What's For Lunch? Recipes.

I had some friends over last night and we feasted on chili shrimp and black beans and tortillas and all the fixings: guacamole, ( thank you Costco), shredded cheese, ditto. shredded cabbage, onions, salsa, sour cream.

First course my friends brought Greek spanikopita and stuffed grapeleaves, and for dessert, my daughter and her wife brought a chocolate covered vanilla pudding and graham cracker pie/cake/wicked something. 

Since it's mango season we had Mangoritas first. I rarely drink, but this is from my tree!!! I now have about 10 quarts of frozen mango in my small freezer. Got to use them some how.

Mango-Rita Recipe

Recipe: Makes FOUR generous drinks with ice, or served over ice. You make your own decision.
Make a simple syrup of 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a pan, heat until dissolved and clear, cool.
Squeeze limes, oh around 15 or more depending on the size of the Persian limes, you don't want to be doing this after a few of those Mangoritas. I had no idea how many I needed, but the bag of limes from, where else, Costco, held a few dozen or more. I used one of those heavy metal lime squeezers, the best kitchen tool I ever bought, (except for the espresso maker,) 
I ended up with about two cups of the juice. 

Put in blender or Magic Bullet - 6 oz tequilla, 3 oz. triple sec, 3 oz. fresh lime juice, 2 oz simple syrup.
Add about a 1 and 1/2 cups of mango pulp or chunks and the same amount of ice. Whizzzzz. Serve over ice or not. Enjoy. Now, who is cooking dinner?!!!!

So, as the title promises, todays leftovers were as follows.

Guajillo chile rubber shrimp over grits. Yes, I have, after living in the south for over 20 years, have picked up this crazy combination but it works, creamy cheesy grits, served hot in a bowl, with the chile spiced shrimp just served on top.

Shrimp and Grits

1 shallot and oil and butter
1/4 cup fine yellow grits
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
pinch of salt
1/4 cup romano cheese finely grated

In a small try pan - Peel and saute about a half pound of fresh frozen wild caught shrimp.
I dusted the shrimp with Guajillo chilli powder and some lime juice over them as they sauteed. 

For one portion of grits
I sauteed a shallot in olive oil and butter, about a total of 1/2 T.
Then I added the milk and water, brought to a low boil, I poured in the grits and stirring over low heat about two minutes, until it thickened, I added the cheese, if too thick add more milk. Salt and pepper.
Serve the shrimp over the grits.

And also left over was a pint of all the lime juice that  I squeezed and today I made my own real lime-ade. With the leftover sugar syrup I made yesterday for the Margaritas.

Lime-ade - half lime juice and half simple syrup served over lots of ice. Tart and sweet. Refreshing.

New Necklace For Summer

 Nile Valley Necklace just ready for summer. Brass, stone, and s type clasp.

Hot Hot Hot

Summers in SoFl are usually hot, when the humidity is high it's hard to enjoy, but when the air is clear of moisture it's lovely. The gardens are getting a regular weekly dose of rain. The mangos are dropping one or two or three a day. I have been enjoying them with plain yogurt or in a lassi. You say what is a lassi, well it's an Indian drink to cool one off in the summer's heat.
Here is my recipe. I use a Magic Bullet, large cup size.

Fill the container 2/3 full with very ripe juicy mango, ( cut along pit on each side starting from the stem end and then score the fruit and scoop out with a large spoon. You can also cut more from around the pit.) This recipe takes one large mango like the one shown below.
then add no fat or low fat plain yogurt (I love organic Stoneybrook Farm plain fat free) almost to the top
add a pinch of sea salt, I used pink Himalayan salt, then
drizzle in a little honey, I used Florida native Orange Blossom honey ( made in the US only )

Blitz in  Magic Bullet. Enjoy. Fabulous.

Happy Warm Winter January 24, 2012

I love the way this seating turned out. A friend made the storage boxes with hinged tops for the base, I bought the extra dense foam for the seat cushions, took home two HUGE rolls in my small SUV, and found different fabrics to cover the many back cushions. I added lights for the holiday season, but found I liked them so much, they are staying. The seating is large enough to sleep on.

The coffee table was another find at Netties Consignment Shop. It is very heavy off white, solid wood, with shabby chic dents, chips and painted areas rubbed off. I liked the pierced side area, seemed to go with the Moroccan vibe I was doing for the living roo. What I especially liked about this coffee table was it's huge size, three feet by four feet, and large enough to balance out the large seating area and have 6 -8 people around it to feast on food, at one of my friends gatherings. It came in handy over the holidays.

I procrastinated for months (oh really ) on making the cushion covers, but once I decided to do this, it took less than a few hours. I made them with a Paisley linen fabric from Calico Corners.

I am done. My vision is complete and I am happy with the results. Party anyone?

The Pomegranate

About 5 weeks ago I bought a beautiful red shiny pomegranate from the grocery store. It was as large as a softball, and took up my entire palm. It sat in a bowl on my tiny kitchen island, then I moved it to the butcher block cutting board, then moving again and again, if I needed the space it sat on.

Today when I felt it, I could press it a bit, and decided that it was time to open it up and see if it was still edible.

I carefully cut only one slice in the pomegranate, and then gently pulled it apart. My pink

" Life is Good" shirt now has bright red spots on it, but I don't mind.

Separating the seeds from the white membrane, I spent about a half hour until the entire fruit was released from it's beautiful red jacket. And it was amazing. Red jewels bursting with juice, only a few immature seeds and a few iffy seeds. The fruit gave up almost two cups of seeds.

I put the pomegranate seeds in a blue glazed bowl on the counter. I left a tablespoon near it so that I could spoon a few seeds and snack on them. They were so sweet, not too tart. The evening was young and I found myself going back to that bowl many times over the hours.

Finally, here I sit in my office, at my work table, with the blue bowl and the tablespoon, eating all of the remaining pomegranate jewel like seeds. With much joy.

One of my small pleasures of the holiday season. Is there no fruit more beautiful than a pomegranate? I think not.

Carnelian Beauty Detail

Newest Jewelry Creations

I love to design necklaces, many of you already know this. I will showcase some of these pieces here periodically. I also can accept Mastercard, Visa and now Discover Cards. The holidays are just 3 months from now. I also ship in gift boxes with gift card. Thinking ahead.

Necklace top, red jade, carnelian, silver

Necklace middle, a pendant from Afghanistan, lapis lazuli, carnelian, silver
Necklace bottom, crazy lace agate, magnesite, silver