Dahlquists' & salsa [ =

February seems to be FULL of birthdays on my boyfriends side [given my grandpas is on superbowl sunday] Jespers' mom, dad, brother, grandma, & gpa are all in this month. crazy

That being said- I went with Jesper, his dad, and his brother on a 4.5 hr whale watching trip around santa barbara harbor. It was amazing, and beautiful & i felt soo.....accepted! A feeling i never ever get when I'm around Jespers mom!



I have also been trying to perfect a really hott salsa for the beef [the nickname i have come up with for the boyfriend.] one where, he is soo astonished, how hott it is.
I think i finally have!

You will need::


-5 large tomatoes
-2 green chilies
-1 habanaro
-about 3 -4 cloves of garlic
-1/4 of an onion
- 1 lime [or lemon -your preference]
Side note:: usually parsley is used, but this time i made it without and used garlic instead = ]

As i chop these ingredients i love to toss them into my cuisinart food processor


I chop up the tomatoes, they don't need to be cut too tiny.



Then i peel the cloves of garlic
as well as mince them





and then i toss half of the tomatoes into the cuisinart
and half into a bowl to be used later
i put all of the garlic into the cuisinart



I then chop up 1/4 of the onion

I put half into the cuisinart..and the other half in a bowl to use later


this will be thrown into the cuisinart later, to make the salsa thicker than it would be if i used all of the ingredients at once.

I then cop up about 1 1/2 of the the green chillies
I cut then whole & use every part of them




I then chop up the Habanaro
Be careful not to touch the seeds or the inside, if you accidently do this
run your hands under water and soap for quite some time
Just cutting into this made my eyes burn



I use every piece of it.


I then cut up the Lime & squeeze all of it into the cuisinart mix


then chop and mix half of the tomatoes, and onions and chillies and the lime, garlic and salt& pepper mixture
Not thoroughly
just until it is well blended



then add the other half of the tomatoes, and the onions that you've set aside in a bowl
this will help make the salsa thicker, and less runny.


& voila'!!


We used this opportunity to turn this into Mexican night
& we sauted some chicken as well as baked two corn tortillas
added some sour cream, avocados and lettuce to the mix & topped it with the salsa
soo YUMMY♥

prawns!!

The boyfriend brought home a ton of prawns last night.
One of his clients has been gave him a lovely yummy bottle of pinot gris firestone wine a few weeks ago & now he has given him frozen shrimp.



I am not a huge fan of shrimp. Sometimes it can be too fishy. So i first divided the shrimp into about 7 almost 2lb zip lock bags. I gave one to our amazing neighbor. 1 bag will go to My boyfriends brother. 1 bag is go to my boyfriends father. And we kept 4. I froze three of them & made 6 large prawns for dinner last night.

The recipe i used came out soo delicious. I was soo proud that i couldn't help but share!

You will need:



-6 large prawns
-5 - 6 cloves of garlic
-3 tablespoons of butter
-a small lemon
-about a tablesppon of parsly
-salt
-pepper

These prawns still had their shells on them. So we cut the shells off, then 'de pooped' them [yes the black stuff towards the south end of the ship is actually their poop] then, because we are on this 'diet-ish' kick. We did not want to make a big portion, but to feed both of us, I cut the 6 shrimp in half length wise.
[the bottle of wine in the background, is optional - tho i love to have a glass of wine as i cook : )]



then in a non stick pan...melt the butter [to keep this completely fat free, you could substitute the butter for extra virgin olive oil]
while the butter is melting squeeze one half of the lemon onto the shimp sitting in the bowl


when the butter is melted, toss the shrimp in
let it cook for about two minutes
then add the garlic -- we used a garlic press

also add some flavor with a pinch of salt
and a pinch of pepper

let it cook for 6 to 7 minutes
then squeeze the other half of the lemon onto it [i added both halves because i really did NOT want it to taste fishy at all.]



then at the very end [about 12 minutes ] i added the parsley
and cooked it with the shrimp about 2-4 minutes longer







voila'! it made a very good, yet small portion. We added some rice to it & it was a very reat, yummy & filling meal!

New Year ♥

Recap:: xmas sucked. My boyfriends mother is truly weird.and crazy and said things like 'i feel death around me..' while in the car with me!

New years was amazing. We were in big sur , california & no cell reception! which was great considering my bfs' mother was texting him and leaving voicemails like a psycho girlfriend..rather than a mom.

its been almost three weeks since she has called and our relationship has been amazing since we are able to focus on US.Not deal with his mom telling him how 'hard' she is going to make things when we get married.


Big sur: