vodka – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters December 2, 2016December 31, 2019American, appetizers, Cajun, celery, chili sauce, chilled, cocktail, cooked shrimp, crab, dairy-free, dill, dressing, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly expensive, garlic, garnish, gluten-free, herbs and spices, hors d'oeuvres, iceberg lettuce, lemon juice, lemons, liquor, lunch, New Orleans, parsley, party food, peeled, salads, seafood, shellfish, shredded, shrimp, sliced, snacks, spicy, Tabasco sauce, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, untested, vodka

I’m counting 1-10: Seafood Cocktail Louisiana as the fourth dish I made of this year’s 7-recipe Thanksgiving cooking marathon (TGV 2016) , but its components actually spanned a few days (and a few cooks). This was one of three appetizers I made for my Thanksgiving dinner–the others being a crudité & hummus platter and 1-5: Pigs in a Blanket.

My mom was always big on the idea of “shrimp cocktail” as being necessary for Thanksgiving dinner appetizers (it was always part of her family’s holiday dinner when she was growing up), so in order to honor that idea, I chose this recipe.

As I mentioned above, I’m counting this as the fourth dish I made–it spanned Wed. 11/23 and Thu. 11/24 as different components had varying levels of make-in-advance-ability. My sous chef made the dressing and prepped shrimp the first night, while I assembled the dish itself right before serving the next day.

8-12: Beef Stroganoff

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses August 4, 2016July 2, 2020beef, black pepper, butter, chopped, creamy, Dijon mustard, dinner, fairly easy, fairly expensive, gluten-free, ground beef, ground meat, ground turkey, herbs and spices, lunch, melted, mushrooms, paprika, parsley, rice, Russian, salt, sautéed, simmered, sirloin, sliced, sour cream, stroganoff, tomato paste, tomato sauce, untested, vegetables, vodka, whipping cream, yellow onions

Stroganoff was a VERY common dish in my house when I was growing up. Since this was the 90s (low-fat everything), it was usually made with plain ground turkey, powdered mix from a packet, and some light sour cream (which is essentially tasteless mush–real sour cream was a revelation when I got older). It got to the point where I couldn’t even stand the smell of stroganoff because my mom made this dish so often.

Time has passed, and stroganoff & I have had a reconciliation. I make it about once every other month now for work, but from scratch and not with packet mix (but still using ground turkey since it’s leaner). Simply Delicious has two stroganoff recipes: 13-6: Mushroom Stroganoff (a vegetarian version) and this one, 8-12: Beef Stroganoff. I made both at the same time, as part of a stroganoff-off.

Beef stroganoff is a pretty well known dish, and it’s not surprising that it’d be included in a book like this with so many other “classic” dishes. Let’s see how far Simply Delicious strays from the norm–who knows…they might surprise us.