French 75

Life has been busy.  Taking care of my mom, my aunt and a dear friend who had a house fire.  A vacation to Montreal and Quebec.  A couple of business trips.  A LOT of work in the office.  I'm behind.  Seriously behind.  So, let me without further ado introduce you to the French 75. 

We first had this drink in New Orleans.  And, loved it.  Then, we made it at home.  Meh.  Fast forward to Ina Garten's new cookbook - Cooking for Jeffrey.  Several drink recipes but this was the one we had all the ingredients for.  This time it was a five.  Just as good as New Orleans.  It'll go on our short list for sure.  Right up there with my beloved Boss Tweed!

French 75
makes four cocktails

Ingredients:

4 ounces VS or VSOP Cognac
4 ounces simple syrup
3 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 cups ice cubes
1 750 ml bottle good Champagne, chilled (we used Prosecco)
4 long strips of lemon zest

Directions:

Put the Cognac, simple syrup and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker with the ice.  Shake for 30 seconds.  Pour into four Champagne flutes and top them off with the Champagne and lemon zest. 


from Cooking for Jeffrey by Ina Garten

Ina's Muffins

It's time for Secret Recipe Club :-)  And, I'm not sure exactly where to start.  So, let me start at the beginning - time wise.  Many years ago my ex and I moved to Fort Wayne, IN.  We bought a big, old house that needed a LOT of love and attention.  I moved in and painted for a week before the actual moving day.  At that point I was young enough that a sleeping bag on the floor wasn't a big deal.  The best thing about the house was the landscaping.  A trellis on the side of the front porch had the most glorious pink sweetheart roses.  And, a garden at the back had rhubarb.  Something I'd always loved.  Somewhere I found a recipe for a strawberry rhubarb muffin that was perfect.  The flavors were balanced.  The muffin was sweet without being cloying.  I've thought about that muffin for all these years.  And, I've never quite found one as good.  Until now. 

Yes, Annie came through for me.  Big time.  This month I was assigned AnniesNoms.  Now, Connie and I are dieting.  He's doing much better at it than I am.  Ugh.  So, when I got my assignment and found a blog jam-packed with fabulous baked treats I was more than a bit disappointed.  Every time I'd read posts I'd gain five pounds.  I read a couple of years of posts.  Now, you see why Connie's doing so much better at the diet than I am?  It's Annie's fault.  LOL.  Finally, I decided I'd just have to make an entrée or side dish.  Just couldn't justify baking.  So, I went back on to look again at the entrees.  And, there it was.  A recipe for raspberry blueberry muffins.  An Ina Garten recipe.  And, Annie said it could be used as a base muffin mix. 

Last weekend Connie bought strawberries at the store since we only had enough in the garden for the top of the strawberry torte.  He bought a large vat of strawberries.  I made strawberry margarita salad with part of them.  But, a small vat remained.  This would be perfect.  I'd use Annie's muffins and get my Secret Recipe post, use up some of the strawberries AND have a dish to share at the pitch-in at Chef Joseph's this afternoon. 

Annie is exactly right when she says this is a great base.  And, I agree totally that these are probably the best muffins ever.  If not the best, they're second to the Blueberry Lemon ones....  Oh, and they are super easy to put together!

It certainly was a pleasure getting to know Annie through her blog.  Her personality shines through.  I hope you'll enjoy this recipe as much as I did.  And, I hope you'll hop on over and say hello to Annie!

Ina's Muffins

Ingredients.
3 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/4 c milk
1 t vanilla
3 c assorted fruit (I used half strawberries and half rhubarb, Annie used raspberries and blueberries)

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl.  Mix the wet ingredients in another.  Chop the fruit and put it in a third bowl. 

Toss the fruit with the dry ingredients.  Makes sure all the fruit is well coated since that'll help keep it from sinking in the muffins. 

Pour in the wet ingredients and stir just until everything's mixed. 

I topped these with a bit of raw sugar before baking. 

Bake in muffin tins at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  I used large muffin tins so wound up with 10 muffins and about 30 minutes of baking time.  Annie made normal sized muffins and wound up with 18.  We're going to serve these with a compound butter of brown sugar and Rosy Rhubarb Syrup. 

 

 

 

Adapted from Annie's Noms,  Originally from Food Network and Ina Garten.

