Roasted Shrimp with Feta: Guest Blogger Aileen Morgan!

So, I'm kinda good at a couple of things.  I can cook, and I can take a decent picture now and then.  But there's one talent that I don't have that I would LOVE to have, and that is singing.  I can belt out my own personal version of Free To Be Me in the shower, but you wouldn't necessarily want to be there to actually hear it.  My beautiful little sister, on the other hand, can sing like an angel.  

And she writes all her own songs.  And as it turns out, she can cook, too.  If she gets her hands on my Nikon, I may be in trouble.  In the meantime, I'm taking advantage of all this talent by getting her as a guest blogger on Framed Cooks today...so my wonderful readers, meet my wonderful sister!

 Hi! My name is Aileen Morgan and I'm proud to say Kate is my big sis! She is just as incredible as you can imagine from this beautiful home on the web, and a tough act to follow. I am super excited and grateful to be a guest blogger. I hope you enjoy. 

  It’s the holiday season, a time that brings such joy, but it’s also a time that can be difficult for many 
of us. The expectation of having to give (great!) gifts can make us feel stressed and even strapped at   the same time. You may be asking yourself what to give your significant other when they either have everything, want for nothing, and/or you simply don’t have a ton of dough to spend.

Well, we have to eat, right? So what better
  gift is there then that of a delicious homemade meal- and how about a romantic one? To me, holidays symbolize love, sharing, and time spent with those who mean the most to you. Add wine, candles, music, sumptuous food and love- what more could anyone want?!

To go along with this yummy one dish dinner is a song! Inspired by a romantic dinner made standing next to someone I was falling for, it’s of course, a love song. Follow the following  link, click on "Join Aileen's Email List!" and you'll receive an mp3 that is yours to give a gift! 


www.aileenmorgan.com 

(and that amazing picture on the home page is, of course, Kate's!)

 Here is another gift idea for you for that special night- burn the song onto a CD, wrap it in pretty  tissue paper, add a ribbon and a handwritten message and give it to your loved one to play while you pop open that yummy bottle of wine.

Ahhhh, the holidays.


This dish can be made ahead of time, up to the last step before adding the shrimp, which means more time for romance!

Roasted Shrimp with Feta from Ina Garten's HOW EASY IS THAT?

Serves 4

• 4 tbs good olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 cups medium diced fennel
• 1 tbs minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbs Pernod (optional)
• 1 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 lb (16-20) peeled and cleaned shrimp, tails on
• 5 oz good Feta cheese, coarsely crumbled
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 3 tbs minced fresh parsley
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 2 lemons

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Heat 2 tbs of the olive oil in a 10 or 12 inch heavy, oven-proof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the fennel and saute for 8-10 minutes, until the fennel is tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the wine and bring it to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the tomatoes with the liquid, tomato paste, oregano, Pernod (if you have it), salt, and pepper to the skillet. Simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 - 15 minutes.

3. Arrange the shrimp, tails up, in one layer over the tomato mixture in the skillet. Scatter the feta evenly over the shrimp. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, and lemon zest with the remaining 2 tbs olive oil and sprinkle over the shrimp.

4. Bake for 15 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked and the breadcrumbs are golden brown. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon over the shrimp and serve hot with the remaining lemon cut into wedges.

Click here for printable recipe

Shrimp and Watermelon Salad

I have to say, I paused a bit on the idea of this salad. Shrimp and...watermelon? In the same bowl? Possibly ending up on my fork in the same bite? Really?

Really.

It's one of those things that sounds like it might not work, but trust me, it does. It's kind of the whole sweet and salty thing that I love so much, only seafood style. The shrimp and the feta cheese are the savory salty end of this recipe, and the watermelon and fresh tomato are the sweet side. Even the dressing has the sweet and salty thing going on -- the sharp taste of vinegar and Dijon mustard and garlic are mixed with the sweetness of honey and orange juice, and the whole thing is a Taste Sensation! Sweet and salty and tropical and summery and cool and wonderful. Summer on a plate.

