In the yummy recipe below, I call for U/15 shrimp. This informs you as to the size of shrimp you are shopping for. Shrimp sizes are denoted in numbers, such as U/15 or 21/25. When you see a “U” in the count, it means that there are “under” that number of shrimp in a pound. The slash between numbers denotes a range of shrimp in a pound.

HERE you will find a helpful chart of shrimp sizes.

I spent last week in Chicago visiting Marissa, Jeff, and baby Max. This is one of the summer dishes I made for my sweet little family.

As I mentioned in my last post on Friday, my friend, Ronnie, sent me the challenge to come up with a recipe with what she had in her pantry and refrigerator. You’ll find that recipe and the photos that Ronnie took of the process and of the finished dish below. If you would like to participate and send me a challenge of your own, please do! Just send an email to [email protected] with a list of what you have on hand and I will come up with a plan for using those items to make a dish/meal. Then you make the dish/meal and send me photos of the process and the finished dish to share here. Please type Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge in the subject line of your email.

On March 31, I received this text from Ronnie:

“OK, Let’s challenge LHop. What can I make with frozen Brussels sprouts, barley, vege broth??? Oh, I do have some frozen ground beef and shrimp. Maybe ‘Challenge LHop’ can be a new addition for your website.”

My response:

“Let’s see, the only thing I can really think of with that combination would be to cook the barley in the vegetable stock.

If the Brussels sprouts are still frozen when you read this, you could process them through the food processor with a slicing blade before they thaw completely so they aren’t soft and mushy.

Then lay the slices out on paper towels to thaw and drain. Use more paper towels to firmly pat out any excess water once they’re completely thawed and then pan fry them in a little olive oil to crisp them up.

As you remove them from the skillet, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then sauté the onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in the same pan.

Return the Brussels sprouts and the barley to the skillet and if you have any cheese, such as Parmesan or asiago- add the grated cheese and maybe some nuts to it at the very end. Almonds, pine nuts, walnuts,  pecans whatever you have on hand. 

You could serve that as a warm salad with some shrimp that you throw on the barbie.

It’s crazy how often you can post when you have content! Here is the third recipe from Labor Day 2019.

I would absolutely love to have a big shrimp boil one of these days. It’s such an iconic east coast summer meal.

But here in the desert, in the summer, even the thought of standing outside while shrimp boils and then standing over the steaming masses of food poured out in front of you sounds absolutely torturous and horrendous. Maybe in the fall!

Something like any one of these images is the dream. Have a bunch of friends over and just dump it all out for the taking on a long table covered in paper.

This Fall. For Sure!

In the meantime, I made this attempt at a touch of the “shrimp-boil” flavor for our Labor Day BBQ.

I had a couple of extra busy weekends with Harmony Board orders. So far this first summer of Harmony Boards has been exactly as expected, slow! But for some reason, the first and second weekends of August exploded.

With that in mind, I may have been a tad overzealous about stone fruit season. First I went to Costco and bought huge clamshells of peaches, red & Rainer cherries, and red plums.

A day or two later I was at Sprouts shopping for purple (a purple soup recipe coming for you soon) and orange cauliflower for Crudités Harmony Boards.

It was then when I saw the extensive variety of stone fruit in season and on sale.  There were pink, red, and black flesh plums, yellow plumcots, Jupiter peaches, nectarines, white peaches, etc.

As my vacation to Canada with Kim drew near, I knew I had more stone fruit on hand than I had orders… oops. I was eating overripe plums for breakfast and snacks. Then it was cherries and peaches for lunch and after-dinner dessert.

While I was finishing up my final orders on the weekend before my flight, I knew I had to do more than snack on the quickly ripening fruit. I invited Connor and my dad over for dinner and made this salad.

* In my next post I’ll show you what I did with the remaining bits and pieces of fruit, cheese, and veggies before I escaped the heat.

This recipe was supposed to post last week two days after the Peach and Pluot Caprese Salad recipe. I thought I had it correctly scheduled in the queue but turns out I dated it for 2020. Oops!

Oh well, although the peaches from my tree are long gone, at least there are still peaches in the markets. You’ll notice in the photos that I was using very small peaches that were just cut in half and pitted. That is what my tree produced this year. I’ve written the recipe to reflect using regular size peaches and cutting each into 8 wedges.

TIP: You have probably noticed that when you are reading a recipe, it often states to cut an ingredient into 1-inch, 2-inch, or some other size pieces. Maybe you get out a ruler or maybe you just guess. I have another way for you to do it and get the correct size without fishing around for a ruler. I use my finger as a measurement tool. For instance, for this recipe, the onions are cut into 2-inch pieces. I know that the length of my pinky is 2-inches. So I use it as a marker to cut the first piece and then use that piece as a guide to just the rest. Yep, it’s as easy as that.

I created this recipe to use something I made that was a complete and utter failure. When my friend, Amy, asked me if I could create a signature cocktail for the Pickle Ball-themed surprise party she was throwing for her husband, Scott, of course, I said, “Yes!”

I looked online for pickle cocktails and found one that used pickle juice with vodka. Perfect! You know I love me a theme.

