Grilled Oysters

When I was a little girl, I ate oysters ALL the time.  I LOVED them.  RAW.  Uh huh.  Until I was about 6 or 7.  And when I say raw, I mean raw - with no cracker, no horseradish, no cocktail sauce, no nothing.  Just a slippery oyster.  After 6 or so, I quit eating them all together.  I think I bit into one once.  The ultimate raw oyster no-no, LOL.

The first year Kyle and I vacationed in NOLA, we ate at Bacco in the French Quarter (sadly, it's now closed).  It was a Brennan family Italian restaurant and it was marvelous!  We were there celebrating our anniversary and when the chef found out, he sent us a few tastings.  One was a panko fried oyster on a bed of greens with a dipping sauce.  It was the most amazing bite of food I've ever put in my mouth, EVER!  From that moment on, I was hooked again.  And honestly, there's almost something adventurous about eating oysters, haha.  Is it sad that I find adventure in food?!  Hmmm...

Anyway, we eat at Acme Oyster House SEVERAL times each time we go to NOLA.  It's an obsession.  I think it may be the actual reason we keep returning, haha.  We are obsessed with their grilled oysters... they are amazing.  We usually get a few dozen each trip.  Sometimes every day!  When we went to Lake Charles I almost died of heartbreak that the nearest Acme was still 2 hours away!!!

A few weeks ago, Kyle went to the grocery store while I was at home, dying from a head cold.  It was a bad one!  Anyway, when he got home he said "I REALLY wish you weren't sick," um, yeah!  You and me both buddy, LOL - then he said "HEB had a 9 pack of fresh oysters for $6!!"  Well, then I was REALLY wishing I wasn't sick!

I've had the hardest time living in San Antonio for one reason: NO FRESH SEAFOOD!!!!  I'd have never known that moving just 2 1/2 hours from the coast would limit my seafood selection so badly!!  So, I have to rely on HEB for seafood.  It's not ideal.  But these oysters are fresh and they even give you their harvest date - it's awesome!

So, before I continue my novel... I'll give you the recipe!!!

Grilled Oysters

Ingredients:

Fresh oysters, on the half shell

1 stick butter

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 Tbsp minced or dried onion

1 tsp red pepper fakes

dash Tabasco 

salt, to taste

Directions:

Soften the butter by leaving it out or in the microwave.  Gently mash it with a fork.  Add the next 5 ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Place butter on a piece of plastic wrap and form into a roll.  Refrigerate until thickened again.

Word to the wise - our oysters are in the shell, they don't come on the half shell, so we shuck them.  This is a process.  Not entirely hard, but you gotta know how to do it.  So, keep that in mind before running to buy this stuff!

So, shuck and clean your oysters, leaving them attached to the bottom shell.  

As you can see, these aren't huge - but the flavor is impeccable!

Take the butter out of the fridge, slice it and place a slice on each oyster.  Place on the grill and cook until done - you'll know this when it starts to really bubble and the oyster shell begins to char a little. 

We serve these with grilled bread.  I slice a french baguette and butter one side with the leftover garlic butter mix.  Then we place it on the grill, butter side up on the top rack of the grill for about 2 minutes per side.  Be careful not to burn it, so really watch it.

I need a picture of the butter and the bread, a better one on the actual grill! :)  We'll be making these again soon, as there is another bag in my fridge as I type!  I'll take more pictures and post those too!!!  

Let me know if you make these - they are amazing.  And for $6 - you can't beat that!!!!!

meal plan - march 17-23

Here is our meal plan from this last week --  this is probably the first one I've made and stuck to all the way in a very long time!  :/  Hopefully it won't be the last for a while, though, LOL

Saturday - Steaks with baked potatoes and greens
Sunday - Herb Roasted Chicken, Garlic Noodles and fresh green beans
Monday - Pan Seared Tilapia with Lemon Dill Sauce, Rice Pilaf and Corn on the Cob
Tuesday - Honey Lime Chicken Skewers, Pasta Roni, Grilled Zucchini
Wednesday - Chicken and Rice Casserole, left over Green Beans
Thursday - we ate out, LOL
Friday - Spirit Party for dance
Saturday - Pork Chops with roasted fingerling potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower and GRILLED OYSTERS!!!

Grilled Oysters... yes.  Amaze.  OMG.

I'll post about those, right NOW!  Happy planning!!!

