A few food moments this month

#1 Went to a close friend's for dinner for an Indian themed dinner.

I decided to tackle curried shrimp as an appetizer. What's not to love about coconut milk, curry and shrimp!

Turkey burgers with grilled vegetables, spinach and feta...almost time to light the Weber Grill again!





#3 An oh my weeknight dinner--chicken with mustard sauce topped with chives, served with grilled veggies, sauteed spinach and accordion potatoes.

The hard part was the potatoes and they took 10 minutes to prepare and had to cook for an hour.

I wanted to lick the leftover bowl, but I was eating at my desk in the office and decided to spare my colleagues.

Ok, let's try this again

So I fell off the blogging wagon for a while, but now that seasonal food is starting to crop up again I'll try to write more.

Last night's feast was Mexican. Here are the recipes.

Tacos
Home made tortillas--I made them small--maybe 4 inches across
2 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
a teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1 1/4 cups hot water
mix together first three ingredients until crumbly texture then add in water and mix, knead, rest 10 mins
roll into small balls and roll out
cook ~ 30 seconds each in hot pan--no oil needed (store under damp warm cloth to keep soft)
Re-heat in microwave with cloth on them if they harden up on you

Shrimp with chipotle sauce
marinate 1 lb shrimp in 1/4 cup lime juice with a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper
I used homemade enchilada sauce from my freezer, but you could use store bought or just tomatoes
Put in blender, add two chipotle (more if you like things hot) peppers in adobo sauce, garlic, pepper, puree until smooth
Toss shrimp + marinate in hot pan with a little oil until just pink (2 mins), remove shrimp, add sauce and heat through, add shrimp back for 2 more mins

Spread each taco with goat cheese, place two grilled asparagus on one half, place 2-3 shrimp on asparagus, fold taco over and warm in oven until heated through

serve with sour cream and top with cilantro and radish slices

Enchiladas
saute 2 chopped poblano peppers with 1/2 onion in olive oil
add 1 lb of fresh spinach to pan and cook until wilted

see tortilla recipe above...make twice as large for enchiladas

mix 1 cup cottage cheese with 1/2 cup sour cream and 2 cups shredded cheese (I used queso quesadilla, but colby or cheddar is fine

spoon cheese mixture onto tortilla, top with spinach/peppers, roll up and place in baking pan that has some enchilada sauce on the bottom

top with a little enchilada sauce and more cheese (but leave some of the tortilla exposed so you have some soft and some crunchy)

bake till bubbly! serve with salsa and sour cream

Beef with peppers and onions
rub a flank steak with Mexican spices of your choice (I made a rub of garlic powder, chipotle powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt and sugar), rub into meat with a little oil

cook on hot grill pan until quite rare (it cooks more later)

cut onions and peppers into strips and grill

slice meat across the grain so you have thin slices that are as wide as possible

roll the meat up with a pepper and onion inside the roll and secure with a toothpick (peppers can be slipper, but this can be done)

warm in over till heated though or meat is cooked to your liking

I served with salsa, but you can also make a blue cheese dip for this