Fruit Salad... Hot?

Have you missed me?  I have missed you.  I love cooking but we have been going through a huge transition in the last year which has left you in the dust.  I forgot how much I love to cook and try new things and my cookbooks were calling me.  In the last 8 months we have put a 5-6 year old through Kindergarden, moved to a new city, rented our old house and have added a new business.  To say the least we have been crazy.  It is time to get back.  We have been eating out, eating out of boxes and not ENJOYING cooking.  I may not have a fancy kitchen at my new house but I need to use it.  Finally I started on my cookbook again.  To recap for new viewers, I have been working through Alton Brown's very first cookbook in which he goes over different types of cooking methods and how to use them.  We have attempted searing, grilling, roasting, and frying.  I am currently mastering saute' which is version on frying.  I have made squid, duck, beets, and many other exciting things.  Hoping I can keep motivated to finish this book someday.  :) 

Hot Melon Salad....Fruit Salad,  Hot?

It's about 105 degrees these days in Phoenix and needless to say, too hot to turn on my oven.  When I think of summer, I think of cool fruit salads.  Not hot but here we go.  This is a melon salad.  In this case I used cantaloupe.  You can see here that we have a chopped red onion, cantaloupe, basil, feta cheese and pine nuts. 

Hot saute' pan with olive oil and then the onions go into the skillet.  It smells awesome!

When I started smelling them, I added the cantaloupe.

I cooked this for about 3-4 minutes until the melon becomes slightly soft.

I then added the basil.

Lastly when off the heat I mixed in the feta cheese and pine nuts.

The flavor of the melon salad was really good.  Ryan even ate it.  Reagan just wined about it.  Symon and I both liked the flavor.  I think the cheese and the basil made it feel less "hot".  It did become mushy very quickly and then I was really unable to tolerate the texture so I could really only eat one serving.  I served it with a turkey sandwich but maybe with a piece of chicken would be better.  It might even be good as a "salsa" over fish or chicken.  I may try that next time.  Overall I give it a C.  Do you have any warm fruit salads?  I would love to give this another try.

Shrimp Scampi overhall

Shrimp Scampi Overhall

I would say that shrimp is the gateway to fish.  If you have never tried fish, this is a great place to start.  If you have never cooked fish... also a great place to start.  It even comes frozen which is awesome for us peeps in Arizona.  You can buy it frozen, cooked, and ready to eat thawed if you wanted to.  Even my 6 year old son LOVES shrimp cocktail like his papa.  I obviously grew up eating fish.  Fried, poached, baked, grilled and any other way.  I did not grow up eating salmon or tuna from a can.  Yucky!  I even ate crispy fish tails.  Yummy!  When I moved to Arizona, I will be honest.  I was afraid to eat fish.  Did I really want fish that had been shipped from the ocean that far when I lived 15 minutes from it my entire life.  Nope!  But fish in general is good for you and since I have kids and have to eat healthy to teach them...  I eat fish.  Yes frozen.  It's better than nothing right? Omega 3's and all that jazz.  Shrimp scampi over pasta is pretty much the simplest way to eat/cook shrimp.  It starts with chopped garlic and parsley.  Pretty standard ingredients in cooking. 

Of course you need some shrimp.  Now to be clear.  There are multiple ways to buy shrimp.  Heads on or off.  (yes they were an animal at one time with a head) Then there is cooked or raw.  Frozen or fresh.  And then they even come in different sizes.  Small, medium, large, jumbo.  There are technical numbers for all of this but since I don't live near the ocean, I get what I can.  These were large/Jumbo size.  I bought the non-cooked version from the fish case and Frys.  In the past, I have used the cooked ones and they are pretty good just cook quicker.  There is also a shell and vein on them.  The shell is pretty obvious to take off.  The vein, not so much but PLEASE don't forget to remove it.  Even better, have the fish monger do it for you.  For you fish virgins, that the guy behind the counter.  The vein is, for lack of a better term, the poop tube.  Nobody wants to eat that right? Here is my pretty fish.

Now put them in a hot pan right after the oil.  I chose olive in this case because I would only be cooking these for 2 minutes max.

They will immediately turn a pretty pink and start to curl.  Turn the stove off and remove!  They become tough and rubbery very quickly.  Yucky and not good eats.

Add two chopped roma tomatoes and the garlic parsley mixture. Toss to combine OFF THE HEAT!

This is then placed over angel hair pasta or any other pasta you can dig out of your pantry.  The oil, garlic, parsley, and juice from the tomatoes make a great light sauce.

This is a great meal for summer because it takes literally 5-7 minutes to make total.  For us Arizona people, you don't even have to turn on the oven when its 110 degrees which is an added bonus.  I will be honest.  I have been eating this for a while.  When Symon and I were in college we would buy the "Pasta-roni" garlic butter in a box and frozen shrimp already covered in frozen butter and garlic from Costco and eat this all the time.  No tomatoes of course because veggies are not needed right? This is the adult, non frozen, fresh version.  Try it!