WE'VE MOVED!!!

Hi! Jamie here. We felt a little limited by what this platform had to offer, and have moved over to TypePad. It's super easy to get to: www.itsallaboutthegarnish.com will take you there directly. Just be sure to re-do your RSS feed so you continue to get updates from us!
If you're a subscriber, I'll move you over soon, not to worry.

Thanks so much for dealing with our growing pains! And, let us know what you think of the new design!

Crab Feed Brownies

Do you not really like baking, always pass up dessert, or generally just not like sweet stuff? These brownies are for YOU! I don't usually like desserts and these are heaven to me. 100 Kiwanis crab feed attendees loved them last week. Calistoga is begging for the recipie (wink...). And seriously these are the easiest brownies to make. Ever. Even easier than the 'mix'. You know by now that I'm all about the organic, true tastes that you can find in simple stuff. This recipie is easy enough for any kid to prepare and could become the 'signature recipie' for anyone - even party-foul bakers. Steal it, please. You'll make the world a better place by serving this warm plate of happiness with a giant glass of milk.

• 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate (usually comes in a bar, usually by the choc chips in the store)
• 1 cube of butter
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder (this is different from baking soda- make sure you have the right one)
• Handful of choco chips or chunks. Or peanut butter chips would be good. Or peppermint bark, wow.

THAT'S IT - really. 8 ingredients.
Chop up the chocolate and add a stick of butter to a microwave safe bowl. Melt this slowly (30 seconds, stir, repeat) until the chocolate is melted. Set it aside and in the meantime mix the sugar and eggs together. Add the vanilla and baking powder. Mix a little. Add the choco mixture. Stir in the flour and don't mix this too much. Just until it's combined. Add the chips. Pour into an oiled/sprayed square baking pan. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until they look done. Cut them into little squares because a little goes a long way. I do 5 rows of 5.
And I apologize in advance for how many extra pounds you may gain or how late you will stay up (caffeine) because of these crazy brownies.

Guest Post: Andy's Peppered Shrimp Over Avocado and Corn Salsa

Well, he did it again. Our friend Andy presented us with this stunner over the weekend:

Take it away, Andy:

Peppered Shrimp over Avocado and Corn Salsa

This marinade can be used successfully with just about any kind of white meat; shrimp, chicken even lobster tails (I'm going to try it with scallops next time!) The salsa is light and easy to prepare, and in my opinion, really brings the dish together. You may get a little frustrated when you read the ingredients because there are no measurements. I left my measuring spoons in the drawer for this one on purpose. You can make it as spicy or tame as you like. I wouldn't recommend more than a tablespoon of any one dry spice though.

Ingredient list (Marinade):

Olive Oil

Limes

White Wine

Pepper

Salt

Garlic

Ground Coriander

Chili Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Chipotle Pepper

Any other fun pepper you might have on hand, like poblano or serrano if you're brave!

Add all your dry spices in a bowl. I mixed mine in a sealable plastic bowl so I could add my shrimp to it, shake it and toss it in the fridge for a few hours. Now add your olive oil and white wine. Add enough to adequately marinade whatever meat you decided on. Then squeeze in a lime or two and whisk everything together. Drop in the shrimp, toss to coat and throw it in the fridge for at least an hour, up to four hours.

Fire up your grill and cook your shrimp until opaque, usually a few minutes per side. When using shrimp, get the biggest ones you can afford. They're easier to cook on the grill and more impressive when you serve them. Get rid of the marinade when you put the shrimp on the grill (it had raw meat in it, duh!) At first I tried cooking mine on some foil on the grill, but I wanted more smoky flavor and the cool grill marks on the shrimp. This would be a good time to use that grill basket you have lying around.

The salsa:

One ear of white corn, shucked

One large ripe avocado, diced as small as you can without making it into mush

One or two green onions, chopped(use both the green and white part)

One jalepeno, seeded and finely chopped (don't use the pickled ones, if you don't have a fresh one omit the ingredient and use a few pinches of cayenne pepper instead)

One ripe tomato, diced (I used two romas, I like them for this salsa because they aren't too runny and they're easy to dice)

Two limes

Salt and pepper to taste

Once your ear of corn is shucked and cleaned, carefully take a sharp knife and cut the kernals off. Use nice even strokes straight down the length of the ear. The sweet corn is fresh, not cooked, and it adds a consistency and fresh taste to the final product that will be lacking if you decide to use something frozen or canned. Add them to a non-reactive mixing bowl. Add the avocado, onions, tomato and jalepeno. Juice a lime or two into the bowl and lightly toss. Be careful here or you'll crush the avocado and make a mess of the whole thing. Salt and pepper to taste. Don't be shy, a couple of pinches of salt won't really be enough, but you can't remove it if you add too much. You could also use a quarter of a red onion but not too much if you substitute-too much red onion will overpower this salsa and you'll lose the taste of the fresh sweet corn and the zing of the jalepeno.

