Easiest Crab n Corn "Bisque" you'll ever make!

This is a total cheater recipe- once again thanks to the gloriousness that is TRADER JOE'S! Oh, TJ's what would I do with out ya?!?
You can scoop up every little thing you need for this at TJs and it's not too pricey- the crab is not cheap- but you wouldn't really want it to be, would ya?

Here's what you will need:

1 Container roasted red pepper soup from Trader Joes
1 Bell pepper chopped
3 garlic cloves minced
1 can of corn kernels (drained and rinsed- or use 1 heaping cup of frozen corn!)
1 1/2 cups crab meat- in the fridge section at TJs you will use about 2/3 of the large container- freeze the rest or make some mini-crab cakes to go with this!!)
1/4 chopped cilantro
1/4-1/2 tsp siracha sauce
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
avocado to garnish if you want

Heat about 1 T olive oil in a medium soup pot over medium heat- add garlic, sautee till fragrant. Add soup, corn, bell pepper, crab and siracha.
Stir until heated thorough- serve with chopped cilantro and avocado and some majorly crusty bread

Grilled Shrimp w/ Nate's Cocktail Sauce

A few weeks back we made some pretty spectacular OYSTERS and while he was picking those up at Santa Monica Seafood, Nate grabbed some shrimp to go with them! This is just a very simple way to grill shell-on shrimp for peel-n-eat goodness. I love these because the completely scream SUMMER!! Nate whipped up a little homemade cocktail sauce to really take these to the next level.

Grilled Shrimp

12 raw, shell-on shrimpies
2 T butter, room temp
1 t olive oil
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 T minced shallot
sea salt & fresh black pepper

Start by deveining the scrimps, this is pretty mellow once you've done it before...it sounds harder than it is, I promise!




Lay the little gray bastid on it's side and use a super sharp knife to cut a slit (about 1/2a centimeter deep, just piercing through the shell and cutting a bit into the shrimp)
Use your thumbs and first fingers to peek inside the cut and while gently running cold water over the shrimp and your hands, remove the dark digestive tract of the shrimp.
There. Done! YAY!! I got better with practice and by the last one I was an ace- this is not as intense as it may sound all typed out~
Here is a video from YouTube courtesy of epicurious- it does show peeling the shrimp before deveining, but notes that the peeling is not necessary and in fact helps the shrimp retain yummy flavor if left in the shell during cooking...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH


Heat the grill to medium low heat.
Anyhow, now that your shrimp are deveined, mix the butter, olive oil, garlic, shallot salt & pepper in a small bowl until well combined. Rub butter mix all over each shrimp.I skewered them onto kabob sticks to make them easier to flip.
Cook 3-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.


Nate's Cocktail sauce
Catchup, a few dashes Frank's Red Hot hot sauce,black pepper, a dash olive oil, stir all together!

Squeeze a bit of lemon over the shrimp and serve! This is great with tabouli, grilled veggies and of course the GRILLED NAPA OYSTERS we ate with them!!

Napa Valley Grilled Oysters

During a recent trip to the Stags Leap District of the Napa Valley. We were BLESSED to be with some dear friends, one of those friends being a bartender at Anchor & Hope (and two other peeps with us being the GM and sommelier of A&H) SUPER LUCKY US.
Click here to see Anchor & Hope SF

So far what I can share with you, as far as wine experience goes, is that it's a glorious, never-ending journey. We visited 6 wineries; Chimney Rock and Pine Ridge were two of them.

More details of the trip to come...If you want to hear about each winery and details of the trip SOONER,click HERE to become a fan of Sweet Life Kitchen on Facebook , I am posting all the edible, sip'able goodness of our PCH trip on the fan page, as I will only be posting here when we open the bottles and pair it with a recipe~ like this one!

This recipe comes from Chimney Rock, where it was passed along by a local and was so simple we didn't even need to write it down...we paired it with the Dijon Clones Chardonnay we purchased at Pine Ridge Winery. The oysters and the chardonnay really brought out the best in one another (not too hard to do) and Nate & I think this was one of the BEST dinner's we've EVER made.

About the vino~ This chardonnay, from 2007, is a super summery wine. It is very light, and full of fruity-ness with out being SWEET, which we really loved.



About the oysters~ This recipe is most often prepared with large, meaty oysters. Nate and I LOOOOOOVE oysters and try to eat them when ever possible...we recently had an INCREDIBLE dinner at Santa Monica Seafood's newer location on Wilshire Blvd and the Kumomoto oysters were seriously divine...so we decided why the heck not- they may not be big but they are DELICIOUS, raw, grilled, delicious.




Napa Valley Grilled Oysters
12 oysters
1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
1/3 a large bulb chopped fennel
1/3 cup chopped shallot
(we pretty much eyeballed this- it does not have to be precise at all.)

Heat up on super low in a sauce pot JUST to melt the butter and mix, turn off heat
Meanwhile put the oysters deep side down on the grill and heat 3-5 minutes or until the shells start to pop open (if one does not want to open- toss it, peace out oyster.)



