A southern feast

I've lived in the south all my life, with the exception of a year spent in New York, but I never had shrimp 'n' grits until about 6 month ago. I have been missing out all these years! When my BFF Kiwi a.k.a. Ninja Kitty and her boyfriend visited Atlanta for Labor Day, we decided to cook a southern feast of shrimp 'n' grits and macaroni and cheese casserole (we love a good casserole in the south; hopefully Ninja Kitty will post her chicken casserole recipe soon....hint hint!). Warning: the following recipes will cause extreme fullness of the stomach.

Shrimp 'n' Grits

Ingredients for grits:

• 3 cups milk
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup stone ground white cornmeal
• 2 Tbs. unsalted butter
• 3 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper

Ingredients for shrimp:

• 2 Tbs. canola oil or olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 lbs. spicy Italian or andoulille sausage (or regular pork sausage for those sensitive to heat)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bunch scallions, minced

Directions for grits:

1. In a 3 quart pot over medium-high heat, add milk, cream, butter, salt, and pepper.
   
2. Slowly whisk in grits. Keep whisking every couple of minutes to keep grits from clumping.
   
3. Once grits begin to bubble and thicken, turn heat off and move pot to back burner. Keep covered.

Directions for shrimp:

1. Mince the onion and sautee with oil and garlic in a large pan over medium heat.
2. Add sausage, and brown.
3. Sprinkle pan with flour and stir to make a roux. Roux should be the color of caramel.
4. Add stock and bay leaves, and simmer.
5. Peel and devein shrimp.
6. Add shrimp to the sausage and cook for 2-3 minutes until they're firm and pink.
7. Add lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.
8. Serve immediately over grits.

Macaroni and Cheese Casserole

Ingredients:

• 4 cups milk
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
  
• 2 Tbs. cornstarch
  
• 1 lbs. cooked macaroni (wheat if you want to attempt to be healthy)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded munster cheese
• 1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
  

Directions:

1. Melt butter over medium heat (every good recipe starts with butter).
2. Add milk and bring to a simmer.
3. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch with 1/4 cup cold milk. Slowly pour into simmering milk, and whisk constantly.
   
4. Keep whisking and allow sauce to thicken. Once sauce covers a spoon, remove from heat.
5. I a large bowl, mix three cheeses together. Remove 1/3, and set aside.
   
6. Add sauce to the large cheese mixture, and stir until cheese is melted.
   
7. Add pasta and stir until it's completely coated.
8. Place macaroni in a buttered casserole dish and top with reserved shredded cheese.
9. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until top is brown and bubbly.
   
10. Cool for 15 minutes and serve.

My favorite dessert

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients for crust:

• 1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening (Crisco)
  
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1/4-1/2 cup ice water
  

Ingredients for filling:

• 3 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 Tbs. melted butter
  
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 5 Tbs. all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 2 lbs. fresh or frozen strawberries
• 2 lbs. fresh or frozen rhubarb in about 1'' pieces
  

Crust directions:

1. Dice butter and put in back in the refrigerator.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients.
3. Add butter and shortening, and mix until ingredients combine to form almost little peas.
4. Add ice cold water a tablespoon at a time until mixture beings to form a solid ball. The dough should hold together without being sticky.
5. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
   
6. Divide dough in two, and roll out on a lightly floured surface.
   
7. Place first rolled-out dough in a 9'' or 10'' pie pan. Place in freezer.
   
8. Roll out second half of dough. Fold in half and cut 3-1'' slits. Set aside.
   

Filling recipe:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat together all ingredients except for strawberries and rhubarb.
   
2. Once mixture is combined, stir in strawberries and rhubarb.

To assemble the pie:

1. Remove pie pan with crust from the freezer, pour in filling, and cover with top crust. Pinch the edges together to ensure that they are well-sealed.
2. Brush the top with water and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Place pie on the bottom rack of a preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 30-40 or until rhubarb is tender when pierced with a fork.
   
5. Allow to cool for several hours before serving as the filling needs time to thicken.

Enjoy!

How good does this look?

Petite sugarcane cured bacon "BLT" with roasted tomato confit and ginger aioli...YUMMM! Recipe can be found here. I love me some Design*Sponge!

