I must apologize right off the bat for not having a picture of Saturday night’s finished dish. It wasn’t until I was uploading pictures for the entry that I realized that I hadn’t taken a single one of the Mediterranean Shrimp pasta dish. I wish I could blame  it on the excess of wine but that came later. It was more likely that I got self-conscious as I sometimes tend to do. Honestly, I don’t have to explain why I take pictures of food half the time but nonetheless, the slight embarrassment remains.

I almost forgot that heirloom tomato season is upon us but thankfully I married a man who hadn’t.

The gorgeous little babies I marinated (macerated?) in a mix of capers, balsamic and olive oil for about an hour in the fridge. Then I let them get to room temperature again—a refrigerated tomato is a tasteless tomato—before tossing them with some red-leafed lettuce. Quite a crowd pleaser.

Again, so sorry I don’t have pic of the finished shrimp dish. Trust me, you’ll just have to make it. It too went over like gangbusters at our Saturday night dinner party and actually made for yummy leftovers for me today.

Because of a wasted Sunday, the LSC and I had to wait until this morning to have the baked french toast I found off Smitten Kitchen. I realize that the top looks too dark but I often have trouble with the freaking oven. My husband thinks that having a oven thermometer is like a magic device but all it tells me is that my oven runs too cold or too hot. I have to constantly keep an eye on things or they may burn.

*sigh* I could have done better with this recipe. Kept an eye on it, for starters. It was good but not as transcendent as I was hoping. Still, it’ll make an excellent breakfast regardless tomorrow morning.

Mediterranean Shrimp

8 oz. orzo pasta (I used a box of corkscrews)

1 tsp. olive oil

1 medium thinly sliced red onion

1 medium thinly sliced red bell pepper

1 medium thinly sliced fresh zucchini

1 lb. shelled and deveined shrimp

1/4 chopped fresh dill

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 oz. crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup sliced black olives (the good kind not the kind in a can)

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Cook 4 minutes or until softened. Stir in zucchini and cook 2 minutes or until almost tender. Stir in shrimp, dill and black pepper. Cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size of shrimp, until cooked through. Spoon over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and olives, and serve.

Boozy Baked French Toast

from Smitten Kitchen

1 loaf supermarket Challah bread in 1-inch slices, no need for the super-fancy stuff here
3 cups whole milk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Your choice of flavorings: I use 3 tablespoons Bailey’s and 3 tablespoons Cointreau, but Frangelico (hazelnut), Chambord (raspberry), Creme de Cassis (black currant) Grand Marnier or just a teaspoon or two of vanilla or almond extract can do the trick. You can bump up a citrus flavor with a teaspoon of zest, add a half-cup of chopped nuts such as almond slivers or pecans between layers or on top or a similar amount of raisins or other dried fruits.

1. Generously grease a 9×13-inch baking dish with salted (my choice) or unsalted butter.
2. Arrange bread in two tightly-packed layers in the pan. I always cut one slice into smaller pieces to fill in gaps, especially when using braided Challah. If using a thinner-sliced bread, you might wish for more layers, though I find that over three, even baking can be difficult. If you are using any fillings of fruit or nuts, this is the time to get them between the layers or sprinkled atop.
3. Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, salt and booze or flavorings of your choice and pour over the bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
4. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The bread will absorb all of the milk custard while you sleep.
5. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden. This will take longer if you have additional layers.
6. Cut into generous squares and serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, powdered sugar or all of the above.

Serves 6 as main course.

Before I rush you into the arms of perfection, I’d like to take a moment and discuss Friday night dinners of necessity with you. Friday night around my house often means the LSC does the cooking or the ordering out so I can have a night off.

I am making exceptions to the Friday rule for the next couple of weeks. I didn’t get to cook as much as I would have liked in Atlanta, and while I did get to cook in South Carolina, my need for it was still not sated.

Last night I whipped us up some quesadillas with turkey, corn and beans. Simple but tasty, and it absorbed the demi-pitchers of beer from the pub down the street just fine.

Ohhhh, cake. How I love thee in thy many forms: cupcake, poundcake, coffee cake, layer cake, sheet cake, angel food. And how lucky I am to have found what I must deem as the Perfect Cake.

Of course, those of you out there with Frosting Fetishes will heartily disagree and that’s okay.

I found this recipe on my favorite of food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. (You will notice that Deb’s awesome recipes are recurring theme here because I have to try damn near every single one of them.) I’ve been using Deb’s knowledge and experience as a benchmark for my nascent baking skills; if there’s an ingredient or kind of dessert, I’m dying to try, it’s gotta be on her website. Well, the LSC had a whole bunch of blueberries in the fridge and instead of making cobbler or muffins as I had originally planned, I opted to check out SK to see what my other options were. Here was where I found Blueberry Boy Bait (if you’d like the full explanation of the name, go to Deb’s original entry). And here I was where I climbed the mountain and reached nirvana.

A few notes: I will be reprinting Deb’s recipe as she made it but I will note some of what I did. Instead of using all buttermilk, I only used half because…I ran out of buttermilk. Also, I had to sub granulated sugar for a little of the brown sugar because…I ran out of brown sugar. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) I do not own a metal 9×13 pan so I used a 9-inch springform pan instead and it turned out just fine. And I added a few more blueberries because, hey, what could it hurt? If your oven runs hot (like mine does) I would start checking on it about 25 minutes into baking time. If it looks like it’s getting a bit too brown on top, cover it with some parchment paper.

Seriously, y’all, this is the kind of cake that if I had made it for my husband before he even thought of asking me to marry him, I would’ve been swept up and taken to Vegas. It also strikes me as the kind of cake—an amazing balance between a pound cake and a coffee cake—that would be great to make for the holiday gifts. I am going to experiment with a cherry version tomorrow. Oh, and don’t do like I did and ruin your electric mixer beaters because you got overzealous with scraping batter down the sides of the bowl and let the wooden spoon get caught between them.

Blueberry Boy Bait
Adapted from Cook’s Country, which adapted it from the original

2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk (though buttermilk, which was all I had on hand, worked just great)
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost first as it tends to muddle in the batter)

Topping
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

Whisk two cups flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl. Reduce speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of milk. Beat in half of remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally remaining flour mixture. Toss blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in blueberries. Spread batter into prepared pan.

For the topping:
Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl and sprinkle over batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter (topping side up). Serve warm or at room temperature. (Cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

Baked Turkey, Bean and Corn Quesadillas

1 lb. ground turkey breast

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup salsa of choice (we went with tomatillo)

1/2 cup rinsed canned black beans

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed and drained

8 whole wheat flour tortillas

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large nonstick skillet on medium, cook turkey 8 minutes or until no longer pink; drain. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in salsa, beans and corn; cook and stir 4 or 5 minutes or until thickened and heated through.

Coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Arrange 4 tortillas on baking sheet, overlapping slightly if necessary. Sprinkle with 1/2 of cheese. Spoon turkey mixture evenly over cheese; top with remaining cheese and 4 tortillas. Coat top tortillas with cooking spray. Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until quesadillas are lightly browned and edges are crisp. Remove from oven; cut into wedges and serve.

Oh, I cannot express to you the joy of being home. As much as I like to travel, I love the sheer happiness of sleeping in my own bed even more. But it was fun, make no mistake.

Also, being home means cooking in my kitchen again, surrounded by my various gadgets and pans. Last night was really the first night that I was able to cook dinner so I opted to keep it simple. The LSC loves wraps—I mean, to the point it can be slightly unnerving—and I figured I’d scrounge up a wrap recipe for him.

Now the recipe just called for plain chopped chicken but I figured that since we were going with Asian flavors anyway, why not marinate and then glaze it with honey, soy sauce and garlic? Just add a little extra layer of flavor. Not only did it pay off in the end result but it also turned the chicken a gorgeous mahogany color. It prompted the LSC to remark, “It looks like you’re cooking rabbit!”

Aside from that—seriously, I would never eat bunny; I used to keep them as pets as a child—everything turned out lovely. I was cooking in my kitchen again, listening to the CBC and intermittently working on a NYT crossword puzzle. Life is a pretty sweet fruit. Speaking of fruit, I am off to figure out what to do with all these fresh blueberries we bought…

Honey Garlic Glaze/Marinade

4 tbl. honey

4 tbl. soy sauce (I have the thick kind)

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

Whisk all three ingredients together; marinade will be on the viscous side. Place in large plastic container or plastic bag with chicken. Marinate anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Spray nonstick cooking spray on oven rack or broiler pan so as to keep the chicken from sticking. Place chicken on rack/pan. Bake for total of 15 minutes per side, taking care to brush chicken with glaze every 5 minutes for beautiful brown skin. Once the entire cooking time has passed (30 minutes total), remove chicken from oven. Let set for about 5 minutes to allow juices to redistribute. Then shred, chop, or do with as you please!

Asian Chicken Wraps

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tbl. each sugar, sesame seeds and dark sesame oil

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

3/4 cup sliced celery

6 sliced radishes

3 sliced green onions

3 tbl. toasted slivered almonds

4 (8 to 10-inch) whole wheat tortillas

1 bunch sliced basil leaves

Combine vinegar, sugar, sesame seeds, sesame oil and salt; mix well, then chill. Combine chicken, celery, radishes, green onions and almonds. Drizzle dressing over chicken mixture and toss to coat. Spoon evenly into tortillas, sprinkle with basil and wrap. Cut in half and serve immediately.