Creamy Garlic Creole Shrimp and White Rice with Pesto

I have been on this kick the last few weeks wanting to try new recipes and concoctions for our meals. Tonight, was no different and I have Shrimp in mind...

When we bought groceries a few weeks back, we bought 2 lbs. of Shrimp and froze it. Earlier this week, I thought about how I wanted to cook it. In the past we have grilled it, lemon peppered it, steamed it, fried it and I wanted to do something different. 

I had been thinking back to many years ago about a meal some people in our church cooked after church one night when they had several of us over for food, fun, and games.  The dish consisted of Red, Yellow and Green Bell Peppers, Garlic Cloves, a sauce of some kind, White Rice and Shrimp. The Shrimp was placed in the sauce was spooned over the rice. It was delicious!!! Remembering this meal, I wanted to see if I could duplicate it tonight for supper. 

Earlier in the day, I had scoured the internet to see if I could find a recipe of some kind that was like that meal I shared with my friends. I found a Creamy Garlic Shrimp and White Rice recipe. It was similar to what I remembered, but not quite. It did not have any peppers, onions, or cheese in it. 

I moved away from the recipe and decided to wing it myself and create something that would be hearty, delicious, and filling. 

I started the White Rice about 45 minutes before I began cooking everything else. It was cooking in my Rice cooker.  While the rice was cooking, I began to cut up a Red and Yellow Bell Pepper. I placed the diced-up Peppers in the skillet with a tablespoon of sweet cream butter and a tablespoon of Olive Oil. To that, I added 6 cloves of Garlic. I pressed them in my Garlic Press from Pampered Chef. 

I chopped up a medium-sized onion and added it to the skillet along with the Peppers and Garlic. I had these on low heat until they began to sweat. Stirring it all from time to time. 

I sautéed all of this for about 20 minutes. Once this mixture felt softened just a bit, I added the raw shrimp and turned up the heat to medium. Once the shrimp started cooking, I began mixing it gently into the pepper, onion, and garlic mixture. I used 2 lbs. of tail off, peeled, deveined raw shrimp from Kroger. 

As the shrimp cooked through, I stirred the mixture gently every few minutes. This ensured the shrimps were cooked evenly throughout. During this time, I sprinkled 2 heaping splashes of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning into the skillet and mixed it throughout the cooking ingredients. 

Turning the skillet down now, I let the shrimp and vegetables simmer for a few more minutes. (I was timing everything to be finished about the time the rice finished). The smell in the house is wonderful...garlic, bell peppers, onions, and Creole Seasoning. YUM...

While this simmered, I went outside and plucked a handful of fresh Basil out of my Herb planter. You guessed it! I am going to make fresh Pesto. (a handful of Basil, 1/4 cup of Pine Nuts, Olive Oil (it actually came from Italy - it was a gift from my youngest daughter from their 2019 trip), a little bit of salt, and shredded Parmesan Cheese. Mix this all together in a food processer. I use a mini food chopper for this as I am the only one who eats Pesto in my family). I will be putting this over 2 cups of spiral pasta. 

Back to my skillet now...oh it smells so good. I wish you could have smelled it cooking. Anyway, the next thing I did was added 2 cups of Heavy Cream and stirred it gently. Once this was mixed in good, I added 1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese and let it melt as I mixed it all together. I ended up adding a little bit more cream and parmesan cheese. (This will be completely up to you!). 

Doesn't this look yummy? 

You know what I did?  I added some of the Pesto I made into the skillet to give it a little bit Basil taste. (It tasted awesome!) 

While this was finishing up, I prepared a small salad to finish out the meal. For this, my husband stopped by the store after work and picked up a package of Dole Chopped Bacon Caesar salad. 

It is time to eat now...

This was delicious and I did not even use a recipe. I created it all in my head. I think next time though, I will make the sauce just a little bit thicker. 

Recipe: 

CREAMY GARLIC CREOLE SHRIMP, SERVED OVER WHITE RICE WITH PESTO

1 Red Bell Pepper - diced

1 Yellow Bell Pepper - diced

1 medium onion - chopped

*6 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped - or pressed)

1 Tbs. Sweet Cream Butter

1 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 lbs. raw, tail-off, peeled, deveined Shrimp

2 heaping splashes of Creole Seasoning

2 1/2 c. Heavy Cream

1 1/2 c. Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Sweat all the vegetables together in the butter and olive oil. Once they start to feel soft, add the shrimp. Let this cook for approximately 15 - 20 minutes on low to medium heat. 

Add cream and cheese, stir gently - mixing it in well. Turn heat down and let it simmer on low until the cheese melts. 

In the meantime, cook your rice. I used 2 cups of rice that was cooked in my rice cooker. You can use Minute Rice or Boil-A-Bag rice too. (Your preference)

*you could also leave the garlic cloves whole if you prefer. 

Once the rice has finished cooking, put some onto a plate or into a bowl, and spoon the Shrimp mixture with sauce over the top of the rice. 

Enjoy!!! 

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Jello Glazed Popcorn

26 Apr 2020
Ultimate Blog Challenge

A few weeks back a cousin of my husband was posting photographs on Facebook of their household making a 'family tradition' treat - JELLO GLAZED POPCORN. I had never heard of such a thing. I posed a question of 'how do you make that' and I immediately was sent the recipe.

