Roasted shrimp and asparagus pasta in lemon sauce

Today's recipe is one that I have been messing with for a few months now. I finally think I have it perfected.

Ingredients:
1 lb angel hair pasta (or any pasta of your choosing, I just think angel hair works best)
Olive oil
2T butter
1 lb of asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1lb large shrimp, peeled & de-veined
Salt and pepper
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
1 large shallot, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 small anchovy fillets
Shredded parmesan (approx 1 handful)

1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Lay shrimp in a pile on a baking sheet. Drizzle with approx 3T olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
3. Place a large pot of salted water on the stove, add 2T olive oil, and bring to a boil.
4. Bring a smaller pot of water to a simmer (this will be for your asparagus)
5. In yet another pan/skillet slowly melt the butter with 2T of olive oil.
6. Put the asparagus & pasta into their pots. Cook until done to your liking, which will probably take about the same amount of time as the shrimp will be in the oven.
7. Place the shrimp in the oven, and roast for 6-8 minutes until the shrimp is pink and cooked through.
8. Turn the heat a little bit higher under the butter and olive oil mixture. Medium is perfect.
9. Into the butter add the anchovy fillets & stir until they are dissolved.
10. Add the lemon juice, zest, shallots, and garlic to the butter and anchovy sauce. Cook until the shallots are soft. DO NOT burn this. Cook it over medium or lower heat just until the shallots are soft. Then you can either turn the burner off, or put it on the lowest heat possible. If the lemon zest burns your sauce is ruined.
11. When the timer goes off take the shrimp out of the oven, and check to see if your pasta and asparagus are done. Drain the pasta, and drain the asparagus.
12. Place the pasta in the butter sauce and toss to coat.
13. Add the shrimp, asparagus, and a handful of the shredded parm. Stir together.
14. Plate and serve!

Enjoy this meal. It is very easy, and VERY flavorful. Don't be scared of it because it has anchovy fillets in it. When they are melted into olive oil they take on a rich, nutty flavor. It won't even taste like fish.

Here is the cast of characters:

First the lovely shrimp. You are just going to pile them right on a baking sheet like so.

Then you put 3T of olive oil on it, sprinkle with about 1T each of salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

And trust me, if you must sample the wine to be served with dinner at this point, well I sure won't be telling anyone. Consider it a quality control of sorts. Wouldn't want to serve anyone bad wine would you?

Now shake the pan up so the shrimp are scattered across it evenly.

Place a pot of salted water on the stove top and bring to a boil. Place a smaller pot of water on another burner, and bring to a simmer.

Take a large skillet and put it on ANOTHER burner, at which point I was wishing I had a six burner stove. Melt the 2T butter and 2T olive oil over very low heat. Put the pasta in the boiling water, and the asparagus in the simmering water.

Place the shrimp in the oven and set your timer for 6-8 minutes. I set mine for 7 to check their progress at that point.

Now turn the heat up to medium under the butter and olive oil. Pick three or four fillets out of your anchovies.

Put the fillets in the pan, and stir them until they dissolve. Which is really hard to get a picture of it turns out! Where's my professional photographer when I need him/her?!

Then add the garlic, shallots, lemon zest, and juice. Turn the heat down and cook just until the shallots are soft. Like I said above, be very very careful not to have the heat on too high. Burned lemon zest is the nastiest flavor on earth and you will ruin your sauce if you let it get that far. There is no saving it once it's burned.

Now things will be happening quickly. The shrimp, pasta, and asparagus will likely be done at the same time. Take the shrimp out of the oven.

Drain the pasta, and the asparagus.

Now put the pasta (as much as you can fit) into the sauce and toss to coat.

Now add the shrimp, asparagus, and a big handful of the shredded parm.

Stir this together.

Plate it all pretty like, and serve! I usually give another sprinkle of parmesan at this point.

Enjoy!

Rugelach with mom

Every Christmas I go a little bake crazy. It's the time of year where I get to show my love through what I bake people. Cookies, cakes, pies, pastries. You name it, I want to bake it and feed it to someone!

So in the beginning of December my mom came over to school me in a new recipe. Well, new to me anyway. Rugelach!

Rugelach is such an easy, and versatile recipe. You can really do anything with it. The dough itself does not have sugar in it, so the possibilities are endless. So, let's get this show on the road!

We made a double batch, so you could really cute this in half to make fewer.

Dough:
-4 sticks of butter, at room temp
-8 ounces of cream cheese
-4.5 cups of flour

1. Put the butter and cream cheese in your mixer (you can use a hand mixer also).
2. Once mixed, add the flour, and mix together well.
3. Dump the dough onto a well floured counter, and shape into six balls.
4. Flatten the balls into discs, wrap in plastic, and store in the fridge for 1 hour to overnight.
5. Place dough on a floured surface. Roll dough out into an approx 14 inch circle.
6. Place toppings of your choice on the round.
7. Using a pizza cutter, cut round into 16 slices.
8. Roll slices from the outside, toward the middle, to create a crescent shape.
9. Place the crescents on a baking sheet covered in aluminum & sprayed with non stick spray. We did not do this and what a hot mess we had on our hands, as you will see below.
10. Bake at 350 until just starting to brown.

Here are our ingredients, including some of the filling we chose.
For the fillings we have hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, two types of jams, chocolate chips, and some natural sugar.

These are preserves that my mom got at the local Grocery Outlet store. Bargain shopping score! These were delicious. Very good quality.

We toss the butter and cream cheese into my beloved kitchenaid mixer.

We mix it until it looks like so.

Creamy delicious.

At that point we add the flour, and mix until it forms a nice dough.

Meanwhile, my own living handy vac is making sure I haven't dropped an goodies. I mean hey, you never know when a whole stick of butter might drop down from the heavens.

Once the dough is mixed, we slap it down onto a well floured counter.

And mom gets to work kneading and rolling the dough.

she has done this so much in her life I think it comes as second nature. She could knead dough in her sleep!

Flatten the ball slightly, and cut it into six pieces.

Then shape these pieces into balls,

and flatten them.

These will be wrapped in plastic, and placed in the fridge for 1 hour to overnight.

While the dough chills, we get to work on some of the toppings. Well... my mom does. I just snack and take pictures.

After chop, chop, chopping, we came up with an easier solution. While my sidekick waits patiently by, always on the look out for any escapees.

This is the closest thing I have to a food processor. I know! It's a crime! But it works well enough for a small job like this.

Tada! Beautiful, uniform, chopped nuts.

Now the chocolate chips get the same treatment. You do not want to keep these whole. It makes it really difficult to roll the rugelach.

Now we have our filling all set out and organized. We also decided to go with some cinnamon and sugar as you see below.

Now we get the dough from the fridge, one disc at a time.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter,

Then roll the dough out into a circle.

Now this is where you can go crazy. We spread raspberry preserves across the circle of dough.

Take it far out to the edges, like such.

Then it was sprinkled with crushed hazelnuts,

Followed by some white chocolate.

And what the hell, why not toss some cinnamon/sugar on there. Wild and crazy, that's us!

Now it's ready to slice.

When you get towards the middle, just go slow and steady, as the dough wants to roll up into the wheel sometimes.

From there, roll from the outside, toward the center. You will get little crescents like this:

Now this is the part I would NOT advise. We just put them right on an ungreased cookie sheet, which caused a mess when the filling would sometimes leak out a bit. Speaking of cookie sheets, isn't this one of the most loved ones you have seen? Now THAT cookie sheet has clearly seen it's share of delicious baked goods.

Pop quiz, can you spot the big NO NO in this picture?

That would be the wooden cutting board in the upper left. Yeah, don't put cutting boards on the stove top. When I was about three, my mom had left a wooden cutting board on an electric heating element on the stove. I remember walking through the kitchen and seeing billows of smoke coming up from the board. I wander into the living room and say "Fire in the kitchen!", and I get shooed from the room. Surely she would notice if there was a FIRE in the KITCHEN. Right? Well apparently not, because she did indeed find the kitchen filled with smoke. See? It isn't always just a case of over active imagination. ANYHOW. On we go.

This is a large sheet, so we go ahead and fill, cut, and roll another ball of dough.

Using apricot to start this one.

We covered these with the natural sugar.

Followed of course, by more spreading, cutting, and rolling...

I got adventurous and pulled a bag of craisins out of the cabinet to use as a filling as well.

Then into a 350degree oven until is JUST starts to brown. See the spillage of the ones on top? Yeah, hence the reason non stick spray and/or aluminum, is a good idea.

Pouty dog is pouting. This is my mom's Jack Russell, Toby. He is a handful and a half, but so cute it almost makes up for it.

Yum! These are really delicious. They are not overly sweet, and are perfect with a hot cup of coffee.

Of course, if you make these during the holidays, it is a must to arrange them on a tacky Christmas plate like this one.

Have fun baking, and enjoy!

Okay, I admit it. I have been a complete slacker witht the blog the last few months. Life hasn't been handing me lemons. It's been THROWING them at my FACE. By the truck loads. So I've been here, scrambling my butt off to make the biggest batch of lemonaid you've ever seen.

That being said, I am back with renewed energy and passion. I have some great recipe ideas, and will be posting on a more regular basis. I'm baaaaacccckkkkkk!!