Buddy Valastro's Pasta Shrimp Scampi and an Italian Dessert

On Sunday morning, the program 'Kitchen Boss' was on AFC channel.  I've always enjoyed watching Buddy Valastro on Cake Boss but now he has a program on cooking?  Well, he is a great baker and maybe he's a great cook too...anyway, he's Italian isn't he?  So, worth watching.  Not only me but my almost 8 year old was glued to the TV as well.

He was cooking this pasta (Italian recipe, of course) with shrimp sauce and it looks so good.  After that, he also made his family way of doing the garlic bread and for dessert, this great looking tall glass with ice cream mixed with espresso and some whipped cream plus crumbs of cookies/biscuits.  Wow!  He managed to hold the attention of my lil gal and after that, my lil gal turned to me and said 'Mommy..I wanna eat this pasta for dinner'.  Then I go like ' hmmm..ok but let's see if I can remember all the ingredients'.

So, yup, that was our Sunday dinner alright and I decided to also replicate the dessert.  My hubby, son and myself like the pasta but my two girls thought that it's a bit too sour. Maybe I put in too much lemon juice but when I googled for the actual recipe, it uses 3 lemon whereas I used only 2.  Okay, next time I shall reduce the lemon juice to only one half.  By the way, the pasta is called (after I googled for it) Pasta with Shrimp Scampi but unfortunately, I couldn't find the recipe or the name of the dessert.

Pasta with Shrimp Scampi (my version to replicate as close as possible)
Fettucini/Linguine (I mixed fettucini and shell pasta)
Medium size prawns - deshelled and deveined (up to you how much prawns you'd like to use)
Italian cilantro (don't know where to get this, I used chinese cilantro)
bread crumbs (2 tbsp)
1/2 cup of parmesan (I don't have parmesan, I substitute with 2 slices of cheddar)
juice of 2 lemon
salt and black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
olive oil
1/4 cup butter

1. Boil pasta until el dante.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan, add butter and garlic.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, then put in the prawns.  Fry for a minute.
4. Add bread crumbs and lemon juice.
5. Lastly put in the cilantro, take off the heat and mix it into the cooked pasta. Serve immediately.

And here's the dessert.  Let's call it Buddy's Italian Dessert.

Buddy's Italian Dessert (replicate as close as possible) - makes 4
1 tub Vanilla ice cream
Espresso mix with hot water to make 1/4 cup
4 pieces of choc cookies (I used choc chips cookies since few days ago I taught my son how to bake some)
1 cup whipped cream (fully whipped)
Tall glasses

1. Put in 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream to the bottom of the glass, break half of the cookie and sprinkle the crumbs over it.
2. Pour in some espresso, then top up with a generous dollop of whipped cream (and more ice cream if you like), add the other half of the cookie crumbs and more espresso.  Serve.

Thumbs up for this dessert! Real yummy yummy yummy dessert. Sure is a keeper!

Since Malaysia is a country that has the most public holidays in the world, there's another one coming this Friday..so, people, I'm going off on a short holiday again..yes, again. This time with my the rest of my big family that consists of my 5 other sisters with their own family and my dad.  We will be off to the highlands this time...a cooler climate with beautiful lush green Tea Farm, Strawberry Farm, Vegetable Farm, Butterfly Park and lots more.  One thing for sure, I'm gonna go get lots of strawberries and vegetables..and tea of course...heehhee

Aglio de Olio Spaghetti, Irish Soda Bread and A Little Bit of Grapes

I love simple, full of vegetable and extra spicy Aglio de Olio Spaghetti.  We had this for dinner tonight and  homemade Irish Soda Bread with generous helping of two types of cheeses that we bought during our holiday in Australia in June.  The Apricot & Almond Cheese and Chili Cheese.  Tasted great with freshly baked hot bread right from the oven!  Yumzz!  I will not post the recipe for my version of Aglia de Olio as this is such a simple dish to make and very versatile.  You can use what ever ingredients you want.  May it be seafood, or chicken or just vegetables.  You can never go wrong with this.

And of course, since this might be too spicy for my 2 princesses, I made them macaroni soup with chicken meatballs.  Don't be fooled by the clear soup.  It's actually quite tasty. The cauliflower and carrot added sweetness to it. 

Irish Soda Bread!  Very easy to make.  Pre-heat oven to 190degree celsius.  Mix 2 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 tsp each of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.  Add in 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of sugar.  Mix them up and rub in 20g of butter to resemble breadcrumbs.  Then add about 200 ml of milk.  Knead dough but do not over knead as it will turn hard after baking.   Place it in a lightly greased tray and bake for about 30-35 mins till done.
Just imagine the crustiness and yet soft in the inside after it's baked.  Be generous with the cheese or butter and I tell you, it's heaven!

 In the background, the Chili Cheese on the left and Apricot & Almond Cheese on the right.  Great combination!

And now, some updates on my garden.  I planted cherry tomatoes from the seeds.  Planted it in a pot and after more than 2 months, it's starting to bear fruits.  I'm all excited and can't wait to taste them.

And what about my grapes?  Well, we did some reading from the internet (some facts finding in the internet is really good) and it says that to get the most from your grape vines for good healthy fruits, is to prune the vines.  The least leaves left on the vines is the better as the leaves will deprive the fruits from getting all the nutrients and the result will be unhealthy fruits.  Unhealthy here means that the fruits will be small and will look miserable.

After reading up on pruning the vines, we decided to chop-off all the leaves and just leave the main bark of the grape vines.  After about 1 - 2 weeks, the leaves started to grow.  Then, one fine morning when I decided to take a close look at the leaves and new branches, I discovered a couple of grape flowers growing along the bark of the vine.  And now, they are turning into tiny little grapes.  There are 15 bunches in total!  We are very excited as this is the first time ever after 3 1/2 years, we get more than a bunch or two growing simultaneously together.  Looks like finally we will get enough of grapes for everyone!..err everyone would be my sisters, my in-laws, my neighbour and my office friends.  Wow, I hope there will be enough for everyone! Haahaaa...

Sorry...this is the only bunch that we managed to take as the others are rather small and hidden by the leaves. Will take more pictures when the bunches are much larger and when they start to 'overhang' from their branches.
Hmm...is my wine making dream is coming closer now???!!?? hmmm....