Beach Shrimp

This was so good! Even though the recipe is pretty basic, the shrimp had a ton of flavor--delish! This is the original recipe, but I cut it way down and used a little less than a pound of shrimp and there was still plenty for just the 2 of us.

3 lbs. peeled, large raw shrimp
1 16 oz. bottle Italian dressing
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, pressed
2 lemons, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces (I'm sure you could get away with way less butter than this--I used about 1 tablespoon and that was plenty!)

Place first 4 ingredients ina 9x13 baking dish, tossing to coat. Squeeze juice from lemons over shrimp mixture and stir. Add lemon halves to pan. Sprinkle evenly with parsley. Dot with butter. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Serve in pan.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

This is one of those perfect easy, light and summery foods that I love to make when it's literally 105 degrees outside. Yum!

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces (I halved cherry tomatoes)
1/4 to 1/2 small red onion, cut into 1 inch strips
2 tablespoons crumbled feta

Dressing:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Whisk together dressing ingredients. Pour over chopped veggies and feta, refrigerate for several hours for the flavors to blend.

Key Lime Cheesecake

Once I got my beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday, I was on the hunt for the perfect recipe to try it out with. When I came across this one, I immediately wanted to try it since I love Key Lime pie almost as much as I love cheesecake--perfect! I loved using my mixer and this turned out delicious!

1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
3 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened (I used light)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 5 limes worth)
3 eggs
Whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350. Combine crumbs, butter and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl. Stir well to coat all crumbs. Keep it crumbly. When the crumb mixture is ready, press the crumbs into the bottom and halfway up the sides of an 8-inch springform pan. Place pan in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside. Don't turn off oven. In the mixer bowl, combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and vanilla. Use electric mixer and mix until smooth. Add lime juice and eggs and continue to beat until smooth and creamy. Pour filling into crust. Place the pie in the oven and bake 60-70 minutes. Pie is done when the top begins to brown slightly. Remove from oven and cool until room temperature. Put in the fridge to chill. Serve with whipped cream.

I can be a real baker now!

I definitely feel pretty confident in my cooking skills these days, but baking is still a little daunting to me. One of the problems is that so many recipes say to use a stand mixer and unfortunately, the Kitchen Aid mixer I had my heart set on was one of the few things that we registered for and didn't end up getting for a wedding present. Luckily, my wonderful husband surprised me with the beautiful pink and white Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday, so now I can work on improving my baking skills too! Love it!

Honey Grilled Shrimp

These shrimp were sooooo yummy! I was a little worried because I had planned to cook this on a night when Colin ended up having to work later than usual and by the time he made it home I was way too hungry to spend the time marinating the shrimp for an hour. We just tossed them in the marinade for maybe 10 minutes and they still had plenty of flavor. Yum!

For marinade:
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce (I don't love this flavor, so I subbed in soy sauce and it worked out perfectly)
2 tablespoons dry white wine
2 tablespoons Italian dressing

For basting sauce:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup butter, melted (I halved this amount)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (again, I subbed in soy sauce)

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails attached

In a large bowl, mix together all marinade ingredients; add shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour. Preheat grill to high heat. Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near tail and once near head. Discard marinade. In a small bowl, stir together basting ingredients. Lightly oil grill grate. Grill shrimp for 2-3 minutes per side, or until opaque. Baste occasionally while grilling.

Source: allrecipes.com

Easy Monkey Bread

When I told Colin I was making monkey bread, he went on and on about how good his mom's is and that I really should get her recipe. I'm sure Midge's recipe is great, but Colin did end up pretty satisfied with this version too. I thought it was delish, and it was super easy too, which definitely doesn't hurt!

4 small cans or 1 1/2 big cans of biscuits
1 stick of butter (yikes--that's an awful lot of butter!!)
brown sugar
white sugar
cinnamon

Quarter the biscuits. Melt the butter. Combine the sugars and cinnamon and add the mixture plus the melted butter to a large zip lock bag. Add the biscuit pieces to the bag and toss to coat, then pour into a well-greased bundt pan. Bake at whatever temperature the biscuit package says for about 10 minutes (it ended up taking me closer to 15 or 20 minutes for the biscuit pieces to all be fully cooked and get that yummy crispy outside).

Source: my friend Amanda Herron

"Sangria"

This is kind of the cheaters version of sangria, but it's so good and was definitely a hit with our guests!

In a large pitcher, combine 1 bottle medium-bodied red wine (such as Malbec or Rioja--I used the cheapest bottle of Malbec I could find at World Market and it worked perfectly!), 3 cups apple juice, and 2 thinly sliced peaches. Serve over ice.

Source: Real Simple Magazine

Rice, Black Bean and Feta Salad

This was really good when we had it as a side dish with Colin's famous grilled salmon, and it was even better as leftovers the next day.

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 cup cooked rice (I used orzo because, as I've previously mentioned, I have a slight obsession with orzo!)
1 (3.5 oz) package crumbled feta (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup green onions
1/2 cup Italian dressing (I don't love Italian dressing, so I subbed in balsamic vinaigrette and it worked perfectly!)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro or parsley (I went with parsley)

Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate.

Source: Feta cheese package