Finally a shrimp taco

I have been trying to whip up some shrimp tacos for weeks. For a variety of reasons, including not really cooking much in the last two weeks, there has been no shrimp tacos. But tonight, the stars aligned and shrimp tacos there were!


It was a total shortcut day though! So we had a bag of pre-cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp in the freezer that we got on super special somewhere. Anyway, they were easy to deal with and I just defrosted in a bit of water, pulled the tails off and we were ready to roll on that front. Whipped a cup of frozen tomato-chipotle sauce out of the freezer, put it in the frying pan and brought it to the boil. Popped the shrimp in there for a few minutes and that was all ready.

Had a couple of avocados in the fridge and had picked up a few tomatillos at the store yesterday, so whipped up a bit of a tomatillo-avocacdo salsa. Not my usual as the garlic, onions, and tomatillos all went in raw instead of with a bit of a roast on as usual. I just did not have the energy. There was also no cilantro around, so that got left out and my fresh jalapenos had gone mouldy (did I mention about not being in the kitchen much lately!) Anyway used a couple of the tiny dried chiles that I bought in Israel and that are mighty potent.

Served it all with some green rice (regular rice cooked with a tomatillo boullion cube in the water) and fresh corn tortillas purchased in the market over the weekend. Delicious and spicy!

Now for the final cleanup to get the kitchen back to that not-lived-in look that the realtors like so much!

Good Day for Food.

It was a good day for food.  It was not as good of a day for photos, selling our house, or getting rid of this cold, BUT, this is a no whining zone, so back to the food!

We had to be out of the house so we decided to go out to brunch, something we used to do a lot but stopped for some reason...

Today's pick was Fire on the East Side, which is a nice walk from the house.  There was quite a wait, which was fine since we had to kill time anyway.  We chatted in the entry and waited for a table to open up.  Once it did, we cozied in, G ordered a martini of some sort and I had a mimosa.  Delish.

The brunch menu is really varied, and everything looked really good.  I ordered the Southwest Omelet (or something) and added chicken.  (Am I weird that I absolutely LOVE chicken and eggs together?)  It came with a small side salad and a small amount of french fries.  That is the ULTIMATE for me.  I always want a bit of of both.  Anyway...

There it is!  It was really fantastic, with chicken, salsa, guacamole, and fried tortilla strips on top.  I really enjoyed it.

We walked around a bit after that, and made our way slowly to Whole Foods to pick up supplies for dinner.

Tonight's dinner came from Bon Appetit magazine.  I read it last night and immediately decided that I had to fix it straight-away!  Dinner was Tortellini with Italian Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms.  I knew that in the past I had bought some awesome turkey italian sausage from Whole Foods, but wouldn't ya know it, but NOPE, no italian sausage other than the pork variety.  So I thought, hey, that's okay...I can make my own (because it had to be out of the casing anyway..).

I bought some ground turkey, and all the rest of the fixings... I mixed the turkey with paprika, pepper, salt, fennel seed, ground fennel, and crushed red pepper flakes.  It was FANTASTIC!

So here is the finished dish... two issues with this photo.  The first issue, I took it on my iPhone.  The second issue, it's total and complete crap and I have no ability to adjust it's crapiness.  But nevertheless, I persevere because it's just that important....

But gosh, this was so delicious.  And it features one of my new favourite things, FENNEL!  I have hated fennel all my life because of it's licorice flavour.  But a few weeks ago, I had roasted fennel on a sandwich and I just loved it.  So it made this recipe a double must try!

Anyway, I sauteed the sliced fennel with mushrooms and the sausage I made.  I added garlic, then whipping cream and chicken broth and let it cook.  Then some spinach.  Mix with the cooked tortellini.

Next time, and there absolutely WILL be a next time because it's freaking delicious, I will not make it with tortellini because ti's just way too much.  A nice orechiette would be fantastic and will be the likely choice next time because the cheese tortellini is just so heavy.  I highly recommend it, though, and it cooks super super fast so it would be a good weeknight dinner.  Go on, try it!!!