Milk Chocolate Waffles

Anthony made us an early midnight snack around eleven. The milk chocolate waffles from scratch that he made for us were amazing. I had a little maple syrup for dipping sauce. He spread some peanut butter on his.

How To Get Anthony To Eat Raw Strawberries

Last night was like many other nights, we needed our midnight snack. I thought maybe we could eat some bowls of berries but Anthony said he doesn't really like eating them raw, that they are too tart. I asked him if he had ever eaten strawberries and cream with brown sugar. He said he hadn't. I told him that my family and I first fell in love with the dish when we were at Disney World in Florida. Quite a few years back, we had eaten strawberries and cream as an appetizer for breakfast a number of times at one of our favorite breakfast spots there. Anthony agreed to give the dish a try.

I used milk instead of cream. One, because it's healthier, two, because that's all we had on hand, and three, now that I think about it, because to me it tastes better. We both enjoyed our lovely snack. The berries were sweet enough with the milk and sugar for Anthony to enjoy! I really liked the dish presentation that I fashioned. The pattern I made with the strawberries on our plates reminded me of Amish quilt squares.

Strawberries & Cream

6 Large Strawberries

4 Tsp. Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup of Milk

1. Sprinkle brown sugar on two plates.

2. Cut strawberries in half and arrange on plates.

3. Pour milk slowly on to plates.

Shari's Colorful Crawfish Etouffee

I came across a bunch of pics for crawfish etouffee while I was googling "crawfish boil." I was so excited after my crawfish boil that I had plenty of crawfish leftover so I could make crawfish etouffee! My husband and I really enjoyed both my crawfish boil and my crawfish etouffee! This week was my first time making both dishes. The way I came up with my recipes was that I looked at a bunch of recipes online, and then I made up my own recipes from ingredients that I had on hand that were similar to those that I had seen in recipes online. 

Shari's Colorful Crawfish Etouffee:

1 Lb. Shucked Crawfish

1 Tsp. Minced Garlic

1 Tb Ketchup

3 Mini Sweet Peppers

1/2 Cup Leftover Onion & Habanero

1 Cup Seafood Stock From Crawfish Boil

1 Cup Water

2 Tb Flour

Few Dashes of Cayenne Pepper

Shari's Sweet Potato Habanero Crawfish Boil

I had some crawfish kicking around in my freezer at home because I randomly discovered them and bought them on my last grocery shopping trip. I thought of making the crawfish for Valentine's Day since they are red, exotic, and fun. I was so excited to make them however, that I could not wait until then.

I had so much fun planning it all, making it all, and eating it all. Of course, it would not have been the same without my dear husband Anthony and his good nature humoring me in feasting on this dish with me. I think I had a little too much fun with the whole event. When we sat down to eat Anthony asked me how we were supposed to eat them. I said I had posted a YouTube crawfish eating demo video earlier on my Facebook page that day saying that he and I were going to need it soon. I told him maybe he could look up the demo video on his phone for us both because I had never eaten crawfish before either. We laughed, looked up the demo video, and followed the instructions.

When we ripped the meat out of the crawfishes, I was surprised to see yellow. I thought maybe I hadn't cooked it all of the way. I googled a few different words and thoughts before finding a few pics that helped me determine whether our crawfish were indeed cooked. They were. The yellow that I had seen was guts, and I just had to pull some more of the meat out on the other side to get to the meat of the matter. Phew!

As for my recipe, I decided to just work from ingredients I had on hand after reviewing multiple crawfish boil ingredient lists online. Most of the lists included: crawfish, potatoes, corn on the cob, onions, garlic, sausage, lemons, water, and seasonings. Some even included mushrooms, or shrimp, or crabs. I wanted my crawfish boil to be original so it just worked out that I didn't have exact ingredients for the recipe. Below you'll find a list of the ingredients that I used to create my own original crawfish boil.

Shari's Sweet Potato Habanero Crawfish Boil:

1/4 Cup Cajun Seasoning

6 Quarts Water

2 Lemons

2 Onions

2 Sweet Potatoes

2 Habaneros

1/2 Lb. Cooked Ham

2 Lbs. Cooked Crawfish

1. Bring water and cajun seasoning to boil in a large pot.

2. Quarter lemons, squeeze juice into pot, and then drop lemons into pot.

3. Chop onions, sweet potatoes, and habaneros. Drop them into the boiling pot. Cover and cook 15 minutes.

4. Add ham and crawfish. Cover and cook for ten minutes.

Shari's Easy Meaty Borscht

Making borscht is one of the best ways to use red beets in my opinion, and since we had some red beets, I made borscht. Further, the Olympics happen to be in Sochi, Russia this week, so what could possibly be a more appropriate pot of soup to prepare? You know borscht is just "so" Russian.

Shari's Easy Meaty Borscht:

1 Lb. Ground Beef

2 Red Beets Chopped

1/2 of a Medium Onion Chopped

1/4 of a Napa Cabbage Chopped

3 Quarts Water

3 Tb Balsamic Vinegar

Salt & Pepper to Taste

1. Cook beef. Drain fat.

2. Chop veggies and cabbage. Add them to pan.

3. Add water, vinegar, and seasonings. Mix.

4. Cover and let simmer for a half hour.

Easy Fennel Soup

This soup was easy to make and fun! I had never worked with fennel before. It is quite delicious! I saved some for later to snack on raw. Fennel is quite exotic looking with it's huge edible onion-like bulb, bright green foliage that looks like dill, and fibrous stalks that look and cut like celery. The flavor of it is like licorice, only it's healthy! When you cook it down in soup with the beef, the fennel's flavor becomes so mild and comforting. This soup was so warm and satisfying Anthony went back to the stove for seconds!

Easy Fennel Soup:

5 Cups Water

1 Lb. Ground Beef

2/3 Bulb of Fennel

2 Cups Egg Noodles

Salt & Pepper

1. Bring 3 cups water and ground beef to a boil.

2. Chop fennel and add to water and beef.

3. Add noodles and 2 more cups of water. Salt and pepper to taste.