Saturday, May 29, 2010

Angel Hair Shrimp



1/2 lb. Angel Hair Pasta
1 lb. shrimp, shelled, cleaned & cooked
1 stick butter, cut into chunks
1 Tbl. Minced garlic
1 tsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 Tbl. flour
1 cup half & half
1 tsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package. In a large frying pan melt butter. Add garlic. On medium high heat saute until lightly browned. Add flour. Stirring constantly, cook for about 1 minute. Stir in half & half and basil. Heat until sauce starts to thicken. Add shrimp, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Cook on medium heat until bubbly hot. Serve over pasta. Serves 4-6

Changes - I originally found two recipes for shrimp with sauce. One was served over Angel Hair, the other was served on it's own. I didn't like some of the ingredients in the Angel Hair recipe and I didn't like some of the recipes in the other recipe. So I decided to Think With My Taste Buds and pulled the ingredients I liked in each and combined them coming up with the above recipe. I did use store bought, pre-cooked and cleaned shrimp which cut the time for making this dish down to just a few minutes. I used fresh basil from my window garden but you can use dried but cut the amount in half. The half & half made the sauce so rich and creamy. I think the only change I would make to this would be to pour everything into a baking dish, top with a few panko bread crumbs and bake until hot. You could add a little cheese but this is really good as it is.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Blueberry Bread



1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup self rising flour
1/2 - 3/4 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Whisk butter and sugar together. Whisk in egg, then milk, then flour, making each is well blended before adding the next. Fold in blueberries. Pour into pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This idea came to me while surfing some of the food sites. I ran across a recipe for blueberry muffins but they called for 2 cups of blueberries. I only had just over 1/2 cup. These were leftover from my TV segment last Thursday and I'm not fond of raw blueberries but refuse to throw food away, so I had been looking for a way to use them. The muffin recipe called for all purpose flour with baking soda added. I decided to simplify it and use self rising. I also eliminated the lemon zest and juice from the original. I really didn't know if this was going to work but I'm here to tell you it did better than work. This bread is wonderful. I can't wait to have a piece toasted in the morning for breakfast. It's not too sweet, the texture is perfect and the taste is perfect. Changes - add a few nuts, add some lemon juice and zest, or try this recipe with just about any left over berry type fruit.