Things I've been cooking

While I have been feeling too busy to blog, I have not been too busy to cook.  Every now and then I remembered to take pictures for eventual use. In addition to our nightly dinners, I have also managed to pull off several dinner parties featuring: roast chicken with pan gravy, braised short ribs with garlic and peppers, grilled filets with compound butter and crab pot pies (an original recipe!) and flaming ouzo shrimp.  Mouth watering yet?  Mine is.

Cooking is a real passion of mine.  I have Ina and Gordon on the DVR and dream about going to culinary school and opening a restaurant.  Thomas even asked me one night "how would you feel about opening a restaurant in the Caribbean?" It's fun to talk about, but dream on...

Here are some photos of the food I remembered to photograph and my original crab pot pie recipe!  Enjoy.

Garlic and parsley potatoes

Crab Pot Pie (recipe follows) 

Mushroom bourguignon

Bacon wrapped filets with compound butter (a decadent Saturday dinner)

Lemon Rosemary Greek Potatoes (recipe coming in another post!)

Greek burgers--using tzatziki instead of mayo is awesome! 

And now the promised recipe!  I came up with this one for my dad's birthday and it was amazing!  It's also something you can assemble ahead of time and all you need to do when guests arrive is pop it in the oven. Since this is a recipe I made myself, not all measurements are exact--I go by feeling.  But that's what makes cooking fun!

Crab Pot Pie (6 servings)

1 pound crab meat 

1/4 cup dry Sherry 

1 clove garlic, minced

3 cups Leeks sliced

2-3 cups mushrooms sliced

1 cup Celery sliced

1 cup carrot diced/sliced

1/2 onion, diced 

zest of 1 lemon

2 cups chicken stock

3-5 tbsp of butter 

1/2 cup flour 

A lil cream 

A lil fresh parsley and thyme 

Puff pastry, thawed. (get 4 sheets!)

1 egg lightly beaten with some h2o (this is an egg wash)

1. Saute all veg (with garlic) in butter until tender.  Season with S & P.  Add flour and cook off 
2. Add chicken stock, sherry and cream cook through,
3. In another bowl, mix crab with lemon zest, a bit of paprika and fresh parsley and thyme 
4. Take cream mix off heat and gently stir in crab (keep big lumps) 
5. Butter some ramekins and spoon pie mix in.  Put some egg wash around the outside rim of the ramekin; this will help the pastry stick to it when you pinch it around. 
6. Cover ramekins with puff pastry (making sure pastry is slightly bigger), pinch pastry around and brush on egg wash.  Season crusts with a little S &P
7. Bake in oven at 375 for 25-35 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.