No Rules Allowed

In my opinion, cooking should be a relaxing, creative outlet, free from rigidity and rules. You should look at your ingredients and get excited because they are a palate for your creativity. Have fun, experiment, and be flexible enough to improvise and change your recipe based on what ingredients are available.

When I go grocery shopping, I just pick out what looks good in the produce section and what is a good price in the meat and seafood departments. I think it is fun to take my items home without a specific plan for them, and create new recipes throughout the week based on what was seasonally available.

A couple nights ago, my friend Courtney and I decided to make “Spaghetti Squash Gemelli” (twins) where each of us would provide a different sauce for the duo. Courtney made her famous “Creamy Deliciousness” and I was excited about steamed clams with basil and tomato.

I stopped by the store where the clams were on sale to find only five clams at the counter! Apparently many others had my same plan. No worries, the peeled and deveined shrimp looked divine so I grabbed a pound of that instead and headed over to cook with Court.

I used the same basic recipe and cooking method the clams called for and only had to change the amount of liquid so I could sauté the shrimp whereas I was planning to steam the clams.

As it turned out, the shrimp made a better half of the Gemelli than the clams would have because the sauce was a little thicker so it could stick to the spaghetti squash and could stand up to Court’s hearty selection. Plus, we got more bang for the buck with the meatiness of the shrimp versus the clam.

Italian Steamed Clams

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh clams
2 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tomatoes, 1” chop
2 cups dry white wine
2 T butter
1 bunch basil, julienned
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Put oil, garlic, and clams in pan medium-high heat and cook for about one minute. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook another minute or so. Add wine and stir around to deglaze pan. Cover and simmer on medium heat for about 5 minutes (until clams open). Remove clams and set aside. Simmer broth until it reduces by half. Remove from heat and stir in butter until it is melted. Add basil and stir. Put clams back in sauce and stir to cover.

Italian Shrimp

Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh clams
2 T minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 tomatoes, 1” chop
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 T butter
1 bunch basil, julienned
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Put oil, garlic, and shrimp in pan medium-high heat and cook for about one minute and then stir the shrimp to flip them and cook another minute on the other side. Add tomatoes, salt, and pepper and cook another minute or so. Add wine and stir around to deglaze pan and simmer another minute or so. Remove from heat and stir in butter until it is melted. Add basil and stir.

Courtney’s Creamy Deliciousness

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 pkg. mushrooms, sliced
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 t. olive oil
1 pkg. Trader Joe’s hot Italian chicken sausage
1 jar Trader Joe’s Rustico Marinara
Splash heavy cream (to taste)

Directions:
Heat oil in pan on medium-high heat and cook sausage until brown then add onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Add marinara sauce and simmer for 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in heavy cream.

There's no such thing as a buffalo turkey!

Yesterday may have been Labor Day to you but to me and two of my closest friends, it was Girls’ Day. I had Nichole and Sage over to hang out, eat, and plan our friend Katie’s baby shower. So yes, we mixed business and pleasure and ended up hanging out well into the night but the tiredness I am feeling today is totally worth it.

I played tennis in the morning with an awesome group of people (who actually asked me to join them again so I must not have been too terrible) so I prepped for Girls’ Day the night before by making the buffalo-turkey patties so they’d be ready to grill when I got home.

Tennis ran long and the girls beat me to my house so I did not hesitate to put them to work when they offered. Sage made the salad and Nichole took notes on the baby shower while I grilled up the burgers even though according to Sage, “there is no such thing as a buffalo turkey.” Sage may be an expert in many areas like Olympic Weightlifting and advice-giving but she doesn’t know that much about cooking (yet) which is why I usually have her over to eat instead of the other way around.

We wrapped the burgers in lettuce and ate them alongside Sage’s lovely salad while sitting in the back yard and catching up on all the things going on in each of our lives. We proved many things that day and one is that time really does fly when you are gossiping with a gaggle of good friends. Before we knew it, it was nearly 5PM and Sage took off for the grocery store and then home to study. Nichole stayed around to hang out so I decided to give her an impromptu cooking lesson. She was in a pretty bad car accident a few weeks ago and has just now got back to a regular routine including proper meals and has, admittedly, never really known how to navigate the kitchen.

I opened the fridge to see what was available. Since I probably should have joined Sage at the store, there wasn’t much to the naked eye but what I saw was potential for an Asian-inspired almond chicken. I quickly thawed a couple chicken breasts and whipped us up a meal in about 10 minutes. Nichole seemed highly impressed so I let her take home some of the leftovers for making me feel so smart.

Buffalo-Turkey Burgers
2 lbs. ground bison (Costco has started carrying this along w/ bison NY strips)
1 lb. ground turkey
3 cloves minced fresh garlic (or 3T pre-minced stuff in a jar)
Fresh basil, finely chopped (I got it from my friend Krazy K’s garden but it was probably 2 store pkgs.)
Salt & pepper

Put all ingredients in bowl and mix well. Form meat into about ten baseball size balls and flatten each into a patty. Grill what you are going to use immediately then individually plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze the rest for a quick meal later on. Serve on large pieces of lettuce w/ all the fixins.

Almond Chicken
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
½ onion, thinly sliced
1 small red or orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves fresh garlic (or 2T pre-minced)
1 jalapeno, minced or a sprinkle or three of red pepper flakes (optional for heat factor)
2T sesame oil
4T almond butter
4T (approximately) chicken broth (I always have a container in the fridge for such occasions)
2 cups raw broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

Sautee onions, peppers, garlic, and jalapenos in sesame oil on medium-high heat until veggies start to soften. Add chicken and cook through. Turn heat to medium-low and add almond butter and chicken broth and mix in until a sauce forms and coats the meat. Toss in broccoli and cook for 2-3 minutes. Serve.