When Paul and I weren’t sailing in Marina del Rey or biking along Venice Beach, we were savoring seafood at some of the best restaurants in town– most notably, one aptly named Killer Shrimp.

Our waitperson told us that they simmer the shrimp in a special seasoning for ten hours. We could smell it from the harbor. It’s killer. Trust me. I was so enamored of this delectable brew, that I Googled the recipe and found the “unofficial version” at Epicurious. Here it is.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3 ounces tomato paste
• 8 ounces clam juice
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup white wine
• 2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 pounds peeled shrimp, with tails
• French bread for dipping.

Partially break up the rosemary, thyme, and fennel seed with fingers. Place all ingredients, except wine and shrimp, in a large pot.
Simmer for about 30 minutes and add wine. Continue to simmer for a total cooking time of no more than 2 hours. Just before serving, add raw shrimp. Simmer until shrimp is done, stirring, about 2 minutes.  Serve. Each bowl should contain a serving of shrimp and a lot of broth, which should almost completely cover the shrimp.

Paul and I attended the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Clam Chowder Cook off today as tasters. It brought back a lot of memories for me because on this date six years ago, I entered as a contestant and won first prize. I remember the day very clearly. It  was February 26, 2005 and I had started off that year declaring it the “year of me.”  I had decided that I was going to venture out and do things I had never done before, things as a single mom I was basically doing alone. Like driving through the snow (which terrifies me) to take my girls skiing. And entering cooking contests just for the fun of it. All with the unspoken hope  that maybe I would meet someone.

The whole experience was extremely gratifying to me as I was flabbergasted by the overwhelming response to my chowder. My sister Jill worked the booth with me and gave me reports that the line at my booth was the longest, about 200 people deep. Amazing. When it was announced that I was the winner of the individual Manhattan Chowder I was both stunned and thrilled.

Tired and aching at the end of the day, I packed up my stove, table and tent and headed home. Alone. I was very satisfied with myself and yet something was missing. A month later I met Paul and I made him my chowder. He loved it. He was what was missing.

Here’s the winning recipe followed by some photos of my favorite booths today at the cook off.

Hot and Spicy Habanero Manhattan Clam Chowder

• ¼ to 1/3 cup (depending on taste) of Coeur D’Olives Habanero Infused Oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp or 2 tsp fresh thyme, crumbled
• 8 ounces of clam juice or seafood stock
• 2 14-16 oz cans chopped stewed tomatoes
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 1 large russet potato or 3 small new potatoes (I used purple.) peeled and chopped
• 1 4 oz can diced green chilies
• 2 6 ½ can chopped clams

In a large pot, over medium heat, heat the habanero oil and sauté onions, garlic, celery, bay leaf and thyme. Cook until onions wilted, about 7 minutes. Add clam juice or stock, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, chilies and clams with their juice and bring to a gentle boil. Add potatoes and let simmer for about 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Serve with crusty bread and a dark ale. Watch sea themed movies like Beaches and Jaws.

Cheryl and I had a stepmother/stepdaughter lunch yesterday. I had been promising her for weeks to take her to lunch and shopping as a belated  birthday present. She turned 13 in November and with my graduation, the holidays and her soccer schedule, we just didn’t get around to it. We went to a fantastic barbecue restaurant called SmoQe, which we had been wanting to go to for some time. Cheryl loves anything barbecue and the pulled pork sandwich she ordered yesterday was, in her words, “The best sandwich I have eaten in a long time.”  I had a bbq chicken, bacon and apple pizza and for desert, we toasted marshmallows to make s’mores at our table.

The food was great, but the best part was the conversation. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been meaning to write for days to wish everyone a Happy New Year, but I’ve been too busy slacking. That’s right. I’ve been taking it easy. Ever since I got back from my graduation I have been basking in the luxury of not having anything pressing to do other than shop, wrap Christmas presents and bake cookies. I did perform a few housekeeping tasks like vacuuming under the couch and throwing out some  boxes of stale cereal, but basically I’ve been reading books in front of the fireplace and listening to the rain.

I’ve also been cooking up a storm. One of my Christmas presents to myself was a cookbook I picked up  in the checkout line at Safeway. It is from Food and Wine and called Our Best New Classics. Edited by Dana Cowin. Not available on Amazon unfortunately, but sold in the magazine section of grocery stores. Amazing recipes. I made the Spicy & Sticky Baby Back Ribs and Paul declared the sauce “epic.” Other faves so far have been the Skillet Chicken & Mushroom Pot Pie and the Chicken Tikka with Cilantro and Yogurt Sauce. I find cooking relaxing and I am glad to have the time again to devote to it.

Paul and I are on a business trip in L.A. It is the first time we have been away together for work since last June when we were actually in Beverly Hills the day Michael Jackson died. It is nice to get away again and we have several other trips planned in the coming weeks. One to VEGAS!!! and the other to Reno, NV. In Vegas we will be staying at The Bellagio and attending a business conference.

