April Dinner Party

Appetizer- Garlic Sautéed Lobster Medallions with Corn Blinis and Ancho Crème Fraiche (from Heartline Café in Sedona, AZ- p. 59)



Sounds very fancy, and was- sorta. The lobster got smushed, because the recipe said to slice it raw, then sauté, so it lost its shape. I think if I had cooked it then sliced it, it would have been round and looked better. But the lobster was placed on small corn pancakes that were spicy but also a little sweet. And it was served with a cream sauce blended with dried ancho chile. Very tasty, even if didn’t look as amazing as I thought it would.

Soup- Shiner Bock Barbecue Onion Soup (from Roaring Fork in Scottsdale, AZ- p. 92)



This soup was a man’s man soup- beer, bacon and onions. It was amazingly delicious. That is really all I can say about it.

Entrée- Honey-Cilantro Rack of Lamb (from House of Tricks in Tempe, AZ- p. 158)
Side- Chorizo Potatoes with Ancho-Chile Tomato Sauce (from House of Tricks in Tempe, AZ- p.200)



I was super nervous for the lamb because 2 people eating the dinner didn’t actually like lamb. So I bought the lamb frenched (with the bones sticking out), then I sprinkled it with spices, seared the sides and roasted until done. Then I brushed it with honey and rolled it in chopped fresh cilantro. Success, because everyone liked it!

The potatoes were not my favorite. The sauce was made with tomatoes and ancho chilies (as the name says) and was blended together, with cooked chorizo sausage added in. So it was very similar to a marinara sauce but with Southwest flavors, and then poured over tiny potatoes. It was just kind of odd combination- tomato sauce with potatoes.

Dessert- Caramelized Lemon Tart (from Soleil in Tucson, AZ- p.231)



For this, I made a homemade lemon curd (lemon juice, sugar and egg yolks cooked and then butter is added and it is chilled), which I put in small tart shells (made with pre-made pie dough) and sprinkled it with sugar and used my crème brulee torch to caramelize the sugar and make a crunchy layer on top. It was a great combination of creamy lemon curd with the crispy caramelized sugar.

Banana Foster French Toast

Andrew, my delicious husband, absolutely loves Bananas Foster. He was so excited when we were in New Orleans last month and got to eat at Brennan’s, the restaurant where they invented the fabulous concoction. For those of you that do not know, Bananas Foster is a dessert dish that entails cooking bananas in brown sugar, butter and rum, then lighting the whole thing on fire and serving it over ice cream. The fire is to cook out the alcohol, but still leaves the flavor. At Brennan’s, they flambeed the bananas right there at your table. Pretty fancy stuff.


We also went to breakfast at Surry’s in uptown NOLA and Andrew (not surprisingly) ordered their stuffed Bananas Foster French toast. It was stuffed with a banana cream cheese mixture and drenched in sugary, foster-y syrup. It was yummy. He amazed me when he re-created this last weekend! The cream did not make it inside the toast like it was at the restaurant, but it seriously was just as good. I made him write down his closest estimate of the recipe- he doesn’t measure anything- he just throws stuff together. Enjoy!



(Doesn't his French Toast look better than the restaurant's?)

Cream
2 bananas, mashed
3/4 package cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp. Madagascar vanilla extract

French toast:
Loaf of baguette French bread, sliced
2 eggs
Dash of milk
3 shakes of cinnamon

Sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 stick of butter
2 tsp. rum extract
little water to loosen sauce if to thick.
1 banana, sliced

Combine all ingredients for cream in a bowl, and mix until smooth.

Mix eggs, milk and cinnamon in a bowl; dredge bread in egg mixture and cook in pan with melted butter until golden on both sides.


To make sauce, melt brown sugar and butter in pan, stirring until smooth. Add rum extract and mix to combine. Add banana slices and cook 2-3 minutes, just until softened.

Spoon banana cream onto French toast slices, top with a banana slice and syrup.


(I had some delicious Shrimp and Grits at Surry's, just in case you were wondering!)

