Woman Cannot Live on Salad Alone

A special thanks to my readers for helping me reach 1,000 page views!  For a girl with an excess of imagination my recent kitchen endeavors sure have been low on creativity.  Day after day, bowl after bowl...of the green stuff?  Who are you?  I've been forced to ask myself.  Surely not the culinista I once knew.  Perhaps it's the snowy, slushy weather but I've decided that this week I am cooking.  Every day!

Today I reinvented one of my favorite appetizers, honey lime shrimp, as a fajita dish.  Enjoy.

Tequila Lime Fajitas

1 cup shrimp (peeled and deveined)

1 lime

1 tbsp tequila

1 tsp honey

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

white onion

1/4 a red bell pepper

a dash of salt

black pepper

3 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

Simmer vegetables and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until vegetables are tender.  Add the fresh squeezed juice of one lime, tequila and honey.  Add shrimp and cook until opaque.  Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika.  Warm tortillas in a fry pan and serve filled with shrimp mixture, jack cheese, guacamole and pico de gallo.

Housewarming

It's not at all unusual to find me in a catatonic state immediately prior to hosting a party.  Panic and poor planning often converge and family and friends have to intervene to rally my inner hostess.  One reason I love Ina Garten's Parties cookbook is that it opens with a disaster.  I can relate.  Today however, I am fortunately writing to recount a success.

I like to create very ambitious party menus.  If I prepare only 6 or 7 of the 10 items I'd intended to make you still have quite a spread.  For my recent housewarming I served champagne and pomegranate juice cocktails, whole wheat pasta with spinach, goat cheese and chicken sausage, teriyaki meatballs,  chili lime shrimp in wonton cups, crab stuffed mushrooms and thai pumpkin soup.  Every item on the eclectic menu was a hit!

To "brand" your event without a theme choose a fresh  color palette and thematic elements.  I created this simple "warm heart, warm hearth" logo for my invitations.  Guests were encouraged to bring a spice and a recipe.  Generous friends provided the ingredients for many culinary experiments to come.