Best Orzo EVER

I'm a pasta-holic, so I pretty much think any pasta recipe is good, but this one is exceptionally amazing. My aunt came up with it, and my mom tweaked it a little to our liking. It's good hot, room temperature, or cold. I've eaten it all three ways, so I speak from experience.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. orzo, cooked
  
• 2/3 c olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 2 medium eggplants, diced
• 4 bell peppers, diced (I'm not a fan of bell peppers, so I use banana peppers)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 bunch of scallions, sliced (both white and green parts)
• 1/2 c chopped fresh mint
  
• 1/3 c fresh lemon juice
• 12 oz feta, crumbled or cubed
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan
• 1/2 c toasted slivered almonds
• 1 c diced apple
• 2 c frozen collard greens, thawed and drained (optional)
  

1. In a roasting pan or on a baking sheet, toss together oil, eggplant, peppers, and garlic. Roast for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.
2. In a serving bowl, toss together roasted vegetables and remaining ingredients. Serves 12.

It takes quite a few ingredients, but it's super easy to make. I'll make a batch on Sunday, and eat it for lunch and/or dinner the rest of the week. Or with grilled pizza like this one time....carbs and carbs, my favorite.

European Voyage Part Sept: Paris

Alright, this is the homestretch! Stick with me. This is the last post on my trip to Europe, promise! We left Aix-en-Provence mid-morning, and took the TGV to Paris. The TGV is a high speed train (Train à Grande Vitesse if you want to get technical) that goes about 170 mph. God, I love train travel. It only took about 3 hours, and it's so relaxing. I love seeing all the different scenery too. Anyway, we arrived in Paris at Gare de Lyon. Good god, it was HUGE, busy, and crowded. Definitely a change of pace from A-e-P.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Saint Christophe located in the 5th arrondissement (the Latin Quarter I think), and then headed out. We attempted to take bus # 69, a public transportation bus that runs east-west and goes by a lot of the great sights, but it was the weekend bus schedule, so trying to find it proved to be a task. Eventually we just hopped on the metro and made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Not to be cheesy or touristy, but WOW.




Pictures don't even do it justice. Paris is a pretty low-rise city, no skyscrapers, so the Eiffel Tower stands out even more. After standing with our mouths open for a few minutes, we spotted a crêpe stand and decided to grab a late lunch. Again, crêpe complet for me, crêpe au sucre for my mom. Yummm.

My last crêpe of the trip : ... ( - that's a sad face with a tear running down if you can't tell.

Then we hopped on a bus to take a tour of the city. I won't inundate you with my many typical tourist pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites.







I will say, it was pretty chilly. My extremities were completely frozen by the time we got back to the hotel. The hotel was in a university area, so we just grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little Greek restaurant before completely passing out for the night.

I have to take a moment to give a big shout-out to Moleskin City Notebooks. They are hands down amazing!!!! My best friend got me one for Paris, and then I bought one for Florence. They are unbelievably handy. They have large maps, detailed maps of different neighborhoods, public transportation information, tracing paper to trace different routes, blank paper to make notes, and even a little pocket to store things in. They're small and easily fit in a purse or even a pocket, and for only about $15 each, they are absolutely worth it!


I completely regret not having more time in Paris. The next day was our only full day, and we jam-packed it. In the morning, we went to one of the big antique markets, Marché aux Puces. We could've easily spent our entire day there. It was deceiving at first because the outside of the market is lined with crappy clothing and junk stalls, but if you can find your way into the main building, it's amazing!

Cool floor made out of 2 x 4 slices

If I had had more room in my suitcase, I would've gotten a lot more, but I bought quite a few things as it was. I bought an antique bird print, a Rodin lithograph for my sister (my favorite purchase of the trip), and a first edition Babar poster.

We dragged ourselves away from shopping in order to make it to Versailles before it closed. It was an easy train ride and short walk, and my god was it worth it. Yet again, not to be cheesy tourist, but HOLY LORD. It was STUNNING. Easily the most beautiful part of our trip. Just the scale of the place is MASSIVE. Every direction you looked as far as the eye could see was Versailles. Of all the palaces and grand houses we visited in Europe, Versailles was easily the most liveable, if that were ever even possible.

Front entrance


Around the back towards the gardens.


Grand Canal



View of the palace from below


My favorite sculpture from the entire trip

The Grand Trianon


Gardens everywhere!


One of Louis XVI's coats which was TEENY TINY. I think my 5'2'' tiny skinny mother would've just fit into it.

We spent so much time outside and at the ancillary buildings, that we almost didn't make it back in time to tour the actual palace. We were actually the last ones allowed upstairs to the Hall of Mirrors (whew!).

Yet another surreal moment with all that's happened in that room.

Probably 50 people were crowded into Marie Antoinette's bedroom. It was honestly surreal seeing that much gold and grandeur.

It glowed gold, as you can tell.

