Grilled Avocados with Shrimp Salad: Guest Post by Home Skillet

I am so excited to bring you my first every Guest Post today! As I've mentioned a billion times, food blogging has led to the discovery of some incredibly creative and talented people. I am continually amazed by the people I meet and the recipes I find on the web. When I win the lottery, I'm totally buying my own tv channel that I'll call the Foodblog Network. I'm going to give shows to all my amazing foodie blogger friends. One such show will feature Jen and Seth, the amazing husband and wife team behind Home Skillet.

Jen and Seth live in sunny Southern California with their hungry toddler Max. I love their blog because they find new and interesting ways to dress up simple and tasty recipes. I completely fell in love with these adorable Whale Grilled Cheese with Broccoli, Garlic and Caramelized Onion. My favorite feature of their blog is all the amazing dips they come up with. As they explain on their blog, all three members of their household enjoy dipping things, which I think is a love many of us share. Here are just a few of my favorites: Creamy Egg Marinara Breakfast Dip, Spicy Chorizo Dip, Smooth and Creamy Carrot Tahini Dip, Carbonara Dip with Brie and Pancetta, and Roasted Cauliflower Dippers with Smoked Paprika Dip.

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Hi, we are Jenn and Seth from Home Skillet, and we are so super excited to be here today!  We absolutely love Dara’s blog, everything is so healthy, fresh, and delicious – and accompanied by gorgeous photos!  Like her Thai marinated skirt steak – YUM!  And her asparagus potato salad?  We didn’t even think we liked potato salad but this sounds absolutely fantastic! So who are we?

When not animating computer generated characters, or playing video games, Seth can be found obsessing over food.  When Jenn is not chasing around our toddler, or reading, she too can be found obsessing over food (and chapstick).  Over the last few years, our joint passion for food has taken on a life of its own and manifested itself as the blog, Home Skillet.  Above all, Home Skillet is a task master.  It forces us to stay on our toes, and continually try new culinary things.  We love it for that.  However, Home Skillet is also our way to give a little something back to the food community, from which, over the years, we have taken so much.  As for us, personally, we like to be goofy, annoy each other, and pretend our toddler, Max, is a little object made of pie… and loud noises.  The ocean is our battery pack, fueling us to be productive… and unproductive.  Day trips, short adventures, building and painting things, we like all of that.  We love quality entertainment: Television series like Mad Men, Always Sunny, Breaking Bad and Downton Abbey, and quirky movies like Metropolitan, The Extra Man, and Rushmore.  Documentaries of all kinds, books, video games… How can two people be summed up in a paragraph?  No idea.  Let’s just get to the recipe…

I think about avocados a lot.  It is our little guy’s favorite food.  As in, he pretty much needs an avocado every day or he becomes ever so displeased.  So I see them just about every day.  Plus we live in southern California and there is a rule written somewhere that you must consume massive amounts of avocados (or maybe I just wish there was).  Eventually, after taking out my umpteenth pit from an avocado, I heard the call.  The call emanating from deep within the cavity left from the pit.  It told me to fill it back up.  I was like, of course!  Of course I will!  So I thought about things that I could fill it up with, and settled on shrimp.  Because, why not shrimp?

Spicy Shrimp Salad in Grilled Avocados

Ingredients:

½ pound shrimp

½ cup diced cucumber

1 thai chile, minced

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

½ teaspoon orange zest, plus more for serving

2 tablespoons chopped tarragon, plus more for serving

3 tablespoons aioli

salt and pepper to taste

2 avocados, halved and pitted

Aioli:

2 egg yolks

1 cup canola oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Make the aoili. We like to whisk mayonnaise by hand, though others find the food processor easier to use for this.  To use this method, place the egg yolks in a small bowl, place a cup of oil next to you, and keep a tablespoon handy.  Use a whisk to break up the egg yolks in the bowl. Add a tablespoon of oil.  Whisk that into the egg yolks so the yolks absorb it.  Then repeat.  And repeat.  Just be patient.  It will probably take about 10 minutes to get through all the oil.  Then stir in the garlic and lime juice.  Refrigerate.

