Margaritas

Fresh lime juice is the best when you want fresh margaritas, but sometimes you just cannot get your hands on that many limes! In a pinch, here is a recipe that I like to use for Margaritas:

• 1 can of frozen Minute Maid Limeade
• 3 cans of water
• 200 mL of tequila (~1 cup)
• 100 mL of tripplesec (~1/2 cup)

And voilà, a yummy pitcher of margaritas.

My Favorite Wine

I haven't posted in a while, not because I haven't been cooking but because I haven't had the time to write up the posts. ChemEats will come back in force in 2012.

I am just going to quickly share some photos of my newest favorite wine: Opala Vinho Verde. I don't know much about this wine, except it appears clear in the slightly green tinted bottle. This is a crisp, light and refreshing wine, perfect for a summer day. You can find this wine at Whole Foods.

RR Wine

I was exploring the corner market of our new home, and I made a fantastic wine discovery: A bottle of wine that had the label "RR".... and it was purple! How could I not get this wine to try?

The wine was actually pretty good. The flavor was light, which I often prefer in reds. You never know what you're going to get when you choose wine strictly by the label, but I am thrilled that I went with my gut this time.

We paired it with a caramelized onion & turkey kielbasa pasta concoction.

Tequila lime shrimp

I used to love to buy margaritaville's tequila lime shrimp, but it has been so expensive that it is worth trying to find a recipe I like myself. I found a recipe that I could modify to my purposes.

My Tequila Lime Shrimp Pasta Recipe

• 1/4 cup butter
  
• 8 Tblsp tequila
  
• 6 Tblsp Lime juice
  
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• Frozen, pealed shrimp
• Cayanne pepper to taste
• 1 box pasta
• 1 cup frozen peas

Instructions

• Boil some lightly salted water (for the pasta.) Drop the pasta and cook according to the manufacturer's directions.
  
• Saute the garlic in the butter for 1-2 min, then add the tequila and lime juice.
• Once the sauce is simmering, add the frozen shrimp until they are cooked through (completely pink and curled up.) If the sauce isn't thick enough, then remove the shrimp and keep reducing the sauce.
  
  
  
• Drain Pasta (don't rinse) and combine with frozen peas, stirring thoroughly.
  
  
  
• Pour sauce and shrimp over the pasta and mix.
  
  
  
• Enjoy your yummy pasta dish!
  

The Beer Shelf

We will be moving across the country soon. It turns out that the box from a case of beer is the perfect size to hold books. But we had all of this beer... where were we to put it? Our solution: the beer shelf. That's right, we traded book space for beer space.

Six Layer Jello Shot

Can you count the layers?

I was looking through my old photos, and I found an image that I was so proud of I can't NOT share it with you.

Maybe I'm a little crazy, but in the summer of 2008 I decided to go after creating the most complicated Jello Shot I could imagine... one with six different layers - that each represent different flavors!

What did this shot taste like? Pretty much like the fruit punch you'd have at summer camp (with a bit of a kick).



Happy St. Patrick's Day!