Plus it is as easy as easy as easy can be.

Thanks for walking on the wild side with me, shrimp and watermelon-wise.

Shrimp and Watermelon Salad, adapted from Epicurious

Dressing:

• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 6 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad:

• Juice and rind from 1 lemon
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 cups chopped watermelon
  
• 1 pound heirloom tomatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
  
• 1/2cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, torn

1. Combine all dressing ingredients in food processor and process to blend.

2. Fill a 4-quart saucepan with water and bring to a boil; add lemon juice, lemon rind, garlic, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt. Add shrimp, cover, remove from heat and let stand until shrimp is cooked, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool 10 minutes, then refrigerate 30 minutes, or run under cold water to cool if you are in a hurry.

3. Toss shrimp, melon, tomatoes and cheese together in a large bowl. Drizzle with dressing to taste and toss again. Scatter basil on top and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Pasta with Shrimp and Feta Cheese Sauce

This recipe is so quick and so easy and SO delicious, and it's all about one of my favorite appliances. The food processor. Yep, as long as you can boil water and push the on button, you are all set with this one, and that's my kind of dinner on a weeknight.

First the water-boiling part. Fill up a good sized pot with water and put it on to boil. While you are waiting for it to boil, cut up some tomatoes and toss them in a bowl. Any kind of tomato will do. I had some nice cherry tomatoes when I made this.

Ok, now comes the fun part. Toss the following into your food processor: scallions, fresh thyme, feta cheese, cottage cheese. Press the button until it is all nice and creamy, and then taste it to see if it needs any salt and pepper. Then scoop it into the bowl with the tomatoes.

Your water should be boiling by now. Drop your shrimp in and cook them for about 2 minutes, just until they are nice and pink. Without turning the water off, scoop them out with a slotted spoon, drop them into the bowl with the sauce and give it all a stir.

Drop some of this into the still-boiling water....



And when it is done, drain it, toss it with the sauce, and dinner is served. Grind a little fresh pepper on top, and nobody will ever know that this involved exactly one mixing bowl and a pot of boiling water. And your trusty food processor, of course!

Pasta with Shrimp and Feta Cheese Sauce

• 4 scallions
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 6 ounces feta cheese
• 9 ounces cottage cheese
• 12 ounces raw shrimp, shelled
• 12 ounces tomatoes, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 9 ounces spaghetti

1. Boil water for pasta.
2. Chop scallions and thyme together in food processor.
3. Add feta and cottage cheese to processor and blend until creamy.
4. When pasta water boils, add shrimp, cook for 2 minutes or until done, and remove from water with slotted spoon, keeping water at a boil. Add shrimp to cheese sauce.
5. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and add pasta to sauce, toss thoroughly and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Mediterranean Tuna Casserole

Okay, so this is NOT your grandmother's tuna casserole. Yes, there is tuna, and yes, there are noodles. But there are also artichoke hearts and there is also feta cheese, and there is absolutely no cream-of-anything soup. The teenager still ran screaming from the room, but the Southern husband and I loved it.

You really must use tuna packed in oil for this one. I think we have all been so brainwashed into using the packed in water variety that you now have to look hard for the packed in oil kind, but it really does make a big difference. (It's also great in this recipe for tuna salad, by the way.) The packed in oil kind has a rich, delicious flavor that the water kind just doesn't have. In this recipe it blends with the feta cheese and the artichokes to give it a little bit of an exotic Greek flavor.

So the next time you get that longing for a warm, comforting tuna casserole (and don't we all get those?), give this one a try. It makes great leftovers, too.

MEDITERRANEAN TUNA CASSEROLE, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more for baking dishes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound wide egg noodles
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 4 cans (6 ounces each) tuna in olive oil, drained
• 1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts, drained and thickly sliced
• 5 scallions, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces feta cheese
  
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil two 8-inch square (or other shallow 2-quart) baking dishes. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook noodles until 2 minutes short of al dente; drain, and return to pot.
2. Meanwhile, in a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium. Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a simmer.
3. Remove from heat; add mixture to noodles in pot, along with tuna, artichoke hearts, feta cheese and scallions. Season with salt and pepper, and toss. Divide between prepared baking dishes, and sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake until golden and bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Click here for printable recipe

One Bowl Chicken Souvlaki

I am a sucker for any recipe that has "one bowl" in the title. And this particular one comes from one of my favorite go-to cookbooks for those crazy weeknights when you come home and you pretty much have no time whatsover to get dinner on the table...or maybe you have the time but you would rather spend it elsewhere...and that is DINNER DOCTOR. The philosophy of this particular cookbook is that it is perfectly fine to use a few convenience foods in the preparation of your delicious home-cooked meal, thereby speeding whatever it is along just a little more quickly to the dinner table.

Ironically, this specific recipe actually doesn't include any convenience foods -- unless you count the fact that I sent the Southern husband out into the dead of winter to grill the chicken breasts, so that they were conveniently all nice and cooked when I was ready to make dinner. (My honey. Neither rain nor snow nor dead of night will keep the man from his grill.) Once you have some nice cooked chicken -- and I cannot lie, the grilled variety makes this dish just perfection -- you are about 10 short minutes away from suppertime.

So here's the drill. Take one bowl. Tear up your lovely grilled or otherwise cooked chicken into bite-sized piece. Into the bowl with it. Add in some chopped up cucumber, some chopped scallions, some capers, and some halved cherry tomatoes. Mix together some crumbled feta cheese and plain yogurt and toss in a little dried oregano and add this to the bowl. Mix it up good. Now divide it among the plates, top it with a grinding of fresh pepper and some chopped parsley, lay some pita bread on the plate...that's it. You're done. You're happy. And you still have the whole night in front of you!

ONE BOWL CHICKEN SOUVLAKI, adapted from Dinner Doctor

• 4 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 2 large cucumbers, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• Pita bread (you could also use naan bread)

1. Combine chicken, cucumbers, scallions, capers and tomatoes in bowl.

2. Mix up feta and yogurt -- you can do this by hand if you like chunkier dressing or in a food processor if you like it smooth. Mix in the oregano.

3. Pour dressing over chicken mixture and stir just to coat. Sprinkle with pepper and parsley and serve with pita bread.

Click here for printable recipe

Hot Chicken Salad

Santa Claus totally, utterly spoiled me this year by leaving one of these under my tree.

Not with the squash in it, just in case you were wondering.

Anyway, I couldn't WAIT to chop up anything in sight, and luckily for me, the instruction manual included a bunch of recipes that conveniently required that ingredients be chopped and sliced and otherwise generally pulverized. And as I was flipping through the book I spotted one that I hadn't run across before...hot chicken salad. Which called for some cooked chicken, which I happily had some if in my fridge. Let the chopping begin!!

The recipe called for first chopping up the chicken with some scallions with the regular chopping blade. Roger that....chopchopchopchop. Then you put on the slicing blade and slice up some fennel. Sliceslicesliceslice. THEN you get to use the little mini bowl and blade to mix up the dressing, which is a combo of mayonnaise, sour cream, flour, oregano, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Mixmixmixmixmix. Mix it all together with some feta cheese, sprinkle some pine nuts on top, pop in the oven and bake until it is hot, and voila! Hot chicken salad. The recipe said to serve it with pita or flatbread, which I'm sure would be lovely, but I am currently ADDICTED to these little babies:

Kim's Magic Pop Cakes

And so that is what we had. And the whole thing was very tasty (and the Southern husband verified that for me, in case you think I am just speaking through a haze of chopping-induced euphoria.) So there you go...hot chicken salad. Who knew??

HOT CHICKEN SALAD, adapted from the KitchenAid food processor instruction manual

• 3 cups cooked chicken pieces
• 3 scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 bulb fennel, cut into halves lengthwise
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup pine nuts

1. Preheat oven to 375. Put chicken and scallions in food processor and chop until coarsely chopped. Put in large mixing bowl.

2. Slice fennel into thin slices, by hand or with food processor slicing disc. Add to mixing bowl.

3. Combine mayo, sour cream, flour, oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add to mixing bowl, add cheese, and stir all to combine.

4. Spread into greased 8x8 baking pan. Sprinkle with pine nuts and bake for 25 minutes.

5. Serve with pitas, flatbread or your other favorite bread.

Click here for printable recipe

Greek Style Shrimp Scampi

I do love this recipe. It is a mixture of regular shrimp scampi and that classic recipe where you bake together shrimp and tomatoes and feta, only there is no baking, because this is one of my most tried and true speedy weeknight dishes, and you KNOW how I feel about the 30 minutes and under rule. So this delicious little number does it all in one skillet. Well, and one pot for the pasta if you are going to get all technical on me.

First off...really good large shrimp please. There is only one seafood place for me and that is Costco, who stocks the BEST, most succulent shrimp anywhere. I heart you, Costco. Next, a good, soft feta cheese -- worth going to the deli or cheese counter instead of buying that pre-crumbled stuff in the regular cheese section of the supermarket. As a matter of fact, it is ALWAYS better to avoid that pre-crumbled feta. Sure, it does save you some time -- about 15 seconds, because how hard is it to crumble feta??? And the pre-crumbled stuff has been pre-crumbled for a while, so it has had lots of time to dry out. These are my words of wisdom for you for the day: crumble your own feta. You'll thank me, I promise.

Where was I? Oh yes. Fresh parsley is important for this one. But you can and should use tomatoes in the can, they are just fine. I like the Muir Glen brand, but up to you. Anyway, if you start the sauce at the same time you put the pasta water on to boil, you should be all ready to roll in about 20 minutes, start to finish. This is not only a great delicious weekday dish, but a totally reliable company recipe -- it always comes out great and looks very elegant once you have the shrimp all nestled in on the plate in their bed of pasta and tomatoes. Tres Elegant! Or however you say that in Greek. So here you go, one of my all-time favorites, from me to you.

GREEK-STYLE SHRIMP SCAMPI

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 28 ounce can chopped tomatoes
• 1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled (get them from Costco! Trust me!)
• 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Fresh ground pepper
• 8 ounces pasta, cooked and drained

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat and add garlic, stir for 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup parsley and all the tomatoes, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

2. Add shrimp and cover skillet. Cook an additional 5 minutes or until shrimp are pink and cooked through.

3. Add feta and stir. Simmer over low heat for about one minute until cheese is slightly melting.

4. Pour pasta into skillet and toss to combine.

5. Divide among plates. Drizzle with lemon juice, sprinkle remaining parsley over top, and grind pepper over all.

Click here for printable recipe

Israeli Couscous with Green Beans, Feta and Pistachios

There is something about the word couscous that just makes me happy. I have no idea why. Usually when you think of couscous (which I'm sure you do all the time) you are thinking of the teeny tiny pastina-like version, and I do love that kind. But this recipe calls for Israeli couscous, which is the larger, pearl-sized version. It's a bit more substantial when you are making it with other, chunkier ingredients that tend to overwhelm the regular itsy-bitsy couscous. (Let's see how many times I can say couscous in this post, shall we?)

This 15 minutes or less recipe is terrific as a side dish to grilled chicken or steak, but can also stand perfectly well on its own as a light lunch or supper. And it is healthyhealthyhealthy. And very beautiful too, with the green beans and cucumbers and the golden raisins all mixing up there with the cheese and the couscous.

This is another speedy recipe adapted from EVERYDAY FOOD magazine, which I continue to get so many great ideas from. Make sure you get some nice soft feta for this one -- it's worth going to the cheese or deli counter at your market to get the nicer feta, if you can. And of course, fresh green beans.

Happy couscous, everyone. (That's seven!)