2. Bring a pot of salted water to boil.  Add the shrimp and cook until pink and done – about 3-4 minutes.  Remove and place in a bowl of ice water to cool.  

3. Dice the shrimp once they have cooled.  Place the diced shrimp in a medium bowl.

4. Add the diced cucumber and minced thai chile.  Mix it all together.  

5. In a small bowl, mix together orange juice, ½ teaspoon orange zest, 2 tablespoons tarragon, and 3 tablespoons of the aioli.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  

6. Stir the orange and aioli mixture into the shrimp and cucumber mixture. Refrigerate. 

7. Heat charcoal or gas grill to high heat (around 400 degrees).

8. Using a paper towel or dish rag, coat cooking grates with a thin layer of canola oil.  Place halved avocados on grill, cut side down.  Cover, and come back in about 3-5 minutes to check on them.  Once the bottoms have a nice char, remove from grill. 

9. Spoon shrimp salad into each of the halves of avocado.  Sprinkle orange zest and tarragon on top. Then eat!

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How fantastic is this recipe? Grilling avocados? Stuffing avocados? This is why I need more Californians in my life. I have no clue what to do with avocado beyond making guac. 

So. Everyone immediately stop over at Jen and Seth's blog, Home Skillet to say hello. Make sure to follow their blog and hit them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest ASAP. 

While you're there, make sure to bookmark their Glazed Chocolate Chip Scones with Rosemary and Cara Cara Orange, Homemade Pop Tarts, and Lime Spiced Cashews. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing Jen and Seth here at Gen Y Foodie. I am so thrilled they agreed to be my first guest post! I feel honored to get to know them and their awesome and tasty blog. Thanks so much guys!!! 

Wednesday Links and a GIVEAWAY!!!!

GIVEAWAY!

So, as you know I've started canning with the hopes of canning a lot of the harvest from my garden this summer. So. In hopes of spreading the gospel of home preserving, I am giving away some starter canning supplies from Ball. 

I will be giving away the Ball Canning Discovery Kit. This 6 piece kit gives you all the tools to start canning using your existing kitchenware. It includes everything you need to start canning for the first time and step by step instructions.

I will also be giving away a copy of The Ball Complete Guide to Home Preserving. I picked this up this weekend and it is a completely idiot-proof guide to all types of home preserving. There are step by step guides WITH PHOTOS for making each type of recipe. If you feel hesitant or nervous about canning, this book will help you do it right.

So how can these wonderful items be yours? 

1. Leave a comment telling me if you've tried canning and what you make or would like to make with these items
2. Like Gen Y Foodie on Facebook, or, if you already do, let me know in the comments
3. Share on Facebook: I just entered a giveaway to win Ball home canning supplies from Gen Y Foodie. http://www.generationyfoodie.com/2012/06/thursday-links-and-giveaway.html
4. Follow me on Twitter, of, if you already do, let me know in the comments
5. Tweet the following: I just entered the @Ballcanning #Giveaway from @genyfoodie!

OFFICIAL RULES:

Open to residents of United States and Canada only. Giveaway closes on Wednesday 6/29 at 5pm EST.

And now onto the links!

First I want to spend ten seconds bragging about my amazing little bro Jeff. He returned from Russia on Monday, where he spent the last three weeks building sports and playground facilities at a school in rural Russia with his charity Students Helping Children Across Borders.

Not only did he start his own charity, but his built this project from the ground up, spending the last nine months organizing and fund-raising. He connected with some people from Suzdal, Russia and put this whole thing together ... in Russian! In recognition of these efforts, he won the Katherine W. Davis Peace Prize (learn more here). The most impressive part of all of this? He did it all HIMSELF while playing Division I college ice hockey and keeping a full college course load.

As you can tell, I am so proud of this guy. He kept an amazing blog about his time in Suzdal and his project. My personal favorite post, however, is about his attempt to make some pizza for his host family. You can read this hilarious story here.

Dessert Round Up: 

Since I'm not a baker and don't make many desserts, I like to live vicariously through all my amazing food blogger friends. Here are some of my favorite desserts of the week. Go check out these talented bloggers and their yummy recipes.

