Sickness, Bad Movies and Big Dinner Dreams

It's Thursday.
Normally I would be all ecstatic, but this week I was feeling under the weather.
Went home a bit early Monday, couldn't get out of bed at all yesterday...Tuesday was a blur of just trying to make it.
While I was down for the count, I rented Julie and Julia because I decided that despite my raging dislike of Amy Adams, I love Julia Child (and that other thing...oh yeah, FOOD)
and that might make this movie worth it.
Long story short...not enough Julia, WAY TOO MUCH JULIE.

Julia= large, entertaining, loud, hungry for life.
Julie= small, whiny, annoying, hungry for attention.

The best part of that movie for me, was the part where Julie finds out that Julia hates her.
That moment alone salvaged the movie for me.
Ahh...the things you can waste time with when you are sick in bed.
But crappy movies aside, I'm back up and running. And as always, making grandiose cooking plans for this weekend. Home Made Lemon Pepper Shrimp Ravioli.
Just typing that gives me goose bumps.
Say it with me now folks... "Home made Lemon Pepper Shrimp Ravioli". See...now you are all goosebumpy too :)
So, the plan is to use the Lemon Pepper Fettuccine recipe that was in this month's issue of Food Network Magazine for the sauce base, make some home made noodles with lemon juice and herbs in the dough, and then use the Lobster Gram tried and tested Stuffed Shells Recipe for the stuffing mixture.
Hopefully, the outcome will be delicious lemon herb kissed pasta with a decadent creamy shrimp stuffing and a light creamy cheese sauce. Absolutely heavenly.
My toes are curling up with every mental image. It makes me want to go straight home tonight and make this recipe. If only there were more hours in the day.
So, no more lamenting over wasted sick time or bad rental movies, from here on out, the goal is to move towards Friday with single minded determination...

HOME MADE LEMON PEPPER SHRIMP RAVIOLI

Dungeness Crab Stuffed Bell Peppers

Good Monday morning Foodies, and Happy November! I hope everyone had a great Halloween...I know I did!
It was chilly over the weekend (Shocker, Shocker) so I decided that Sunday would be the day to stay home and cook. This week's recipe: Dungeness Crab Stuffed Bell Peppers.
Honestly folks...this is one of the best crab recipes I have ever enjoyed. The stuffing stayed a bit crisp, the peppers were not overcooked and bursting with flavor and the sweet mild Dungeness crab meat melded so well with the fresh Mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses.
That crab stuffing was to die for. I must find new uses for it, and try it with Lobster. In my experience anything that is awesome with crab, will be even more so with a nice Maine or Tristan Lobster Tail. More on that experiment later!
Also, this weekend was the first time I got to test drive my new Nikon :)
Gone are the days of slightly blurry photography clipped from the Flip camera. My Flip is outstanding when it comes to video, but for still photography, it was time to move on up!
So here are the recipe and video for the Dungeness Crab Stuffed Bell Peppers. Good photography coming soon!

Dungeness Crab Stuffed Bell Peppers
Ingredients
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
The meat of 1 11/2 -2lb Dungeness Crab
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 dry minced onion
4 bell peppers
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions
Sauté vegetables, excluding bell peppers, in clarified butter until tender (about 5 minutes). Mix in the Crab Meat and bread crumbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stuff bell peppers and cover tops with cheese. Bake 350°F for 30 minutes covered with tinfoil. Remove tinfoil after 30 minutes and continue to bake for another 10 minutes uncovered until cheese becomes brown on top.
Serve immediately.

Crab Saute Scampi

Good Monday morning Foodies! I hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend!
I spent Saturday evening preparing another great seafood dish in honor of National Seafood Month! This week's recipe was an easy Crab Saute Scampi with Lobster Gram's Fresh Catch Jonah Crab Meat.
The Fresh Catch Jonah Crab Meat from Lobster Gram is ideal for so many recipes because of how convenient it is! Two lbs of this fresh Jonah Crab Meat already cooked, picked and shelled for you! All you have to do is find your favorite recipe and toss in the crab!
Gourmet does not have to mean complicated! In my experience, the easiest way to create a five star feast is working with quality products and letting that quality shine through.
This recipe is a great example of just that!

