contest to win WW dvds!

Look!  Brandi is giving away a complete set of West Wing DVDs here:  http://brainyjane22.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/westwing/

Farewell to summer

Hey!  Remember how I have a blog?

I made a meal last night that I really want to tell everyone in the world about (totally blog-worthy – ha!).  Look what I made last night:

I popped out to the Hoboken farmers market with Eileen before the end of the work day to miss the crowds, and it struck me that it’s like the last day of summer almost!!  So I picked up a million pounds of tomatoes, including two green ones, some corn, etc., and decided to make fried green tomatoes tonight.  I found a suggestion on Chowhound.com to serve it with something called “shrimp remoulade,” which is something I have heard of on Top Chef but never made before.  Apparently, this “remoulade”  includes ALL my favorite flavors (many of which also happen to appear in my bloody marys coincidentally), and I couldn’t stop eating spoonfuls right from the bowl while I was eating it.

I already had a fried green tomato recipe I liked from the Cook’s Illustrated seasonal cooking guides I have.  It basically involves dredging 1/4 in. slices of green tomato in flour, then in egg, and lastly in a cornmeal/salt/pepper mixture.  Then you fry them 2 minutes on each side in veggie oil.  The biggest secret/tip I can give you is to MAKE SURE THE OIL IS HOT.  It needs to be 350 degrees, or when you throw a small piece of bread in, it bubbles furiously.  If the oil isn’t hot enough, the tomatoes will absorb much more of the oil, and they will come out mushy and gross. Hot oil makes them crispy and delicious!

I found a cool remoulade recipe on NPR that suggested serving over shrimp.   The base is very similar to cocktail sauce, but there’s a lot more going on there.  It actually would make a really wonderful cocktail sauce variation. I might try Emeril‘s next time which looks similar but with different proportions.

Lastly, I knew this meal was truly meant to be when I realized I had a box of Zatarain’s jambalaya on hand, which went perfectly with everything.  I have some other meal inspirations that will be fun and exciting, so I’ll probably be posting more soon!