Shrimp Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I'm not even sure what to say to start this off. :)

Just make these. I promise you will inhale them. They were that good.

More than good...spectacular, phenomenal. Amazingly fresh.

OK, take a couple mushrooms and chop them up.

I used 3 med sized zucchini for this, but I ended up with quite a bit of the filling leftover. So, you could easily use 4 or 5. Slice them lengthwise.

Take a spoon and gently scrape out the seats and meat. If you've never done this before (ahem...Annie) be gentle. Don't try to get it all out in one scoop.

Brush the insides with a bit of olive oil and lay them open side down on a baking sheet or stone. Put them under the broiler for about 8-10 minutes.

While those are in the oven, get some shrimp (I used 1lb of large) and chop them up a bit, into 3 pieces or so. Raw shrimp really grosses me out. It just does...I can't help it.

OK, now throw about 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Toss in 3 pressed cloves of garlic and 1/2 of a yellow onion. Let them saute for a couple minutes.  Then take the shrimp, mushrooms, onion & garlic...toss them together in a bowl with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Add 1 can of Italian diced tomatoes (drain them as much as you can). Last, toss in 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese & 1/2 cup of feta cheese.

It's not the prettiest mixture in the world.

Scoop the mixture into the zucchini halves. Sprinkle some more Parmesan cheese on them and pop them in the oven at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.

So, like I mentioned earlier, I had a ton of the filling left over. I threw it into a skillet for a few minutes until the shrimp was nice and pink. 

I was planning on serving these with some Lavash crackers (flat bread). I took a sample.

Boats are done!

I'm making these again very, very soon. Next week possibly.

They were exceptional. Such amazing flavor!



My First Chocolate Souffle

Last night I decided to utilize the souffle dish that has been sitting in my cupboards for the past 7 years. I found a chocolate souffle recipe in my good old Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. It looked easy enough, so I gave it a whirl.

The first thing you do is wrap foil around the dish. Have around 2 inches above the rim.

Next, butter the dish & foil and sprinkle with sugar.

In a sauce pan melt 2 Tbsp of butter. Stir in 3 Tbsp of flour. It'll clump up pretty quickly. Pour in 3/4 cup of milk and stir until it's thick and bubbly.

Add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Stir until melted, remove from heat.

In a bowl, beat 4 egg yolks. Gradually add the chocolate mixture to the eggs. Do it slowly so that the eggs don't cook from the heat.

Next you want to beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form. Then add 1/4 cup of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Now take about a cup of the egg whites and fold them into the chocolate mix.

Then take that and fold it into the rest of the egg whites.  It'll look something like this:

Pour it into the souffle dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Be still, my heart.

Now eat it!!

Barcelona and Butifarra

20 years ago I spent 6 weeks in Spain with my family on a church missions trip.

I remember that pastry. It was like a Boston cream pie croissant. So good!

My dad and I. Check out his shoes and socks. Aren't they rad?

So...we spent our time in Barcelona and the surrounding towns and cities. I would love to go back as an adult. Being only 9 when we traveled there, my memories are few. I do remember the food though. There are a few meals that really stick out to me. One was a paella that was cooked outside by a gypsy over an open flame. I don't know what all was in it, but I remember how GOOD it was. The other dish that we had quite a few times was Butifarra and beans. Butifarra is a sausage that is practically unheard of here in the States. It's a basic white sausage, not much to it...meat, salt & pepper.  What makes it special is the type of pork that it's made from. Since we don't have it readily available here, I went with a beef smoked sausage instead.

Throw the sausage on a grill for a few minutes on each side. It's already cooked so this is just to heat it up and get some smoke flavor in.

In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup of olive oil. Add 3 cloves of garlic (pressed or minced) and saute for about 2 minutes. Add 1 can of Cannellini beans and saute those for about 5 minutes.

Next, add fresh spinach leaves. I used a 10oz bag.  Let them wilt as you stir them in with the beans.

To serve, place the spinach & beans on a plate. Slice up the sausage on top and enjoy!

It was really delicious and full of flavor.

 The original recipe that I had in Spain didn't have spinach and it had a lot more beans than my dish.The beans were almost creamy and soupy.  I'm definitely going to try this again with a pork sausage and more beans, but this version definitely got a thumbs up!