Archive for September, 2008
Teriyaki Grilled Shrimp
Summer is over. Or at least, that’s what I’m told. The kids are back in school, and the college students are, for the most part, back to their dorms and college apartments. (I, on the other hand, am extremely excited to not have to go back to school, for the first time in as long as I can remember.) All signs are pointing towards it being fall.
But do we really have to let summer go? I think not. After all, the days are still sunny, the nights still somewhat warm. I can still go out in shorts or a skirt, and not freeze my little butt off. So why not continue to enjoy summer, and hang on to it as long as we can?
Heck, I even went to the beach last week, and I have the sunburn to show for it. Despite any sunburns, this is the best time to go to the beach. It’s still warm enough to go in the water, and most of the locals are back in school. Sure, you have to deal with all the tourists, but it’s much less busy than during summer vacation.
Perhaps you can’t go to the beach, but you can still fire up the grill. There’s no reason not to try these teriyaki grilled shrimp… not only are they incredibly easy to make; they are also a delicious bite of summer that everyone will love. I just can’t get enough of these!
Teriyaki Grilled Shrimp
Ingredients
- 30 large raw shrimp
- 1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp grated ginger
Cooking Directions
- Peel and de-vein shrimp.
- Wash shrimp, pat dry.
- Mix shoyu, water, sugar, garlic, and ginger to make a teriyaki marinade.
- Marinate shrimp in the teriyaki marinade for one hour.
- Soak ten wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes.
- Thread shrimp onto skewers, three to a skewer.
- Grill shrimp until they are no longer translucent.
Welcome, my friends, to my new home. Well, not so much a new home as an addition to my house. A second story, if you will. Calling this my new home would imply that I’m moving out of my old one, which isn’t the case at all. Rather, this will be a supplement to Sushi Day.
As Sushi Day is the place where I write about the types of sushi I make, Fridgg will be my place for writing about everything but sushi. My diet and my life consist of so many foods aside from sushi, and it was very nearly driving me mad not to have a place to share them with you. Every time I bake, or make dinner for myself and Son, or go to a restaurant, I want to be able to share my recipes and experiences with you. I’m so excited that I finally can!
So come on in, kick off your shoes, and make yourself at home. I’ll be in the kitchen, where you’re welcome to join me, cooking all sorts of delicious goodies for you.
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Spinach Dip
Memories.
I was turning three years old, and I had chicken pox. Since I was so highly contagious, my parents cancelled my birthday party with my friends from pre-school, so none of them would catch it from me. Instead, we had a party with all of my relatives, who had all had chicken pox already. My sister was only eight months old, not even walking yet. It would be several years before my brother was born. I recall very little from that birthday, except that there were a lot of big people standing around (What? I was tiny then) and there were many balloons floating by the ceiling. The only thing I remember about the food was a three tiered serving dish (this dish made appearances at many parties) with spinach dip in the bowl-shaped tier, and cubes of French bread on another tier.
Elementary school. Every year I would have a birthday party, and everyone loved mine. Perhaps I’m a bit biased, but I always thought my birthday parties were the most fun. I never had sleep overs, and I was never allowed to have a bounce house like many of my friends did. No… what made my parties so great were the treasure hunts. In the weeks before my party, my dad would make up different puzzle hints that we would have to solve in order to find the next clue. Each clue was accompanied with a box of silly little prizes – erasers, pencils, pieces of candy… and the team who finished the treasure hunt first would win a prize. We always had so much fun running around the house and the yard, trying to figure out each clue. For every birthday party, I would request spinach dip. Some of my friends would be a little hesitant about trying a green dip made out of spinach, but once I made them try it, they always loved it.
In 2006, I threw a graduation party for Son. He had just gotten his master’s degree in computer science, and I wanted to throw him a party to celebrate. I spent the entire day cooking. I made won-tons, apple pie, deviled eggs, even a little sushi. (This was several months before I started Sushi Day, and my sushi-making skills were severely lacking.) But my favorite dish of the night was the spinach dip. Out of everyone who showed up, I probably ate the most spinach dip.
Spinach Dip
Every family has their one food (or two or three) that makes it to every party. For some it might be a pasta salad, for others it could be your grandma’s cheesecake. For us, it’s spinach dip. Since the beginnings of time, there has not been a party at my parents’ house (and now at mine) that did not involve a dish of spinach dip, accompanied by cubes of French bread to dip in it.
Not only is the recipe ridiculously easy, it’s also the best spinach dip I have ever tasted. Don’t believe me? Just try it… you may not be able to stop yourself from eating the entire batch.
