Quick and Easy Szechuan Shrimp

This is so quick to make and goes well with fried rice. It's nice and spicy for the desi side of us. :)

Ingredients:

about 1/2 lb shrimp

1/2 cup water or chicken broth

2 tbsp ketchup or tomato puree

2 tsp honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp garlic-ginger paste

2 tsp red pepper flakes (adjust to your liking)

1 tsp corn starch

2-3 green onions/scallions, sliced

Mix the water, ketchup, honey, soy sauce and red pepper flakes together in a bowl. Heat oil over medium-high heat and add the ginger-garlic paste and half of the green onions and stir around for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook over high heat just until they turn pink. Add the sauce and cook for a minute or two and then stir in the corn starch (mixed with a little cold water) Stir and cook until the sauce is thickened. (Should only take about a couple minutes) Sprinkle on the remaining green onions.

Creamy Cajun Seafood Pasta

I made this a couple weeks ago because I was craving something....but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I looked at a few recipes and just kinda winged it and honestly, I could eat this stuff everyday. And it's easy!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb shrimp

1 cup scallops

you can also use chicken or beef or crab or clams or whatever floats your boat

1 onion, diced

3-4 green onions/scallions, sliced

4-5 cloves garlic, minced

1 tomato, diced

1 can mushrooms

1/2 stick butter (i know. i know. but it adds the "yummy")

1 pint heavy cream

1/2 cup parmesan or Romano cheese

you can use any or all of the following seasonings (I just kinda threw in a bunch of stuff):

• paprika
• oregano
• black pepper
• salt
• cayenne pepper
• cajun or creole seasonings
• old bay
• Basil
• Crushed red pepper
• Parsley 
• Dill

Melt half the butter in a large pot/dutch oven and sautee the onions and garlic over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent the garlic from burning. Add the shrimp or whatever meat you're using. If you're using scallops, add them when the other meat is almost done, they don't take very long to cook. Add the white parts of the green onions, mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the seasonings and the heavy cream. Adjust the salty/spiciness to your liking. Stir in the parmesan cheese. I added a bit of flour mixed with cold water to thicken it up because it was more of a soup consistency and I wanted to use it as a sauce. Garnish with the green parts of the sliced green onion and add the rest of the butter. Serve over angel hair pasta or linguine and possibly with some yummy garlic bread.

Vanilla Pound Cake with Nutella Swirl

I must give all the credit for this cake to Sally! She told me about it so I looked up the recipe and viola! My first attempt at cake from scratch was a success I would say.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 jar of Nutella

Beat the eggs and vanilla together in a small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder and set that aside as well.

Beat the sugar and butter together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). With the mixer on a low setting, slowly pour the egg mixture into the butter/sugar mixture and beat. Add the flour mixture about 1/2 cup a time and continue mixing. After all the flour is mixed in, continue to mix for another minute or so.

Microwave the nutella for about 10 seconds. (don't make it too runny!!) Pour 1/3 of that batter into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Layer a good amount of the nutella over the batter. Pour another 1/3 of the batter on top. Do another layer of nutella. Pour the rest of the batter on top. Take a butter knife and run it through the cake a few times to create a swirl effect.

Bake at 325 for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

I think a nice nutella glaze would be yummy on top of this.