Grilled Shrimp with Homemade Barbecue Sauce (Guest Post)

Author Bio: This is a guest post by Elizabeth L. on behalf of Alexia Foods. Visit www.alexiafoods.com to find oven roasted French fries, whole wheat rolls, and more.

Are you dying to have some barbecue now that the weather is warming up? Try out this recipe to remind you that summer is definitely on its way. You can even make your own barbecue sauce! It will take about 37 minutes to prepare this dish so you won’t even need to slave away in the kitchen all day to have a great meal. It will be ready in no time at all!

Ingredients

Grilled Shrimp

• 16 large jumbo shrimp
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

• 1 slice bacon
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika (or smoked paprika if available)

Method:

Shrimp: 

• Use a pair of scissors or paring knife to slit the backs of the shrimp and remove the vein. 
• Combine the shrimp and olive oil in a bowl and toss evenly to coat. Cover and keep refrigerated until ready to grill. 
• Prepare homemade barbecue sauce (directions below).
• Prior to heating, wipe down the grates of a large outdoor grill with oiled paper towel to create a nonstick surface. Next, heat the grill to medium-hot. 
• Season shrimp with salt and pepper and place on the grill. Baste with the homemade barbecue sauce and grill for 3-4 minutes on each side. Brush with more sauce just before serving.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce: 

• Wrap the bacon slice around the bunch of thyme and tie with kitchen twine so you have a nice bundle.
• Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. 
• Add the bacon-wrapped thyme and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. 
• Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly without coloring for 5 minutes. 
• Add the remaining ingredients, give the sauce a stir and turn the heat down to low. 
• Cook for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. 
• Once the sauce is done cooking, remove the thyme bundle and discard. 
• Take about 1 1/2 cups of the sauce and reserve for serving alongside the shrimp and Alexia Sweet Potato Puffs at the table. Sweet potato fries would taste delicious with this, too!

Fried Polenta with Italian Vegetables (Meatless Meals for Lenten Fridays)

Polenta is kind of a weird food. It's basically cornmeal that's cooked into a sort of paste, and depending on the consistency, can be served either as a soft, almost pudding like base for Mexican and Italian dishes alike, or shaped into a sort of sausage that can later be sliced and fried.

This dish, based on the Fried Polenta with Vegetable Marinara from The Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook, requires the use of the second type of polenta. I've made it a couple times before, and this time I played quite a bit with the veggies to make it more my own.

You can make your own polenta, but it's also readily available in most grocery stores.

Continue reading to find out how I made this, my way.

Caprese Chicken

Back in November, I was looking for a new and tasty but easy to prepare dish that I could serve when we invited our priest to dinner. In my search, I discovered a creative recipe for Caprese chicken from The Novice Chef, and it turned out delicious.

Last night, in my efforts to finish up a few odds and ends around the kitchen, I realized I had the ingredients to make Caprese chicken again. But this time, I added a few slight twists to make it my own.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can easily multiply the ingredients to increase the servings - or just make it for one! Here's how I made it.

Spicy Sicilian Style Sauce (Meat Free for Lenten Fridays)

Since I'm finally getting back the energy and drive to cook again, it felt good to be in the kitchen, putzing with one of my favorite recipes. This was something I experimented with a couple summers ago when we had a boom year for tomatoes, and it was so tasty, this spicy Sicilian style sauce has become something of a standard in our house.

I'm not 100% sure if it's accurate to call this "Sicilian style", but based on what I saw and ate when I was actually in Sicily a few years ago, I think it's close enough.

Stuffed French Toast

My holiday hiatus lasted way longer than I intended, and for good reasons. But now I'm back, and I have a delicious recipe to share with you today.

So what can you make with all of this?

Stuffed French Toast!

I've been sitting on this recipe for a while, partly because I forgot about it. But since I have a snow day and just made myself some "regular" French toast, it seemed a nice treat to post about.

There are many versions of this treat out there. I've even indulged in the version served at Cinderella's Royal Table in Disney World, which honestly was the best stuffed French toast I've ever had, despite not actually involving toast as far as I could tell. This particular version comes from What to Expect: Eating Well When You're Expecting.

(And since some of you out there may now be asking the obvious question, the answer is yes.)

Coming in 2014 - The 50 Sweets of America

I can hardly believe tomorrow is the first day of December, which means Christmas is only 25 days away. Yikes!

It's been a while since I've done anything theme-related on this blog, though the Cupcake of the Month has continued here and there (and I do have one more cupcake I plan to whip up this coming month). Recently, I was putzing around the internet and stumbled across a couple sites that listed semi-official, if not official, sweet treats and desserts from different parts of the United States. So I decided, "Hey, that'd be a fun theme to play with on the blog!"

But I need help, readers! I'm looking for input on official (or semi-official) state treats from across the country, and I'd like to have a list compiled by the end of December. And yes, I do plan to bake said sweets in alphabetical order according to state.

As such, you have from now until December 31st to either leave a comment on this post or email me with your suggestions for state sweet treats from across America!

Spinach & Broccoli Quiche with Pepper Jack Cheese

Normally I'm not a huge fan of quiche. I'm not a huge fan of eggs to begin with, and most quiches taste like eggs. So I was pleasantly surprised upon trying my friend Andrea's recipe, which is a bit of a "whatever veggies you happen to have in the fridge" sort, how much I liked her version of this breakfast dish.

My attempt didn't taste quite the same as hers, and I think it may have been due to the cheese (hers was a lot spicier than what I procured).

Anyway, it's really easy, and here's how you do it. Remember, you can really put any veggies in that you like - red peppers would be another great addition, you could use kale instead of spinach, maybe kick the whole thing up with a few dashes of Tabasco.