• Black Forest Cheesecake from Kim at Cravings of a Lunatic
• Tiramisu Bread at Baker Street
• Watermelon Ice pops from Kelly at Eat Yourself Skinny
• Chocolate Bacon cookies at Simply Scratch

Healthy Links:

• Can ginseng fight fatigue? - NYT
• The 12 dirtiest types of produce - make sure to scrub these! - CNN
• Natural remedies for mosquito bites! - HuffPo

Black Eyed Pea Salad

My favorite part of my local Whole Foods is the bulk section. Dozens and dozens of different grains, beans, nuts and lot of other delicious things. The prices are good and the selection is amazing. Every week I stock up on some new things that I store in mason jars. This week, I decided to give black eyed peas a whirl. I knew they are traditionally prepared in southern cooking, but I wanted to put a fresh and healthy spin on these.

Using the rest of my farmer's market haul, I decided to throw together a fresh and healthy salad to highlight this wonderful legume. Black eyed peas are low in calories, and high in soluble fiber, potassium, and zinc.

This salad is vitamin packed and makes for a healthy main or side dish. I dressed it with only a bit of olive oil and lemon juice so as not to overpower all the delicious fresh flavors. Fresh parsley and fennel give this a bit of a kick as well.

In addition, I had an eventful weekend! After soliciting some help on Facebook, I found a local hardware store that had all the canning equipment I was looking for! I may have gone a bit overboard...

Anyway, I used this amazing haul to make jam on Saturday! My first canning experience involved a lot of sweat, foul language, minor burns and a huge mess but I had a blast. I can't wait to keep experimenting.

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Homemade Pitas with Garlic Scape Hummus

I had a wonderful girls night with my amazing friends Meghan and Nacie. As I've mentioned before, I am very lucky to have some really wonderful and impressive friends. The three of us got together to network and brainstorm our entrepreneurial ideas, and discuss maintaining work life balance while pursuing multiple things at once. Nacie just published her book, The Finch Effect: Five Strategies to Adapt and Thrive in Your Working Life and Meghan just left her 9-5 to pursue her own consulting business. Needless to say, we had an amazing time eating, drinking and chatting.

I wanted to make something special to nibble on and I was inspired to create something healthy and delicious using some amazing things I picked up from the farmer's market. I got some beautiful garlic scapes, french breakfast radishes and baby carrots. Craig and I are obsessed with the baby carrots from Parker Farm in Lunenberg, MA. They have super thin skin, so you don't have to peel them, just scrub and eat. They are so sweet and crunchy, we bought two pounds on Saturday and have already finished them.

So I decided to use the garlic scapes to make a tangy hummus dip for the veggies. Garlic scapes are the "stalks" of the garlic plant, which must be removed early in the growing season for a full bulb of garlic to grow. They are only available for a few weeks in May and June so grab some if you see them at a local market. They have a tender and mild flavor with a bit of garlicky bite. Hummus is a simple way to enjoy scapes and highlight their unique and tasty flavor. This hummus is incredibly simple, just a can of chickpeas, some scapes, lemon juice and olive oil.

Next I tried to figure out what else would compliment this tasty hummus. Crackers seemed so boring, so I decided to branch out a bit. The lovely and talented Katherine Martinelli guest posted at Baker Steet last week in a series of posts called Bread 101. This is right up my alley because I need to enroll in Bread Kindergarten. I literally have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to anything involving yeast. So. I saw this amazing post about homemade pitas and thought it might be doable. Both Katherine and Anuradha make bread making look so delicious and simple. Since they are both far better at this than I am, I figured if I followed the instructions I wouldn't mess up too badly.

Turns out homemade pitas are SO SIMPLE to make and so tasty. Fresh from the oven they were absolutely heavenly. Craig and I ate so many I was afraid I wouldn't have any left for my guests later. The warm, slightly fluffy pitas made a wonderful compliment to the garlic scape hummus. My only regret is that I didn't make larger batches to have some snacks for work.

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