Remove them from the grill and use an oyster shuckin knife and pop those tops!! loosen up each lil oyster and spoon the super amazing, delicious fennel-butter-shallot extravaganza on to each oyster...
Put the topped off oysters back on the grill for about 3 minutes or until butter starts to bubble and they are all heated through.

Prepare to have your socks knocked OFF.

Scallop Cabbage Salad

Well, not the prettiest photos I have ever taken, but definitely a delicious, healthy dinner that we both loved!!
We're trying to get in a healthier groove, so after a trip to one of our favorite Japanese markets here in LA, we came up with this veggie-packed Sunday dinner.

Scallop Cabbage Salad
For 2
By Nate & Beth

1 pkg (3-4 individual) Sushi-grade large scallops
Low-sodium soy sauce
1 orange, sliced into 1/4s
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 sweet white onion, peeled & chopped
1/4 chopped green cabbage
1/4 chopped purple cabbage
2-3 radishes sliced
Chopped or shredded carrots
1 T olive or sesame oil

Toss together chopped cabbages, radishes & carrots.
In a large skillet on medium heat olive oil, add onions and garlic and stir for about 5 minutes or until onions soften a bit. Add a tsp of soy sauce and the juice of 1/4 of the orange. Sautee about 7-10 minutes and let juices combine and onion/garlic mix caramelize a bit. Very lightly season scallops with kosher salt on both sides and add to pan, and squeeze the juice of 1/4 orange over them. Cook 4 minutes then flip, squeeze another 1/4 orange over and cook another 4 minutes. Stir and simmer everything another 2-3 minutes. Divide cabbage mix between 2 salad bowls, and use a slotted spoon to pile the garlic, onions and scallops on top. Drizzle the extra juices over the salad and serve with an orange slice on the side! (you can also use a little salad dressing if you want, or top with sesame seeds).

Tuna Tartar

With Christmas behind us and the apartment actually clean, I thought it would be a perfect time to have a little dinner-party and invite some friends over to try some of my new recipes.

I decided to make prime rib as our main course because I have never made it before and with the cold weather it sounded yummy. Since the main dish was such a hefty one, I thought it would be good to start with something a bit lighter.
I headed over to Nijiya Market, which is walking distance from our old casa, and just a short drive from our current casa here in Culver City...Mitsuwa is another good market for sushi fish and other delicious treats in our area. If you are not near a fabulous Japanese market, roll over to Whole Foods, Gelson's, Bristol Farms or another local spot that has SUSHI GRADE FISH. That is the only type of fish that should be used for this recipe. Also,make sure your kitchen and hands are clean, and I keep a little bowl of rice vinegar mixed with water and a clean kitchen towel on hand to wipe things down (knife, etc.) and keep it clean while working with the raw fish.



Tuna Tartar
By: ME, Beth G
Serves 4-8 (8 mini, 4 "regular"- like a normal can of tuna size, 6 perfect-size- like the lil can of tuna with the pull tap) :)

About 1 lb SUSHI GRADE tuna, chopped to bits
1 large ripe avocado
1-2 T fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp prepared wasabi
2-3 tsp chili sauce (siracha is recommended, but the store was out of it, so I used the Lee Kum Garlic Chili sauce)
Kosher salt
1/2 tsp soy sauce
2-3 green onions finely chopped
sliced pickled ginger and sesame seeds to garnish

Place the chopped tuna in a medium bowl. Cut the avocado in half, put one half away for future use- cube the other half and toss in with the tuna in the bowl. Stir in lemon juice, wasabi, chili sauce, a pinch of salt, soy sauce & green onions. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Remove marinated mix from the fridge. Cube up remaining half of avocado. Mold tartar into little circles using a cookie cutter, cleaned tuna can, or (as I did) the top of a disposable cup with the bottom cut off. Top with avocado, a little ginger and sesame seeds.

Crab Wontons

This was so much fun!We'd never made won tons at home before but we were so excited to try it! After much deliberation we decided to go with a Crab & cream cheese won ton for our football game get together yesterday. It was surprisingly easy and totally delicious!




1 pkg Wonton Wrappers (we didn't use them all) This made about 25-30 won tons
1 large King Crab Leg (meat removed from shell and shredded)
1 8oz package of cream cheese softened
4-5 chopped up green onion
1 tsp garlic chili paste (Nate saw this in the fridge and couldn't resist)
1 egg white (for sealing wontons)

Mix Crab, cream cheese, green onion and chili paste until well combined. Cover your work area with wax paper to reduce stickiness. Lay several wonton wrappers out on the wax paper. Spoon about 1 tsp of filling onto each wrapper.




Dip your fingers in the egg and run it around the edges of the won ton wrapper.




Seal by folding in half diagonally (bring opposite corners together, so it looks like a triangle standing on it's side.You can seal it in this shape (just make sure you get as much air out as you can) or you can then bring the other two corners into meet the middle corner. It will look like a newspaper hat. Again try to get the air out as much as possible and make sure they are sealed well. We made them in the late morning and refrigerated them for the evening game. About an hour before our guests arrived, we got out one of our fondue pots and filled it with oil, and dropped them slowly into the oil using a slotted metal spoon.




