Good food must be shared. Again and again.

My job at P.F. Chang's paid off! For without it, I wouldn't have thought to try and replicate the oh so delicious

Martini Shrrawns:
great as an appetizer or even hand-in-hand with BBQ skewers or a tasty Asian entree

INGREDIENTS:

mayo
sweet chili sauce
sriracha (thai chili paste)
honey
scallions (cut into thin little ringlets)
the biggest prawns you can find (at least 2 per person.. no one likes a stingy cook!)
corn starch
cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste
*an option--a highly recommended one--is to use shredded carrots as a garnish or even to make this dish a salad

DIRECTIONS:

1. If you've purchased the shrimp peeled, deveined, and de-tailed, you're in luck. You get to skip a step! All you do is sprinkle salt and pepper to your clean shrimp.

2. Heat up a good amount of oil in a pan that will serve as your frying station. As this is going, set up the batter station (a.k.a. a pie pan or simply a large plate if you don't mind the mess of corn starch all over your kitchen). Lightly cover each prawn in it.

3. Throw the now dusted shrimp one by one into the hot oil. (P.S. Don't really throw them. That causes splatters!) All you need to do is flip them over once, cooking them evenly on both sides.

4. At any point, even ahead of time, you can make the sauce by combining the first four ingredients listed. As far as the amounts go, everything is a question of taste. The rule of thumb for my sauce follows the big-to-small rule according to how the ingredients are listed (meaning that I put the most mayo and the least honey). Constantly taste it and play with the ingredients to make the best possible sauce for these prawns. When you're satisfied, add scallions for some added flavor.

5. By now, everything should be prepared and ready to eat. Put the carrots at the bottom of your serving item of choice. (It's really cute to use martini glasses, which is where the name is derived, but any plate or bowl or cup will do!) Place the fried shrimp on top where they can drain some oil. I keep the sauce on the side to dip but you very well can pour it over everything. Just beware of soggy shrimp!

*I purposefully switched between calling the main part of this dish prawns and shrimp because I think they're the same. I've heard prawns are bigger versions of shrimp, though. As long as you get the biggest, baddest, best shrrawns for your belly and pocket you'll be good.

Good food must be shared. Again.

So next is a slightly altered version of something I saw on tv that's absolutely delicious and relatively healthy. It's vegetarian, but it would be totally fine to add lumps of chicken, sausage, shrimp.. anything you'd like!

It's a Pasta twist on the Basil, Mozzarella, & Tomato Salad:

INGREDIENTS:

A LOT of garlic (15+ cloves)
cherry or strawberry tomatoes (1 1/2 packages, each cut in half)
any spiral pasta (great for catching the juices that make up the sauce)
package of fresh mozzarella balls (drained)
bunch of fresh basil (chopped into thin slivers)
extra virgin oil
salt and pepper to taste
THAT'S IT!

DIRECTIONS:
The key to this recipe is timing. You want to have your pasta cooked and ready to be transferred right as the sauce is ready to go.

1. Chop up your garlic to the size you'd be willing to swallow because this and the tomatoes are all that makes up the sauce to this dish. Throw it into a large saucepan (you'll be throwing the pasta, tomatoes, everything in here) that has been generously coated with EVOO and that is on low to medium heat.

2. You don't want to burn the garlic, so just as it's starting to juice up, add all of your tomato halves. Let them become one with the oil by squishing them with the back of a fork or spatula. Be sure to add salt and pepper to the mix. Don't fret with the amounts--as long as you don't put too much, you can always adjust the taste levels!

3. At some point, add pasta to some boiling and salted water (I would start the boiling early because that's probably the thing you'll have to wait for). If your timing isn't perfect, you can always keep the garlic and tomatoes on heat, low enough to just keep them warm, or you can drain the pasta and stop the cooking process as you normally would if the sauce isn't ready.

4. Once the pasta is cooked to perfection, add to the now aromatic, delicious garlicky tomato mixture. The heat may be turned off.

5. Finally, add the mozzarella and basil. Serve immediately (or not.. it tastes delicious steaming hot or room temperature!).

Good food must be shared.

Firstly, here's an amazing dish that I've already shared, but that deserves to be here.

It's the Peruvian delight that is Lomo Saltado:





INGREDIENTS:

Marinade
beef (cut the ones made for steak kabobs in half for bite-sized pieces)
soy sauce (enough to cover meat)
cumin (use your nose to figure out how much to use)
garlic (simply crushed with back of knife)
Goes in the stove
a good sized yellow onion
2-4 ripe tomatoes (cut into wedges like apple slices)
bunch of cilantro
frozen french fries (not the shoestring, I'd go with steak fries or similar)
extra virgin olive oil (to throw onto the fries while baking)
cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a handy gallon-size bag, combine the meat, soy sauce, cumin, and garlic. Then, put it in the fridge. That's pretty much all you have to do for 3-5 hours. I'm not completely sure about timing, some amount of time more than an hour but less than overnight will do.

2. About a half hour before you're ready to cook, I'd take the meat out to bring it down to room temperature and start prepping the vegetables. Cut the onions into healthy slivers, the tomatoes into wedges, and the cilantro into finely chopped pieces. Put it all aside.

3. At some point, preheat the oven according to the fries package instructions. Place them on a baking sheet. In addition, add some EVOO and garlic salt to the fries and stick them in the oven that way. Don't forget about them, though!

4. Now combine some oil and garlic in a heated pan. Before the garlic burns, add the meat medallions. Don't turn them too much but make sure to cook them thoroughly. Once they're done, set them aside in a bowl to add toward the very end.

5. Next come the onions to cook in the same pan. Add some salt and garlic if you'd like. I can't remember, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. Don't worry about cooking them all the way because they will keep cooking along with the rest of the ingredients.

6. Everything else, you don't really have to worry about cooking. Add the meat back in. Then come the tomatoes--they don't really need to be cooked, just heated. You can also add some more soy sauce and cumin to the mix. At the very end, you can add the fries. Turn off the heat and add the cilantro to finish. (Sorry if this part is kind of thrown together. I also always forget these little details up to when I actually start cooking!)

7. Last but not least, make sure to serve this hot and nice and with rice! And it wouldn't hurt to add a healthy dose of butter and cilantro to the rice! It's absolutely divine.