I was a bit concerned about a couples baby shower and really didn’t know what to expect. I am sure some people have bad stories but for my first one, IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME! Our friends Devin and Brooke hosted the shower.

People are still telling us how much fun they had. Now some of you might remember Brooke from a post I did of her chicken salad which was part of the party Saturday, along with tons of other food and of course my favorite, beer.

Check out this cake!

Check out these cup cakes!

The famous chicken salad:

Pasta which I ate around midnight.

Roasted red pepper dip.

Cheese straws:

Another one of my favorites, prosciutto with aged parmesan cheese.

Time to open the gifts and here is a group shot.

Jen and I starting:

Jen opening socks.

A dress given to Kennedy from her Aunt.

Here is a picture of me getting father advice from my friend Tony (he has a 6 year old daughter and I was hoping he was going to tell me my idea of investing in a shotgun for when she starts dating was a good one–he didn’t).

Jen cutting the cake.

It was a great night and we are VERY blessed to have such great friends. Here is the pictures of Kenndy’s room.

And the crib:

Hard to believe that in 51 days I will be a dad and I am attending a daddy boot camp this Saturday at 9am so wish me luck!

Check back tomorrow for a new recipe and, as always, step by step pictures.

Happy Cooking!

Hey everyone–Jen here.  I thought I would give Thomas the night off from cooking and make him dinner for once as a way to repay him for all of the work he has been putting in to assemble the baby essentials (bassinet, swing, playpen, etc).  Thomas has wanted Chinese food several times over the last few weeks but I have not been in the mood since the stuff you get from takeout can tend to be a little greasy.  I found a recipe that looked really healthy and simple, and made a few tweaks to it to make it my own.

Let’s Cook!

Simple Shrimp Fried Rice

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 onion, diced

1 pounds small cooked shrimp, frozen

1 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup matchstick carrots

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 cups cooked brown rice (I used the boil in bag rice and made 2 bags)

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

Break 2 eggs into a bowl and scramble.

Add eggs to a large skillet and cook to make scrambled eggs, cut into small pieces.

After eggs are cooked, remove from skillet and put on a plate for later in the recipe.

Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 of the diced onion, frozen peas, and all of the shrimp to the skillet and cook until the shrimp is completely heated through.  Drain any excess water created when the shrimp and peas are cooking.

Add the carrots and remaining onions to the shrimp and pea mixture in the skillet.

Add the cooked rice, soy sauce and eggs to the skillet to combine all the flavors.  Also, add the sesame seeds to the mixture at this point.

Cook for about 3 minutes to let all of the flavors blend together.

Time to plate.

Here’s the close-up:

This recipe takes less than 30 minutes to make from start to finish and is great for leftovers.  Now you can make shrimp or chicken fried rice at home with all of your favorite ingredients. 

Happy Cooking!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. This was a busy weekend since it was our first baby shower and wait until you see the pictures later this week. Jen and I are very blessed to have such great friends in our lives so be sure to check back this week to see the pictures.

Ok now about cooking. Frank who helped me do this whole blog and the owner of techjaws.com asked for me to make a seafood bisque. I have been working on this and tonight finally completed a true seafood bisque. This is not a weekday dish as it takes a long time to make it the right way and a lot of stirring. Also, I would make the seafood bisque the exact way I did but you can change the fish to any salt water white fish.

Let’s cook!

Seafood Bisque – this is for 6 people

1 package of lumb crab meat

4 lobster tails, chopped

1/2 lb seabass, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

4 strips bacon, diced

1 onion, chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups chicken stock

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

3 tablepoons tomato paste

3 cups whipping cream

Add butter and bacon to Dutch oven (told you this is good recipe!).

Once the bacon has crisp, remove and reserve the bacon for later.

Add onion and cook until tender.

Sprinkle the flour and cook for 4 minutes.

Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Keep the heat on high and then add potatoes, thyme, salt, pepper and tomato paste. Cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add cream.

Add seafood and once the pot returns to a boil, reduce to heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Time to serve! Pour bisque into a bowl and sprinkle reserved bacon bit on top.

Here is the close-up:

Happy Cooking!

Many of you know I love using sauces ,and this recipe really highlights using a sauce to dress up a standard meal. Jen told me she wanted pork chops so a caper sauce is what I decided to make for this dish. Now this sauce can be used with fish which I have done before. Total time for this weekday meal is 40 minutes.

