Good Food, Great Friends, Fabulous Times!

In my last blog I told you guys that I am trying to Eat and try new things. So Friday night I decided that I would try out a few new recipes to get a head start on my new years resolution. Jesse was grilling steak and I decided that I was going to try to make a homemade Outback Blooming Onion, and a Shrimp and Grits recipe.

Now I am defiantly not the cooking type, but I have to say it is one of my favorite things to do. I love to try new and unique recipes. I am not one for the down home southern cooking, like beans, okra, greens, turnips, and things that most southern women like my grandmother love cooking. I don't like fruits or most vegetables, so it is kind of hard to find things that I can cook that I will actually enjoy.

So on to my menu for the night...I started off with the Blooming Onion. The sauce I made was spot on and surprisingly really simple to make. The onion was not as good as outbacks but it was still very good to be made in my own kitchen.

I could not find any Vidalia Onions so I had to go with the small sweet onions, therefore I had to cut my onions into petals instead of a blossoming onion. The batter was really simple a few beers, some corn starch, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. and then you just dipped it in some flour, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and some garlic powder.

It turned out really well, but on the downside it made a horrendous mess in my kitchen and I had to clean out my deep fryer when I was finished.

Then I went on to my side dishes. I had Macaroni and Cheese. Kraft came out with the new bags that you make in like 10 minutes and it tastes just like you spent three hours preparing and baking it. Its fabulous!!

Then I started on my Shrimp and Grits recipe. It was super easy and tasted amazing. You make the grits which takes all of five minutes. Put some grated Parmesan Cheese and salt and pepper and stir. Then in a pan you put unsalted butter shrimp minced garlic, a dash of cayenne pepper, and salt and cook until the shrimp is pink. When it is finished you put the grits in a bowl and top with the shrimp and sauce that the shrimp makes. It is sooo easy and it tasted WONDERFUL if you like shrimp and grits. It could even be a meal in itself. Jesse loved the shrimp but didn't like the grits, but he doesn't like grits that much anyways.

It was a fabulous meal and we had Michael and Dawn over and played the wii and Then Brian and Emily came over and we put in Just Dance and danced the night away. It was such a good time. We ended the evening watching the new Tom Cruise movie Knight and Day and if you haven't seen it yet it is such a good date night movie.

Until the next time!

Much Love,

Ashley B :)