You know one of those days when everybody is in a good mood, everybody gets along....
its just a good day!
We spent the day oustide planting flowers, playing in the kids pool and water tables, painting flower pots, planting more flowers, eating popsicles and just plain SUMMER FUN!
If today is a predictor for the rest of the summer, its going to be a great summer.
I must say, its really nice that the girls play so well together and we can just relax and play at home!
Momma was craving shrimp, so shrimp boil day it was!
Northing is better than boiling some seafood after a day in the sun!
And a cold salad to go with it!
Avocado Cucumber Tomato Salad
Avocadoes, heirloom cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh basil, juice of 1 fresh lemon, drizzle olive oil and a little Tony's.
Boiled Shrimp
Season a big pot of boiling water with beer, lemons, onions, salt, red pepper, garlic powder, lemon pepper and Tony's. You gotta use A LOT of seasoning too! If you want to cook any vegetables, do those first because they take longer to cook. We did corn on the cob today. Then boil the shrimp, they float when they are done but usually only about 4 minutes.
I made a few other things too. It was Sunday Supper after all!
And I wanted the girls to eat good after being outside and eating popsicles all day!
Sweet Potato Fries
Line a baking sheet with foil. Toss sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, paprika, oregano and basil
Bake at 350 for about 30-45 mins, or until tender and crispy.
I also made a pot of
Stuffed Mishii (spelling?)
This is another Lebanese Dish
Stuffed Mishii can be stuffed squash, bellpeppers or eggplant
First you prep your vegetables to be stuffed.
cut tops off of bellpeppers, deseed
Core out squash (there is such thing as a vegetable corer, a cooking tool)
I used both yellow and mexican squash
Prepare your stuffing:
1lb of lean ground meat (I used org grass fed)
1/2 cup of rice (you can make more just always use this ratio)
1/2 can of rotel
Season with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, lemon pepper and lil cinnamon
Mix it up really good using your hands, add a lil water when you are mixing it up, you want it to be moist (eww i know we hate that word but I couldnt think of another word to use!)
Stuff your vegetables generously with your stuffing.
Pack it in good
Tap the vegetable on your counter as you are stuffing it, packs it in better...
this is how my momma taught me! haha
Then you line them in your empty pot. Stand bellpeppers up then lay squash around.
Then add 1 can of tomato paste and 1 can of tomato sauce (I used 1 box of Pomi tomatoes)
You have to kind of push the sauce down and around all vegetables
Why not make sauce before you put the stuffed vegetables down you ask? I dont know, but my momma says that is just not the way to do it. Probably becasuse that is not how Sittee did it and we do it the way Sittee did it! :) keep the tradition :)
Add some water, turn fire on medium, use your spoon and even shake your pot a little to get teh sauce to come together. Make sure you add enough water so that it covers all of your vegetables. There has to be enough liquid to cook it and the rice and meat mixture in all your vegetables.
Season your sauce with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, oregano and basil.
Cover and let come to a boil.
You are going to let it cook and boil for a long time.
Leave lid cracked open.
Let cook on a light boil for probably 2 hours.
When you are nearing the end, add fresh oregano and basil if you can. Not necessary but makes it even better!
When you serve it, make sure you pour sauce over it. I crack them open for the girls and pour sauce down the middle, and also to help cool them faster!
WAIT. So remember when you were coring out the squash, DON'T throw away the inside of the squash....
That is good squash.
So put it in a lil pot, then if you have any leftover meat mixture add that to it too. If not then just season the squash and cook it down.
I had a lil meat mixture left so I added that to my squash, added a lil sauce from my mishi pot and just let it cook down.
This is what it looked like.
A lil, pre-supper snack for the girls.
This actually makes me think of my Sittee. Whenever she would make mishi, she would always make a little pot of the insides for us. We always got excited about it, probably becasue we knew we would get a taste while we waited for the rest to cook.
