Happy Birthday, Happy Father's Day

My dad has the special distinction of celebrating his birthday on or around Father's Day.  When we were kids, we had such a hard time coming up with what to get him for both occasions.  I remember very distinctly getting my dad a pair of gardening gloves when I was 9.  I thought this was the perfect gift and he, being a professional landscaper, found it amusing.  I was not so amused at his amusement - I was heartbroken that he didn't like my gift (I now know that it was strange,akin to giving a vacuum cleaner to your mom for Mother's Day).  Many years have passed and I have gotten a little better at figuring out what makes a great gift.  Part of what makes a great gift, is a great meal.  So I decided to make dinner and invite Dad over for a Dad's day/birthday celebration.

The recipe for last night (Penne with Sausage, Artichokes, and Sun-dried Tomatoes) was from Giada's Family Dinners by Giada De Laurentis.  I have rarely used this cookbook because Drew is not so much on the pasta.  I LOVE pasta and so I have to have a relationship with it at arms length or Drew will not be able to get his arms around me.  But, hey, we were celebrating, so why not? 
After going to the store to shop for this pasta, I was unable to procure artichokes as prescribed in the recipe (it calls for frozen), so I decided to use some asparagus we already had on hand.  I also did not use white wine in the recipe, I just used more chicken broth. 

The resulting pasta was very good, very flavorful.  Delicious.  I took two servings (I told you I LOVE pasta).  Dad really liked it too, which was the goal for the night. 

Happy Birthday, Dad!  Happy Father's Day!  So thankful you are my dad and my friend - the relationship we have is something special, something unique, and something I cherish!  God bless you this year!

Churros Magnificos

I sense a theme lately in my posts.  Must be a Mexican mood!  For dessert for my mom's birthday, I decided to make her favorite Disney dessert.  She calls them Charos (yes, like the singer - I don't think she would taste good deep fried, but it might be a way to get her to be quiet), but the actual name is Churros.  We have been going to Disneyland with her for about 5 years and she still hasn't learned how to say them, but she sure knows how to eat them!  They ARE especially tasty at the end of a fun-filled, junk-foodie day at Mickey's home.
I have tried churros before with very unhappy results.  So, armed with a new recipe and an important innovation from Drew, I was ready to make this dessert.  The results were pretty good!  I got the recipe from Ultimate Mexican.  It is simple to prepare and tastes and smells great!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
vegetable oil for deep-fat frying
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Procedure:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, brown sugar, and salt.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon.  Cook and stir mixture until it forms a ball and pulls away form the side of the pan.  Remove from heat.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Add vanilla and egg, beating well with a wooden spoon. 
2.  Transfer batter to a pastry bag (or cookie press, see below) fitted with a star tip.  Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.  Pipe 4 inch long logs onto prepared baking sheet. 
3.  In a deep saucepan, heat 3 inches of oil to 375F.  Fry logs, a few at a time, in hot oil about 2 minutes or until golden brown on both sides, turning once.  Drain on paper towels.  Keep warm while you do the remaining batches.
4.  In a medium bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.  Roll warm churros in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Serve warm.

The innovation Drew came up with was using a cookie press to create the traditional churro shape.  I have a Pampered Chef cookie press that has never seen action.  I opened it up and checked out the designs and Drew helped me pick one that would work - it was perfect.  The press also made forming the Churro dough into churro shapes so simple.  If you don't have a cookie press, you can use a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.

Feliz Cumpleanos

Tonight we had a birthday dinner for my mom.  Because she loves seafood and Mexican cuisine, I decided to make some Seafood Enchiladas from the Ultimate Mexican cookmag I told you about a few weeks ago.  This was a good idea indeed!  I am not usually one to order seafood enchiladas.  I usually like the basic cheese and onions enchiladas I grew up with, so this was a departure. 

The procedure for this recipe is very easy, but takes some time throughout the day.  You have to re-hydrate some dried chiles earlier in the day (this affords you time to take the requisite Sunday afternoon nap).  Once that is done, the hard part is basically over.  The rest is just mixing and rolling.  The entire process takes less than a couple hours. 
The recipe calls for either shrimp or crab.  We decided to do a mixture of both.  I mean, we are celebrating!  Once the chiles are ready (re-hydrated and cut in pieces), you add the seafood mixture and some shredded Monterrey jack cheese.  Roll this mixture up into some warm tortillas and it starts to look like enchiladas.  The interesting thing about this recipe (which I would change should I do this again) is the sauce.  It is basically a gravy (I am not kidding).  This is a little discomfiting to my Tex-Mex loving heart.  If I were to do it again, I would definitely add a lot of spice and change up the structure of the sauce (it has a LOT of flour in it). 
The result:  Very, very mild enchiladas.  Not necessarily bad, but not enough flavor and spice for me.  I would kick it up about 3 notches in the flavor department.  But, mom loved them (so I guess these are a success!).

For an appetizer, I made a new guacamole recipe (I can't get enough of avocado based dips!).  I really liked it but I think I will add cumin next time.  These are the ingredients: green onion, cilantro, serrano pepper (seeded), avocado, lime juice, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper. Mmm!  Oh and we tried out some new chips from Food Should Taste Good.  If you haven't tried these yet, check them out.  They are multigrain (read: healthy) chips that really do taste good.  If you go to their website, you can get a coupon!

Overall, Mom was happy.  And you know that old saying, "if Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  Well, I think the converse is true as well.