Author Archives: Nancy

FROZEN MARGARITAS

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It’ll be a long time, maybe never, before Texans forget this past week.  Snowmageddon,  Snovid-19, whatever you want to call it, it shut down the state and left millions in the icy darkness of an epic electric grid failure.

We woke up Monday morning to a winter wonderland of sorts, at least for Houston.

Overnight, snow had fallen — enough to blanket roads and landscapes:

Jasper and Maisy had the rare opportunity to be the first to step on fresh snow, and it was so fun watching them race around in it:

Over in San Antonio, Izze couldn’t get enough of the snow:

One unexpected sight was the scores of cedar waxwings huddling in the trees with their feathers puffed up to keep them warm:

After the novelty of snow in Houston quickly wore off, and Texas’s electric grid famously failed, the 42 hours we went without electricity in below-freezing weather kinda sucked.  We were fortunate — no busted pipes, and we have a gas stove and fireplace, so we were able to cook and huddle by the fireplace for some warmth.  But it was cold.  Really cold.

These “unprecedented” Houston weather events are getting old — the unprecedented heat and accompanying drought in 2011, the unprecedented rainfall (up to 51 inches) and catastrophic flooding of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and this past week’s unprecedented snowstorms.  The next “unprecedented” weather event we see here better be springlike weather stretching from June 1 to September 30.

When it came to recipe inspiration, all I could think of were frozen things (brain freeze, perhaps?).  But they seemed so seasonally inappropriate.  But wait — today is National Margarita Day! And so, inspired by a miserable, surreal, freezing cold week, I bring you our favorite recipe for Frozen Margaritas, to enjoy whatever the weather.

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FROZEN MARGARITAS
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Ingredients
  • Kosher salt, for rimming glasses
  • Lime wedges for rimming glasses
  • 6-ounce can frozen limeade
  • 9 ounces tequila
  • 2 to 3 ounces triple sec
  • Juice of 1 small lime
  • Lime slices, for garnish
Instructions
  1. To rim glasses: Pour the salt onto a small dish. The salt pile should be about a quarter of an inch high and wider than the rim of the glass you're using. Run a lime wedge along the outer edge of the glass. Place a glass upside-down into the dish of salt, and then twist the glass gently to coat the entire rim. Turn glass upright and shake off any loose salt.
  2. Place limeade, tequila, triple sec, and juice of 1 small lime in a blender. Fill with ice and blend until smooth. Pour into the center of the prepared glasses, taking care to avoid splashing the salt rim. Garnish with a lime slice and serve.

Frozen!

SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALSA

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I found this 1939 advertisement on eBay:

The Bread Diet — “a safer way to gain alluring slenderness.”  It “cuts down excess weight without starvation, fatigue or nervous strain.”  Imagine enjoying TWO slices of bread with every meal AND losing weight!  Not only that, but look at what you can do with the energy you’ll get from 2 slices of bread:

That’s right — you can wash windows for an hour!  So maybe you can’t shatter the glass ceiling — at least you can clean it!  Know what else you can do on 2 slices of bread?

That’s right — you can iron for an hour! No wonder women started working outside the home — who wants to stay home and eat bread and iron and clean windows?  By the way — how long do you think I could wash windows or iron on a pint of Blue Bell Cookies & Cream?

One more benefit of the Bread Diet is that it apparently helps you grow freakishly long legs:

So how’s that New Year’s diet going?  Have you already abandoned it for the Bread Diet? I’m pleased to say that I have managed to stick with my New Year’s diet.  One of my favorite “diet” foods is shrimp — Gulf coast wild caught shrimp, to be exact.  3 ounces of shrimp has only 76 calories, 15 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat, and 1 gram of carbohydrates.  I don’t know if that provides enough energy to wash windows for an hour, but then again, I don’t really care.

Inspired by the vintage ad and New Year’s diet resolutions, here’s a simple recipe for Shrimp and Avocado Salsa that we really enjoyed.  Pick a ripe, but firm avocado and handle it gently so as not to turn the salsa into guacamole.  This would make a good Super Bowl appetizer.  (I suppose if you’re really trying to watch it, you could scoop it onto a lettuce leaf instead of a tortilla chip, but then it would be Shrimp and Avocado Sadness.)

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SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALSA
Author: 
 
Ingredients
  • ½ pound cooked wild-caught shrimp, cleaned, deveined, and coarsely chopped
  • 2 large firm but ripe avocados, pitted, peeled, and diced
  • 1 small serrano chile, seeds and ribs removed, minced
  • Juice of 1 small lime
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, plus sprig for optional garnish
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in a medium bowl, and gently fold together until combined, taking care not to mash the avocados. Transfer to serving bowl and garnish with cilantro sprig, if desired. Serve with tortilla chips.