Recipe Wrap-Up, finally

It's been a good couple weeks since the last legit recipe wrap-up. We've been all over the place lately and it's meant I haven't been around to cook anything for a while. But when I have managed to get to the stove, I've made it worth our while. Here's a random recap of the last weeks in food for the Carters.

First a winter-y breakfast for myself. Brad's not really an egg person. Or rather, he is, but only at certain times. Whereas I could be an egg person every day if they magically cooked themselves. But when I've got some time/energy in the morning, I like to make yummy egg creations. And this is my favorite as far as flavor and ease. It's eggs, scrambled with milk, garlic salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence sprinkled in. The great thing about the herbs is that it gives you a ton of flavor, which means I never miss having cheese in them.







On the very same day in which I cooked that breakfast, I also cooked lunch and dinner. This is a rarity. In fact, it's possible it's never happened before. I forgot to take lunch pictures (grilled turkey sandwich on wheat bread with aged cheddar toasted onto them... not groundbreaking, but really yummy). But I did manage to remember dinner. I found this Three Mushroom Rigatoni recipe from Rachael Ray that looked good. I wanted something mushroom-y so I thought this would cover that nicely.

It looked and smelled amazing while it was cooking, all those mushrooms simmering away.



But, the final product was just good. It wasn't great. The shitake and rosemary combination gave off a little too much earthy flavor that didn't get balanced out by much fat or richness in the rest of the dish. Also, I used really, really cheap wine to reduce with, so that may have lessened the flavor quotient. Again, it wasn't bad... it just won't be a favorite.



However, the next two recipes may just end up being all-time favorites. In accordance with my attempt to possibly start experimenting with red meat, I decided to just go for it and cook us up some prime rib. Why not, right? Brad wanted a meal with cooked carrots and potatoes, so I was going to do roast chicken, But looking through recipes, I came across this roasted prime rib with carrots and potatoes and thought, let's see how it goes.

The thing that kicked this recipe over the edge was the fact that it's called Garlic Schmeared Prime Rib. I mean, how could you go wrong? I cut up some potatoes and carrots (using my hand dandy potato scrubbing gloves courtesy of Nana and Granddad from Christmas... which can be purchased here, or here)



I pureed a ton of garlic cloves with some leftover rosemary from the mushroom recipe and olive oil. "Schmeared" it all over the meat (which was not, in fact prime rib, it was some other cut of beef with a rib in it that was much less expensive, but thinner, so I cut the roasting time by about half, and I roasted the veggies a little bit before I put the meat in.)



And viola! Pretty soon, gorgeous yummy roasted carrots and potatoes, with some crunchy snap peas thrown in the mix. And some surprisingly great tasting, not chewy rib thing on top of them sliced thinly and ready to go! I must say, it was really good. Of course, anything with all that garlic thrown over it would be pretty good, but this did inch me closer to the red meat idea for sure.



And for the piece de resistance of this group of recipes... a mexican shrimp soup (courtesy of Michi's facebook suggestion when I pondered out loud as to whether to make fajitas, soup, or something with shrimp in it). Or, as it's more properly called Caldo de Camaron. I scoured the internet for a good mexican shrimp soup recipe, and this one won because of it's easy-to-make-yet-actually-authentic-sounding shrimp stock portion of the recipe. You peel the shrimp, and then boil the peels in chicken broth. When it was done cooking, I finally understood one of the myriad smells that always abound in my favorite taco shops. It's fish stock. And this is how I make one.

And then you throw in this pureed goodness of onions and garlic and serranos and tomatoes and cook it down to mush, and then you add in the stock and some potato pieces and then the shrimp and cook them almost enough. Then throw some lime on the side and some cilantro and avocado on top. And really, my friends, you have an incredibly delicious soup. One of my favorite things I've ever made. Ever. In my life. I wish I could eat it all the time.



There it is. The goodness itself. I think you should all carve out an hour of dinner time this week and make this. And eat it. You may want to double the recipe. It's amazing. And actually, pretty dang good for you too. So, enjoy that. And I'll salivate over here some more while I think about it.