What an Honor!

The List is out.

The Oklahoma Blog Awards announced their final ballot today and I am honored to be included in the Best Food Blog category. 

Being a newbie to the scene this year, I can only say that it is a joy to work on my blog and I am truly thankful for the nominations from, whomever my 3 or 4 readers may be.

There is some steep competition and of course, being up against Ree from The Pioneer Woman, I humbly can tell ya….

I ain’t got a chance. Ree’s site is amazing!

But hey, if you have an Oklahoma blog and are eligible to vote, I’d be honored to receive your vote.  And good luck to all the others who are nominated.

We’re a good bunch – Oklahoma.

I’m proud to be among ya’ll!

Following are the rules and list of participants. You can vote at the website -

http://oklahomablogawards.blogspot.com/

Email nominations to 2009okieblogawards@gmail.com

Deadline: midnight Sunday, February 14

You must vote in at least 12 of the 24 for your ballot to be counted

Please include on your ballot the URL of YOUR OKLAHOMA BLOG

Only OKLAHOMA BLOGGERS are eligible to vote.

Good luck, ya’ll!

Best Overall Blog
BatesLine
Chic Galleria
Drawing the Motmot
Goodbye Tulsa
Miss Wisabus
The Art of Manliness
The Lost Ogle
The Pioneer Woman
Scissor Tales
Small Biz Survival


Best Arts/Crafts Blog
Design Crush
Drawing the Motmot
Gather Ye Roses
Greedy Girl
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition
Sarah Atlee Makes Pictures
SewChic
Tater Tots and Fire Hoses
Thimbly Things
Tulsa Brick X Brick
Tulsa Craft Mafia

Best Audio/Podcast Blog
Blog Oklahoma
Godly Gals
Goodbye Tulsa
Little Tiny Brain
The Daily Bitch
Tulsa Police Department
Tyson Wynn
Wander Radio
Mainstream Baptist

Best Business-Related Blog
Blogging4Jobs
BrandedMatters.
James Dalman
Merchant Metrix Blog
Central OKC
Oklahoma City University Law Blog
Oklahoma Dental Foundation Soundbites
Oklahoma Per Square Foot
Oklahoma Small Business Development Center Blog
Smal Biz Suvival
Third Degree Creative

Best Culture Blog
Aurea
Doug Dawg
Faust the Comic
From the Faraway Nearby
Mixtape Jones
Oklahoma Modern
Oklahoma Rock
Static Blog
Tasha Does Tulsa
The Apache House

Best Blog Design
Ad Brad
Chic Galleria
Design Crush
Erin Conrad Photography
Greedy Girl
In Search of Design
Jeremy and Kathleen
On the Line
The Pioneer Woman
Zach Nash

Best Family Blog
918 Coupon Queen
But I Digress
Crash Test Mommy
David in Progress
Dawn’s Diversions
Decisionally Challenged
Hiccups
Kellyology
Miss Wisabus
Rob O’Hara
Rocks in My Dryer
Sorta Crunchy
Yogi’s Den

Best Food Blog
Corner Booth
Dishin’ and Dishes
Eat Around OKC
FoodDude
Frugality Online
Island Dreaming in Oklahoma
Joe’s Burger Search
Mama Foodie
Small Bites
The Pioneer Woman
Tulsa Food Blog

Most Humorous Blog
All Along The Hightower
And So She Blogs
Chad and Joel Has a Blog
Inalienable Wright
Irritated Tulsan
Living the Good Life
LOOKatOKC
Miss Wisabus
Re-Ramblings
The Lost Ogle

Most Inspirational Blog
Angela and Luke
Big is the New Small
Carleta.org
Drawing the Motmot
Friar’s Fires
Life is Real
Napkin Dad
Ramblings of a Creative Mind Unleashed
Red Fork Hippie
Rocks in My Dryer

Best Kept Secret
Blogging4Jobs
Book End Babes
Chic Galleria
Drawing the Motmot
It’s in the Details
Jeremy and Kathleen
what’s going “on.”
Scissor Tales
Sleep New Mommy
Xenia Blog