How to Make Crab Saute Scampi


Ingredients
12 oz. cooked Jonah Crab meat
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 cup white wine
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/4 cup clam juice or chicken broth
Pinch salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley
1 lb. cooked pasta

Directions
In a medium sauté pan, melt the 1/4 cup of butter and sauté the garlic until it is golden brown. Add white wine, clam juice or chicken broth and spices and bring to a boil. Let sauce boil away until half is left. Add the crab meat and return to a simmer. Reduce heat, add the remaining butter and simmer until the butter melts and the sauce thickens. Serve at once over your favorite pasta. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Images from Roasted Rosemary Shrimp

Images from Saturday night's feast of Roasted Rosemary Shrimp, Greek Potatoes and Fresh Green Beans. Everything was awesome!

Oven Roasted Dungeness Crab with Orange Dipping Sauce

Good Wednesday morning foodies. It's a slow start for me today, I can't seem to wake up! Last night I made Oven Roasted Dungeness crabs with orange dipping sauce. I made just the legs of the Dungeness this way, and the body meat I threw into an Alfredo sauce that went into the freezer for dinner some other night. Yay for planning ahead!
My camera man/ Sous Chef/boy was cool enough to use the awesome new pasta press to make home made noodles to have with the crab. I would have liked to serve it over a green salad or something like that, but he was DIEING to try it out and hand made pasta is always friggen awesome. I won't turn down home made pasta/help because I'm not insane...(no comments from the peanut gallery on that one please)thankfully everything turned out excellent.
We both enjoyed the orange dipping sauce so much I went back to the stove and made a bowl of it to bring to the dinner table. What we had drizzled on the crab was never going to be enough. I even used the reduction to dip my bread into. I wish I would have had enough of it to freeze some for later use. That would be an awesome marinade for a lot of different seafood dishes.
Enough of my rambling...I do that when I'm tired.
Here is the video and the recipe for last night's seafood adventure! Later today, I'll be downstairs in front of the Lobster Gram warehouse preparing our NEW Angus Steak Burgers, our Giant 7-8 oz Bratwurst and Giant 7-8 oz Hot dogs for the office. It's another one of our famous BBQ days and that's always a blast. I'll definitely have some great pictures to share with you all from that! Happy Eating foodies!


Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup olive oil (Use Orange)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 1/2 teaspoons dried crushed red pepper
|2 large Dungeness crabs, cooked, cleaned, and cracked (about 4 1/4 pounds)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, divided
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
1/2 cup blood orange juice or regular orange juice
1 teaspoon finely grated blood orange peel or regular orange peel

Directions
Preheat oven to 500°F. Melt butter with oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic and green onion. Add crabs. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon chopped thyme and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley over crabs. Stir to combine.
Place crab legs in oven dish and pour melted butter mixture over crab. Roast crabs until heated through, stirring once, about 12 minutes. When Crabs are roasted, pour crab drippings from roasting dish back into the skillet you used before and add orange juice and peel to same skillet; Add the other tbs of Thyme and Parsley. Boil until sauce is reduced by about half and serve drizzled over crab and along side it for dipping.

Citrus Marinated Pepper Wrapped Scallop Skewers

Man is that a mouth full to say! Last night I made Citrus Marinated Pepper Wrapped Scallop Skewers with a recipe that I created and they were OUTSTANDING! I served them with lemon rice also laced with the red and yellow peppers I used for the scallops and all of is was just heaven. I am definitely keeping this recipe on hand for future use!



Marinade Ingredients
* 1 tsp Soy Sauce
* 4 tbs honey
* 4 tbs lemon juice
* 4 tbs mandarin orange juice
* 2 tbs orange or lemon EVOO

Dry Ingredients
* 1 tbs Garlic Powder
* 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
* 1 tbs lemon pepper
* 1 tsp Paprika
* ½ tsp Ginger

Accompaniments
6 Bamboo Skewers soaking in remaining Mandarin Orange Juice from can
2 Bell Peppers Orange, Red or Yellow
Rice for serving ( I made lemon/pepper white rice)

Directions
Combine marinade ingredients, set some off to the side for later use, and place scallops in the bowl of marinade. Let sit covered in the fridge for no more than 30 minutes. Anything more than 30 minutes and the acids will actually start cooking the scallops and you would end up with something more like Ceviche than anything.
While scallops are marinating, seed and core the bell peppers.
Brush peppers with citrus olive oil and place bell down on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes or until pepper begins to brown at the bottom and is soft and mailable. While peppers are baking, combine all dry ingredients. Remove peppers from oven and slice to 1 inch wide strips
Sprinkle dry ingredients onto the scallops and push in with fingers to make sure it stays in place Take the strips of pepper and wrap around the scallop securing with the skewer. Sprinkle with dry rub before placing on the hot grill. Turn after 3 minutes and cook the reverse side for 3 minutes. Cooked Scallops should be completely white.