good old Texas pralines

Those crazy Cajuns in New Orleans pronounce it prah'-leen, whereas any self-respecting Texan knows it's pronounced pray'-leen. Also, most people up here say pee-can', instead of the absolutely correct pe-cahn', so to say this correctly, it's peCAHN PRAYleens. You really should moan a little while you say it too, and please pronounce it correctly from now on.

In Austin, at the old-timey Mexican food restaurants like Matt's (El Rancho, though if you're from Austin, Matt's will do), dessert options were always pralines or sherbet. Even though I always wanted both, usually the pralines won. Sugar + pecans, nothing beats that.

When I saw the Homesick Texan post a recipe for pralines, my heart skipped a beat and beat very fast, at the same time. The recipe sounded easy, and the recipe notes said it was easy too, so even though I'd never made them before, I got out the ingredients and made me some pralines:

I made a fatal error somewhere -- should've used that candy thermometer -- but you know, sugar + pecans = good eating no matter what. The sugar wasn't right, it wasn't creamy enough, but we had no problem finishing them off.

shrimp tacos!

STOP. CLICK THE TOP PHOTO. I'LL WAIT.

Dripping delicious with the really hot creamy habanero sauce:

We were stuck with the healthy option of wholewheat tortillas -- not our fave! If you're having fried shrimp, guacamole, and a sour cream-based habanero sauce, why bother with "healthy," right?

We got a new video camera! See tonight's dinner being prepared:

Lemon chicken cutlets habanero

Here's the deal. Start with a creative cook (sorry, if you don't have one on hand I can't help you) and then buy a batch of really colorful and really hot peppers. Something like this:

Dice a stack of those peppers. How many? However many your mouth and stomach can handle.

Then buy some really nice chicken breasts, boneless. Pound them. Pound the hell out of them. Dip them in egg-flour-egg to give them a little coating. Fry them so they're moist and yummy. Meanwhile, make a tangy sauce of onion, butter, fresh lemon juice (lots), garlic, cumin and the finely diced peppers.

Pour the delicious sauce over the chicken, and then sprinkle with rough-chopped fresh cilantro. Voila:

This was amazingly good, spicy enough in the back of our throats to make us hiccup and cough a little, and to leave our mouths wide awake. Tangy with the lemon, spicy hot with the peppers, layered with the butter, garlic and onion. Really, really delicious.

various weekend eats, featuring habanero taco salad

Although this dish started -- conceptually, anyway -- as chili, it transformed into a taco salad as he did the prep. And such delicious taco salad it was, too:

saute the onions until they're nearly translucent

chop lots of habanero peppers

prepare the toppings:
summer tomatoes, cilantro, cheese, and more onions

dish it up in layers:
lettuce (iceberg, of course), spicy meat, toppings, and then sour cream

SO good. I love taco salad but forget about it. With his really spicy meat it was delicious.

And just to prove that I really do love cantaloupe with pepper -- and perhaps to get you to try it too, you coward, check out the lusciousness of this:


And last but not least. We have a stash of those great orange rolls still in the freezer. Well, we did at the start of the weekend. They're all gone now, I need to make some more. I'm the baker, he does all the rest of the cooking. He was eating this roll, and when he got down to the filet of it, the most luscious part, it was just so beautiful I had to take this picture:


It's some mighty good eating, in our house.

TexMex!

You can't get good mexican food here in Manhattan -- and TexMex? Forget about it. No way, nowhere. Someone (I'm looking at you, Chuy's) could come in here and make a killing. People say all the time how much they wish there was decent Mexican/TexMex here, but there isn't.

Until tonight. He made me enchiladas, mexican rice, and refried beans. He made the enchilada sauce himself, from scratch, and it was so so good. He started with shredded pork loin:

topped with chopped scallions

rolled in corn tortillas

and covered with his scrumptiously TexMexy sauce

and topped with shredded cheese

And here's the finished meal: enchiladas, refried beans and mexican rice.
I'm moaning with happiness.

tostadas

Of course he didn't buy crispy tortilla shells, he fried his own. Thick and crunchy, better than anything you could ever buy.


And I made Scharffenberger brownies for dessert, served with vanilla bean ice cream:


I'm way behind -- I've missed a couple of dinners, salmon and pork loin....