home made cheese and a giant sandwich

I recently made the kitchen foray into making cheese. I can honestly say it was pretty cool and way easier that I would have thought. It was like a science experiment that suddenly results in cheese. Specifically a shiny wonderful ball of mozzarella.

Although the poor tomatoes in the northeast are being sadly taken out by blight, the few that have made it have been amazingly tasty and worth the hearty price tag. At the Troy Farmers Market I picked up some delicious tomato beauties from Slack Hollow Farm. Those tomatoes were begging for a tryst with my fresh mozzarella, thus the giant sandwich was born. I found a nice looking loaf of ciabatta at the Coop, sliced it the long way and went to town caprese style.

Giant sandwich=awesome

side note- I was talking to my sister yesterday and she commented that her husband was making cheese, and I had to respond "oh I made some cheese this morning" Random.

natural habitat

These tried to make their way back home into the nature of center square.

Shrimp Boil Fritatta

We definitely had a boatload of leftovers from our shrimp boil and while leftovers are wonderful this was one that really lost a little something after a night in the fridge. The Hubbs was very concerned that the shrimpy/crawfishy goodness would go to waste so he suggested a fritatta.

After I pulled all the meaty bits of seafood out of their shells I chopped up the potatoes and cut the corn off the cob. The onions and garlic from the boil were already pretty soft and mushy so I just tossed them in as is. This mixture turned out to be about 3 cups of filling, give or take. I mixed three eggs and 1/2 cup of milk and combined with the boil mixture. I was going to add just a bit of parmesan at this point only to find out that my parm had gone rouge in the fridge. The only other cheese option was a smoked gruyere so I shredded a nice chunk in to the mix. Add 1/2 cup flour plus 1/2 t baking powder, plus what ever seasons you prefer (I went for a dash of Cayenne and a bit of old bay). Mix the whole thing together and pop it in the oven in a greased pie pan or oven safe dish. 350 ish for 40-45 should do it. This was a pretty freestyle job, as fritattas want to be.

Shrimp Boil

I really cannot claim any credit for the shrimp boil or even the inspiration. That I have to give credit to The Kitchen Sink. I simply saw the blog entry and said "hey that would be tasty", and after having a crap-tastic day I was determined to try and force a good evening. The only real tweak was the addition of a few crawfish that looked inviting at the market.

Steamy


This was enjoyed with a few glasses of asti on our stoop to celebrate summer FINALLY arriving in the northeast. The Hubbs and I determined that this was tasty, messy, and did in fact improve the evening. Next time we would probably add in some spicy sausage as well and more people; we have a ton left over (but the Hubbs has a banner idea, so keep an eye out....)