Presentation: Spoon the salsa into martini glasses and top with your grilled shrimp.

Super Bowl Snack: The Battle Between Good and Evil

Spinach-Bacon Bites
(Or as I like to call them: The Battle Between Good and Evil)

Hors D'Oevres aren't generally considered to be healthy. Sure, you can try to convince yourself that those Ranch Dressing-covered sticks of celery and carrot are part of your daily requirement of vegetables, but we know the truth. The fact is, party food is supposed to be bad for you. That's part of the fun! The recipe below is an attempt to assuage the guilt of gorging with wild abandon. Is it healthy? No. But, it IS 75% spinach, and that has to count for SOMETHING, right?

1 medium red onion, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Salt, pepper, seasonings (it's up to you!)
2 cups frozen, chopped spinach (thawed and squeezed of juice)
1 cup Panko (Japanese white breadcrumbs, you can find them by the soy sauce)
1 cup crumbled cheese (bleu, feta, ...something STRONG)
1 package thinly cut bacon, pieces cut in half crosswise

Sautee onion until it begins to brown at the edges, about ten minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
Mix eggs, seasonings and spinach in a large bowl. Add Panko, and combine. If the mixture doesn't begin to ball up (almost like dough), add more Panko until it does.
Roll mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls. Stuff each ball with a bit of cheese, and wrap with 1/2 slice of bacon.
Heat a large skillet to medium-high. Place as many bacon-spinach balls as you can, without squishing them, into the pan. Make sure the bacon 'seam' is touching the bottom of the pan. The heat will 'seal' them.
Cook for about 5-7 minutes. Turn once, cook for another 5-7 minutes. Remove to a serving tray and garnish with additional sprinkles of cheese. Kid yourself you're eating something wholesome.
* Photo note: I'll post the photo after I've cooked them!

OMG! What Happened to the Site?!?

I know, I know. It's a mess.

We're not sure what happened, but our logo and photos have disappeared. And we're sorry. Here's the thing: we're enthusiastic home cooks, fabulous entertainers and all around cool girls, but we're NOT computer/internet experts. We've been looking for a way to make the site look better, and I guess this disaster is merely providing the impetus to do so.

So, in the next couple of weeks, we're going to transfer the site over to a different blogging platform. We're also hoping to make it easier for you to search the site so you can find your favorite recipes or discover something new.

We'd also like to get a few more eyeballs checking the place out, so we're going to try the link-exchange thing, but ONLY for sites you'd be interested in. So, if you read any other food/cooking-related blogs, be sure to let us know about them.

In the meantime, we'll continue to post about our culinary adventures...next up, Super Bowl!

Messy Fridge = Scattered Cooking

A messy fridge can sneak up on even the most vigilant cook.
And, it results in mayhem. I believe the ease in preparing dinner is directly proportionate to the organization of one's refrigerator.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not going to get all Bree Van de Kamp on you and insist that cheese should be arranged according to pungency. BUT... having things placed in 'quadrants' has certainly helped me really see what I have, how it relates to other foods, and not forget to use it before it goes bad.
First, let's take a look at what went wrong...
It starts out fine on the top shelf, which is for beverage only, ranging from healthy to not, left to right. The trouble begins just below the cheese/lunchmeat drawer, where I've stuffed random items such as artichoke pesto and bags of fruit salad. This area should be only for lunch items, like bread, leftovers, etc. To the right of the wayward salad, we have a tupperware full of bacon grease (that one needs its own post), a bag of Mexican cheese (should be in the drawer) and leftover pasta. The bottom shelf is where the food has seemingly staged a rebellion, with veggies that have escaped from their drawers, and a tub of hastily stashed whipped cream, which should be in the freezer. There might also be a steak or two in the very back, but because I can't see it, I could be presented with an exercise in spontaneous generation before I get to it.
My advice? Divide the refrigerator into quadrants, or sections. Beverages, lunch items, veggies, side dish stuff, meats. This way, when searching for inspiration, you can concentrate on one area at a time, cutting down on the amount of 'refrigerating the entire neighborhood' by holding the door open.
So, I had a messy fridge. What's my point? When it was like this, I couldn't figure out what to cook because I had no idea what I had, what was still good, what needed to be used up, etc. It's since been organized, and now I have some room in my head to dream up tasty dishes instead of trying to figure up what's going on in the dark corners of the crisper.