Spinach Dip
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of spinach
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- a dash of onion powder
- a dash of garlic powder
- French bread
Cooking Directions
- Break the spinach leaves off of the stems, discard the stems and any bad looking leaves.
- Wash the spinach very well.
- Put the spinach, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a blender or food processor, blend until smooth. You might have to add the spinach in several batches, blending it in between, since an entire bunch of spinach takes a lot of room. When you add the spinach, try to mix it into the sour cream/mayonnaise or the already blended dip – this makes it so the spinach is heavier and will sink to the bottom where the blades are. Otherwise it takes forever to blend it all!
- Chill the spinach dip. (You could eat it right away and it will still be good, but trust me, it is SO much better cold!)
- When you are ready to eat the spinach dip, cut the French bread into cubes.
- Generously dip the bread into the dip, and enjoy!
Orange Sunshine Cupcakes
The world is not a perfect place. At times, unfortunate things happen to the people who deserve them the least. Take, for example, my brother. Sure, he may not get the best grades, and yeah he’s a bit of a rebel, especially compared to myself and my sister. He’s a teenager, and boys will be boys, right? At the same time, he’s a very smart kid, and at the very core of his heart is a very good person. Perhaps at times, he’s even been the type of kid who can get in trouble with the law and not be phased by it. Yet no matter how much mischief he causes, he didn’t deserve to get cancer.
No one should have to have cancer, and certainly never twice. Unfortunately, that is just what my dear little brother has had to go through. At age six, he was first diagnosed with acute leukemia. At the time, I was only twelve years old. When you’re that young, the gravity of the situation doesn’t really hit you. Of course it was horrible seeing him in the hospital, or gaining weight from the medications, or losing all of his hair from the chemotherapy. Still, at such a young age I couldn’t quite grasp the concept that my brother’s cancer was a really, really bad thing. The doctor told us he would be fine, so I was inclined to believe that everything was okay.
For a while, everything was okay. After a few years of treatment he went into remission, and we figured his leukemia was something we could put behind us. We mistakingly believed this was something we would never have to worry about again.
*******
August 29, 2007. The most dreaded news comes by phone. The leukemia has come back, eight years after his first diagnosis. It was his first day of school as a high school sophomore. He couldn’t even make it to his first class – he was in the nurse’s office before the first school bell rang. Off to his doctor he went – the same doctor who treated him the first time, and had been giving my brother bi-monthly checkups since he went into remission. Our worst fears had come true. The leukemia had come back, stronger than ever.
You might wonder, how did I take the news the second time around? My reaction was completely different than the first time. Now fully past my teenage years, I had the maturity to fully understand the weight of the situation. Tears. Many tears. Utter helplessness at not being able to do a single thing to make him better. I wanted so desperately to be able to give him my bone marrow, or do anything at all that would help him beat the leukemia as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I was not a match. No one in our family was. We are of such mixed racial background that it would have been near impossible to find a match in the national registry that his body wouldn’t reject, so the doctors decided to take a different, albeit longer route to rid him of his cancer.
*******
September 8, 2008. Over a year has passed since we found out that he had relapsed. I spent the day at the beach with my brother, one of the few times he can get out of the house. His blood counts are low, so he can’t be in close contact with many people, but it’s a school day (he’s home schooled for now) so the beaches are emptier than they would normally be on such a nice day. It’s remarkable how much he’s changed since that first diagnoses. Nowadays, he’s much taller than me, although I’m six years older, and he’s growing into a man faster than I can keep track. His hair is growing back after the most recent hair loss – he cares so much about his looks these days, he hates having to lose his hair. He loves the ladies now – no longer the innocent, sweet little boy he used to be – and they all go wild over him. He’ll be driving in a few months – I still can’t believe that this kid brother of mine will soon be allowed behind the wheel of a car. He still seems far too young for that.
At the same time, he seems older than his age of nearly sixteen years. Concepts that are, even now, foreign to me seem second-nature to him. He educates me about gang life in our home town, assuring me that he isn’t part of any gang; he tells me about the parties he goes to. Popularity was never something I strived for back in school, although for some convoluted reason he seems to think I was one of the “cool kids”; he’s easily one of the most popular kids in his class.
*******
Despite our many differences, he is still my baby brother and I love him dearly. It kills me that there isn’t anything I can do to rid him of his leukemia. Like many people, I turn to food when I feel hopeless or helpless. The difference is that I don’t start eating lots of food when I’m upset – instead I cook. It’s the only way I know how to help out my family in such times of need.
