Like Bubba says..

"Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it." Then there's shrimp, pasta, and fresh parsley.
  

"The Phantom"

A note from the famous "Phantom" got Mom and I cooking again.. On the list was fresh pasta with basil, garlic, and cherry tomatoes, cooked until split.. the verdict: we haven't lost our touch.
Goodluck McDougle Kitchen!

challah

I made Mark Bittman's Challah bread last weekend.  Challah is a traditional Sabbath bread of European Jews - it is rich, eggy, and very tender.  The bread took about 3 hours to make, largely unattended. While I was waiting I researched recipes to make this week and played with my yellow Lab, Lily.  

doughnuts

Doughnuts with Old-English Spiced Sugar, a recipe by Jamie O.  Definition: A doughnut is a fried dough food and is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet, or occasionally savory, snack that can be homemade or purchased.  It is believed that in the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Gregory fried flavorful dough with walnuts for her son Hanson Gregory, hence the name doughnut.  Elise & Maggie made this after two delicious quiches that were on the Easter Menu today at the Smith House.  

gnocchi & baked halibut

Maggie here.  Mom is out working in the garden and I am going solo.  Decided to cook herby gnocchi with arugula & butter sauce and tandoori spiced halibut with cucumber.  Again I am relying pretty heavily on Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey recipes.  For the gnocchi I baked the potatoes first and then added in the fresh arugula, kneaded it, then rolled it out and cut into 1" pieces.  After cooking I gently tossed them with butter sauce, lemon zest and a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese.  For the halibut, I marinated the fillets in a spicy pepper paste with yogurt, sugar, chopped mint and lime juice then seared and baked to finish cooking.  The cucumbers were tossed with the extra spicy yogurt to make a cold cucumber salad. Is your mouth watering yet........

raviolini & baked ricotta

We're late getting this post up, but better late - well, you know the rest.  Main course was raviolini of celeriac and thyme, but not having any celeriac we substituted mushrooms and onions.  The spinach raviolini was hand made in Kate's pasta maker.  Dessert was baked ricotta with caramelized peaches.  Thanks to Jamie Oliver & Gordon Ramsey again.

pizza pies

Maggie decided it was time to make our own pizza pies, so back to Jamie O we went. We started with basic pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce and followed a recipe for six small pizzas with different toppings, including portobello mushrooms, seasoned new potatoes, egg, mozzarella cheese, rosemary and thyme. Delicious, except for the anchovies.

italian floating islands

Maggie found a new recipe on the Food Network website that we decided to try - zucchini lasagna. Made with fried zucchini (done in our wok), ricotta cheese and a marinara sauce, it looked like a standard lasagna (not Cassie Basting's, however) but was light as a feather when we tasted it. We think that adding a layer of homemade pasta next time might be a valuable addition. For dessert we challenged ourselves by making Floating Islands - meringue, roasted almonds and spun sugar (caramelized superfine sugar) laid atop 'proper' custard (made with a real Vanilla bean - $4.50 each - ouch). Our custard tasted great but could have used a little more cooking time for a firmer consistency.

homemade pasta

Even though Maggie was a little under the weather she wanted to cook homemade pasta so we borrowed Kaitlin's pasta maker (a wedding gift) to recreate Jaime Oliver's Cherry Tomato Sauce with Cheat's Fresh Pasta that we paired with Marinated Mozzarella from Gordon Ramsey. We topped off the meal with Fruit Scones (complete with French strawberry preserves and whipped cream).

thank you Jamie O

Spaghetti con gamberetti e rucola (spaghetti with shrimp & arugula) served last Saturday night at the first Smith Farm Cook In.