Contessa's Shrimp Salad

I took this picture before I added the capers. I took another picture, but the food was 1/2 gone and didn't look very good. Trust me, the capers are a great addition.  I copied this recipe out of a magazine, but when I went on Foodnetwork.com, I couldn't find it.
I just bought 1 pound of shrimp and cut the other ingredients to match the amount of shrimp.  Now I wish that I had bought 2 1/2 pounds because left-overs would be appreciated.


Printable Version
Ingredients for Shrimp:
2 1/2 pounds shrimp (peel and devein)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Ingredients for the Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh dill, minced
2 tablespoons drained capers
2 tablespoons red onion
Directions for shrimp:
Peel and devein shrimp. Place on a sheet pan with olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss the ingredients and spread shrimp in a single layer. Roast 6-8 minutes. Cool 3 minutes.
Directions for sauce:
Whisk together mayonnaise, orange zest, orange juice, vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.  Add cooled shrimp to sauce. Add dill, capers, and red onion. Toss well. Set at room temperature 30 minutes. We did not wait 30 minutes. We waited about 3 minutes. 

Countdown to School

I made this countdown calendar for the start of school for 2 grandsons.  There are 23 pockets, but I think next time I will cut it in 1/2 and put grommets in the bottom half and have two. I bought the over-the-door shoe holder at Target for about $8. Then I found some things that I thought they would like. Many of them came from Below 5 and Target's cheap isle. 

Cherry Pie Bars

• Cherry cloud bars are light, fluffy cloud-like cakes bursting with delicious cherry pie filling and lightly glazed. These bars are simple to throw together. We dished it into bowls and made it more like a cobbler than bars.

Printable Version

• Ingredients
  1 cup of butter, softened (but not completely melted)
  2 cups of sugar
  4 eggs
  1 tsp vanilla extract
  1/2 tsp salt
  1/4 tsp almond extract
  3 cups all purpose flour
  2 cans of cherry pie filling (can use just 1 if you need to)
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  
• Method:
• In a mixing bowl, cream your butter, sugar- add eggs and almond extract, beating well to mix. Add flour & Salt, Mixing Well.
  
  Spread half of the batter in a greased 9x13 pan, Spoon the Pie Filling over the batter Randomly drop tablespoons remaining batter over the pie filling (*do not mix the pie filling INTO the cake)
  
  Bake for 35 min or until your toothpick comes out clean
  
  If you wish to add a glaze mix 1 c. Powdered sugar, 1 tsp almond extract, 2 tsp milk and drizzle over the baked bars after they have completely cooled.

Warren's Chicken Bites

I found this recipe Here.  Fortunately, I started these really early because I was going to take them to an outdoor concert. I found that they need to cook more like 1 hour, turning them after 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken tenders or breast cutlets, flattened and cut in half
• Two 3-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 16 slices bacon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Top each piece of chicken with 1 teaspoon cream cheese and 1/4 teaspoon chopped jalapeno. Roll up each filling-covered chicken piece and wrap with 1 slice of bacon, securing with a toothpick. Transfer to a baking sheet and place in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Cook Notes: You can also cook these on an outdoor grill: Grill for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once.

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Patty Melt

OMG this will not be the last time I make these.  Jud was smoking our brisket for our July 4th celebration and he made-up some hamburger patties. We had seen this on Pioneer Woman and decided we wanted some. You can find that recipe Here.  At the time, I was pretty sure I didn't need a recipe.  Now that I look, I did fine. We had two slices of Monterey Jack cheese and I used that instead of Swiss Cheese. Other than that, it was pretty much the same.  I did use my new pannini press that I got for Christmas. These were awesome.

Stuffed Salmon

This is so easy and delish.  We went to H.E.B. today and they were offering this salmon as samples. We loved it and decided that we wanted this for dinner. It couldn't be easier.  You put it in a 400-450 degree oven for 15 minutes, I think.  You just buy a package and it tells you the directions on the package. It is salmon stuffed with crab stuffing. Those tomatoes were from the Farmers Market at Lakeline Mall. They were THE BEST TOMATOES I HAVE EVER HAD. Oh how I would love to be able to grow tomatoes like these.

Peach Snack Cake

I found this recipe on Pinterest Here. Jud liked it better than me.  I thought it was good, but not great. I was looking for great.











Printable Version

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup granulated sugar plus 3 teaspoons, divided
2. 2 1/2 cups sliced peaches
3. 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
4. 2 cups flour
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
7. 1 1/2 cups whole milk
8. 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Method:

1. Spray an 8-x-8-inch baking dish with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. 1. In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons sugar and corn starch. Toss peaches in the mixture and coat evenly. Set aside.
3. 2. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. In another bowl, whisk together milk and butter. Slowly pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until incorporated.
4. 3. Pour cake batter into prepared baking dish. Press sliced peaches into the cake batter and place some on top. Put in the oven and bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Notes

1. Peach Cobbler Snack Cake will keep up to 3 days stored in an airtight container.