Recipe: Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Creole

1 1/2 lbs. medium shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 green bell pepper (cubed)
1 sweet onion (cubed)
4 ribs of celery (cut into bit size peices)
2 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning
2 tbsp. garlic (chopped)
4 cup white rice (cooked)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. cayenne pepper

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Saute onions, peppers, bay leaves and celery for 4-5 minutes. Add garlic, Old Bay, salt, pepper, hot sauce and tomatoes. Boil for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink. Serve over the rice.

*Johnna’s tip: For Christmas, the boyfriend brought the fab gift of (*drum roll, please)….a cooking class! Trust that I was not excited about the gift upon first glance (*I was like: “Are you trying to say we can’t cook?!”…he assured me this wasn’t the case.) I went and to my surprise…it was pretty cool. So the low down on cooking classes are: they basically cook the food in front of you, you get to ask as many questions about the cooking as you want and you get to taste all of the food that they prepare. We learned a few tricks and got to pick Chef Zan Dial’s brain about some of his secrets in the kitchen.

Here is a clip from the Chef Zan Dial’s cooking class “Cheap & Easy in the Kitchen” which features today’s shrimp creole recipe. I tried this recipe at home and it came out pretty darn tasty for the cheap. One of the questions I asked Zan Dial was where he suggested we go for these cheap and easy ingredients and he mentioned a grocery store named Wegman’s. Not the first time I heard about this store, sounds like it might be the foodie haven for the cheap…shall we take a trip up Route 1??

Top Five Wednesday: Food Towns

While on the phone with the boyfriend last night, the conversation turned to the big V-day plans. This year New Orleans seems to be on the radar for our destination on Lovers Day (*Translation: Valentine’s Day). Yum to New Orleans! This gives us even more motivation in the gym knowing we are going to a food haven in just a few weeks, not to mention Marti Gras will be kicking its heels by this time. We put New Orleans in our top five cities to eat in the U.S. and that’s what started the madness. We started thinking of the top U.S. cities where we absolutely love the food and could honestly take a trip to these cities solely to eat. Check it:

1. New Orleans- We don’t know if its the creole seasonings, the abundant crawfish or the beignets but New Orleans tantalizes our palates like no other. It’s funny because all the things that this food culture prides itself on, we don’t like…but they still manage to be our favorites. Now how is that?? We guess it’s like the guy you don’t want to like, but you like them soo much. Spice and sweets are not our friends but why is it we can’t seem to stop eating all the gumbo and beignets that are waved in our face??…

2. Chicago- Deep dish, Garrett’s popcorn, smothered ball park hot dogs/sausages, Harold’s Fried Chicken…should we continue?? This could honestly take all day.

3. Philadelphia- The East Coast destination for food. Be ready for an additional 5 lbs. and a little heartburn but the cheesesteaks are like no other!

4. Houston- “Everything is bigger in Texas.” That’s for sure. We went back and forth with the boyfriend about this one: he didn’t like, we loved it. Maybe this calls for a food trip there instead of New Orleans…

5. Charleston- We actually made a food trip here. Solely for the food. Probably the first time we didn’t care about site seeing unless it was from the car window as we road around digesting the food we had just ate. Low country grits, shrimp and all things fried… (*we have to just say no!)

Now you may wonder why our two favorite cities didn’t make the list: New York or Washington, D.C. For D.C. it’s probably because we are looking for that distinct taste which is what makes each of these cities listed above stick out in our minds. For NY, we love you but we’re from NY and in all the years we have moved through and out the city we have not found something that just mesmerizes our palate to no avail. The reason could be that its home and we don’t get excited about the food anymore…dunno, but looking at this list, we have every reason to book a trip. Anyone down for a foodie road trip??