Best New Blog of 2009
Alan Danielson
Book End Babes
Carless in Tulsa
Coffee with Clark
Fitness Guinea Pig
FOI Oklahoma
Goodbye Tulsa
Jeremy and Kathleen
Okie Creative
The Untrained Housewife

Best Oklahoma City Blog
Bam’s Blog
Doug Dawg
Downtown on the Range
Dustbury
Eat Around OKC
Friday Playdate
OKC Central
Oklahoma Women
Static Blog
The Lost Ogle

Best Photography Blog
77 Counties
Alternate Crop
Dishy Girls
Erin Conrad Photography
From the Faraway Nearby
Light Smith Photography Photo of the Day
IconOklahoma
Melinda Brookshire Photography
Photo Finish
The Pioneer Woman
Zach Nash Photography

Best Political Blog (Conservative)
BatesLine
Bob Waldrop
Dutch, Reformed
McCarville Report
Miss Wisabus
Okie Pundit
Political Realities
Tyson Wynn

Best Political Blog (Liberal Leaning)
Alternative Tulsa
Conium
Erudite Redneck
Lawyer and Engineer
Mainstream Baptist
Okie Funk
Peace Arena
Progress on the Prairie
Progressive Okie
Red Dirt Blog From a Blue State of Mind
The Lost Ogle

Best Representation of Oklahoma
77 Counties
All Trails Lead Home
Bam’s Blog
Barrelhouse Beat
Blog Oklahoma
Brit Gal in the USA
OKC Central
Oklahome
Tasha Does Tulsa
The Pioneer Woman

Best Rural Blog
Another Chance Ranch
Blog Oklahoma US
Brit Gal in the USA
Muskogee Politco
OklaCookiemaker Quilts
Straight Shooter
The Pioneer Woman
The Prairie Maid
The Redneck Diva
Turtle Rock Farm Blog

Best Single Topic Blog
Berry Tramel
Bookgasm
BPD in OKC
Daily Thunder
Free Lantz Sports
Neither Here Nor There
Nick’s Law
Oklahoma Writers and Authors
Older Girl Beauty
Red Dirt Rambling
Trans Missippian
Two Wheel Oklahoma

Best Tech Blog
Blogging Basics 101
Cory Miller
Fowler Inc. Reviews
Jim Calloway Law Practice Tips
STF | PR New Media Now
Oklahoma Tech Prep
Ping FM
Roemerman on Record
Web Design Blog

Best Tulsa Blog
Barrelhouse Beat
BatesLine
Bounded Rationality
Contemplative Tulsan
Goodbye Tulsa
Irritated Tulsan
The Tulsa Initiative
Tasha Does Tulsa
That’s Baloney!
Tulsa Gal

Best Veteran Blogger (5+Years)
Audience of 1
BatesLine
Cory Miller
Dustbury
Hologram Thoughts
Malena Writes On
McCarville Report
Miss Wisabus
Rocks in My Dryer
Static Blog

Best Writing
Angela England
Big Ass Belle
Blithe Revival
Cari-Okie
Coffee with Clark
Incurable Insomniac
Irritated Tulsan
Okay City
Okie Life
Scissor Tales
The Lost Ogle

The Big Game Craziness

Sometimes, I don’t know why we do the things we do.

Well, yes I do.  We actually love it.  Maybe love is too strong a word…

Call us crazy, but last night we had a boatload of kids over from our youth group to watch the Big Game.

This was the scene looking out my front door and down the street.

Keep in mind, that was only one direction.  It was equally as long, or longer the other way and this was still very early on.

I wasn’t nervous when the first 20 or so showed up.  I’m used to that. 

When the group came after the church 4 PM service, that’s when I began to sweat a little.

Pretty soon, it was wall-to-wall teenagers.  The dogs were running around with a terrified look in their eyes that I felt echoed the look in mine.  We rescued them and locked them up in a bedroom.

The youth leaders all hid upstairs in the kids’ upstairs living area.

The big chickens!

