Roasted Shrimp with Feta

Thursday night my adorable cousin Liza and I did some baking(I'll fill you in on that later) after I picked her up from school and my wonderful Aunt made Dinner. what a treat! 

Aunty Ellen made Ina Garten's Roasted Shrimp with Feta, and it was definitely delicious. I would  make for sure make this and I think it'd be a great one for entertaining.

sidenote: Ina Garten must be livin the good life, she's always chillin out throwing classy dinner parties for all her drop-in guests on that show of hers. And she annoys me way less than most of the other food network "stars"...points for you Ina!

Ingredients

4 tbl good olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped fennel
1 tbl minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbl Pernod (we didn't have this around, it's still great without it)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 # (16 to 20 per pound) peeled shrimp with tails on
5 ounces good feta cheese, coarsely crumbled
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (you can just throw some stale bread in a food processor until its fine)
3 tbl minced fresh parsley
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large heavy ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat.

Add the fennel and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, until the fennel is tender. 

Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Add the wine and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits.

Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. 

Add the tomatoes with the liquid, tomato paste, oregano, Pernod, salt, and pepper to the skillet. 

Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Arrange the shrimp, tails up, in one layer over the tomato-mixture in the skillet. 

Scatter the feta evenly over the shrimp. 

In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, and lemon zest with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle over the shrimp.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked and the bread crumbs are golden brown. 

Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the shrimp. Serve hot with lemon wedges.

We also had some crispy garlic bread and a simple iceberg wedge salad with tomatoes, pine nuts & super rich balsamic.

Thanks el! Definitely try this one if you've got shrimp around, or if you can think of any other good reason, it's pretty simple...even though I know the recipe looks a little wordy, it's a quick one and it's packed with great flavors.

barbeque for days

I’ve been a busy bee with work and class so my pictures are lacking, a few days a week I help out with the cooking classes that the school offers for the people either from the industry or whoever else wants to come and take a class.

This week I helped with a barbeque boot camp and they made some pretty awesome meat

pulled pork, 12 hour smoke. I want a smoker at some point in my life, ha maybe when I’m living on a farm and raising my own livestock?



beer can chicken!



look at those sexy ribs! yes, they also made bbq sauce.



brisket:



mmm I love grilled corn, I think it always tastes best at fairs though, weird deal.



Sort of a ridiculous amount of food for a class of 10 people, but all the chefs come in and snag some food when it’s tasty stuff like this…

check out the final spread



aaaand here are the 6 shots of espresso that help me get through these long days! ha I only had 4 of the shots and it was more than enough…next time we’ll shot for 3.

Boston

I went to visit family in Boston this past weekend with my lovely friends Aubrey and Taylor, it was a good time as always & a great break from school/poughkeepsie/hyde park, here are some highlights:

a stop in the north end for pizza & then some cannolis at mike’s pastry



check out that candid of the pizza feasting, i even got lily in the corner with some melty cheese and there’s aubrey all stoked for the treats

dinner for the fam



I made fresh ravioli (with a ton of help with all the ravioli forming), half were filled with ricotta & fresh herbs (oregano, basil & chives) and the other half had mushrooms(regular button mushrooms, hedgehog & oyster mushrooms), leeks, a liiiiitttle white wine & a couple tablespoons of the ricotta




the super tasty ricotta…quality ricotta has so much more flavor than the standard grocery store variety



Aubrey made herby foccacia (better than the kind we made in class), grandpa jimmy really loved it



and the pea salad. i just really love peas…a lot

Taylor made some dope tomato sauce, also a jimmy favorite…okay i guess he was really into the whole meal now that i think about it cuz he loved those mushroom ravioli quite a bit



and we finished with some blueberry pie from petsi’s pies