After I got acquired the family recipe, I took to the internet - to my surprise, Jello Glazed Popcorn wasn't a new concept. Where have I been all my life? Why haven't I heard of this before? The closest thing I knew of was Caramel Corn, does it even equate to Jello Glazed Popcorn?

I don't know what all the hype is about this popped treat, but my husband and I are going to make a batch this next week once we get all of the ingredients.

Has anyone else ever made Jello Glazed Popcorn? If you have, what's your favorite flavor?

If you haven't ever made Jello Glazed Popcorn, here is the recipe that was sent to me. By the looks of the card, this treat has been made a few times by the family.

Let me know what your thoughts are after you try it...

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It's NOT meatballs - but it's Meatloaf

As a child growing up, I remember mom having several different recipes that were her all-time favs. I don't ever recall mom 'not' being in the kitchen with a toothpick in her mouth, the phone with the long swirly cord extended from the hallway to the kitchen counter setting on her shoulder and her cooking something up from memory, scratch or a family recipe. 

Mom liked to bake, make holiday candies, fudge, Martha Washington’s, peanut brittle, divinity - and the list goes on and on (oh the aromas that filled the air)...mom also loved to can and freeze fresh garden vegetables through the summertime months so we would have an ample supply through the winter. 

I miss those jars of canned pickles. They could have been sweet and sours, or dill with a touch of garlic might even find a jar of chowchow in there somewhere. Those jars of canned, pickled cucumbers into a delish pickle were the best...Mom canned and froze anything and everything out of their garden. It wasn't a small garden by no means.

Our family moved to an area called Pleasant Valley on the Northside of Amarillo in the early '70s. It was so pleasant back in the day. We were the only family on the block that had children...the rest of the neighbors were retired, elderly people who had manicured yards and who would set on their front porch in the evening waving at everyone who drove down the street. It was so peaceful...but not anymore. 

The house was three parts of three other houses made into one...it was built in the 1930s and had 1,470 square feet of living space. It was considered a Single-Family Residence. We had 3/4 of an acre and the garden took up over a quarter of that...we called it the "Back 40". There was a 4-car garage that at any given time, only had a small path to walk through - - dad was such a hoarder of many, many different things. 

The washer and dryer were housed in the garage - -and oh I hated walking out there in the cold, winter, dark months - -or the steaming hot summers. I really hated going out to the garage after dad brought the burned mannequin home from his job! (I'll save that story for another time!) Nothing about my dad surprises me now that I think back to a few of these memories. I will cherish them forever. The dryer we had was from the motel he and his mother owned. It was called, King Motel. He had shimmied it where we had a quarter that had to be inserted for the pilot light to kick on to heat the clothes - -oh my. I hated it! It was so big, so loud, and as a young girl, it scared the peewaddlin' out of me! LOL

Mom always put up squash (canned or blanched, then frozen), green beans, okra, corn, anything, and everything they grew. Trust me, I snapped my fair share of green beans...I'd sat on the front porch with my large bowl of beans and snap, snap, snap. I hated working in the garden with the bugs, the weeds, and an occasional snake here and there...but I did enjoy the benefits of the fresh food from mom and dad's garden. 

Moving back to the fanfare’s mom liked to cook - I think each week, we would have the same meal on the same day from the previous week. It might have looked like a taco salad, fried chicken cooked up in her electric skillet or cast iron one, meatloaf, roast with all the Fixings, or maybe occasionally, a pot of spaghetti. There was always meat and potatoes...never much salad in any way shape or form. 

I always enjoyed smelling the aroma of the roast cooking in the crockpot on Saturday nights. Just before we'd leave for the church - she'd clean and wash potatoes as well as carrots. Then she would add them to the crock. Once home, she would make a brown gravy and we'd dive in... I miss momma's pot roast - but I must admit, I think I make a pretty good one myself. I never understood the reasoning behind her seasoning, flouring it and simmering it off before putting in the crockpot, but now I do. It holds the flavors, the juices and once one starts eating - it just melts in your mouth! 

My least favorite item mom cooked and still is very MUCH my least favorite today is meatloaf! I cannot stand it anyway, shape or form. I'm not sure why that is...meatloaf is one of my husband's favorites, but he doesn't get it cooked in our house! If he wants it, he must order from a restaurant.  

Honestly, I think it's the texture of the meat, the juices, the seasonings, the ketchup, or lack thereof...I don't know, but nevertheless, you won't find it in my oven! 

Meatballs and meatloaf - hamburger meat is so versatile. From chili to tacos - too stuffed baked peppers. Hamburger meat can be manipulated to create many wonderful recipes. 

Over the course of the last several years, I have been the Admin of two Facebook crafting swapping groups (both which I have stepped away from now due to life happening). In the Spring - I would post swaps that would give the members an opportunity of sharing recipes with one another through the beginning of the holiday season. We'd have themes, we'd have specific content, we'd have drinks, appetizers, entrees, desserts, baked goods - anything and everything one could think of in the form of a recipe. During one of the last swaps I held, the participants had to create a 3 x 5 cards highlighting the name of the recipe on the front with ephemera depicting the recipe and on the back or a separate 3 x 5 card, the actual recipe, cooking times, etc. 

During the last swap, we did at the end of summer in 2019, I received this...

Old Fashion Meatloaf by Alfie Krause

I've not cooked this one yet and I doubt I ever do...but I will cherish the recipe that was sent to me as it did bring a smile to my face.

It's not meatballs, but it's meatloaf! If you try the recipe, let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. 

Enjoy!

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