Shrimp in Veggie Broth, a la CSA

This is adapted from a recipe in the Feb 2009 issue of Bon Appetit, which did not have zucchini or broccoli stems.

Serves 4:

2 TB EVOO
4 Cippolini onions, chopped
Broccoli stems, peeled, and small leaves from 2 or 3 bunches, chopped
2 medium zucchini, peeled and halved and cut into 1/8-inch rounds
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 TB paprika
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, we used with jalapeno
2 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 8-oz bottle clam juice
3 c water
4 small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut in 1/8 inch slices; I cut the bigger ones in half so the size would be similar.
1 lb. peeled, deveined medium shrimp

1. Heat oil in large heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions and saute until almost tender. Add broccoli, zucchini and saute until just tender.

2. Add garlic and paprika; stir 2 minutes.

3. Stir in tomatoes and juice and cook until liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently (about 15 minutes). Toward the end, stir in rosemary and red pepper.

4. Stir in clam juice, then water, and bring to a boil.

5. Add potatoes; simmer until they are almost tender, about 5 minutes.

6. Add shrimp; simmer until just cooked through, about 5 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and cooking pan immediately (to avoid overcooking the shrimp). Season with salt and pepper.

Blue Bear's BlogHer '09 Experience

I had a great time at BlogHer in Chicago.

To be quite honest, I was a little confused about whether we were at BlogHer or BagHer.

And I wished Mommy let me go to the foodbloggers session but oh, well.












Here I am at LaGuardia Airport waiting the 3 hours our flight was delayed. Although we thought it was a bum steer to have to pay for Internet access, it was worth it. We got all the hot dog recipes posted and did some other stuff too.




When we finally arrived at Midway at 1 am, we had to take a cab. We took this picture for DuckyBoy so he could compare to NYC taxis.









Friday's Newbie Breakfast was fun, we hooked up with Sara and everyone was nice. We did our first of many business-card shuffles.










Next we attended our first session, on Owning Your Expertise.

Lemme see: "Hi, my name is Blue Bear, and I'm an expert in Holt-Wright Family Recipes, because I'm the coordinator and mascot of their recipe blog." Sound good?







I didn't drive this Camaro but it was cool to see it at the Expo.. DuckyBoy says it's the kind of car Bumblebee is.










I was really hoping to win the full set of McDonald's Teeny Beanies!

If you look closely you'll see that one space is empty and guess what, we know which one it is -- it's the little guinea pig, FluffBall!








BowlHer sounded like fun. The feather boa was too big for me, but I liked the chocolate Goldfish and the bag.










Mommy tried to explain how fun CheeseburgHer was, but I didn't quite get it. Guess I'da had to have been there.










I do like this cool T-shirt I got, even though it's from Build-a-Bear and I'm not!










Did I mention how hard it was to get up every morning? I was up waaaay past my bedtime every night! And the bed was very soft and comfy.







We met one more BlogHer in the shuttle to the airport (she's in front of me to the left), and got the scoop on the AlphaMoms bloggers' conference in September in Asheville, NC!




Since we hadn't been able to FedEx anything, we repacked the carry-ons at the airport to condense from 3 to 2, and ate our swag Stacy's Parmesan chips in case security wouldn't let us carry them through. They were delish!








Bye, Chicago! Bye, fellow BlogHers! Hope to see you next year in NYC!

Displaced Wall Street Executive Dog

Right now I'm waiting for my flight to Chicago to attend BlogHer with Mommy. Our flight is delayed like 2 hours so I thought I'd post the recipes for and assorted minutiae about our WINNING hot dog in the 4th Annual Great Hot Dog Cookoff! Yes, we won "Toy Dog" category, meaning the best rich-tasting dog.

Buns: We found a great price at the Entenmann's outlet on QB: 3 packages of 16 buns for $3!

Dogs: After much back-and-forth with a Stop & Shop employee about whether the dogs we had were weiners or franks, and what exactly was supposed to be on sale and where it was (turns out that store doesn't even carry that item, but the sign was up anyway), we got all-beef Oscar Mayer dogs for BOGO-- that's buy one get one free for the uninitiated -- which means about $2.30 per pack of 10.

Bacon
Another BOGO special, we got Plumrose bacon on sale the day before the sale ended, also at Stop & Shop. Scott spent about 5 hours cooking all 14 pounds in the oven so each piece stayed nice and straight.

Prime Rib Chili
We made modifications to the original Chili recipe as follows:
* Instead of deer meat, use well trimmed, finely diced prime rib.
* Use 2 lbs prime rib and 1 lb ground chuck.
* Sautee the veggies in bacon fat instead of olive oil.
* Deglaze the pan with some white wine before dumping everything back in.
* Cook on low in crock pot 6-8 hours.
* We also added 1 tsp. cumin.

Ski Weekend in Vermont Cheddar
Scott was tempted to use any-old Cheddar but I insisted on Vermont, since that's what we said. Right? So we got Stop Shop brand on sale, 10 ounces for $2.50 (technically it was 2 packages for $5, but since we bought 10 that was no problem.)

We got both the Mexican Riviera Crema recipe and the In-the-red Onion Relish recipe from a Bobby Flay Food Network page from an episode of Boy Meets Grill. We get a lot of our recipes from the Food Network site.
* We used sour cream, Daisy brand, because it, of course, was on sale.
* We left the serrano chili out of the Relish because we just didn't have one. I'm sure it would be good with it as well, just have more kick to balance the sweetness of the cooked red onions. (Who knew?)