If you're like me, you probably have some last of the season cucumbers creeping out of your garden, right? Well, if you don't, this is a great salad to celebrate the waning of the summer months. This salad will make it pop right back up. Really!

I had a few pre-cooked shrimps left (the kind you get in a bag from the grocery store) that needed to be used up so I thought this would be a perfect way to use them up. Not only did we use cucumbers from the garden, all the herbs were too. It was delicious!

Click here for the recipe for Cucumber Shrimp Salad.



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Hey it's challenge time again for Recipes to Rival and guess what it is this time? SHRIMP DUMPLINGS! While we normally depend on the gigantic bag of LingLing's Potstickers from Costco, this time we made everything from scratch from the fillings to, gasp! , the wrapper!

Yep, we actually made our own wonton wrappers. I can't believe it either. And even with the slight mishap of having all of the wrappers get stuck to each other and caused us to start all over again, I believe we will be doing this again! I know, we're gluttons... both for food and punishment. hehe!

So check out how to make SHRIMP DUMPLINGS from scratch. They are delicious and you'd be so proud of yourself when you're done making them :)



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This dish is perfect for a light summer lunch, a picnic or for any summer time party. The great thing about it is, it's a marinated dish so the longer it sits in the dressing the better the flavors get!

Now I know ceviches are supposed to be made from raw fish or seafood, but I just happened to have these cooked shrimps and thought this dish would be a perfect way to use them up.

Click here for the recipe...



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This is another dish where there are as many variations as there are regions in the Philippines. From the region that I come from, it is called "balatong". Some prefer it thick some like it soupy. Some like to put different types of vegetables with it. Me, I happen to like mine on the soupy side and I like it best with bittermelon (ampalaya) leaves. I had a couple of bittermelon plants come up in our garden this year, one was scrawny but the other one was lush and full of big pretty leaves. I just had to make this soup to use some of the leaves before the frost beats me to it.

Want to cook mung bean soup?

I finally had a chance to try my hand out at making my own spring rolls and decided to have a wrap up day when the girls had their sushi rolling day. This would have been a great entry for Lasang Pinoy’s Binalot event, but things just didn’t synch up right and I missed the deadline.

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Shrimp and Grits is an old Southern favorite with as many variations as there are cooks. This is my simple version. It is great as a light supper or a filling breakfast. This was a quick and easy supper for me and my husband while we were by ourself last month.

Shrimp and Grits recipe:

Aside from plainly boiling them, this is probably the simplest way to fix shrimps. Lately, rather than making pasta and shrimps, I've been cooking the shrimps this way separately so as not to get any essence of seafood for The Clone who will not touch any food tainted by the sea.

To make this dish, prepare:
Shrimps (head-on or less, peeled or not - your choice)
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 stick of butter
3 Tablespoons of flat leaf parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet at high heat and briefly saute' the garlic before adding the shrimps. Quickly stirfry until the shrimps turn pink, add the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta or with good french bread and wine.

This recipe was adapted from the Evil Jungle Prince. This is a spicy soup, perfect for cold nights and perfect for using up the okra we had in the freezer from our summer bounty. I adjusted the proportions a bit to serve 4. I also used fresh herbs because I still have some, but you can use dried too, you just may have to reduce the amounts. I believe dried herbs have a stronger flavor than fresh.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/2 cup Flour
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 cup onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup carrots, diced
1 lg. bell pepper, diced
5 small bird peppers, diced
2 medium jalapeno peppers, diced
1 cup tomatoes, diced
2 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1 tsp. fresh dill
2 bay leaves
7 cups chicken broth
3 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups corn
2-3 cups okra, cut into 1/4 inch length
2 lbs. shrimps, peeled
Salt & Pepper to taste

Start making a roux by heating the olive oil then add the flour. Stir and cook until the the flour is browned but not burnt.

Next saute' the aromatics: garlic, onions, carrots, celery, and peppers. Let them cook in the roux until they are fragrant and starting to soften. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute. Add the herbs: basil, thyme, dill, bay leaves. Stir. Add the broth, worcestershire sauce, and a bit of salt and pepper. Let the soup simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the corn and okra and simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes. About 10 minutes before serving, add the shrimps and cook just until they are done. Adjust the seasonings and serve in a bowl over rice.

I added additional spiciness with some hot sauce, but I only did that with my bowl.

For our Friday night fish dinner, I decided on soup for these "head-on" shrimps that are so hard to come by around here. These again are fresh Carolina shrimps I chanced upon at the grocery store. My girls and I love soupy dishes, and this was a welcome one, despite the heat. The Clone had her vegetarian meal since I still can't get her to eat any kind of seafood. I am proud to say, that all the vegetables for this dish came from our garden.



Click here for the recipe for Sinigang na Hipon.

I have been seeing different paella recipes all over the food blogging sphere but don't ever have the ingredients handy, so again I was inclined to improvise. Here is a very simplified and inexpensive version of a very rich recipe. Most paella recipes call for saffron, but I haven't bought any since I exhausted my supply from Spain that I received as a gift, so this version is sadly saffronless. The flavor is different from the traditional paella, but still quite good in its own way.

Click here for the recipe for Seafood Paella...