Let’s cook!

Pork Chops with Caper Sauce

4 butterfly porkchops

2 large shallots, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup white wine

1 – 15oz can diced tomatoes

1 lemon, zested

2 tablespoons capers

1 onion, chopped

1/3 cups flat parsley

salt and pepper

In a large skillet over hight heat, heat the olive oil. Season the pork with salt and pepper.

Add the pork to the pan and brown on all sides.

Remove the pork from the pan and place in foil and set aside.

Add onion, shallots and  parsley to the pan and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the wine.

Scrape the bottom bits of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add capers, lemon zest and tomatoes, stir well.

Add the pork back to the pan and cook for another 15 minutes.

Time to plate! I like the butterfly pork chops because they make awesome pockets to hold the caper sauce.

Here is the close-up:

Happy Cooking!

First let tell you that is freakin snowing in Georgia in March! I am ready for spring and warm weather. Tonight was simple dinner night since I have to work later tonight. For those salmon lovers out there this post is for you. Now I am only going to feature the main dish which takes a total of 20 minutes to cook but you can see why this is a simple yet delious dinner.

Citrus and Sun-Dried Tomato Baked Salmon

2 skinless salmon fillets

1 orange, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped

2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes in oil, plus 1 teaspoon of oil from jar

2/3 cups white wine

Sea salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375.

In a large shallow baking dish, place the orange slices and then top with lemon slices.

Place the salmon fillets on each bed of citrus and season the fillets with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl mix in dill, sun-dried tomatoes and tomato oil.

Divide the mixture on top of each salmon and cover the bottom of the baking dish with the wine.

Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

Time to plate! Here is the complete meal plated:

Here is the close-up:

Happy Cooking!

Laurie Genevish is the first winner for my giveaway. I am sending her my favorite chef’s knife–an 8″ Henckels Forged Chef Knife to be exact.  Thank you to everyone who commented or sent questions to my email.  For those who emailed questions, I responded back in email, and for those who commented, I responded back in the comments section of that post.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions for The Cooking Husband–I am happy to answer and love getting to hear from my readers.

Now I know I said I was going to post yesterday, but I was in pretty rough shape from a weekend of eating tons of food and drinking a beer or two. As promised here are a few pictures.

Pictures from cabin trip:

If you live in Georgia and are ever looking to take a weekend trip to the mountians you might want to think about renting a cabin from Above The Rest Cabin Rentals. Jen and I have rented tons of cabins but our experience with this rental company has been exactly what the says, Above The Rest! They have luxury cabins and the staff is great. For this trip I had my closest friends with me and we all drove up to Blue Ridge Friday afternoon. Here is a picture of one of the trucks packed:

I told everyone I would cook cowboy ribeye steaks and here is a picture of them as we unpacked:

Here is the steaks about to go on the grill:

One of the most important tools for grilling beer!

Ok I know this will sound funny but I tried to ensure we had our veggies so I made a salad as well to go with the steaks.

Us at the table eating:

The close-up of the steak:

We stayed up very late drinking beer and playing poker and the winner for Friday night game was Jon Lusky!

After going to bed around 3:30am and some going to bed as late at 5am we woke up at 9am to the smell of bacon. Now most of you know I love bacon but Jen doesn’t. Well, Jeff Longoria made enough bacon to help the craving for all and then made custom ordered omelets.

For lunch, Jon made his famous mouth on fire chili.

The only thing we forgot to take pictures of was Saturday night dinner, fried turkey and brats! I had never had fried turkey before, but let me tell you, it is one of the best things I have ever tasted! Thanks again Tony!

With the guys only operating on only about 4-5 hours of sleep and you might wonder how can we play poker again…well thanks to our friend Jon who introduced us to 5-hour energy several months back.

And guys trip is not a guys trip unless we play 3-man!

I also made sure Kennedy’s soon to be Godfather, Dave Dowling, did his fair share of eating and drinking.

I am really blessed to have a great group of friends and what a trip to remember. Also, I think this just might become a yearly thing.

Happy Cooking!

This weekend I am going on my last guys trip before Kennedy is born. I will have pictures posted on this event on Sunday so be sure to check it out. Also, here is a picture of our 3D ultrasound.

