Tuscan Butter Shrimp Pasta

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Sunday was our Seventh Anniversary! Traditionally on special occasions I like to make my sweet wife something special. Lately I’ve been trying new dishes (a gamble, to say the least!) but the last few have worked out perfectly!

This year’s installment was a creamy pasta dish filled with shrimp and delicious veggies!

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She absolutely loved it! This one has definitely been added to my list of recipes to make whenever I want to spoil her.

What is your favorite pasta dish to splurge on? Let us know in the comments!

Tuscan Butter Shrimp Pasta

Cheese, Comfort Foods, Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Seafood, Shrimp, Vegetable

Tuscan Butter Shrimp Pasta

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil
2 lbs shrimp, peeled, de-veined, and tails removed
Salt and Pepper to taste
6 tablespoons butter
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups halved cherry tomatoes
6 cups baby spinach, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup basil, thinly sliced
Juice of one lemon, to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. As oil is heating, season shrimp with salt and pepper. Once oil is shimmering, not smoking, add shrimp. Cook shrimp for about 2 minutes or until golden on underside. Flip and cook again until opaque. Remove shrimp from skillet and set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter. Once butter is melted, add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, only about one minute. Add in the cherry tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook tomatoes until they are bursting. Add spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach is beginning to wilt.
Stir in heavy cream, Parmesan, and basil. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer until sauce has reduced to desired thickness, about 5 minutes.
Add shrimp back into the skllet, stirring to combine. Cook until the shrimp have warmed through. Taste and add lemon juice as desired.*
Serve over pasta with more Parmesan cheese to garnish.

Notes

*We used half the lemon’s juice to the skillet. You can also serve lemon wedges on the side so people can add their own lemon.

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020

Creamy Ham and Potato Soup

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The holidays are over. We apologize for our brief hiatus… between spending lots of time with family, catching up with sleep, and some technical difficulties, we haven’t managed to post for a bit. But you can bet now that the new year has officially started, you can expect two posts a week again!

During the holidays, I’m sure you’ve had your fill of ham. If you need something to use up the last of those leftovers, we have got the soup for you!

With plenty of hearty veggies and salty ham, this soup is a crowd pleaser for sure! And you can stretch your leftovers for another week while still mixing it up!

What is your favorite way to use holiday leftovers? Let us know in the comments!

Creamy Ham and Potato Soup

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Holiday, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Potatoes, Soup, Vegetable

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bunch celery, sliced
8 potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
8 cups ham, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup flour
6-7 cups water
3 TBS chicken base
6 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large stock pot, combine carrots, celery, onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted and onions become mostly translucent.
Add in potatoes and ham. Cook stirring often, until potatoes are just fork tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Gradually stir in flour until veggies and ham are coated.
In a small bowl, combine 6 cups of water and chicken base. Pour mixture into pot. Bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and add milk, stirring to combine. Add additional cup of water if you would like to thin down the soup.
Taste soup and season to taste.

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Creamy Oyster Stew

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Hey all! This week’s post doesn’t contain any pictures. We ate this stew so fast we didn’t get a chance to snag a pic!

Seriously, it is so good! We LOVE oysters in this house, but living where we do we don’t get them very often. Here they cost an arm and a leg and are canned. Though there’s nothing wrong with canned, you can’t beat fresh oysters.

We stock up on fresh seafood when we visit family in Oregon and freeze most of it for use during the next year. These oysters were the last of the ones from our last trip (yay for another trip in a few weeks!), and boy was it worth it to use them!

With soup season finally being here, this soup goes together fast and easy and is great paired with some fresh bread!

Creamy Oyster Stew

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Seafood, Soup, Splurge, Uncategorized

Ingredients

1 pint oysters in their liquid
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 stalk of celery, minced
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Garnishes (see below)

Instructions

Prepare the Oysters

Set a colander over a small bowl. Add the oysters into the colander, allowing the liquid to flow into the bowl.
Place a fine mesh sieve over another bowl and pass the liquid through it, filtering out sand, grit, and small pieces of broken shell from the liquid. Discard solids and set liquid aside for later.

Make the stew

In a stock pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the minced onion and celery, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and translucent.
Turn the heat down to medium low. Add the oyster liquid, milk, cream, and thyme. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally, until the broth just reaches a simmer. Do not boil! Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Add the oysters to the broth and simmer for 2-3 minutes. The oysters are done once the edges start to curl.
Serve hot with desired garnishes.

Notes

We didn’t garnish ours, but some garnishes we would suggest would be celery leaves, Old Bay seasoning, a dash of hot sauce, and/or slivers of butter.

Do you love oysters as much as we do?! Let us know in the comments if you want more oyster recipes!