Buffalo Chicken Wontons

So, Kyle and I had these at a restaurant once and FELL IN LOVE.  Um, they are SO good!  A few weeks later we'd planned a date night at home (you know the kind... you feed the kid early and get her in bed and THEN you enjoy dinner alone and a movie or game night!).  Sometimes, home dates are the best :)

Anywho... we usually try to make something fun for dinner and this is what we wanted.  So, we used part of what we knew of the recipe for Buffalo Chicken dip and improvised from there!  The result was perfect.  No tweaking needed, don't you love it when that happens?!

Introducing... or maybe not really, since this is SO not original... LOL...

BUFFALO CHICKEN WONTONS

Ingredients:
1 pkg wonton wrappers
1 cup chicken, cubed and cooked*
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Frank's RedHot Buffalo Sauce
4 Tbsp butter, melted & cooled
Oil, for frying

Directions:
* We use fresh chicken breast, not canned.  We've used canned, you can, but it's MUCH better fresh.  That said, when we cook the chicken, we have it already diced small and we saute it in a smidge of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Let the chicken cool while you prepare the rest of the ingredients or it will melt your cheeses too much.

Mix cooled chicken and blue cheese, stir gently.  Add cheddar cheese, stir again.  Add Frank's and butter and stir to combine and cover thoroughly.

Lay out your wonton wrappers.  If you've never used wonton wrappers before, you will need a small bowl of water and a paper towel.  You'll wet the edges of the wrappers in order to make them stick together.

Add a small dollup of filling to each wonton.  You will need to play around with this, but it's usually about 3/4 Tbsp.

Wet your finger in the water and slide it across the edge of the wrapper.  We've found it's easiest if you start in the middle and work out on each side.  The wrappers are dusted in cornstarch, so you will get sticky and white!  Your water will also look muddled after a while.

Fold the wrapper from one corner to another, to create a triangle.

Seal well, pressing out all the air pockets.

Lay finished wontons on a plate.

We have ALWAYS cooked these inside, but on Super Bowl Sunday, we used an outdoor fryer.  You need to fill your pot about 3/4 way full with oil and heat it on medium to medium-high heat.  Use an extra wonton wrapper to test the oil.

You should be able to fry the wontons in two batches.  Place about half of them in there until the wrapper turns light golden brown and gets crispy.  Use a slotted spoon to remove and place in a shallow dish lined with paper towels.  Immediately hit them with a small amount of salt.

Serve with ranch dressing.  ENJOY!!

Oven Roasted Herbed Turkey

Are you afraid of the big bird??  I was.  What if it was dry?  What if it was bland??  What if it burned?!?!  And how in the world do you cook a huge turkey?!

The first year I cooked a turkey, I used this Roasted Herb Butter Turkey recipe from Sandra Lee,  It was... pretty good.  But it wasn't perfect.  The skin was soggy from the butter and while the flavor was nice and the turkey was moist, it just didn't scream "Make me every year!"

The next year I decided to use a little of the Sandra Lee recipe and a little of this Herb Roasted Chicken recipe.  And, WOW!  That was it!!!  Poultry perfection!!!

Butterball has an AWESOME website dedicated to how long to cook your turkey, how much turkey you need for how many people, how long to thaw it, etc.  Check it out.  Everybody should use this every year!

So, here is my version of a great Thanksgiving Turkey!

REMINDER -- It is important that you take the size of your turkey into consideration when planning this recipe and cooking.  I used a 14lb turkey and it cooked a little over 3 hours.  You also need to adjust your seasonings based on the size of your turkey.  So plan accordingly!!

Oven Roasted Herbed Turkey

Ingredients:

Turkey

2 lemons, halved

Bunched fresh sage, rosemary and thyme

1 yellow onion, quartered

1 whole pod of garlic, peeled and gently crushed

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery sticks

4 cups chicken broth

For every 4 lbs of your turkey you will need the following:

1 Tbsp fresh Sage

1 Tbsp fresh Rosemary

1 Tbsp fresh Thyme

1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions:

THAW your turkey!!!  Make sure your turkey is thawing several days before Thanksgiving.  It takes DAYS to thaw in the fridge and hours to thaw in water.  For some reason, you can not leave a whole turkey out on the counter to thaw.  So don't try it!  Plan ahead and thaw the baby out right!

Once your turkey has thawed, open the packaging and remove the bag inside the cavity.  Also... you may chose to remove the butt.  Just sayin'... some people do like to eat it though.  Hm.

Preheat your oven to 350°.  

