Steamed Muscles With White Wine And Shallots

This has recently become one of my favorite meals of all time. Anytime I’m out to eat and muscles happen to be on the menu I have to get them. Milwaukee is located on the cost of Lake Michigan, and the only muscles you can get from this lake are Zebra Muscles, an invasive species. So sadly it’s hard to get your hands on good quality seafood around here. I recently found frozen vacuum sealed muscles at the grocery store, and thought I’ll try them, but I won’t get my hopes up. But in all honesty I was very impressed with the quality, and will be having muscles at home quite regularly from now on.

Ingredients ( Serves 2)

• 2lbs of frozen muscles
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallot diced
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
•  3/4 cup of white wine
• 1/4 cup of half and half
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Directions

Heat a large stock pot of water to a rolling boil. Add frozen muscles in the bag and cook for 10 minutes or until your shells open. While the muscles cook, saute the shallot and garlic in butter and olive oil for 5 minutes until ingredients have softened. Add the white wine and reduce for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and transfer your cook muscles and their released juices to your wine sauce. Stir in the half and half and transfer cooked muscles into a large serving bowl. Top with parsley and serve warm with a large loaf of bread that you can use for dunking. Just thinking about this meals makes my mouth water 🙂

Cranberry Crumble Cookies

Guess what it’s my day off again, and yes i’m back in the kitchen baking! I found this recipe on Pinterest while looking for Rhubarb recipes. Sadly when I went to the store they were  out of rhubarb, so I decided to get creative and sub in cranberries. I figure they will be a great addition to this cookie, because they have that same tartness that I was looking for. The recipe is adapted from OX Breakfast .

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients ( Makes about 20 mini cookies)

1. 2 Cups Fresh or Frozen Cranberries
2. 1/4-1/2 Cup Sugar ( I used 1/4 cup because I like my mixture more tart)
3. 1 Lemon Zested
4. 1 Lemon Juiced
5. 6 Tablespoons Butter, melted and cooled
6. 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
7. 1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
8. 1/2 Cup Flour (whole wheat works)
9. 1/2 Cup Chopped Almonds (optional)
10. a big pinch of salt

Fruit Directions

Combine the first 4 ingredients on a baking pan, and place in oven once it has preheated. Baked until cranberries have softened and liquid has evaporated by half (about 20 minutes). Remove from oven and allow to cool. Reduce oven to 375 degrees.

Cookie Directions

Combine ingredients 5-10 in a mixing bowl, then fill silicone baking cups with 1 tablespoon of this mixture ( Substitute a mini  muffin pan if you don’t have the baking cups. I bought mine at the dollar store, so they really aren’t a huge investment if you want to go out and buy some).

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and place a spoonful of cranberry mixture on top of each cookie. Sprinkle a small amount of the left over cookie mixture, and place cookies back in the oven for an addition 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven, and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the baking cup. Transfer cookies out of the baking cups using a spoon, and place on a cooling rack.

These cookies are so easy and have such a bright flavor spring flavor!  Who knows, maybe the Easter Bunny will be making a special delivery of these cookies to some friends in the near future….

Hello & Welcome

Hello there, my name is Whitney i’m a 25 year old Nurse living in the beautiful city of Milwaukee. My cooking journey started back in high school and has blossomed over the years. Lets just say I have come a long way from Hamburger Venison Helper, yes I grew up eating everything from squirrels to bear, and even on special occasion pheasant. So you may get lucky and learn the proper way to cook wild game if that tickles your fancy. But for thoes of you less adventitious, don’t worry there will be plenty of chicken, pork, and beef too keep your satisfied:)

Over the last several years I have become more passionate about food and entertaining, and wanted to share my passion with the blogging world. I hope you enjoy my creations and much as I do.

Whit