Picture source

Food.Fun.Stuff: Foodie News

In the foodie news:

~Evo Bistro has expanded. The additions include an expanded bar, a private tasting room that can be reserved for smaller dinner parties, and a wall of wines. The restaurant now holds 65 people and is available to host private events. Evo is most commonly known for its Enomatic System which is a wine tasting system from Italy that allows guests to serve themselves and try excellent wines of different varietals and regions (*Pictured above). Alongside the tapas they serve, Evo has been recognized as one of the Best Wine Bars (*Washingtonian Magazine, 2009) in our region. Good stuff. Now they have space to accommodate all the newcomers who will flock there after hearing about this revolutionary wine system…

~If you’re not on Twitter, then you probably missed our Tweet about Rogue States opening. How awesome is it that the District will get a new late night gourmet burger joint?? Sweet. Rogue does not have a definite opening date (*We are keeping our eyes and ears peeled…) but they do have a definite menu which includes burgers “Now & Zen” (*a blend of soy sauce, green onions, ginger and toasted sesame seeds), “You Got Curried” (*house curry blend, onion, cilantro and jalapeno) and “No Burger, No Cry” (*house jerk blend, red onion and habenero peppers). We can’t wait to try and we’re going to make ourselves feel better for breaking our diet with a side of their sweet potato fries:-)

The Where:
Rogue States
1300 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC

The Money: Burgers are $7 (*unless otherwise stated) and can be made with ground turkey for an extra $2

~Mixt Greens is open! What does this mean?? Tossed-to-Order Organic Gourmet Salads and Sandwiches. All ingredients are sourced directly from local farmers and sustainable resources. Think the ingredients of a salad at Citronelle but at McDonald’s prices. The new salad shop will also feature an edible wall with seasonally rotating herbs and vegetables (*Yum.). During its tenure on the west coast, the restaurant was named the “Greenest Restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area” in 2009. The restaurant is slated to open 3 locations in the District before the summer and each will be open from 10:30 am to 3 pm (*Urrrggghh, this means long lunch lines…not a good look…). We welcome new greenery from the west coast, now can we get an unhealthy dose of In-N-Out to make its way out here???…

The Where:
1200 19th St. NW Washington, DC
(Upcoming openings)
1311 F St., NW
1700 K Street, NW
927 15th St., NW

The Money: $7.95-$11.95 for salads and $8.95 for sandwiches (*which is served with a side salad of greens)

More Info?: You can get your nutritional calorie count on @ www.mixtgreens.com/dc

Etiquette Tuesday: How to Divide??

As we get older, dining out with groups is somewhat of a different experience than when we were in college. In college, you ordered what you could pay for and that was that. Now it seems you order what you want to eat and the bill is just evenly divided at the end of the meal. It’s funny because a few years ago, we would immediately reach across the table and tally up what we ordered down to the very last dime. Now, not so much. We feel a bit awkward going tick for tack (*Translation: this for that) on the bill now especially when we did take a bite of the other persons crab artichoke dip…shouldn’t we contribute something towards that??

Today times are financially tougher and everyone is super frugal in the new decade but here are a few tips on how to stay recession free without being too much of a prick in the butt about the $2.00 sparkling water you didn’t order:

-It’s safe to assume if the group is larger than 5 or 6 than things will be split evenly (*that is unless somebody orders the lobster and everyone else gets the chicken…make them pay for that expensive excursion…)

-If you know you are going to split the check in the beginning, tell the waiter in the beginning

-Of course be courteous of noticeable discrepancies: Non-drinkers shouldn’t have to pay the evenly divided bill if everyone else is drinking cocktails or in cases where a person orders only a salad while everybody else orders full entrees.

This etiquette tip is for working, able individuals of course. Remember JKGF did not always have a working budget and had to go tick for tact on every bill…

Picture source

Recipe: Crustless New York Cheesecake

Crustless New York Cheesecake*

4 eggs
2 pkg. 7 1/2 oz. each farmers cheese (cubed)
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese (cubed)
2 cups sour cream
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (*We learned this is what is called a “cold oven”). Blend together all ingredients in two batches in a blender or food processor, using half of each ingredient amount per batch, until smooth. Pour both batches into a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake 1 hour. Turn off oven. Let cake stand in oven for 2 hours. Chill thoroughly for 2-3 hours. Serve.

*Johnna’s tip: Easy bake oven forreal. We don’t like baking or shall we say, we’re just not good at it. This is probably because we don’t really like sweets and bread is not something we consume on the regular (*You would think we have a killer body?! But No. Smh.). While perusing the Food Section, however, of the Chicago Tribune (*We know, random.) we changed our minds about this baking thing. It doesn’t have to be so hard or fussy with recipes like this. Just add a few things to our Kitchen Genie (*Translation: The Kitchen Aid mixer) and there you have it: a crustless cheesecake. We welcome these new days of baking…even if it will cost us 356 calories per serving…

*Recipe Source

Picture source