I worked all day fixing food and getting ready for them, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs, chili, queso, pizza rolls, taquitos, desserts, and chips and pop arrived to feed a small army -

Or 60 teenagers. 

I had some helpers that were a God-send to me.  These two especially – Caitlyn and Mariah.

These two girls rolled some mean pigs-n-a-blanket, which quite frankly went faster than anything served.  Teenagers can eat a TON of  those things.

The kitchen table was full of girls who only looked up from yakking when the boys hollering reached a discomfort level.

Or when those talking babies came on the screen.

There were a few who were glued to the game however.

And my son and a few of his friends escaped to watch from the balcony that he can walk out onto outside his bedroom.

This makes a mom more than a little nervous.  But believe me, I understood where they were coming from trying to escape the claustrophic wall-to-wall throng of kids.

Me? At this point, I had retreated to a corner somewhere to quietly curl up in a ball and suck my thumb.  I did crawl out at some point when it was over….

Fettucini Alfredo With Cajun Shrimp

This is such a scrumptious dish.  And it can be prepared in the time that it takes your pasta to boil.

Having friends over at the last minute for dinner?  This is your dish.  Serve it up with some garlic bread and a fantastic green salad, and you’re good to go in under a half-hour.

Start by putting on a big pot of water to boil.

While you’re bringing that to a boil, take 2 cups of shrimp and sprinkle them with my favorite seasoning ever – Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning.  For time purposes, I used pre-cooked, but you can use uncooked if you like.  Use about a tablespoon and toss your shrimp around with a spoon to mix it all in.  Add a bit more if it looks sparse.

Add one tablespoon of olive oil to a large saucepan.  Let the oil begin to bubble and cook the shrimp for about 2 minutes (until it turns pink if uncooked).  Remove to a plate or bowl.

When the water in your pot boils, dump in one pound of fettucini pasta.

Bring this to a boil again, and let this cook for 12 minutes, stirring it a time or two to keep the pasta noodles from sticking to each other.  You want your pasta to be “al dente”.  Al dente pasta has a tiny bite to it instead of being soft and mushy.

Twelve minutes is more than enough time to make the sauce.

Throw 4 tablespoons of butter into a large saucepan. 

I ended up cutting it into pats to melt quicker.  Then I dumped in 1 cup of heavy cream.

While your butter is melting, in a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.  Whisk it up good.

Keep this on hand and also measure out one more cup of heavy cream.  Have both of these available for quick use near your saucepan of butter/cream.

After the butter is thoroughly melted and your sauce is hot, add in one cup of parmesan-romano cheese.  You can grate the real stuff yourself and it’s amazing.  I only had the kind in the jar, and it was still amazing. 

Just don’t tell the food police on me, okay?

Thank you for your help.

Take a whisk and stir this around in your pan for about 30 seconds.

Add in your other cup of cream and whisk some more to blend it nice and smooth.

Sprinkle one tablespoon of Tony Chachere’s into your sauce.  Whisk baby, whisk!

Scrape in your cornstarch/cream mixture.  Whisk, whisk, WHISK!

This cornstarch mixture is going to thicken up your sauce and make it cling to your noodles in a fantastic way.

Now, take a good serving of your pasta.

Put it on a plate.  Spoon some of your heavenly sauce over top of it.

Think about the fact that you just made this entire loveliness in the blink of an eye.

Okay, maybe that’s an exagerration, but it was quick, for pete’s sake! 

Mmmmmm.

Sometimes I do a variation of this with chicken, which is also great.  Whichever you choose, make this dish today! Your hips and your tummy will thank you!

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Fettucini Alfredo with Cajun Shrimp

Olive Branch Cafe

Olive Branch Cafe
 N Hudson Avenue, Suite 110
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-5022
866.383.7525
Website:   http://www.olivebranchcafe.net/index.html
Dollar Factor $ – $$
Taste Factor ***
 
 

Before the January Snow-Fest of Oklahoma began, Mr. Wonderful and I tried a new place in downtown Oklahoma City.  Right across Hudson from the new Devon building sight, is a small cafe known as The Olive Branch Cafe.  In fact, workers in orange vests kept walking through from the site the whole time we were there, and a few stopped and ate.