I love getting to know my blog readers through your comments, and Jen thought it would be a good idea for me to have a question and answer ‘Ask The Cooking Husband’ post, so here it is. Leave a comment below to this post your question or feel free to send me an email at thecookinghusband@gmail.com.

I will also select one person to win my favorite kitchen knife as a gift for participating. To enter for the giveaway, you just need to post a question, and the winner will be chosen by a random number generator.

Good Luck and Happy Cooking this weekend!

Last night Jen and I watched Food Network and they had a show about a Cuban diner. Needless to say that made Jen crave a Cuban dish so I told her, Cuban Sloppy Joes is for dinner!

Let’s cook!

Cuban Sloppy Joes with Plantain Chips and Mojo Sauce

1 pound lean ground beef

1 lemon, zested and juiced

8 cloves of garlic, skin removed

1 medium white onion, chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 cup olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup green olives with pimiento, finely chopped

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon of your favorite hot sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

Kaiser rolls

sliced dill pickles

1 bag of plantain chips

1 beefsteak tomato, sliced

In a food processer add garlic, onion, cumin, lemon zest and juice.

Turn the processor on low and stream in the olive oil.

Now add the water.

Turn off the processor and let rest. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add the beef and brown.

Add half of the mojo and crumble the meat as it cooks.

After cooking for 5 minutes, add olives, pimientos, paprika, Worcesterchire, hot sauce, and tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low and cook for 10 minutes.

Time to make the sloppy joe!

To plate, I put the meat mixture on the bun, and added a sliced dill pickle, then serve with plantain chips and sliced tomato seasoned with salt and pepper. Put the rest of the Mojo sauce in a small bowl to dip the chips.

Here is the close-up:

This is not a date dish since there is HEAVY garlic but it is a new twist on an old favorite for us guys–sloppy joes.

Happy Cooking!

Hope everyone had a great Monday. Tonight I wanted to cook a simple dish that wouldn’t take longer than 40 minutes total and decided to make pork tenderloin with roasted eggplant relish. This dish has a bit of kick to it.

Let’s cook!

Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Eggplant Relish

2 pork tenderloins

2 banana peppers, halved and seeded

2 jalapeno peppers, halved (remove the seeds for less heat)

1 eggplant, halved

1 bunch scallions

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 whole lemon – not lime I picked the wrong one out of the basket after I started cooking

1 teaspoon paprika

handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat the broiler and line the pan with foil. Place the peppers, eggplant, scallions and garlic on place in the broiler for 4 minutes.

Flip them after you ensure there is a little char and cook for another 5 minutes.

After they have cooked, cover with a damp paper towel to cool.

Season the pork with cumin and salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pork and cook.

Cook until golden, then reduce the heat and cook until thermometer registers 150.

Remove the pork from the pan and let rest.

Peel the skin off the peppers and eggplant.

Roughly chop the vegetables and garlic and toss in a bowl.

Add the lemon juice to the skillet.

I leave one half of the lemon on the skillet to cook. Add the eggplant mixture, paprika, parsley and cook for 5 minutes.

Slice the pork, and serve with the eggplant relish. Here is how I plated the dish:

Here is the close-up:

Happy Cooking!

It has been one of those weeks for me, busy, and busy! Sorry I haven’t posted that much but I finally completed Kennedy’s bedroom and Jen took some pictures.

Kennedy bedroom is now ready and I am counting down the days till we are at the hospital and I become a dad for the first time.

Stuffed bell peppers is another one of those comfort dishes that I really enjoy making. This recipe is enough to cook four but I only did two and used the food saver for the rest of the filling.

With that being said, LET’S COOK!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

2 green bell peppers

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lb ground turkey

1 package of Uncle Ben’s rice – cooked

15oz tomato sauce

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup shredded Gouda cheese

salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut the tops off the peppers adn removed the seeds.

Add salt to the boiling water and then add the peppers. Cook the pepper for about 3 minutes.

Drain and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and add tomato sauce, ground turkey, cooked rice, oregano, Worcestershire, salt and pepper.

Mix until blended well.

Stuff the bell peppers and then place them in baking dish wit h1/4 of water.

Top the peppers with Gouda cheese.

Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes or until internal tempature reaches 150 degrees.

Here is the stuffed bell pepper plated:

Happy Cooking!