Date Night+Friends+Family=Winning!

I took the day off today, hence my late post this morning.  Um, I may have slept in until 10:00 today!

When Tony and I were shopping on Saturday, we bought a sirloin steak that was on sale.  We had leftover shrimp from our Friday night red beans and rice with shrimp, so we decided to do a date night in with steak and shrimp cocktail.

If you haven’t tried it yet, this shrimp cocktail recipe is the best one I’ve ever found.  It works great on all sizes of shrimp, from small to jumbo – the magic temperature to take the shrimp out is 165 then they go into an ice bath.  The come out perfect every time.

Best Shrimp Cocktail Ever! (process courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen)

• 1 pound extra large shrimp
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (one lemon), + one additional tablespoon from a bottle, saving the shell of the lemon
• 5 sprigs of parsley, plus 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 3 sprigs of fresh tarragon, plus 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon laves
• cracked ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Combine shrimp, lemon juice, reserved lemon halves, parsley sprigs, tarragon sprigs, pepper and sugar and salt in a medium sauce pan. Add 2 cups cold water and over medium heat, cook shrimp stirring several times until pink and the water reaches 165 degrees. Tony actually put our remote meat thermometer in the pan and once it reached 165 degrees, removed from heat, covered and let the shrimp sit in the broth for 2 minutes.  Then he strained the pot and put the shrimp directly in an ice bath to stop the cooking process for 3 minutes.

I still have half of the sirloin steak in the freezer, and we still had leftovers.  I am thinking of making a beef pho with the leftovers.

Sunday was a busy day for me!  I was meeting my sister and our friends (and sisters!) Jacky and Jody for brunch at Jacky’s house.  I went to high school with both of them, but it’s been years since I’ve seen them – too long!  My sister still runs into Jacky quite often because their kids attend the same school.

I wasn’t nervous at all to see them – I’ve been emailing Jody back and forth since we reconnected over a year ago, and I follow Jacky’s blog – you should check it out – here are some of her amazeball dishes!

• buffalo cauliflower dip (holla!)
• breakfast quinoa
• best corned beef (next time I make it, this is the recipe I am going to use)

Um, can I just say that Jacky has my dream kitchen!

I decided to bring lemon poppy seed scones.  I didn’t have a lot of butter on hand, so I wanted to use olive oil.  I ended up using this recipe.   It’s the first time I’ve tried Meyer lemons too – .75 each!

Mixed in the poppy seeds with the dry ingredients.

The only liquid was 6 tablespoons of olive oil, an egg, lemon juice and 2-3 tablespoons of water.

The dough was super crumbly, so I added in 1/4 cup of water to keep the dough together.  I made 10 scones.  I was nervous about the texture, but the end result was delicious!  I made a glaze of 1/3 cup powered sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

What a spread Jacky had!  Mini breakfast parfaits, candied bacon (cooked with brown sugar and cayenne pepper!), an asparagus and goat cheese quiche, fresh fruit, hash browns, fresh coffee – it was all amazeballs!

My plate of goodness:

It was such a nice visit, and hopefully it won’t be 20 years before we see each other again!  Thanks Jacky and Jody for a lovely brunch!

Then it was off to my Mom’s to celebrate all the March birthdays!  I think my birthday celebration has finally come to an end.  Here’s me and my Mom – I love how my boobs are resting on hers!  I had a glass of Hannah’s sangria, while delicious, it was too sweet for me.

While we waited for my sisters family to arrive, we spent the afternoon playing Banana Grams – so fun!  I actually won a couple times!

We ended up having a Mexican fiesta – crispy tacos, Hannah made chicken and beef enchiladas.  Hannah even made me her delicious pico de gallo SANS onions!  And her boyfriend Jacob made the guacamole – so good!

Hannah being goofy with her cousins!  It was a really fun night – thanks for hosting Mom!  I got some more birthday loot too!  Hannah got me a new gym bag (my old one didn’t zip anymore) and my Mom got me a big towel and swim goggles.  My sister gave me framed art work from a friend of hers that took great pictures in Peru.

Today is a chore day – finish up laundry, mop the kitchen floor, etc.  I am going to see if I can get in to get my hair cut – I might get it cut short!  I kind of like this look, since I have thin hair.

And if I could get her body with the hair cut, that would be great too!  Alright, off to get some stuff done – make it a great day!