Our business model has changed considerably in the past few months and Paul and I are enjoying working together and planning our new marketing strategies. My current studies in Internet Marketing are helping immensely. Yesterday Paul presented a seminar and afterward I was in the mood for sushi. They have great sushi restaurants here in L.A. Instead we tried something different and very unusual to me: shabu shabu. It is so cool. You have to try it. You cook your own food in pots of boiling water at your table. I know. It sounds treacherous, but it’s not. The meat is sliced very thin and it only takes a few minutes to cook. You can add your own spices and garnishes and top with sauces like miso and soy. Boiling the water draws out the fat in the meat. Then it is served with vegetables and noodles. Very good and very satisfying.

Now that I have officially started grad school I am much busier with my academics and classes and have less time for domestic chores around the house. Paul and I had a discussion with the kids and  told them everyone has to pitch in. From now on they have to do their own laundry, which they agreed to do (as long as I do the sorting). Since I have classes a few nights a week, the kids will need to cook a few dinners. The latter they are very excited about doing.  Our routine is that we decide together on a recipe, which I leave out on the kitchen counter along with all the ingredients.  While I am in my office on-line with one of my classes, they cook dinner. So far so good. Last night Eva made Pasta Puttanesca and it was delicious. She was very proud of herself. Sophia did the dishes. It is her turn to make dinner on Thursday. She plans to make quiche. Here is the link for the Pasta Puttanesca  recipe if you would like to try it. Some of the  ingredients she used were  products from Coeur d’Olives, my friend Les’ company that I am doing some marketing for right now.

To know me well is to know that I love cake. My family used to joke that all the early photos of me were of me licking icing off my fingers.  Perhaps that is because the only time my parents took photos was on birthdays. Still, cake and I have had a long love affair.

I recently discovered this great blog called  Piece of Cake Decorating. They offer custom made cakes as well as directions on how to make your own. My favorite is the slumber party cake, a variation of which I have made for my own kids. Check it out. Great fun.

On the last night of our trip fantastic, after a day spent at The Ocean City water park (and no, I did not pee in the pool) we had a feast of corn on the cob, grilled vegetables and the star attraction– hard shelled crabs. Maryland blue claw crabs are to the mid-Atlantic states what wild salmon is to Alaska and grits are to the South. They can be flown in, but there is nothing quite like stopping by a road side fish stand and picking them out of a bushel while they are still alive and kicking. The next best thing is catching them yourself which we often did on our summer camping trips on the east coast.

As with everything else on this trip, I wanted to share this experience with my children and I have to say they did not recoil in disgust as I feared they might.  First I taught them how to hold a live crab so that it would not bite them. (I consider this one of my special talents and part of my charm.) Then my brother-in-law, who did the cooking, showed them how to steam them in a large pot filled with some water, beer and Old Bay seasoning. The sauce was later poured over pasta and enjoyed along with the crabs. The final lesson was showing them how to break open the crabs to get the meat out. This they found to be a fun, albeit, messy challenge. And they loved the crabs. It was a perfect sendoff to a perfect trip.

I have been asked by Stoneyfield to review their Yobaby yogurt. Up until now, every product or Foodie review I have done has been on products of people that I know or have a personal connection to. And I only review things that I like. Often times I am approached by marketers and PR people asking me to plug their line or service; like The American Dental Association who asked me to write about the importance of early dental hygiene. As much as this may be a gripping topic for you, it would bore me to tears.  So I passed on that one.

When I got a pleasant email from Stonyfield’s marketing person and I remembered that my ex-husband’s ex-college roommate was their VP of Something,  I figured I would give them a try since I have always enjoyed all of their other products. I bought a couple of six packs and tried them with the kids. We tasted the apple, blueberry, banana and peach. They were all delicious in a way a baby would love–very smooth and creamy and mild tasting without that tart, sour taste some yogurts have. Mark commented that he liked how there weren’t any chunks of fruit in it. If I had babies,  I would definitely feed them Yobaby yogurt.

My good friend Les Cooper, owner of Coeur d’ Olives,  lives in Carmel, CA  and makes the best plain and infused olive oils I have ever tasted. I am not biased just because he is my friend. I met Les about 7 years ago when I first started my pressed flower glassware business. We met at  a promotional event at one of our stores and hit it off. Since I decorated olive oil bottles with pressed flowers and he made fantastic olive oils we decided to partner and sell our products together. For years we shared booths at festivals and sold side by side at the farmer’s market. When I sold my glassware business I carried Les’ products in my food repping business. I  still sell  for him occasionally, conduct product demonstrations and am always coming up with new uses and recipes for his diverse line of oils, balsamics, rubs, tapenades and spreads. I used his habanero infused oil to make  a Manhattan clam chowder and entered it in the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder cook-off and I won. I also make habanero brownies and  cookies. Recipes for these are included with purchase.  I tell customers that using Les’s oils and vinegars makes creative cooking easier. Pour his basil walnut dipping oil on pasta and get instant pesto. Use his aged balsamics to marinate chicken,  fish and vegetables  for a gourmet flair.