Baked Shrimp

A few weeks ago I bought some soup/au graton bowls. They really are the cutest little things. They reminded me of some of my Grandmas dishes when I was a child. And because I am sentimental like that, I had to have them, along with a matching square casserole dish, and also a huge oval dish. Yes, I need help, I have a collection of casserole dishes! Is it a bad thing that I have one cupboard dedicated to just casserole dishes? Never mind, don't answer that, in my world you can never have enough casserole dishes.

Okay, that was a slight tangent I wasn't really expecting. Anyway, I wanted to use my cute little dishes. I am not a big soup eater, so off to the internet I went. I found this recipe for Baked Shrimp with Lemon Garlic Crumbs. And since I am lazy, I made a few short cuts. The recipe that follows is for one serving but can be easily doubled.

Baked Shrimp
6 ounces of raw shrimp, thawed, deveined and peeled (I buy mine this way)
1 T Butter, melted (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
Bread crumbs (I used McCormick's Italian Herb & Cheese Crusting Blend)
Lemon juice (You all know I used the stuff that comes in the plastic lemon)

-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
-Melt the butter and use a brush to coat the dish
-Combine the remaining butter with enough breadcrumbs to cover the top of the dish.
-Layer the shrimp in the bottom of the casserole
-Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on each shrimp
-Layer on the bread crumbs
-Bake for 15 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque.

Using the crusting blend made this a really easy and fast recipe. In fact, the prep was so fast that I was ready to put the dish in the oven before it was done preheating! To make it an even faster meal, you can use the already cooked shrimp, and just put it in the oven long enough to heat through. I think next time I will try to add some crab meat and/or parmesan cheese. Yum!

Snickerdoodles

I got this recipes from recipezaar.com. I did chill the pans, and the dough, but by the time I was finished rolling the dough, it was probably a moot point. I also rolled all the cookies in the cinnamon and sugar, then went back and rolled them all again to really get them coated. My cookies were big, I only got 24 cookies out of this batch, and the centers were a little doughy, so next time, I will try to divide the dough into 36. Next time I will also add a little vanilla or almond extract to change up the flavor a little bit.

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon

-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
-Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
-Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
-Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
-Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
-Scoop 1" globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture.
-Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
-Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes.
-Remove from pan immediately.

Hash Brown Casserole

Here is another one from my Aunt Bev.

2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
6 large eggs well beaten or 3 (4 oz each) cartons cholesterol free egg product
1 can (12 oz) Evaporated fat free milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 pkg (30 oz) shredded hash brown potatoes
1 small onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped * optional *
1 cup diced ham or 10 slices bacon cooked & chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13" X 9" pan.

Combine cheese, eggs, evaporated milk, prepared mustard, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Add potatoes, onion, red pepper, & ham. Mix well. Pour into greased pan.

Bake about 1 hour.
Serves 10

Notes:
Tastes great with salsa.
Can be cut in half (use 8" X 8" pan).

Apple Crisp

Since I have not been cooking or baking much lately, I thought I would post a few recipes that my Aunt Bev sent me. Our family has a thing for apple desserts, so I don't think we can ever have enough apple crisp recipes.

Easy Apple Crisp
Serves 4 to 6

Peel, core & cut up 8 medium apples. Place them in an 8" X 8" pan.

Pour over the apples:
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

In a bowl mix:
1 cup sugar or an equivalent amount of baking sugar substitute
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup soft oleo or butter
Spoon flour mixture over the apples.

Bake at 350 for about an hour.

Notes:
This recipe can be cut or doubled.
The sugar can be replaced with sugar substitute.

Apple & Spices Turkey Brine

Williams-Sonoma Apple & Spices Turkey Brine. My turkey was sooo good. I thank Williams-Sonoma, and my turkey thanks you too.

Chicken Skewers

Since this blog is about what I eat for dinner, not all of it has to be this long recipe with a lot of ingredients. I am a huge fan of fast meals with lots of variations. This is one of them.

Chicken Skewers
6 Thawed Chicken Breasts, sliced into long strips
Finely chopped bread crumbs
Seasonings, like chili powder, garlic powder or parmesan cheese etc.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

In a small bowl mix enough bread crumbs, and seasonings of your choice to coat the chicken. (Sometimes people will dredge this in egg and flour before the bread crumbs, but I usually don't have the time to be adding all those steps and dishes. This will make the breading a little crumbly, but that really doesn't bother me.)

Next, I pour the bread crumbs mix into a bag and add the chicken a few pieces at a time. Shake until all the chicken is coated. Once coated remove the chicken and thread it onto the skewers.

Lay the chicken on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet and cook until the chicken is done, about 8-10 minutes. If you don't have a wire rack, it can be placed directly onto the cookie sheet, but remember to flip it about halfway through so that the bread crumbs don't get too soggy.

Variations I have also tried so far:
-Shake the chicken with chili powder first in a zip lock bag and let it sit for about 30 minutes before shaking with bread crumbs.
-Lemon pepper marinade to marinade the chicken, and bake with and without bread crumbs.
-Plain chicken and bread crumbs, along with different dipping sauces.

I usually get 2 meals for one with these because the next day I will add the leftovers to the top of a salad, or to a chicken wrap.

Side Note: If you are using wood skewers and want a nice presentation soak them for about a half hour first, this will stop them from burning in the oven, and also allows the chicken to slide right off the skewer.

Pasta Salad

This is a family favorite for cook outs. While the recipe says to refrigerate at least 4 hours, it really is better to make a day ahead of time so that everything has time to really marinate and meld together

12 oz Colored Spiral Noodles
2 c Broccoli Florets
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese, cubed
8 oz Cooked Ham, cubed
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese
8 oz Italian Dressing, Wishbone Robust works well

Cook spiral noodles according to package.
Steam broccoli until tender, but firm
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours