Last weekend we had the pleasure of attending a BBQ hosted by our friends Andrew and Heide called “United Steaks of America”. I thought that name was pretty clever.

I didn’t bring my camera, so unfortunately I can’t say a lot about the BBQ except it was really good food, good people and those people seemed to like the appetizer I brought.  Therefore, I am posting the recipe for the world to see.  These roll-ups were really very simple, fresh tasting and inexpensive to make.  You can probably tell from the picture that I used some dry, almost inedible tortillas – It will be a lot easier if you don’t follow my lead on this one.  Fresh tortillas are much easier to roll.

Zesty Turkey Roll-Ups

Printable recipe here

Makes about 45-50 pieces (sushi roll bite size)

5 Flour Burrito Sized Tortillas

1 8oz Package Cream Cheese – Room Temp

½ Cup Sundried Tomatoes (drained of oil) Chopped

4-5 Tablespoons Thinly Sliced Green Onions

¼ Cup Sour Cream

½ Cup Grated White Cheddar (I used Tillamook)

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Dashes of Tabasco

10 Slices of thinly slice turkey or ham  

1 Cucumber Peeled

1 Bell Pepper

1 Avocado Diced

Toothpicks

In a mixer or with hand mixer, beat cream cheese, sundried tomatoes, onions, sour cream, lemon juice, Tabasco and white cheddar on low for about 1 minute. 

Set aside.

Slice cucumber and red pepper into matchstick size pieces.

Spread tortilla with cream cheese mixture.

Then add two slices of turkey or ham. 

Add a few cucumber and pepper strips, and avocado dices. 

Roll up tortilla tightly.   Slice into 1 inch wide pieces and stick each slice with a toothpick.

A serrated knife works best to keep the roll in tact.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Love,

Lindzee

Yesterday, we celebrated the Super Bowl at the Kimball’s (Adam, Jenni and Dr. Leo Marvin) .  Here is glamour shot of Dr. Leo Marvin.  He is a stud.

The Kimballs lived in New Orleans for a few years and are big Saints fans.  They also made some great New Orleans fare and Adam served his homemade beer!  It was super yummy. 

Cajun Jambalaya and a Craw-fish Boil!

Adam digging in. 

 He said to drink the juices from the head of the craw-fish once you break off the tail. Not sure that I like that a lot, but at least I tried it. 

Crawfish boil in Boise?? I was surprised too.  Apparently you can get Craw-fish at a little fish market in the north end. 

 Our friend Celia is from Alabama and she is the sweetest! 

 To complete the southern feast, she brought sweet tea and fried pickles. She said she tamed down the sweetness of the tea for all of us.  I loved the fried pickles! Her husband Tim fried them.

Here are Tim and Celia together.

Here is the entire spread from yesterday.   The Saints cookies were super cute! 

I had about 10 plates like this.

We also brought our friends Jen and Balaji. 

Of course, John Black and Jav made an appearance

My contribution was Mango Shrimp Ceviche and Caprese Sticks.  The caprese sticks are a specialty of my friend Crissie’s over at www.designeatplay.com.  SO easy and good!

Since it is the middle of winter and I live in Boise I chose shrimp for the ceviche.  I figured nothing good can come out of raw fish this time of year in the b-town.  It isn’t actually cooked all the way by the lime juice, only partially which is faster than typical ceviche.  

 Mango Shrimp Ceviche

1 lb. raw shrimp peeled, deveined, tails removed

2 tomatoes chopped

1 Red onion minced

1 Cucumber peeled and chopped

¼ Head of a Red Cabbage chopped

Couple of handfuls of cilantro chopped

2 Serrano peppers chopped (seeds and veins removed)

1 Cup Fresh lime juice

2 Mangos peeled and chopped

2 Avocados pitted, peeled and chopped

Salt and Pepper to tasted

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Meanwhile, chop shrimp into smaller bits like this.

Boil shrimp for 1-2 minutes. 

Remove from heat and strain, immediately place in ice water to cool. 

Once cool add tomatoes, onions, cucumber, cabbage, peppers, cilantro and lime juice in a large bowl. 

Stir well.  Place covered in fridge for an hour. 

Add mangos and avocados just prior to serving.  Salt and pepper to taste.   Serve with tortilla chips.

Caprese Sticks (by Crissie)

1 Pint Grape Tomatoes halved

4 oz Mozzarella Cheese cut into small squares

Couple of handfuls of basil cut into small pieces

Toothpicks

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Take one grape tomato, one small piece of basil and piece of cheese and place on a toothpick.  Assemble caprese sticks like this:

Serve on a plate drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy!

Love,

Lindzee

And any Frei family holiday would be complete without a lot of red wine spilling.  This year was no exception:

 Fondue? Don’t mind if I do!  I love fondue – I think it might be because I am a sauce person. I am obsessed with sauces.  Fondue is the only meal I can think of where you dip every course and every bite.  In the words of Lustopher Hardy – “A little bit of heaven”. 

We generally setup the fondue around my parent’s kitchen island, which promotes lots of socializing.

Even Mavie (who has severe IBS (not joking) and is not allowed people food) tried to get a piece of yumminess. 

For those of you not familiar with fondue, we have three courses for the party:

The Cheese

The Meat

The Chocolate

Easy to remember since it is the three basic food groups .

I am sure some of you will be able to relate to this, but all of our family’s Christmas recipes have been around for so many years that they are stored in this little messy handwritten card holder my mom keeps.

 I love looking through all these recipes every year.  I even found a couple of Tomato Aspics (sick).   We don’t make that anymore. My favorite was this recipe written on a Goodyear Tire notepad. Hehe.

 Here are the fondue recipes.

 Don’t worry, I retyped them .

The Cheese Course

As previously mentioned, the night begins with the cheese fondue.  I really could just have this course and be fine for the rest of the night.  It is sooo freaking good. I have seen people make cheese fondue with many different types of cheeses and ingredients.  We never stray from the traditional.  Why fix what ain’t broken? 

Important note: When eating the cheese you must be careful.  It has been said that if you drop your piece of bread or fruit into the cheese you must kiss the person next to you.  Generally, this gets a little strange because I am usually eating fondue with my family.

Traditional Cheese Fondue (Adapted from handwritten recipe circa 1972 by Pam Frei)

½ Pound freshly grated Emmentaler Swiss Cheese

½ Pound freshly grated Le Gruyere Cheese (Do not use processed Gruyere.  The year we tried the processed is the same year we tried the chocolate fountain.  It will forever be known as the year of the fondue failure and subsequently the year without a Santa Claus)

1.5 Cups Dry White Wine

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1.5 Teaspoons Cornstarch

1 Garlic clove halved

½ Teaspoon Nutmeg

Salt and White Pepper to taste

3 Tablespoons Kirsch Cherry Liquor

Dippers

Loaf of French bread cubed

2 Apples cubed

Roasted potatoes for dipping (optional)

Rub garlic on inside of large pot with two forks.

 Remove garlic solids.  Add white wine and lemon juice and heat over medium heat.  Heat till air bubbles rise but to not boil.  Whisk in cornstarch so there are no lumps.  Reduce heat to low.  Add a handful of cheese. 

 When cheese is melted add another handful.  Do not boil.  Add in nutmeg, salt and pepper and Kirsch.  The Kirsch adds great flavor.  At this point, we add the cheese mixture to a crockpot on high, so it doesn’t burn.  Use fondue sticks to dip.

 The Meat Course

The meat course is a little different because the eater is actually cooking their own meat. 

There are fondue pots (we have 3-4) of heated beef bouillon and red wine (one year we experimented with peanut oil) and over the years we have tried the different combinations of the following:

Shrimp (peeled and deveined)

Steak (cut into chunks)

Chicken (cut into chunks and generally marinated)

Salmon (cut into chunks)

Mushrooms

Peppers          

 Heat the following over a stove until boiling and add to fondue pot.

2 Cups of Beef Broth

1 Cup Red Wine

We like to use Sterno, not tealights, as a heat source.  Otherwise, it doesn’t get hot very fast.

Now for the dipping sauces – I try to make these the day prior to the party:

Sweet and Sour (my personal favorite)

½ cup Apricot Preserves

¼ cup Catsup (this cracks me up!  Anyone know the difference between catsup and ketchup?)

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 Tablespoons Major Grey’s Chutney

Heat all ingredients until it reaches a simmering stage.

Mustard Sauce

1/2 Cup sour cream

1/3 Cup mayonnaise

1.5 Tablespoons prepared mustard (the French’s kind. Not the Dijon)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon horseradish

Combine all ingredients and mix well

Blue Cheese Dressing Sauce

This can easily be used as salad dressing to.

¾ Cup sour cream

½ Teaspoon dry mustard

½ Teaspoon salt

½ Garlic clove minced

1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ Cup mayonnaise

3 Oz. Crumbled blue cheese

Combine all ingredients with the exception of blue cheese in a large bowl.  Mix for 2 minutes on low speed.  Slowly add blue cheese and blend 4 more minutes.  Refrigerate 24 hours prior to serving.

Teriyaki Sauce
We take a shortcut and use Yoshida!

  The Chocolate Course

I am usually so stuffed at this point that I can barely walk, but I always make room for just a bit more since the chocolate is so good.  Our recipe is super simple but really yummy!

Chocolate Fondue

2 Large bars of Symphony Chocolate with Toffee Bits – This stuff is the best and adds a little extra crunch

½ Cup Whipping Cream

2 ounces of Bailey’s Irish Cream (optional)

Heat chocolate and whipping cream over double boiler over low heat.  Stir until melted.  Transfer to chocolate fondue pot.  

We have this super cute hot fudge warmer thing we use:

Dippers

Use any combination of the following:

Bananas sliced

Mandarin Oranges

Strawberries

Apples

Pineapple

Pound Cake (bite size)

Cheesecake (bite size)

Leftover holiday cookies

At this point in the party I am generally ready to pass out since I am so full. 

I hope you have all have a wonderful Christmas!  I would love to hear about your Christmas traditions.  Please post them in the comment section. 

Be safe, be merry and eat & drink with reckless abandon!  You can work it off later!

Love,

Lindzee

PS.  I wish Mr. Barrera could have been here!  Hope you are having fun in b-town!

On Saturday, we had a small impromptu dinner party with some close friends.  Katie, Javi, Crissie, Nick, Cortnay, Idoia, Michelle and Reagan all agreed to come for a night of fun and A LOT of red wine drinking.  By the end of the night everyone had purple teeth and a full stomach.

Here is Michelle and Cortnay.  They are pretty.

This is me pretending to look like I know what I am doing.  But accidently serving the whole group ridiculously raw meat.  More on that later.

 Here is Javi, never too far away from a computer. Lots of wine on the table.

Javi and I went to Costco earlier that day and spotted some amazing U-15 Mexican Shrimp at a great price.  I imagine most people know this, but U-15 is the amount of shrimp per pound or in this case “under 15 or less”.  

We also spotted some ridiculously good looking Fletcher’s thick cut bacon.  I always make my specialty garlic grilled shrimp, but thought I would try some bacon-wrapped shrimpies too.  The garlic shrimp is cooked with the shell on because it adds more flavor and keeps the meat moist.  But it would be a pain in arse to peel a shrimp wrapped in bacon, so I peeled and deveined half of them first. Here is a little cheesey demonstration on how to peel and devein shrimp. Not sure if this is the RIGHT way to do it, but it works well for me: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wHW7qvAu2k

BTW, I never mind the veins and don’t understand why people get grossed out by them.

Both of these shrimp recipes turned out spectacularly!! We also had some Flank Steak and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, but those recipes are coming in later posts.

Lots of Garlic in these shrimpies!

Grilled Peel ‘n Eat Garlic Shrimp

1 Pound raw large shrimp shell-on head-off

5 Garlic cloves chopped

1/2 Cup olive oil

1 Teaspoon Sea Salt

Rinse shrimp off with cold water and drain well. 

 In small bowl pour sea salt over garlic and rub with a fork to make a paste. 

Whisk in olive oil. 

Reserve 1/4 of olive oil mixture for the bacon-wrapped shrimp and pour the rest over the shell-on shrimp in a ziplock bag.  Marinate in fridge 12-24 hours.  Remove from bag and place 4-5 shrimp each on wooden skewers that have been soaked in water. 

 Grill on medium until opaque.  Don’t overcook. I mean it.  Peel ‘n eat.  Don’t make this on a first date – it gets messy.

Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

1 Pound large shrimp peeled with tail-on

Olive Oil and garlic mixture left from above recipe

1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 Teaspoon Cajun seasoning

8-9 pieces of thick-cut bacon reserving 1 or 2 pieces to eat while cooking

Whisk together olive oil mixture, Dijon, lemon juice, brown sugar and Cajun seasoning. 

 Pour over peeled shrimp.  Marinate for 30-45 minutes.  Don’t marinate longer or you will cook the shrimp.  The lemon acts as a cooking agent – This is how ceviche is made. 

Meanwhile, pan fry the bacon for 4-6 minutes. 

It should be somewhat cooked but not crisp as you need to wrap it around the shrimp.  Cut each piece of bacon in half and wrap one half piece around the middle of each marinated shrimp.  Secure with toothpick. 

I made the mistake of using colored toothpicks which turn your shrimp the color of the toothpick J.   Grill on medium until shrimp is opaque.  Please do not overcook these either. 

Thank you for your cooperation in advance of this matter.

Love,

Lindzee