I was a little off upon entering because I’d read so many good things about it, and visited their website,  and I guess I was expecting a different atmosphere. 

“Cafe” should have tipped me off.  If you do visit their website, the pictures are not an accurate portrayal of what you see at the Cafe, including the decor and the dishes.  There also are no prices listed on the menu online either.

Most of two of the walls are glass leading to the streets.  There is a trellis covered with silk vines that scared me when I walked in, but after that, it really just felt like a diner.

There are typical diner restaurant chairs and tables.  Down at the far end of the following picture is a mirror, so don’t be misled by the size of this room.  It’s pretty small.

Everything looked clean and nice.

There was only one other person dining when we there.  Our waitress was the only staff we saw in the restaurant and was sitting at a table nearby studying or reading. 

We started things off with an order of hummus.

This hummus ($4.99) was very good, and had the addition of some dollops of chili sauce on it that Mr. Wonderful loved, but was too spicy for me. 

But, let me tell you, I loved their flatbread.  It was soft and fresh and yummy.

I ordered the appetizer plate ($6.99)  as my meal, as I often do at Mediterranean places.  I just appreciate them so much more than lamb or gyro meat and I feel unfulfilled if I don’t get some of each.  I was a little miffed that they were “out of tabouli” but they offered me the option of another item, so I chose some fresh chunky feta to add to my plate. 

And besides I can always snatch some of Mr. Wonderful’s gyro meat off his plate, so I was covered.

I really liked the cucumber salad with the herbed yogurt dressing.  The falfalel was absolutely scrumptious and bursting with the flavor of ground chickpeas, parsley, spices and onions.  It was wonderfully crisp and hot.  I also really liked the baba ghanoush.  If you haven’t had baba ghanoush, it is similar in texture and look to hummus, only it’s made of charred eggplant, onions and tomatoes pureed together with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and spices and has a wonderful smoky flavor. 

Again, the differences that make a marriage beautiful – I adored it and Mr. Wonderful made his icky face after tasting it.

The grape leaves?  I guess if you have a taste for them they’d be good. Stuffed with rice and marinated in something pretty bitter, I could handle them, but they weren’t my thing.  Mr. Wonderful wouldn’t even try them.  Anyone know what they’re marinated in? Please share on the comments section below…

Mr. Wonderful ordered the Gyro Platter ($7.99).

This was pleasantly a surprise and came with roasted vegetables and a rice dish with peas.  The gyro (lamb) meat was really, really tender and flavorful. 

I know cuz I snatched some…remember?

We wanted to try a dessert, but at this point, we were so full, we just couldn’t. 

If you’re looking for a casual Mediterannean eatery downtown, this would be a great stop for lunch or dinner.  The food was good, the service was ok (if you count calling your waitress away from her reading at a table nearby ok), and the prices were reasonable.

How to Make Garlic Paste

Sometimes you just want the lovely flavor of garlic, without biting into a solid piece of it.  My dad’s like that with onions. He’ll eat them cooked and soft, but doesn’t want to bite into a piece of onion.

Enter garlic paste.

Chop up a couple of cloves of garlic pretty fine.  Sprinkle some coarse salt over top. 

 I used Kosher, which is readily available at your local market, but you could use a coarse sea salt as well.  The point is for the salt to be coarse enough to act as an abrasive to break down the garlic. 

I guess it goes without saying that you should reduce the salt you’re going to use in your recipe as well, but there are beginners out there people.

I used to be one, so I’m clued in to those kind of people.

Take a large chef’s knife and working with the sharp edge of the knife, begin to smash and pull the knife over the garlic and salt, working the salt into the chopped garlic.

Keep smashing the two together with your knife.

And pretty soon, you’ll have garlic paste.  Your garlic will soften up and not have so much bite in whatever you put it in.

I love garlic, and I love anything to do with its preparation. I  hope you enjoy this tip!