How To: Devein Shrimp

Does this package look daunting to you? Unsuspecting in nature, it contains something that can be fairly intimidating for a midwestern home cook, you know, those who only see the ocean while on vacation. Unfortunately, I happen to be included among that group; however, I was unwilling to let fear get in the way of an awesome deal at my local grocery store. I came home armed with the knowledge that my neighbors are from the Louisiana, and would be willing to help me out if I made a total mess out of things.  

What is it that I'm going on and on about? Shrimp. Yep, shrimp. You see, most of the time when I buy shrimp, I get the frozen kind that are already shelled and deveined. But, I cannot pass up a deal, so I was forced to buy some that were fresh(er) with the shell on. At least they were de-headed; I'm not sure that even a good deal could have forced me into that situation! Nevertheless, when I came home, I had a pound of shrimp that needed to be shelled and deveined. What did I do? Conquer the shrimp on my own? Nope! I enlisted the help of my fearless husband.    :)  

(Those are his hands in all of the photos below! Thanks for modeling for me honey!!)

Turns out, there's really not that much to it. It's a bit labor-intensive, which is why I think they were on sale. Ha Ha! But all in all, it's really not too difficult. So, if you are game for learning a new skill to impress your family (or even yourself) then you should definitely get thee to the supermarket and pick up some fresh(er) shrimp of thy own and follow along with us! 

First, the set up. You will need two bowls: one empty bowl for the trash and one filled with ice water for the finished shrimp. It is vital that you keep the raw shrimp cold for bacteria preventing purposes!! You also need a good sharp knife because raw shrimp are fairly delicate and you don't want to smash the meat. 

On to the shrimp. First, you need to pull off the legs. Just grab them at the top (on the head side) and pull down toward the tail. They sometimes come off all together and other times you might have to pull them off individually. Either way, just get those little legs off!

The next step is to pull off the shell. When you pulled off the legs, you made a break in the surface of the shell, so I found that if I grabbed the shell from the underside, it was super easy to peel off. Eric liked to start at the head side where you could already see the meat of the shrimp and pull it off from there. Whatever way works for you; all that matters is that you get it off of that glorious meat! (Seeing a trend here? This is pretty easy stuff, it just takes experimenting to figure out the way that's easiest for you.) After I had the shell and legs taken off, I liked to run my finger along the underside (where the legs were) just to make sure that all of the bones and pieces of shell were taken off. 

Once the shell is off, you can pull off the tail if you want to. Some people like to cook shrimp with the tail on, so this part is totally optional! 

Now, take your knife and, starting at the head end, make a cut about a quarter of an inch deep. Extend this cut all the way from the head to the tail. You should be exposing the vein as you cut.

See how the vein becomes exposed? That's what we're looking for! Make sure to cut all the way to the end, since the vein runs along the whole top side.

Now, just slip your knife tip in between the vein and the meat. It will come off very easily, it's really just a matter of making sure you get it all! You could probably use your fingers if you wanted, but I felt that my fingers were a bit too big for getting into the small space. Also, if you look closely, you can actually see the little pink vein, not just the greenish-black stuff in the vein. I went ahead and made sure that was out, as well, just to be safe.   ;)    Oh, and by the way, not all shrimp have a vein. Not sure how that works out, exactly, but we had a few in our batch with no vein to speak of. 

And that's it! Now you just have 60 more to go! But really, as you go, you do get faster and more efficient. And at the end, you'll have beautiful shrimp just begging to be cooked in a delicious recipe. Oh, and wouldn't you know it, I have just the recipe! My next post will feature what I did with our hard-earned shrimp. Make sure you come back and check it out!

Cranberry Almond Granola

I have a slight confession to make: I LOVE cereal. My feelings about it may more accurately border on obsession. I can eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When I was young, I was all about the Lucky Charms. While I mostly loved the marshmallows (what kid doesn't?) Dad always made me finish the whole bowl, including the actual cereal portion. Since I'd always preferred to save the best for last, I developed a unique way of eating them: cereal first, marshmallows last, NEVER mixing the two. In fact, on the rare occasion that I get Lucky Charms today, I still eat them that way.    :)    Anyone else do that?

As I've grown up, my tastes have changed rather dramatically. Gone are the overly sugary cereals with cute little marshmallows. Now, I look for lots of fiber and protein, not a lot of sugar, and as unprocessed as I can get it. As you might guess, these criteria make my choices pretty limited. While there are a select few on the market, I was interested in making my own. Thus, the research began.


With such a wide variety of cereal on the market these days, most people aren't all that interested in making their own. So my resources were fairly limited. One article actually recommended cooking the grain (oats) in a single layer on a baking sheet and then using a rolling pin to smash them so that the end result looks more like the cereals we know and recognize. This suggestion blew my mind just a little bit. I couldn't imagine all that work for what would probably amount to a couple bowls of cereal. But, then I thought, why do I have to smash it? Why can't I just have toasted oats, maybe some dried fruit, a few nuts...wait a minute...why can't I just make GRANOLA?!

I like am crazy about this granola recipe for several reasons. First, it is perfectly sweet. Store bought granolas are often so loaded with sugar (just like cereals), but this recipe has just a hint of sweetness, letting the nuttiness of the oats come through. Second, I can put it in a bowl with some milk for breakfast and then pack a baggie of it for a snack throughout the day. So versatile!! Third, it literally took me about 5 minutes to mix it all up and throw it in the oven. It doesn't get much easier than that! Lastly, it is endlessly customizable. I'm already dreaming of the different flavors that I can create: replace the cranberries with pineapple and add a squeeze of lime juice to the mixture and I have tropical flavored granola, use apples and add a little nutmeg and I have apple pie flavored granola. The list is endless; your imagination is really the limit here!


