Here’s the thing.  The warmer the weather gets, the spicier I like my food.  for me a big pot of chili is a summertime affair, not something I’m looking for in the winter.  On the other hand, when the temperatures start to climb I also tend to crave lighter foods, not something that’s going to weigh me down.

Shrimp is the perfect balance in those situations.  It’s not a light meal, but the flavor is light and fresh. The sweetness of the meat plays well with spicy additions, but isn’t so subtly that it’s buried by them. If anything the heat enhances the flavor. The fact that you can eat them with your fingers and make a mess is just a plus.

While I can take all of the credit for this variation, the inspiration for this dish sprang from a conversation on twitter with the wonderful @oxfordfalls, who you should be following if you aren’t already. If you aren’t a fan of twitter, go visit their website and check out some cool food products.

If you aren’t a fan of the intensely spicy, or have someone in your group that isn’t a fan of sweat and tears, I’ve included an alternate spice mix to the recipe for good measure.

So which are you, mild or spicy?  Let us know in the comments.

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]

What do you serve when you have two teenaged nephews over for the weekend in a house already populated by four men?  When you know that the two people visiting are capable of consuming the gross food production of some small island nations all by themselves in a single sitting?  Casserole came to mind, but since both of my nephews are fond of spicy foods there really was only one choice for me.  Curry.

A curry might seem a strange choice for boys raised eating primarily Southern American and Californian cuisines, but on a night of complete chaos and a house filled with 5 boys it seemed about perfect to me.  The rice cooker did all the work on the grain for me and the curry required little monitoring while cooking, which left me free to put out fires in other parts of the house.

About 1/4 of the way through cooking, all of that was a mute point.  The older two boys were hovering in the kitchen by then, with mutterings of “When is dinner” and “That smells Great!”  A definite testament to the power of curry, and to the power of a teenager’s hunger.

In the end, this one was a real winner. There were calls for seconds and thirds from most of the kids and all 6 cups of rice were demolished. (I made more rice to get the photos above.)  This was not a terribly spicy dish, but one packed with a massive amount of flavor that I’m sure your family will enjoy as well.

Read more…

Popularity: 7% [?]

Seafood and noodles is something that I just love together. The combination is simple, tasty, filling and has more than enough flavor to satisfy any seafood lover. Add in some lime, a bit of cilantro and a touch of heat and you have what I consider to be one of the best summertime lunch dishes I can think up, especially when the thermometer reads over 100 degrees.

I usually make shrimp when my wife is going to have to stay at the office during lunch, since it’s not her idea of a mid afternoon meal on most occasions.  The plus side is that I can have the shrimp working in the marinade while I’m feeding our son and getting him down for his nap.  That way Dad gets to eat as soon as clean up is completed and we’ve finished the ritual of “I just want a cookie!”.  A little peace, a little Bourdain and a great bowl of flavor makes for a much nicer afternoon.  Don’t you think?
(Note: When mom is home for lunch, we all eat together.)

If you’re not a huge fan of ramen noodles (though I don’t know why you wouldn’t be!), somen or soba noodles work just fine for this as well.  If you’re not fond of cilantro, use parsley, mint or Thai basil.  You won’t break my heart.  Not a fan of chili paste?  A good roasted pepper puree with a bit of garlic added would work just as well.  Have fun with it!

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

I’m a day late to my own party!  This recipe was created for the Frugal Fridays Blog Event, hosted and created by yours truly and was supposed to be posted last night, but several things conspired against me.  First there was sleep deprivation.  Our son has hit one of those stages where sleep doesn’t seem to be something he requires much of.  since Mrs. Seat of her Pants holds down a job outside the house, I’m the one who stays up with the little hellion sweet child until I can get him to nod off.  three days of that was enough to have me nodding on the couch by 7:00 pm.

Top that off with the fact that my probe thermometer is either damaged or was inserted into the wrong portion of chicken ans I can add “Kitchen Disaster” to the list of things that held me up. For once it looked like everything was going to be ready at the same time.  that’s actually a rarity, especially when you’re making things up as you go along.  Last night it all looked perfect.  Right up until the time I cut the bird…

Now I love to see a big bunch of deep red juices come pouring out of a steak or a roast, but when it happens to be coming from a chicken…  Let’s just say it doesn’t thrill me.  Especially when I’ve already poured some of the pan juices into my side dish as well!  This little revelation set me back a full 30 minutes, since everything had to be heated past 200 degrees and held there for at least five minutes…  Fun!

In the end it all turned out well, just a little dryer than I would have liked.  It’s still a dish that I would recommend to anyone, and hey.  If you’re a vegetarian, leave the chrizo and chicken stock out of the rice.  It’s a gread veggie-friendly side.  Or add another good dose of black beans and it could be a main course.  Good stuff!

But how much did all of this set me back?  let’s see.

Chicken: $3.42
Herbs – Free, I grow them myself
Rice – approximately $0.25
Black Beans: $0.85 per can
Corn: less than 1/3 of a bag of frozen corn, so $1.09 / 3 = $0.36
Chorizo: 1/2 of a $2.99 package, so roughly $1.50
Chicken stock: 16 oz. out of a 32 oz. container @ 2.09 = 1.08

Everything else was pantry staples and the garlic was leftover from my last FF, so

Grand Total: $7.46 for a meal that would easily serve four.  In fact there is still a ton of rice left over!

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Oh the feeling of visiting another food blog, only to discover you’ve begun to salivate uncontrollably over the recipe you’ve found there. You’ve discovered the perfect meal idea sitting right there in front of you, with photos and all. You just have to make this as soon as possible.

That’s what happened to me the other day when I popped in to Simply Recipes, culinary home of the lovely and talented Elise Bauer. If you haven’t checked out her site, please do. She’s not only one of the nicest food bloggers out there, she’s also very likely one of the most influential, and with good reason.

The inspiration for this dish came from her recipe for Spicy Grilled Turkey Burger with Coleslaw which had me on the edge of my seat the moment I saw it, and well, I just had to make something like it!

(Note Elise’s Photos are much prettier than mine, and I apologize for that, but there aren’t too many flat surfaces in our new house yet, and I’m forced to use the counters in the kitchen, where not only is the lighting not that great, but there really isn’t any contrast to anything… That will get better as we get settled in.)

Of course, I couldn’t follow exactly in her footsteps. My wife makes ground turkey patties fairly often, and I love them so much that I decided to mix the two concepts for a variation of my own, which would have been perfect, I think, except that a few of the ingredients I was just sure I had already moved to the new house either:

1. Weren’t here…
2. Were no longer viable sources of nourishment. (i.e., they’d gone bad on me while I wasn’t looking. Traitors!)

In the end, however, what I ended up with was not only wonderful, but wonderfully simple, and took less than an hour total for all prep, including a prerequisite rest in the chill-chest for the patties themselves and heating the grill, which of course is not gas, because I think if I’m going to grill, beer and fire are required in the process. (Besides, you can’t Barbecue on a GAS GRILL… If you’ve tried, you know what I mean… blech!) Read more…

Popularity: 1% [?]