Mama Mia Night

Hi all - long time, no post. I found a really interesting package in the store the other day (Trader Joe's - can I say that here?), and came up with a fantastic recipie. The item is called Israeli Couscous. It's weird. Looks like the tapioca stuff in boba drinks. Large version of our traditionally tiny couscous, and completely different. I read the package, looked at the recipie ideas on the side of the box, and added it to my cart. Someday, I thought, I will play with this.

And then I got the call. Jeanne rented Mama Mia the sing-along for our friend's birthday party. Our mission was to potluck with a mediterranean theme. Oh and PS it was scheduled the same day as my good friends' moving-in day. Which I would never ditch out on because of how completely integral they were to my move and how much I wanted to help them. So I'd be going from one thing to the next and needed a good make-ahead dish. With a Greek flair maybe. What would this include.... I came up with lamb kabobs, puttenesca, anything tomato or cucumber, anything with good crumbly cheeses. Finally, I remembered my crazy couscous in the pantry. I could build off that and make a cold pasta salad with a regional (close!) flair. So I did. And it was Fabulous. Here it is - and a side note - I didn't think it out too far, I just did it and experimented and had fun with it and you can do this too with anything. Fear in the kitchen is silly - it's your domain. If you screw up don't worry about it. Eat it, mix in some cream or tomatoes, or toss it and run to the store. Just don't be scared to read a box and embellish. It leads to good things.

• 1 box of Israeli couscous or any large (pea-sized) couscous


• 1 small onion, diced very small


• 2 cans +/- of chicken broth


• 1 bay leaf


• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon


• garlic cloves


• partial can/jar of capers


• one very large or two small cucumbers


• carton of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half


• mint leaves

I don't know much about mediterranean foods. Did I even spell it right? Well I do know that they include odd flavors that are magical when combined. This was a complete eye opener for me. This combination is so great. Try it and then experiment later and make it your own.

We're going to do this like a risotto- first you brown a clove of garlic minced and the onion in a frying pan with a splash of olive oil. Let them get brown for a little while then toss in the package of couscous. Toss this around and let it get golden to bring out the nutty flavor. It will make your dish more flavorful and you'll still be able to taste the couscous against the other strong ingredients. Now add in that mysterious teaspooon of cinnamon and the bay leaf. Your nose will know why. It's that smell that you love about mediterranean foods but never could place. Not curry. Not garlic. Something earthy. And warm. It is so amazing how these ingredients combine.

You'll need to read the directions to know how much chicken broth will follow. It's probably 1:1 ratio so if you've got two cups of couscous you'll do two cups of broth. However, since you will be simmering this on low or medium-low without a cover, you'll lose some steam and probably need to check in on things to make sure it's done before you pull it from the stove. This is very subjective and whatever you decide is the right way to go. I have never used a stovetop or a pan that did risotto on the same time schedule. You just keep an eye on it, stir often so you don't burn things, and keep it going. Since a creamy risotto consistency is NOT desired here - you'll want to avoid stirring too often and be sure to pull it off the heat while it's still in individual grains. Oatmeal consistency would be a bad thing.

The rest is easy peasy. Pull it off the heat. Stir in a touch of olive oil so things don't clump. Refridgerate until you are ready to use it. In another bowl, slice cucumber and cherry tomatoes, add a small amount of capers (I believe we serve an overabundance of capers in dishes and I suggest using a maximum of maybe 25 in this entire dish for a more subtle taste), and stir. When you are ready to serve- finely chop a few springs (not too much or it's too much) of mint and add to the veges. Combine with the couscous. I also suggest that you splash the veges with some apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar, and some salt and pepper to taste. Mama Mia this is good!

