Spicy Shrimp and Cherry Pie

First off let me just say that I love shrimp, and I love cherry pie. They are both pretty high in the food categories for me. So when I saw this spicy shrimp recipe on the Pioneer Woman's website I was pretty excited to try it. My Aunt made a cherry pie the other day and I loved the pie crust so I decided I would make a pie for my friend Lindsey for her birthday.

 I don't know if this pile of shrimp looks appetizing to any one else but they sure were delicious.

 Spicy Shrimp

 3 pounds (more or less) Unpeeled Shrimp (21-26 count or larger)

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

3 whole lemons, just the juice

1/4 to 1/2 cups Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco sauce (I don't ever put that in)

1 stick of butter

Thoroughly rinse raw shrimp with shells still on. The Pioneer Woman uses 21-26 count (that means 21-26 per a pound.) I use bigger than that. Any smaller than this and it's difficult to get the peel the shrimp. So stick with 21-26 or bigger. Place the shrimp in a large baking pan in a single layer. Over the top of the shrimp pour the olive oil.

Generously sprinkle black pepper over the top of the shrimp. Be very generous! Now sprinkle generously the salt (I use kosher salt).

Squeeze the juice of the 3 lemons over the top of all the shrimp. Now generously drizzle Worcestershire sauce all over the shrimp, about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup. Drizzle Tabasco sauce over the shrimp to your desired temperature.

Now grab your stick of butter and cut into pats. Place the pats of butter on top of the shrimp as evenly placed as possible. 

Place the pan of shrimp under the broiler in your oven for 5 to 10 minutes until the shrimp are no longer translucent. Serve with crusty French bread. Use the bread to dip into the juice that is in the pan. 

 Cherry Pie! I only made the crust, I don't know how to make cherry pie filling yet.

Pie Crust

2 1/4 cups flour

3/4 to 1 cup vegetable shortening

1 tsp. salt

Cut shortening into flour and salt with a fork or a pastry blender until you get crumbles the size of a pea.

6 Tbsp. cold water

Add the cold water to the dough and work together with hands. Do not over work dough! It will become too tough. 

Roll out for pie pans. Use pie filling of choice. 

This recipe will make enough to do one double crusted pie or two single pie shells.

Stalder Family Reunion

Last Saturday we had the Stalder family reunion. We went to a nice park over in Taylorsville down the street from my Grandma Stalder. Here are some photos of the family.

 My cousin Tiffany and her adorable daughter Sawyer.

My Dad :)

Nick and Nathan playing Lasso Golf

 Robin and Aleisha were at the other end.

Uncle Brett and my Mom

Sawyer is one of my Aunt Kathy's grandkids, she is meeting Bella, Tyler's dog.

Robin and Nick showing off his juggling skills. Silly you!

We played couple games of Croquet.

My Uncle Phil is the master of Croquet. He was pretty darn good at it.

This is me, and my extremely white legs! They only see the sun about twice a year. :)

This is the second game. Uncle Brett joined in, he is also pretty darn good at Croquet.

We played a game of Family Feud.

This is Shantai with her son Corver who is also adorable. This is Aunt Kathy's other grandkid.

My wonderful and cute Grandma Stalder.

The rest that were playing Family Feud. 

After we played some games it started to get really windy and dark clouds were over us, so we went to Grandma's house to avoid the rain. We played some more games, ate dinner and sat and visited with each other. It was a very nice family reunion.

Trouble In The Coop

As you saw from the pictures of our injured hen, we have had some trouble in the coop. I thought maybe a cat had gotten to her. I was wrong I think. This Wednesday when we went out to check on the the injured hen I noticed the rooster was bleeding by his tail feathers and that a whole bunch of feathers had been pecked away! The birds are the ones that are causing so much damage to each other. I believe they have gotten into "cannibalism", it's where the birds will peck each other till they draw blood. Possibly because there isn't enough room, and because there isn't enough foliage to eat. I noticed that all the birds seemed to have some pecking damage by their back tail feathers except the Golden Sexlinks. I don't know if they are aggressive birds, but it is fishy that they are the only ones without any damage. Chickens do mimic each other so maybe they are all doing it. Its hard to tell at times what or who is causing the problem. I will have to let them wander the garden more so they have more to peck at and not get bored and pick on each other. Sadly since the rooster was getting picked on, my Dad decided it was time to get rid of him. And they opened back up the injured chickens wound, I have to let her wander the garden by herself till its completely healed or they will keep pecking at it. Hopefully I can get the situation under control before I lose any more chickens.

Here is the injured chicken's wound.

She is starting to let me pet her, sorta, she did peck me today when I was petting her back. She knows who I am though, well ok she knows I bring food so when the gate opens to the garden she comes a running!

This is a good picture of her wound. It looks terrible, but she is handling it well.

Hopefully things improve for my chickens. I collected 5 eggs today! That is the most they have laid yet. It is so exciting to go out and see if they have any eggs in their nests. Pretty soon I will have more eggs than I will know what to do with.

Grandma Iny's Prune Cake/Blackberry Ice Cream (Don't be fooled by the prune cake! It is amazing!)

It has been a while since I have posted any recipes. I have been busy making delicious food, I will share two of them with you now.

Grandma Iny's Prune Cake is a recipe I got from the Pioneer Woman.

This cake is delicious!! Don't be fooled by the prunes. You will love it. I also made Blackberry Ice Cream also from the Pioneer Woman. I goofed up while I was making the ice cream, I added the heavy cream at the wrong time and never really got a custard base but it still turned out pretty tasty.

This photo doesn't do these recipes justice. You are just going to have to make them to believe me! Someday my photos of food will be more appealing :).

Grandma Iny's Prune Cake

For the Cake:

1 cup prunes

1 cup sugar

3 whole eggs

1 cup Canola Oil

1 1/2 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Icing:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. white corn syrup

1/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cover prunes with with water. Bring to a boil and cook until soft and mashable, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat, drain water, and mash on a plate. Set aside. Mix together oil, sugar and eggs. In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients, add buttermilk and vanilla and stir gently until just combined. Throw in the mashed prunes and stir gently until just combined. DO NOT OVER MIX! Pour batter into a buttered baking dish (9 by 13) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! While cake has 5 minutes remaining, make the icing: combine all the ingredients in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a slow boil. Boil without stirring for 5 to 7 minutes, or until icing starts to turn dark. Do NOT allow icing to reach soft ball stage; icing should be caramel color, but not sticky like caramel. Icing should be easily pourable. Remove cake from oven and pour icing immediately. Allow to rest on counter. Serve warm.

            

Blackberry Ice Cream

2 pints fresh blackberries

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups half and half

1 cup sugar

5 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Add blackberries to medium sauce pan with 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain using fine mesh strainer, pressing berries to extract as much juice/puree as possible. Set aside. Heat half and half and 1 cup sugar in a separate saucepan over low heat. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated. Add heavy cream to a separate bowl. Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling in 1 1/2 cups of hot half and half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half and half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half and half mixture. Cook over medium-low heat until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strain, than pour into the bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine. Add blackberry juice/puree to the cream/custard mixture and stir. Chill completely, than freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden, (or you can eat it soft) for an additional two hours.