Snowed in

After spending yesterday completely out of commission from stomach flu, and today starting to feel like a real person again after many many hours of sleep, I awoke this evening to find myself snowed in by a blizzard. Now that the thought of food doesn't make me ill, I wanted to bake something. This is a recipe of invention, using the limited ingredients I had on hand, and dreaming of summer weather.



Tropical Cookie Bars

Bars:
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
zest of 1 orange, or 2 clementines
1/4 c orange juice
1 pineapple cake mix
1 c sweetened shredded coconut

Glaze:
1/2 c orange juice
zest of 1 orange, or 2 clementines
2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs, oil, orange juice and zest until blended. Add cake mix and coconut. Mix until combined, with no dry lumps. Spray 13x9 baking pan with non stick spray. Pour batter into pan, bake 30-35 minutes.

For glaze, mix orange juice, zest and powered sugar until smooth. Pour over cooled bars.

Pineapple Shrimp Curry

I heard of a killer curry sauce recipe from my brother in law, but I didn't have the exact recipe when I was at the store, just the general idea. So I bought some stuff and decided to wing it. Luckily, winging it usually works for me! I wanted to make the sauce tonight, so tomorrow's dinner would be really fast, and it allows the frozen shrimp I bought today to thaw out in the fridge. The sauce recipe easily made enough for two batches, so I am freezing half of it. This dish is very flavorful, but not hot in spiciness at all. Don't fear the entire jar of curry paste!

Pineapple Shrimp Curry

Sauce:
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 sweet yellow onions, thinly sliced
salt to taste
3 15 oz cans of diced tomatoes (not drained)
1 whole head of garlic, each clove peeled and sliced
1"x2" finger of ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
4 oz jar of green curry paste
2 T ground cumin
13.5 oz can of light coconut milk

In a heavy skillet, heat vegetable oil, and add sliced onions. Sautee until softened. Add salt, garlic, ginger, cumin and curry paste. Stir to combine and break up curry paste. Add diced tomatoes and juice. Simmer for 45 minutes until everythign is tender. Remove from heat and add coconut milk. In batches, transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Let cool and transfer to refrigerator or divide and freeze half.

Ta assemble whole dish:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs frozen raw shrimp
1 t old bay seasoning
1 whole fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and diced
2 cups basmati or jasmine rice
4 cups water
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Prepare rice in rice cooker or stove top. Heat sauce on stove top if using sauce made in advance. Peel thawed shrimp and remove tails if desired. Toss shrimp with 1 T olive oil and old bay seasoning, spread onto a cookie sheet. In a separate bowl, toss pineapple pieces with 1 T olive oil and a few grinds of sea salt. Spread pineapple on a different cookie sheet, and put under the broiler, broil until softened and turning brown. (Around 15 minutes) Remove pineapple from oven and put shrimp under broiler, until pink. (Around 5-7 minutes) Top bowls of rice with the curry sauce, shrimp and pineapple, and finish with cilantro.

Black Bean soup

I got the original recipe for this from my sister in law Kara, but I made some additions and changes. Here is my version:

Black Bean Soup

2 15 1/2 oz cans of black beans (drained and rinsed) (68 cents each)
24 oz jar mild picante sauce ($2)
5 cups of water
5 tsp chicken bouillon granules ($2.99 for whole jar)
2 Tbs ground cumin (99 cents for whole jar)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 yellow onion, diced (50 cents)
i large sweet potato, diced (80 cents)

Garnish:
shredded cheese ($2)
sour cream ($2)

bring water to boil, add bullion granules, stir to dissolve. Add diced onion and sweet potato. When those are softened, add beans, cumin, salt and pepper and picante sauce. Simmer until all is softened. Use an immersion blender, or transfer in batches to a blender to blend smooth. Garnish with cheese and sour cream. Serve with chips and guacamole on the side.

Easy, Cheap, and good! (makes 8 servings at about a $1.50 per serving)

Deals, galore!

Since I am so lax in writing anything on this blog, and I prefer doing more of a visual thing anyway, I decided that I am going to start documenting my awesome deals that I find at Goodwill and other thrift stores. Right before Christmas, I got the best deal I probably will ever find at Goodwill- a Lego Deathstar over 3,000 piece kit that I gave to Kent. As you can see from the picture, he was really excited. Having just looked into Lego sets at toy stores, I recently realized how pricy they can be, but I still underestimated how much this one was worth. I snapped it up for $30, thinking it was probably worth around $150, but it turns out that it retails at Toys R Us for $400, but it is also very hard to find due to high demand, so it is going on Ebay for around $550. Yowza! It sealed my legendary status as best wife ever, and brought joy to many adult hearts as Kent and his friends (all in their 30's) gleefully worked on assembling it. Kent's friend Jean Remy did the bulk of the assembly, and it will now go live at the place they work, a video game design company, where it can be appreciated by many star wars loving nerds at once. :)



The other recent triumph is a series of nine cashmere sweaters that I have found on separate trips that I gave out as Christmas gifts. Those all retail at $100 or more new. I am kind of known for my thrift hunting skills. The reason that I manage to find good things is because I have a catalog of information gleaned from years of browsing stores and reading fashion magazines to know the high quality brands. Even though I could never afford to buy any of these things new, I still retained the information. Even though I know I will likely not top the Lego deal, it got me thinking. I have posted some pics of deals on this blog in the past, but what if I track all of my second hand purchases this year, just to see how I do? Why not? I'll take a pic with my phone, and since I have google+, it will automatically upload online. I can then edit the picture to add text captions. Easy peasy. It will be interesting to see not only how much value I get for my money, but just how much stuff I am bringing home in a year from the thrift store. Maybe it will make me think twice about some purchases.

Here's the first of many hauls this year. (Click photo to enlarge and make text readable.)