Using the slotted spoon, transfer the golden fried wontons onto a plate covered with paper towel to cool for about 3 minutes before transferring to serving dish.

Serve with sweet & sour sauce and hot mustard. We can't wait to make wontons again & stuff them with something new!

Nate's Crab Cakes

Nate LOVES crab cakes~ and I do too! This was our first time making them, and we looked up a few recipes Like This and Nate decided to make his own recipe based on crab cakes that he's had that he liked (and avoiding ingredients that are not his fave like celery)
This was totally a make-it-up-as-you go type of deal, and really the only thing we'll do differently next time is either make a smaller batch or make the same sized batch and size the crab cakes as silver-dollar sized apps. This recipe made 7 crab cakes about the size of the palm of my hand.




1 lb crab meat (we used cooked snow-crab clusters from the fish market- YUM!)
Olive oil
Small Maui Sweet Onion
8-10 minced radishes
3 T Dijon mustard
Bread Crumbs
1/2 C mashed potatoes - cooled (... and we happened to be making mashed red potatoes as a side dish with our main course)
1/4 c mayo
2 1/2 T chopped finely chopped chives
3 T chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste
Juice of 1/2 a lemon or to taste
Zest of 1/4 (or a little less)of a lemon

Spicy Mayo~
Mayo 1/2 to 3/4 C
1 T finely chopped chives
a few dashes Tapitio or Tabasco to taste
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Salt (a pinch of Kosher salt)
a bit of horseradish like 1/2 tsp
Mix up all of the above

Medium Pan, saute onions and radishes, seasoned with salt for 5-7 minutes in a few T of Olive Oil. Remove from heat and let cool. In a large bowl combine (mix after each ingredient- use a fork to keep the larger piece of meat from crumbling) crab, mayo, mustard, lemon juice, tarragon, chives, mashed potatoes cayenne bread crumbs (adding by the 1/4 cup until they're good patty making texture.) Season with salt & pepper. Carefully stir in radishes and onions, add a little more lemon juice to taste or bread crumbs if necessary. Form big or little cakes by hand- coat both sides with bread crumbs. Heat oil in a medium or large skillet- saute about 4-5 minutes each side or until golden & crispy on medium heat.

They were totally spectacular- we actually went to a beautiful dinner at a great restaurant a few nights later and I liked Nate's crab cakes better!!
My photos are no bueno on this one, they do not do them justice~ I am dreading daylight savings time.

Teacher Shower~

I love summer parties! This weekend we gathered at my mom's place to celebrate my sis landing her first teaching job! It's a year-round school so only one more week of summer for her. Since the schools have such tight budgets these days we threw her a little shower to help her start her career off right (and with plenty of fun supplies!) It was a day-time event with buffet-style appetizers.
I made Goat Cheese Stuffed Grape Tomatoes and Shrimp & Veggie Couscous (both easy to make here at my house and traveled well on the hour trip to my moms)

~Cherry Tomatoes Filled With Goat Cheese~
This is the Original Recipe from Williams Sonoma Recipes Online (my mod's below)

24 Cherry Tomatoes (a mix of red & yellow
1/4 Lb fresh goat cheese (chevre)
1/4 C. Fresh minced basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Cut the top off each tomato & scoop out pulp to make a hollow yet sturdy shell, drain any juice that accumulates in the shells.
Combine all other ingredients in a bowl, mix well with a fork.
Fill each tomato with cheese mix, plate & serve
(original recipe makes 24 cherry tomatoes, serves 6)

I used grape tomatoes, and doubled this recipe.
Also I used 1 14oz package fresh chevre (plain) and one 8oz package fine herb coated chevre, then added a little less than 1/4 c. finley minced basil, pinches of Kosher salt & pepper to taste....
I used the tip of my potato peeler to hollow the tomatoes out & fill them.
I had about 1/4 c cheese mix leftover that we're spreading on crackers today!





Shrimp Couscous Salad
From All Recipes Online






2 C couscous
2 C water

3/4 C. olive oil
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove crushed garlic
salt & pepper to taste
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 lbs cooked shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

My mods~
I winged it with the dressing mix, added more mustard & more cumin and added 2 cloves of finely minced garlic until I liked how it tasted..I may add a bit of lemon zest next time.
I also did one only one tomato and added some chopped orange bell pepper.
The shrimp seemed a bit large since this was an appetizer-type salad to be served in smaller portions I choped them in half. I used 1/2 reg feta and 1/2 fat free.
I refrigerated overnight & I am using the extra dressing as a marinade for chicken.

Pour water into saucepan, bring to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover & remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes and immediately fluff with a fork (otherwise it will clump) set aside to cool.

In a small bowl wish together olive oil, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic, Salt & pepper~ set aside.

In a large bowl, toss together shrimp, cooled couscous, bell peppers, tomato, parsley & feta. Whisk vinaigrette blend, the drizzle about half over couscous & toss to coat. Add more dressing to coat with out drenching. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.