Needless to say, this granola will become a staple at our house. I'm already planning a second batch for next week, since Eric and I are sitting on the couch mindlessly munching the toasted goodness. But you know what? This is one snack that I don't mind mindlessly munching on.   ;)

Cranberry Almond Granola
makes 12 servings
1/2 cup serving size
adapted from The Kitchen Sink Recipes


Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups rolled old fashioned oats
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
3 Tbsp. ground flax seed (flax meal)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. vanilla
1-2 cups of dried cranberries


Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet in aluminum foil, parchment paper, or Silpat. (I used a jelly roll pan lined with my Silpat.)
-Combine all ingredients except dried fruit. Mix well to ensure butter and honey is distributed evenly throughout the mixture.
-Bake at 10 minute intervals for about 20-30 minutes, stirring well after each interval. Your goal here is to ensure an even toasting on all of the oats. As you stir, you'll notice that the granola on the top is toasted and the stuff on the bottom isn't. Make sure to mix it up! Also watch the granola on the edges, as that's the part that will burn the fastest. It took my oven 24 total minutes of baking time to yield that perfect golden brown color in the pictures.
-When the granola is done baking, place the pan on a cooling rack until the granola is cool.
-Once it's all cool, add the cranberries and stir it all together.
-Keep in whatever type of air tight container you wish. Our's is just in a big Zip Lock baggie for now.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving = 1/2 cup

Calories: 226 Fat: 8 grams Carbs: 50 grams Fiber: 7 grams Protein: 4 grams

Enjoy!

OXO Dish Brush

Hello there! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday filled with quality time spent with close friends and family. Eric and I drove home on Thursday for an extra-long weekend. The best thing about going home is the fabulous greeting you get at the door...loving embraces from mom and dad, enthusiastic hugs from siblings, and even the hair-shedding, tail wagging, jump-all-over-you greeting from the family dog. My family may very well be the loudest on the planet, but they are also the most loving. I'm not quite sure who or where I would be without them.

--And that concludes the sentimental portion of today's post.--

While I was at home, we were talking about the blog. My mom and dad suggested that I start including things other than my recipes, even though (of course) they love those.   ;)   So, I started brainstorming on the way home, and decided they were right! In the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting product reviews, article discussions, and information about my garden, along with the latest recipes that I've been trying. I hope you enjoy these new components!

So now, I would like to present to you the OXO SteeL Soap Squirting Dish Brush! I know you may be thinking, "Of all the things to talk about...a dish brush? Really?" The answer is YES! You see, I have a lot of high maintenance high quality items in my kitchen, like my stainless steel cookware, bamboo cutting boards and utensils, and most importantly, my knife set. I am unwilling to trust my dishwasher with these items, since they would be quite expensive to replace. Because of this, I end up doing a lot of hand washing. Some say dish brush, I say rock star!

 This dish brush will cost you $12.99 and you can get it at that price from the link above. It's also available from Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, and probably most other stores that carry the OXO brand.

Eric and I bought this dish brush because we were tired of constantly replacing the cheap plastic ones. We also loved the fact that you can buy replacements for the scrubbing part of them, making them a lot cheaper in the long run! Plus, we had one of those awesome 20% off coupons from Bed Bath and Beyond, which made spending $12.99 on a dish brush a little bit easier to swallow. 


I have to say that I was a bit skeptical that this brush would be worth it when we bought it. Having had other experiences with less expensive dish brushes, I was concerned about its durability and ability to actually stay soapy while I washed dishes. However, after using it for a couple of months now, I am extremely happy with our purchase.


My hands-down favorite thing about this dish brush is the way it squirts out the soap. When you push the little black "button" down, it literally squirts out like ketchup from one of those clean-squirt bottles. It's awesome! Sometimes, I squirt soap into my dishes just so that I can watch it shoot out of there...which is totally not weird, at all. Something else that I really like is that it completely replaces the soap bottle that I had sitting out on the counter. Need a little soap to wash you hands? Squirt some on there. Need soap to soak a particularly dirty dish? Just squirt it in! See how easy and wonderful it is? Plus, it makes doing the dishes faster because you don't have to keep reaching up to add more soap to your brush. The bristles are also a good compromise between hard and soft. If they were any harder, they could scratch delicate items, any softer and they would never be able to scrub anything. I am also very please with the way it has held up. The handle is in perfect condition, even after months of hard use, and the bristles are still holding up, although we'll probably be replacing them when we get a new coupon from BB&B.


This wonderful dish brush does have some negative qualities that I cannot ignore. One thing that is a bit annoying is that the head of the brush is not angled, making it a bit difficult to get into small spaces, such as a cup or wine glass. It cleans the center of the bottom just fine, but the corners are a bit hard to reach. Another thing that bothers me is that sometimes the bristles have a hard time really scrubbing those really baked-on spots, even after soaking. Occasionally, I'll find myself scrubbing and scrubbing at the same spot over and over again. However, for everyday cleaning, they are perfect. One thing that I have discovered, with all dish brushes, is that they are less than ideal for cleaning up a pan that has been used for scrambled eggs. For some reason, little bits of egg get in between the bristles and are next to impossible to get out. To solve this, I just keep a Scotch Bright sponge close to the sink, which solve both the egg and baked on food dilemmas. 


Despite those few negative qualities, this dish brush definitely makes doing the dishes faster and easier, and it's the one that we'll be using as long as they keep making the refills.


So, what do you think? Are product reviews something to continue? Does the OXO SteeL Soap Squirting Dish Brush sound like something you might consider using? I am looking forward to your comments!!


Disclaimer: I am not being compensated for this review from OXO or any other suppling company. The views and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.