The Potluck Dinner Party

What a fun night! We hosted the aforementioned Potluck Dinner Party last night, and it was definitely an all-around success. We had eight for dinner, and it honestly couldn't have been easier, because all of the dishes besides the main course were covered by my friends: Andy and Rachel brought some serious flavor with their vegetable kabobs (on the grill, and on the table, pictured), Garrett brought crunchy, cheesy garlic bread, and the spouse and I grilled up a couple of tri-tips (recipe listed in one of the WAY back posts). Hopefully, we'll get another guest post from Andy on the veggies, because it's the first time I've ever scarfed down something that was THAT good for me!
I used to feel bad asking guests to bring something, thinking I should be the perfect hostess and labor all day long to present the perfect meal. But you know what? The perfect meal is simply one that's accompanied by good wine and great friends. Thanks, everyone!

Upcoming Cookery: Potluck Dinner Party

The festivities of the past months may be a thankfully distant memory, but it's still good to have an excuse to get together with friends and share home-made cuisine and drink your share of wine. That's why the Potluck Dinner Party was invented.
It's easy because each person brings one dish to share, and can really shine, instead of laboring over an entire complement of dishes for the dinner. If you're the host, take the main dish, and assign sides to the great cooks and maybe let the hesitant ones bring wine instead. The idea is to provide a place for good friends to get together without stressing over a whole meal.
We're having one of these gatherings this Saturday night, and I'll have everyone photograph their creations.

***Party Food Alert: My brother, Garrett, likes the idea of everyone bringing heavy appetizers instead of sit-down dishes if you're having a more boisterous gathering. You just need to know your crowd, and what kind of mood everyone will be in...if there are kids or you're feeling particularly sedate (on a cold winter evening as opposed to a warm summer one), you might want to stick with chairs and forks.

Quick, Easy (and Affordable!) Crab Cakes

Crab season is finally here, so it’s time to make crab cakes! Yes, I know cooked, dipped-in-butter crab is the way to go, but this is an economical way to get that delicious crab fix without making your wallet feel violated: Canned Crab Claw Meat. I’m not talking about the little cans stored next to canned tuna year ‘round. Believe me, I’ve tried it and there’s absolutely no taste or texture. You might as well make a 50’s casserole out of it.

I'm talking about cans of fat, juicy lumps of the very best of the crab, claw

meat. You really need to wait until late December when this treasure

shows up, and it’s so worth it. Look in the refrigerated seafood/meat section of the grocery store for cans that specify ‘premium claw meat’. You can usually get four crab cakes worth of meat for about $10.

Here’s how to do it:

Crab Cakes

1 Egg (beaten)
2 tablespoons Brown or Dijon Mustard
1 tablespoon Mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon Freshly Ground Pepper
1/3 cup Finely Chopped Red Onion
1/3 cup Finely Chopped Green Onion
2 tablespoons Finely Chopped Red Bell Pepper
1 12oz. can Premium Crab Meat
2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
1 ½ cups Panko

(found in the Japanese/Ethnic Foods section of the grocery store, DON’T use Italian Bread Crumbs!)

2 tablespoons Butter
2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Garlic-Cayenne-Cilantro Aioli

5 cloves Crushed Garlic
½ cup Plain Yogurt (low fat or fat free)
½ cup Sour Cream (low fat or fat free)
1 teaspoon Cayenne Powder
½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
½ teaspoon Freshly Ground Pepper
¼ cup Finely Chopped Cilantro

Aioli:
Place garlic in a ramekin with about a teaspoon of water, and heat on high in the microwave for about 40 seconds. We’re not trying to cook it, per se, just ‘kill it’ a little. The water keeps it from drying out. Mix the garlic with the rest of the ingredients, seasoning to taste. Keep chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.

Crab Cakes:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix the first five ingredients well. Add the onions, peppers, crab meat and old bay, mixing thoroughly. Roll this mixture into 3-inch round balls. One at a time, shape them into patties and press into panko, making sure they’re coated well and evenly.

***Party Food Alert! You can shape the crab into 1/2 –inch to 1-inch balls, then form into bite-size patties for a party crowd!

Crab Cakes Continued: Heat skillet with butter and olive oil to medium-high heat. If your skillet is on the small side, I recommend doing this in batches, so use half the olive oil and butter for each batch. Have a cookie sheet ready. Cook the crab cakes for about five minutes on each side, or until the panko has turned a golden brown. Place them on the cookie sheet and finish in the oven, about 8-10 minutes.

To Serve: Place one crab cake flat in the middle of a plate, and lean the other on it. Spoon a dollop of the aioli around them, and garnish with a sprinkle of leftover cilantro.