Chop the sage, rosemary and thyme, finely.  Place in a small bowl and add vegetable oil, salt and pepper.  Stir thoroughly.  This can be done early and refrigerated.  The earlier you do it, the more the flavors of the herbs will infuse the oil.  But it can also be done right before baking and that is fine too!  No fuss!  Also, make sure you use the above measurements for EVERY 4 POUNDS of turkey.  

OK... you're ready to go.  If you are using a turkey roaster with a rack, place the rack in the roaster and place the celery and carrots in the bottom of the turkey roaster.  Pour enough chicken broth over the carrots and celery to cover them and fill the pan about an inch high.  You need to keep an eye on this as you roast your turkey.  You do not want to let the juices burn off because you will start to burn the turkey drippings as well.  If it starts to get low, just add more broth. 

Rinse your bird and pat it dry with paper towels.  This will help the herbs stick.  Place the turkey atop the roasting rack and rub down with the oil and herb mixture.  Cover the whole bird, make sure you get inside the wings and legs and the bottom of the turkey.  Once you've used all of the herb mix, stuff the turkey with the lemon, garlic, onion and remaining herb clippings.

I should say that after about 90 minutes, you should baste your turkey every 20-30 minutes.  However, we forgot to do this and still had an AMAZINGLY moist and tasty bird, so..... apparently it wasn't a horrible sin!!

The size of your turkey will determine the cooking time, but it should be 180° internally before removing the turkey.  

Once you remove your bird from the oven, let it rest 20-30 minutes before carving.  

ENJOY!!

Cranberry Sauce

Did you like it as a kid??  Cranberry sauce...???  Was it served from a can??  Did you have the jelly kind or the whole fruit kind?  *blech*  I never liked it.  Ever.  So, in trying to figure out what may make me like it more... I decided to make my own!  Well, well... what have we here?!  Oh, it's just THE BEST CRANBERRY SAUCE EVER!!!!!  Um, yeah... it's THAT good!  In fact, it is so good that my kidney challenged husband, who has had more cranberry juice, pills, sauce, etc. forced down his throat that he cares to admit, and who will tell you every chance he gets that he HATES cranberry... LOVES this!  Yeah.  It's THAT good.

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:
12 oz bag fresh cranberries
3/4 cup orange juice
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar

Directions:
Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium-high for 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced, stirring occasionally.  You’ll hear the cranberries popping - don’t worry!!!!  That’s what you want them to do!  Remove from heat and serve immediately.

You can make the sauce days ahead, just bring it to room temperature or slightly heat before serving.

Don't serve it cold, it's not the same!!

French's Fried Onion Green Bean Casserole

I don't know about you, but I've never made it any other way... French's Onion Green Bean Casserole!  It is perfect, why mess with that?!

French's Onion Green Bean Casserole

recipe here

photo courtesy of French's

We double the recipe everytime we make it.  It is so good, warms up beautifully, AND *bonus* you can make it the night before and warm it up the next day!  Just don't add the top onions until the next day and you're good to go!  I want some now... haha!

Steamed Carrots

These were SO cute and so easy!  Well, they were tedious, but easy!  My mom is on a very strict diet - she counts fat grams instead of calories.  And it has done WONDERS for her.  She lost 60lbs in 8 months.  Healthfully.  But, sometimes it is challenging to keep to her diet when eating in other people's homes.  I wanted to be conscious of not only her need for less fattening foods, but also her need to not have me make 10 separate sides just for her!  I LOVE carrots and I've always wanted to make these fancy little cuties, so this was the perfect time to do it!

Steamed Carrots

First of all, I didn't know you couldn't just buy the carrots like this in the store...?!  Well, maybe at specialty stores you can.  But not at HEB.  So, you have to buy full sized carrots with tops.

Ingredients:
3 bunches full size carrots with tops

Directions:
Cut the greens to about 1" tall.  Wash the carrots thoroughly.  I did this the night before.  They don't oxidize, so this worked perfectly. 

Peel the outer layer of skin off the carrots and trim them to the size you want.  For me, this meant cutting off some of the tip and for some, slimming them down.  I used the shavings and what I cut off in the bottom of my turkey roaster while I cooked my turkey, so nothing went to waste!

Using a steaming rack in my 4qt pot, I steamed the carrots about 20 minutes.  Until they were tender to the fork.  Salt and pepper them, to taste.

If you are not worried about counting fat grams, you should probably add some butter to them when you remove them from the pot.  A little will go a long way.

So easy!  So cute!!  So healthy!!!