ISRAELI COUSCOUS WITH GREEN BEANS, FETA AND PISTACHIOS

• 1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous
• 1/2 pound green beans, stems removed and cut in half
• 1 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced
• 1 cup crumbled feta
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
• 1/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Cook couscous in boiling salted water for 4 minutes. Add beans and cook an additional 2 minutes. Drain and run under cool water until cool.

2. Transfer to large bowl and toss with remaining ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Click here for printable recipe

Greek Nachos

One of the things I love to do is explore all the really great food and cooking blogs out there, and one of my very favorites is called "Bitten." It is written by the amazing Mark Bittman, and appears on the New York Times website. It is a fascinating collection of recipes, food articles, with various guest writers and tons of commentary from the community reading the different articles...basically an all-out love-fest of good food. I check on it regularly and am never ever disappointed. INTIMIDATED, maybe, but not disappointed.

Last week Mark ran an article that included a recipe for Greek-Style Nachos, and it is one of those recipes that makes you smack yourself on the side of the head and say, "why didn't I think of that??" It takes the basic nacho approach -- foundation of chips topped with meat, veggies and cheese -- but the chips are made of pita, the meat is lamb and the cheese is a feta-yogurt-mint blend. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum. Quick, fun and unexpected.

If you aren't familiar with Mark's cookbooks, you should know that he wrote one of my favorite general resource cookbooks ever, called HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. And it pretty much is exactly that. Take a look here:

HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING

And if you want to check out Mark's rocking great blog Bitten, take a look here. (But don't forget to come back to mine. Fair is fair.)

BITTEN

Where I notice he just posted an article on Cold Sesame Noodles, which I already have five different recipes for, but because I worship at his feet I will be trying HIS.

And if you want to try his Greek Nachos, here you go:

Greek Nachos

Just remember who your friends are, and come back to me when you are done making friends with Mark. Because tomorrow I am making Mexican Tuna Salad, and last I checked, he hasn't caught up with me on that one yet!

Corn Salad with Walnuts and Feta

Yes, I know I am rushing the season a little, but I see those piles of corn on the cob at you-know-where (Fairway!) and I just lose all sense of self-control. I am a complete sucker for any recipe that involves scraping those delicious little kernels off the cob. With new corn you barely even have to cook it at all, and with almost any kind of mix-in and the tiniest bit of dressing you have an easy, scrumptious side dish that goes with just about anything you can throw on the grill. We happened to have a lovely ham steak, purchased in bulk at Don's favorite emporium (that would be Costco), which we fully intended to grill but actually quickly pan-fried, given that we we living through the 739th consecutive day of RAIN here in beautiful northern New Jersey. At least the grass is happy.

Anyway, this corn dish can be whipped up pretty much in the time it takes to cook or grill whatever you are having alongside it. Along with ham, or steak, or chicken, this would be a great side for lobster. Mmmm, lobster. Later in the summer, for sure! One word to the wise: whenever you are working with jalapeno peppers, I highly recommend putting on some sort of gloves. The best kind are surgical gloves -- you can buy them in boxes of 50 at any drugstore and I keep them in my kitchen for exactly this. Jalapenos are infused with oils/juices that gives this dish its peppery bite, but when you handle them to get the seeds out and chop them up, you will get some on your hands, and that oil is REALLY hard to completely wash off. As you might discover 2 hours after dinner when you rub your eyes -- eeee-yowch! So, rubber gloves are your friend. And on that slightly alarming note, here is the recipe for this very lovely corn salad!

CORN SALAD WITH WALNUTS AD FETA CHEESE

Serves 6

• 1 cup walnuts
• 4 ears of corn, kernels sliced off, either raw or cooked
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• Coarse salt, fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425. Place walnuts on baking sheet and bake until fragrant, 6-8 minutes. Cool and coarsely chop. Set aside.

2. Combine corn, jalapenos, lime juice, oil, walnuts, feta cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss lightly to combine.