I added 2/3 cup of pickle juice to a handle of vodka and let it sit for a few days. On the day of the party, Scott’s parents were here early to help, so I enlisted them to fill cups with ice, add the “pickled vodka” and garnish with a baby dill pickle and a sprig of fresh dill. The drinks were set out on a tray with a sign that read, “Scott’s Pickled Martini.”  We had bottles of chilled tonic and soda water for guests who wanted to make it a mixed drink as opposed to drinking it straight up.  I watched those cups sit there, mostly untouched, for the entire evening. Finally, Scott or one of the other guys let me know that the drink was rough. Oops! Oh well, I tried.

So now I have a bunch of very vinegary vodka on my hands. Instead of pouring it down the drain, I poured what would fit back into the pickle jar (since I’d already put the vodka bottle in the recycle bin and it was buried under beer and wine bottles – all the beer and wine that the guests drank instead of the nasty signature cocktail I created) and I decided to cook with it. For this recipe, please use plain “unpickled” vodka, I’ll just be over here trying to get rid of the mess I created. Or should I say, get myself out of a pickle?

Vodka, Shrimp, and Chorizo Linguine

• 1 pound pork chorizo
• 1 pound linguine
• 1/2  cup diced onion
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup vodka
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Cioppino is a fish stew that was created in San Francisco in the late 1800s. It is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in San Francisco is typically a combination of crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels, and fish from the Pacific ocean.

The Cioppino I served yesterday at Sunday supper for Connor, my dad, and myself was a seafood medley that came in this bag from Costco. It consisted of shrimp, mussels, scallops, and calamari rings.

Not only did it not come from San Francisco, but according to the packaging, that I am just now reading, none of it even came from the USA! Oh well, it tasted great and since it was frozen, it didn’t really matter.

Since you may be using live mussels, I’m writing the recipe accordingly. The frozen mussels were already cooked and opened, so my stew was actually easier to make.

When using tomato paste, I like to use the paste in the tube instead of the can. For this recipe, I used sun-dried tomato paste from the tube. It is more intense, so I used 2 tablespoons instead of the ¼ cup I tell you to use in the recipe. I’m assuming most people have regular tomato paste on hand instead of sun-dried paste.

Have you seen these wonderful red and yellow striped bell peppers in the market? They are Striped Holland bell peppers. According to a specialty produce site, “the bell peppers are yellow bell peppers with deep red stripes that seem painted on in swaths. The bi-colored peppers are hand-grafted and slowly ripened to maximize flavor and maintain consistency.”  I’ve been using them all summer for my crudités Harmony Boards and wouldn’t usually use them when cooking, but I had one that was looking a bit wrinkly and tired, so I used it here.

Fish stock can be difficult to find. I use a combination of clam juice, chicken broth, and water. If you do find the fish stock you may substitute it for the chicken broth.

I served Connor and my dad’s stew over angel hair pasta, which is not traditional, but I knew they’d like a little more bulk to the dish. I had mine without pasta. Everyone was happy!

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Yesterday I posted the recipe for the Vegetable Tacos. That post was titled “cooking day 1”. Today we have the recipe for the Shrimp Tacos and I’m calling this post “cooking day 2.” That makes it sound as though the only thing I cooked on Friday was veggies and that the only I cooked on Saturday was shrimp. Far from it!

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

On Friday, I also cooked up the seasoned ground beef in the Instant Pot.  I shredded and put together the chicken for the chicken tacos, which I had grilled at home before we left on Thursday morning. I also made all sorts of fresh salsa, cilantro chimichurri, roasted peppers, onions, etc.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

And on Saturday, I not only made the shrimp but also chopped and diced all the toppings for the tacos, made the guacamole, and cooked the side dishes; beans, tomatillo rice, and the Mexican corn.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

Plus there were the signature cocktails to make; Cody’s Skinny Margarita and Chanté’s Strawberry Vodka Lemonade.

Many of those recipes will be posted in the days to come.

Plus I have to tell you that I did have help from the family in the kitchen throughout. Kim and Paul each helped with prep, including chopping onions and cutting corn cobs into quarters. Thank you both for the much-needed and much-appreciated grunt work.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

On Friday, Cody’s Aunt Barbara squeezed so many pounds of limes. More limes than any human should ever have to squeeze! Kim’s long-time BFF, Sandy, used her artistic flair to write out all the chalkboard signage for the buffet table. There were more than 30 little signs to make. Thank you, Sandy!

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

On Saturday, I realized I had a few more chalkboards that needed making, including the boards for the signature cocktails. My writing is awful, so that is one job I always want to farm out! Cody’s youngest brother, Trevor, has a gorgeous girlfriend, Clair.

Photo courtesy of griffithimaging.com

As you can plainly see, Clair also has gorgeous handwriting and chalkboard flair!  Many thanks to the friends and family of the Howard clan for pitching in! xoxo

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This may have been my favorite dish from Connor’s birthday dinner. I found the recipe on Saveur.com. It’s originally from Brigtsen’s Restaurant in New Orléans.

Baked in individual ramekins, this cornbread with jalapeño and shrimp is so much more than cornbread.

To make them hot and fresh: Just before serving. I cooked the shrimp mixture and set it aside, whisked together the flour/corn meal mixture, and set it aside. Then, combined the wet ingredients, covered and refrigerated that, all done in the late morning. Thirty minutes before we were to sit down at the table, I preheated the oven and put it all together. They were ready to serve at exactly the right time with very little last-minute effort.

And, of course, I served Harmony Boards for his dinner too. I’m creating and serving them every chance I get. It helps to practice before Kim and I make our new business venture official.

These birthday boards were fruit and cheese, with only a few slices of salami thrown in for good measure.

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