Orphan Recipes and other mystical creatures.

I was rereading some of my past posts and found that I have been deceiving my dear readers.  I have, on more than one occasion, indicated that I would post recipes and/or photos of food we have made but not posted.  What?    Am I just trying to get you to read my newer posts, hungering for that recipe I said I would post but didn’t?  Nope.  Don’t you even think it.  I just plumb forgot.

Every year around this time, I go thru all my photos from the year in order to make a family yearbook.  I originally started doing this about 10 years ago to make for my dad as a Christmas present.  He was struggling with memory issues and I wanted to give him a book of our family activities to help him to remember who the family members were and remember the events that he attended.  I also made one for Yes!Chef!’s mother who lives in another state and cannot participate in our family’s comings and goings.  My dad is passed away now, but he loved those books and  looked at them so often that the pages began to fall out on some of the books.  My mother-in-law also enjoys the books.  As I was going thru this year’s photos, I found some food photos that had not been posted.

The above food was originally made at the same time as the Fried Pickles recipe and the shrimp used the same batter.  It is a really versatile and tasty batter for fried foods.  The shrimp was crispy and not heavily battered.  Yes!Chef! made sure the fryer was nice and hot so there would be no greasiness.  He made his own cocktail sauce, which is easy, fresh and tasty. Here’s a good recipe that is easy to follow by a cook that we trust, Ina Garten.  Yes!Chef! says that a good cocktail sauce needs to have horseradish, so don’t be shy about trying a recipe with horseradish.

The other recipe he tried when he fried up the pickles and shrimp was an interesting, but somewhat complicated, triple cooked french fries.  I am not going to post the recipe here because I want you to go look at the blog where we got the recipe.  It is eye-candy, bold and has the most delicious looking recipes.  It’s called “I am a food blog” and the recipe can be found here.

I thought this recipe looked like something we could try even though neither Yes!Chef! nor I are big french fry fans.  I don’t like them so much because the ones we get in fast food restaurants (and I don’t remember the last time I went to a fast food restaurant) are usually soggy and limp.  I like them better when they are crispy.  This recipe does indeed make them crispy and the inside becomes soft and creamy.  So, if you like fries, this is a good recipe.  It is time consuming, though.

So there you have a couple of promised recipes.  I know fried food is not always the best thing to eat, but once in a while you can splurge.  Like the good book says, “All things in moderation.”  If only I would take that advice.

Now I will give you a little clue as to what I have been up to since Yes!Chef! was away.

Yes, it’s Awkward Family Photo season.  I love to do this kind of shoot because my subjects are supposed to look awkward…from what they wear to how they pose to the setting I place them in. It is hecka fun and eventually I will combine each member (whose photos I took separately) and put us all together in a great big Awkward Family Mashup. Here’s another one of my youngest son.

I will take one of these photos of him and place them with the rest of the family members.  I still have four family members left (and me) in order to make the mashup complete.

The other project that I’ve been forced into doing has to do with a little elf that showed up in my Christmas stash last year.  He’s been in hiding for 11 months and now he has returned

He is a trouble maker.  If you want to know how much of a trouble maker he was last year, go here.  I have a sneaking suspicion that he may show up in the kitchen a little more this season.

I’ve got a couple of photo shoots this weekend, including a possible shoot at a parkour gym,  so I’m hoping that Yes!Chef! comes up with something tasty and uncomplicated that I can post here next week.  I might even make a sweet that I’ve had pinned for Christmas.