Delicious Shrimp Ceviche

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends, Laura, came to visit and she brought 2 of her friend from Kansas City. Julie and Jenny had not been to Las Vegas so we got to do all the fun touristy stuff that locals never do- Bellagio fountains, roller coasters at the top of the Stratosphere, seeing a Cirque du Soleil show, ice cream at Serendipity, Hoover Dam, etc. So much fun! While they were here, Laura made us some fabulous ceviche. Ceviche is a shrimp salad with delicious fresh vegetables and the shrimp are actually cooked by a chemical reaction with the acid in lime juice, not with heat. One of our favorites! Her recipe is so good, we knew we wanted to share with the blog!



2 lb. uncooked shrimp, cut into 3 pieces each
10-12 limes, juiced (to make 20-24 oz.), divided
6 Roma tomatoes, small diced
1 red onion, small diced
1-2 jalapenos, small diced
1 yellow bell pepper, small diced
1 orange bell pepper, small diced
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped- leaves only
1 avocado, diced

Place shrimp in half of lime juice (10-12 oz.) and marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight, stirring several times. Place tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, bell peppers and cilantro with remaining lime juice and refrigerate. Once the shrimp has turned opaque, drain the juice and add the shrimp. Stir together and add avocado. Serve with tortilla chips.

(All the chopping and dicing is pretty time intensive- plan accordingly. However, having 4 fabulous friends working together makes it much more fun, and divides the work load! And who wouldn't want to come over to help when they get to have some of the yumminess?)

March Dinner Party

I know, it’s April and I am telling you about the March party, but I ran out of time last month. Our dinner party in March was (of course) delicious. We had friends and family over to celebrate Andrew's and my birthdays. As always, the recipes came from The New Southwest Cookbook.

Appetizer- Habanero Sea Scallops with Southwest Slaw (from Coyote Grill in Scottsdale, AZ- p.61)



Yum, yum, yum! A seared scallop served with a cabbage and red bell pepper slaw with a light vinaigrette dressing. It was also served with a habanero pepper/ pepper jack cheese/ cream sauce. Again, yum!

Soup- Red Bell Pepper Soup (from Christopher’s Fermier Brasserie in Phoenix, AZ- p. 88)



This was a pretty simple and very good soup. The other soups I have made from the cookbook had more “wow”, but this is a good basic soup. Red peppers, onions, leeks, carrots, and potatoes all sautéed until soft then pureed. Add cream and spices, and you have a good, silky smooth soup.

Entree- Chile-Cinnamon Rubbed Beef Medallions (from Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, NM- p.140)
Side- White Cheddar Chipotle Mashed Potatoes (from Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, NM- p. 199)
Side- Navajo Eggplant with Charred Tomatillo Sauce (from Zion Lodge in Springdale, UT- p. 181)



How can you ever go wrong with beef filet? These were marinated in a dry rub and then grilled. The gravy that went with it was truly a labor of love, as most good gravies are. I simmered 15 ingredients, strained all solids out and then thickened it. Fabulous... Happy sigh...

I love mashed potatoes. They never get front billing- you can’t really even see them in the picture- but they are the kind of comfort food that makes my soul happy. And these were jazzed up with roasted garlic, sharp white cheddar cheese, cream cheese and chipotle chilies. They were perfect with the steak.

Now the eggplant was a very involved recipe. It was actually in the main dishes section to appease non-meat-eaters. I just used very skinny Japanese eggplants instead of regular wide ones to make a dainty side dish. I coated them in flour, egg wash and panko breadcrumbs, and then pan fried them. I then stacked them with a charred tomatillo cream sauce and some cheese and baked it to warm through. The tomatillos gave a fresh, twangy taste to the cream. Oh, and they were topped with homemade Pico de Gallo. Very interesting and very good.

Dessert- Texas Millionaire Pie (from The Daily Pie Café in Pie Town, NM- p. 217)



This pie was a combination of some of my least favorite things-coconut, pineapple, and nuts- mixed with some really delicious things- cream cheese and cool whip- and put in a delicious homemade chocolate graham cracker crust. People really liked it. Me, not so much. But it's not always about me!