*******
In the same way that October is national Breast Cancer month, the month of September is the national month for both Children’s Cancer and Leukemia – two causes near and dear to my heart. These cupcakes were the perfect way to support these causes for me – not only are they delicious enough to brighten anyones day, they are also just the right colors – orange for Leukemia, and gold for Children’s Cancer. I used lemon frosting to complement the sunny orange flavor of the cupcakes, and to round out the citrus flavor, mango strips served as the cancer ribbon garnish.
Want to know how you can help? There are many people who have leukemia and other bone cancers who are unable to find a bone marrow match. Please try to get tested for a bone marrow transplant registry… the test consists of nothing more than a simple blood test, like you might get at a normal physical. By doing this, your blood sample will put in an international registry, so in the case that you are a match for ant of the many children or adults who have leukemia or a similar disease, you can help save a life.
Here are some national and international Bone Marrow Transplant Registries that you can contact:
Thank you to anyone who decides to register!
Orange Sunshine Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 egg whites
- 1 pinch salt
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Sift flour and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
- Fold in sifted flour, alternating with orange juice.
- In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff and add a pinch of salt.
- Fold whisked egg whites into the mixture.
- Spoon batter into a cupcake pan lined with cupcake cups.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cupcakes comes out clean.
- Frost with your choice of frosting (I used store-bought lemon-flavored frosting).
- If desired, garnish with strips of dried mango, twisted into the shape of a ribbon.
Ham, Asparagus, and Cheese Sauce Crêpes
It had been a difficult day. As members of the company, we had been required to help out at the Annual Garden Party. Clumsy girl that I am, I had dropped a platter full of hors d’oeuvres face down on the floor. Fortunately they had been the goat cheese-stuffed grapes that nobody was touching, so it wasn’t a huge loss. Nonetheless, I was nearly in tears from embarrassment. It was tradition that the ballet company members would perform a dance that we had rehearsed for ages. Unfortunately, this was a dance I disliked intensely, and I felt like a fool in the costumes we had to wear. (Looking back, it seems silly – in years to come, I would be forced to wear much, much more ridiculous costumes.) All in all, it had been a pretty lousy day.
It took only one thing to take the day from unpleasant to wonderful. The crêpe lady. My ballet company had hired a woman to come to the Garden Party and make free crêpes for everyone there. She set up her stand in front of the house where the party had been held, and would make each person a crêpe with whatever fillings they wanted. For me? Bananas and chocolate.
It was love at first bite. Then and there, I knew I would forever love crêpes. Unfortunately, it was many years before I would have crêpes again. I don’t go out often to eat, so I’ve never been into a crêpe shop, and up until a couple of years ago, I had no interest in learning how to cook. However, once I did find a love for cooking… crêpes were one thing I knew I would have to make.
These taste just how I remembered them… thin, sweet pancakes that I filled with bananas and chocolate sauce, just like when I first tried them. I made a second batch of more savory crêpes, filled with ham, asparagus, and this cheese sauce. The savory crêpes were so much more amazing than I had expected them to be – it’s actually a toss-up as to which fillings I prefer.
After I made these crêpes and went raving to my parents about them, I discovered they had owned a crêpe pan for many years. My response was, “What? You had a crêpe pan and you didn’t tell me?” This actually happens quite often – I’ll discover some new recipe and rave about it to them, then they’ll tell me that all along they’ve had some kitchen gadget that would have made things so much easier for me. My parents hear, “And why did I never know about these things?” quite often these days.
Banana and Chocolate Crêpes
I found this recipe on A Whisk and A Spoon.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus some for the pan
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking Directions
- In a blender or food processor blend the flour, water, milk, eggs, butter, and salt for 5 seconds.
- Turn the motor off and scrape sides down, with a rubber spatula.
- Transfer the batter into a bowl and let it stand, covered, for 1 hour. The batter may be made up to one day in advance.
- Heat a 7 to 8-inch crêpe or non-stick skillet over moderate heat until it is hot but not smoking and remove from heat.
- Brush the pan as necessary with butter.
- Stir the batter, pour about 1/8 cup of the batter into the pan.
- Tilt and rotate the pan quickly to cover the bottom with a thin layer of batter and return any excess batter to the bowl.
- Return the pan to the heat, loosen the edge of the crêpe with a spatula, and cook the crêpe until the under side is browned lightly.
- Turn the crêpe, brown the other side lightly and transfer to a plate.
- Fill with any fillings you like. I love to fill my crêpes with sliced bananas and chocolate sauce, or ham, asparagus and a cheese sauce.
- Crêpes can be made in advance, stacked, wrapped in plastic and stored refrigerated for 3 days or frozen.