Security started scooting everyone out by about 5:30, so reluctantly, we left. I will definitely we going back in the spring or summertime to see all the gardens in bloom.

We leisurely made our way back to our hotel to drop off our many purchases from earlier in the day. We were both starving from trekking all around Versailles, so we headed out for a hearty dinner at a cafe up a couple of blocks. Croque madames and giant Hoegaardens are exactly what the doctor called for.

Good, but nothing touched those from A-e-P.

Paris was a fantastic way to end a fantastic trip. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. You know there are some trips you take, and by the end, you can't wait to get home? Not this one; I wasn't ready to go back to reality. I think I could get used to jet-set (or train-set in my case) life.

European Voyage Part Six: Aix-en-Provence

The trip from Florence to Aix-en-Provence was A-MAZING. The Mediterranean coast is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures of the train ride, which I really regret. I'd love to do that trip again. It definitely was not short. We started in Florence, then changed trains in Milan and Cannes before arriving in A-e-P, around 12 hours later.

Getting to A-e-P from the train station was a little confusing. Not many signs, but we finally just followed the small crowd to a bus that dropped us off in the town center. Our hotel, Hotel Artea, was nice. It was on Boulevard République only a block or two down from La Rotonde. Very affordable, nothing fancy schmancy, but our room was huge!

Since we got in a bit on the late side, we ate at a bar/cafe just down the block from our hotel. They had a couple of glasses of Kriek and THE MOST delicious croque-madames everrrrrr. I tried ordering them at a few other places in a few different cities, and nothing touched this tiny bar's. Of course, I didn't get a picture of it....I know, I started slacking. Here's a good recipe from Nancy Silverton's Sandwich Book:

• 8 slices white or whole-wheat sourdough bread
• 8 ounces Gruyère cheese, sliced into 24-32 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 12 ounces smoked ham, such as Black Forest, sliced into 12-16 1/16-inch-thick slices
• 4 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Fleur de sel or kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

To assemble the sandwiches:
Set half of the slices of bread buttered side down, and cover them with the cheese slices, folding them back in toward the middle if they extend past the edges of the bread. Place 3 or 4 slices of the ham in an even layer over the cheese, and place the top slice of bread over the ham, buttered side up.

Grill the sandwiches in a two-sided grill or on a heavy-bottomed pan, using clarified butter and turning once. Place on serving plates.

To fry the eggs:
Crack two eggs into two separate bowls to check that the yolks aren’t broken. In 2 6-inch non-stick skillets, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat, until it starts to bubble. Pour 1 egg into each pan, being careful not to break the yolks. Add a teaspoon of water to each pan, sprinkle the eggs with fleur de sel, and cover the pans with lids. Cook the eggs for about 3 minutes for a soft-cooked egg and 5-6 minutes if you like your eggs firm. Wipe out the skillets, and fry the other 2 eggs in the remaining butter in the same manner. Center a fried egg over each of the grilled sandwiches and sprinkle with pepper.

We woke up the next morning, and headed to a little street cart for crêpes. Dear god...they were absolutely fantastic, so good that I had them again lunch. My favorite crêpe was the crêpe complet: egg, cheese, and ham. My mom's was crêpe au sucre: crêpe with granulated sugar. We also stopped and got a baguette. I don't think the Adkins diet exists in Europe....

A-e-P is very very walkable, so we spent the rest of our day exploring the city. It was a little rainy and brisk (to put it nicely), but all the more excuse to stop in at all the little shops. If I'm ever able to go back, I'd love to go during spring or summer to visit the lavender fields.

These little Cezanne tiles were all over the streets. I think they lead to the museum or some kind of path.

We came upon these old hot mineral baths. They were sooooo tempting after our damp chilly day. Had we stayed another day, I think spending time there definitely would have been on our agenda.

About 91 F

We made a stop at Les Deux Garcons for a couple of drinks on our way to the grocery store. Pretty expensive (a tourist trap, I'm sure), but the the decor is cool, and it was fun to go to a place that's been open since 1792. For dinner we decided to go to Monoprix to pick up some cheese for dinner. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love cheese. Monoprix was a lot of fun to explore; it had everything from food to clothes to housewares to cosmetics to sporting goods. The rest of our night was spending warming up and watching the French versions of "Deal or No Deal" and "Wheel of Fortune." So weird how different they were!

The next morning, we woke up early and tried to go have those heavenly croque madames before we left for Paris, but the bar was out of eggs. It was very upsetting. I have to say that it was really nice to spend some time in a small town before heading off the Paris. After a couple of days though, I was ready to hop back on a train and keep on going.