How do I make…

Have you ever eaten at a restaurant and thought “I wish I knew how to make that”? Of course you have. just this past Saturday I had a great bowl of soup at Opie’s, Shrimp and Corn Chowder. Although I love Opie’s and work nearby, I thought it would be nice to have this soup at home. So I searched and found what looks to be a comparable recipe. I will share it below.

But what about those times the recipe is a signature dish and the restaurant is mum on the ingredients? There is a great web site that has restaurant recipes. CopyKat Recipes offers famous restaurant recipes and options to buy cook books. Top Secret Recipes has free recipe and recipes you must pay for, but CopyKat has free recipes. Obviously I prefer CopyKat. So when you feel like trying to recreate that great dish you had at a restaurant, check out one of these sites.

And now for the Shrimp Corn Chowder. I did not get this recipe from the great people at Opie’s, I found this one at recipezaar.com.

Shrimp & Corn Chowder Recipe

6-8 servings
30 min 15 min prep
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/8 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon real butter, melted
2 (10 1/2 ounce) cans campbell’s cream of potato soup
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups approx. whole milk (1 1/2 soup cans)
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can golden whole kernel corn, undrained
2 cups frozen cleaned raw shrimp
1/8 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 dash frank’s hot sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt pepper, to taste
grated parmesan cheese, for garnish
In saucepan, cook onions, garlic, parsley and cayenne pepper in melted butter until tender.
Add soup, cream cheese and milk and mix thoroughly over heat until all lumps are gone.
Add shrimp and corn. Season with salt and pepper and stir.
Bring to a boil; Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until shrimp are pink and done. (Not overdone.) Stir occasionally.
Garnish with grated, fresh parmesan cheese.

Enjoy

Boogie Breakfast!

Now before everyone starts emailing me and telling me that disco is dead, you need to calm down. I do not think there will be any Saturday Night Fever tunes playing while you eat!

2007 marks ABATE of Indiana’s 27^th Annual Boogie. The annual festival is expected to draw 13,000 bikers to the Lawrence County Recreational Park in Springville, Indiana.

But aside from that, it is also a time to help out the Grace Center Food Pantry. “Boogie Breakfast” will feature homemade biscuits and sausage gravy served by volunteers at the Harrodsburg Community Center. So, if you are looking for a good breakfast and want to support a great local organization then come out and to the Boogie Breakfast and have a little fun. Tattoos are optional!

Kitchen Gadgets

I am a kitchen gadget junkie. I admit it. If it looks s useful and cool, I find myself buying it. I have a couple of different ice cream machines, and lots of cool little whiz bangs to help me cook. I had to buy a zester even though I know I could get the lemon zest without a specialized tool. I have a set of those cool checkerboard cake making pans I have only used once. I have a thing that looks like a grilled cheese maker but instead is to make little pies.

My favorite and most used gadget is the Egg and Muffin Toaster, I like this thing so much I have bought it as gifts for other people. I went to the store to buy a new toaster when I found this fancy machine. It has regular toast slots but it also has a little pot on the front and extra buttons on the side. The little pot at the front can be used to steam poach eggs, steam scramble eggs or make a mini omelet. In addition you can also to warm up bacon, sausage, ham etc. while you are cooking the eggs. The coolest part in case you want to make your own Egg Mcmuffin, is that the buttons on the side allow you to time the whole production so that when your muffin pops up, your eggs are done.

It is just a neat and quick way to make poached eggs, hard boil eggs, or make an entire breakfast sandwich in an easy and less mess way. If you eat this type of stuff for breakfast and want a fun cooking toy, give this thing a try.

Visit the web page for a movies and better pictures.

http://www.eggandmuffintoaster.com/