 

 

Ah, Spring.  The time of year that there is so much competing for my attention that I barely know where to start.  I'm working so hard at the office that I barely have time to breathe.  The plants in my yard are begging for my attention.  Spring cleaning?  A lovely dream.  I was happy to clean a shelf in my closet.  Blogging.  Sadly, it's been ignored too.  But, it's 8:30 pm and my wonderful husband is in the kitchen fixing linguine with clam sauce and I've chosen to say hello to all of you instead of doing what I should be doing - answering emails.  Ah, it feels good to relax with a glass of wine and chat about food. 

So, what kind of food do I want to chat about?  Ina Garten.  You know, I didn't care at all for her when I started watching FoodTV.  Can't particularly tell you why.  I just didn't.  But, she'd come on and I'd not change the channel and she grew on me.  Then, I bought one of her cookbooks.  I was officially hooked.  When How Easy is That came out, I read it cover to cover and mentally bookmarked most of the recipes.  How does she manage to make such easy recipes taste so totally wonderful and complicated?  I don't know but I do know I think the woman is a brilliant cook. 

The other night I was driving from my Greenwood office (south side of Indy - I live on the north side) and chatting with my mom the whole way.  No clue what I was going to fix for dinner.  Fish or seafood sounded good.  We talked about catfish (love, love, love Drick's catfish!!!,) tilapia, scallops, cod and finally got to shrimp.  Ah, yes, Ina's recipe with feta cheese.  Now, I don't know about you, but I'm addicted to cheese.  Ok, I said it.  I'm addicted to cheese.  We typically have at least a dozen kinds of cheese in our cheese drawer.  You heard that correctly, it is not a meat drawer, it is a cheese drawer.  I could live on the cheese in that drawer for a month.  I have different favorites different days.  Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp Cheddar.  I grew up with it and use it on so many things.  Blue of any kind.  I laugh over the time my ex-husband fixed a pb and j rather than eat the casserole with blue cheese.  Actually, Connie laughs about that too because Chicken Elegante is one of his favorites.  Fairoaks Farms Swiss.  Be still my heart.  Goat cheese from Capriole Farms.  You've never had anything like it.  I could go on for pages but you'd be snoozing at the computer so I'll cut to the chase here.   Feta is right up there. I love the pungent flavor.  It's got a bite that goes so well with so many dishes.  And, I loved the idea of feta and shrimp and tomatoes.

What did we think?  We really enjoyed this dish.  There wasn't enough liquid for dipping bread so next time I'll figure out a way to make that happen.  We didn't have Pernod so used Sambuca.  It added a je ne sai quoi that was wonderful.  And, I'm not a fennel fan so I used onion.  We'll absolutely make this again.  And, I'm using the leftovers in a salad with fresh spinach and artichoke hearts for lunch...

Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp with Feta


Ingredients:
4 T olive oil, divided
1 1/2 c diced onion
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 c dry white wine
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 t tomato paste
1 t dried oregano
1 T Pernod or other anise flavored liqueur
1 t Kosher salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 lb peeled shrimp (I'd take the tails off next time!)
5 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1 c fresh bread crumbs
3 T fresh parsley
1 t grated lemon zest
2 lemons

Directions:

Pour 2 T of the olive oil in a large skillet.  Heat it and add the diced onion.  Saute the onion until it's softened. 

Add the garlic and cook it for about a minute.  Pour in the wine.  Then the tomatoes and their liquid, the oregano, (ok, the recipe calls for dried but this is just coming on in the yard and I couldn't resist)

tomato paste, anise liqueur, salt and pepper. 

Simmer for 10-15 minutes.  If your skillet is not oven proof, pour the sauce into an oven-proof baking dish. 

Arrange the shrimp on top of the sauce, tails down.  Now Ina's recipe called for leaving the tails on.  That's a pain in the tookus and I will not do that the next time! 

Crumble the feta over the shrimp.  Mix the bread crumbs, lemon zest,parsley and remaining 2T of olive oil. 

Sprinkle that over the feta.  Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until the bread crumbs are nice and brown.  Remove the dish from the oven and squeeze one of the lemons over the shrimp.  Serve with lemon wedges. 

adpated from How Easy is That by Ina Garten