe quantities confuse you.

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Here’s another great appetizer for summer. If you don’t want to heat up the kitchen, use a grill basket and cook the shrimp outside.

Mixed Herb Pesto Shrimp Skewers

Pesto
3 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley leaves, packed
1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 cup olive oil

Skewers
2 pounds frozen uncooked peeled and deveined medium shrimp, about 60 total, thawed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Pesto: Place basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, parsley, tarragon, mint, and garlic in a food processor. Blend until herbs are finely chopped. Add oil with the machine running, through the feed tube, and blend to a coarse puree. Season pesto to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a small bowl.

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On Saturday night we had our Spain Reunion Dinner.

Peggy & Jim and Lorraine & John plus Dave & I spent a relaxing evening drinking sangria, nibbling on tapas, and dining on my paella.

I’ll share recipes with you all week. I shall begin with the star of the evening – the paella!

Begin this recipe the day before to marinate the chicken overnight. Up to 4 hours before serving, brown the chicken and cook the onion, garlic, and tomato base in the same pan. You can finish the dish when your guests arrive by bringing the base back up to heat and taking turns stirring as you enjoy your tapas and sip sangria.

A couple of disclaimers before I get to the recipe. I forgot to add the peas. I had a bag of fresh peas in the fridge and just forgot, much to the dismay of my husband, who loves peas. Sorry!

And the final photo was taken at the dinner table which was outside, in the dark, and I should have used a flash. Oh well, it will have to do.

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Saturday night was our 10th annual neighborhood Progressive Dinner. The theme this time was “Speakeasy” and we had so much fun with it.

We started with appetizers at Ronnie’s beautiful home, then split up to have dinner at the various host homes and finally gathered back together at our house for desserts.

This was what greeted guests when they entered our house.

At Joanne’s, my “dinner host” home, I enjoyed a wonderful meal where we indulged on Lemon Drops and…

… not only delicious, but beautiful Chicken a la Rose, made by Kim…

… along with Waldorf Salad and Rosemary Potatoes…

… all in a perfectly jazzy dining room! Pictured are Flapper Ronnie, Cool Cat Scott (with his faux cigarette) and Flapper Kim. Can you even imagine a more perfectly themed dining room than this one, with its life-sized jazz band mural?

It all began at Ronnie’s and her beautifully set hor d’oeuvres table!

I made the appetizers for Ronnie’s house and she provided the desserts for mine. I made Piglets in a Warm Puffy Blanket, Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Mushrooms, Spinach Deviled Eggs, and the following recipe for Shrimp Canapes.

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Connor and I had a blast in Disneyland and California Adventure. When I say a blast, I not only mean a great time but a heat blast too.

It never fails, I leave this Godforsaken desert to find some refreshing cool air and the heat follows me! It was 95 every day we were there. The weatherman is predicting a lovely 75 degrees for Tuesday! It’s not right!

Oh well, fall is coming soon… I hope. Until then, I have the quickest and the easiest appetizer for you …. plus a few Disney vacation photos at the end of the post.

Most grocery stores carry the tubes of prepared polenta … and prepared pesto too. Although, I used some frozen arugula pesto I had on hand. I brought this to a surprise party on Sunday that our dear friend, Amy, threw for her husband, our dear friend, Scott.

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Connor is between semesters at school so he is home for a couple of weeks. On Sunday, I asked him to decide what we’d have for dinner and he didn’t hesitate – he requested fajitas.

It’s been ages since I’ve made ’em, so I went all out and cooked up not only traditional beef but also shrimp and chicken. The best part about that… we had plenty of leftover beef and had tacos on Monday night. Yay for leftovers!

Connor and I shopped at Food City for our meal. In our search for skirt steak, we happily stumbled upon flap meat. Flap meat can be difficult or next to impossible to find at standard grocery stores like Safeway, so when I come across it, I can’t help but get a little excited.

Flap meat comes from the bottom sirloin, and although it’s from a similar region as flank steak or skirt steak, it’s a different cut. The flap is not very tender, but it is well-marbled and very flavorful. It’s sometimes called flap steak or bavette and is an excellent meat for carne asada and fajitas.

If you can’t find a flap, use either skirt or flank steak for this recipe.

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We are currently enjoying the good life at the Log Mansion in Wisconsin with Jeff, Jen, and their boys. Prior to arriving here, we went from Toronto, Canada to Niagara Falls, New York to Rockton, Illinois.

Neither Dave nor I had been to the Falls before. We were blown away by their power and beauty!

This is a recipe my mother-in-law and I made while we were visiting her in Illinois. She’d found it in Ladies Home Journal. I’ve made a couple of changes to the original by using both green and yellow summer squash instead of just zucchini and by adding tomatoes, otherwise, it is pretty much as written.

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These shrimp are not only perfect for Cinco de Mayo but equally so for a quick weeknight meal or a big party.

We’re looking forward to going to the James’ annual Cinco de Mayo party tonight! See you soon, Lisa! Eieieiei Ariba!

Guajillo [gwah-HEE-yoh] chiles are dried peppers with a bright tangy taste and kick of heat. Find them in the grocery store alongside the other Hispanic ingredients.

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Traditional Puttanesca sauce is made with chopped garlic and anchovies that are sautéed in olive oil. Chopped chili peppers, olives, capers, canned tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano are added along with salt and black pepper to taste. It is simmered for at least 30 to 40 minutes.

My lighter fresher version is anchovy and olive oil-free and uses fresh chopped tomatoes that are cooked briefly and tofu Shirataki noodles with zero calories and only 3 carbs per serving. The dish comes together in 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your chopping skills and speed.

I began making it at 5:45 and had it on the dinner plates by 6:00… taking the photos took another couple of minutes… as always!

One last note, I forgot to add the olives. And, darn it, they were missed! I’ve added them to the recipe, so don’t forget them.

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My dear friend Karen recently turned me on to a gluten-free noodle product. The noodles are made from either tofu or white yams. The brand is Shirataki and they can be found locally at Sprouts and Fry’s. At Sprouts the everyday price is $1.69 each, at Fry’s a bag is regularly $2.29. They are found in the refrigerated section, near the tofu.

(Thanks to a kind comment from LCDC, I learned that the brand of the noodles I found is House Foods and that Shirataki is the type of noodle. I happily stand corrected. Thank you, LCDC!)

I was skeptical at first, considering they come packaged in a water and look a bit slimy … but they were delicious! Shirataki noodles are quite a bit more expensive than dry noodles, but considering they are precooked, quick to use, and the yam variety has zero calories, the tofu style – only 20 calories… it may be worth the extra dough.

They have a long (about 3 months) expiration date, so if you find them on sale, stock up!

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