Birthday Bang Bang Shrimp!

We lived around the corner from a chain restaurant called Bonefish Grill for almost two years before checking it out.

Hubby isn’t a big fish fan, and their logo (a fish skeleton) really is a terrible design because it doesn’t inspire thoughts of anything remotely appetizing.

But I had heard positive reviews from friends, and also their commercials made them sound pretty good, so we finally went just over a year ago. We liked it enough that we went back soon afterwards for my birthday dinner. This time, we tried their famous appetizer, bang bang shrimp. It was divine.

We’ve gone occasionally since then, but not often. We miss it terribly, mainly because of the bang bang shrimp.

Which is why the next part of my story is romantic, thoughtful, and just plain awesome.

My birthday was a few days ago. I think it was late morning when hubby casually asked, via gchat, what time I intended to leave work. I responded, “Around 4.”

He asked if I had any thoughts about dinner, and I replied that my only thought was that I didn’t intend to spend all evening cooking. I was willing to do something simple, given that we had plans to celebrate at a restaurant that weekend, but I didn’t want to spend much effort on it. He agreed that this sounded reasonable, and left it at that.

I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex around 4, about a half hour earlier than expected. Hubby’s car was inexplicably already there, though he normally wouldn’t be home until after 5, so a big grin spread across my face as I realized that he had a birthday surprise in mind. It made me think of the time I’d gone into school a bit early on my 15th birthday and found my friend in the middle of decorating my locker.

When I entered the apartment a minute later, I found cheesecake swirl brownies cooling, alfredo sauce being thickened, and a big bowl of raw shrimp being prepped. In addition to making shrimp fettucini alfredo, hubby was using a copycat recipe to make bang bang shrimp!

I don’t normally blog stuff he makes, but I felt that I needed to this time. Please excuse my less-than-awesome pictures. I was trying to stay out of the way.

He started by making a sauce with mayo, Thai sweet chili sauce, and sriracha hot chili sauce (more than the recipe called for, because it seemed to need it).

Next, he dredged raw shrimp in cornstarch.

After heating up some vegetable oil, he lightly fried them in small batches.

He drained them all on a plate lined with paper towels, just like with bacon.

Presentation is simple. In a dish, place some lettuce. I didn’t take pictures of that, sorry. But then place the shrimp on the lettuce and drizzle on the sauce. Or toss the shrimp in the sauce before putting them in the dish, as we did, just to make sure they’re evenly coated.

We’d already eaten a few before we remembered to sprinkle on some chopped scallions. So we did that.

So…. this was pretty much the best thing ever.

It was so romantic that hubby left work early, went to Wegman’s for ingredients, and was cooking this when I got home.

We both ate a full half pound of shrimp before taking a break and tackling some of the fettucini that he’d made. So much food, but so yummy. Hey, I only turn 29 once a year. The shrimp had such a nice texture, crispy yet soft and covered in the warm, creamy sauce. And the sauce was both sweet and tangy. Oh so good.

If you’re interested, here's the copycat recipe that he used.

Hubby’s Birthday Dinner: Lasagna and Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yesterday was hubby’s birthday. He’d rather not tell the world, which is of course what I’m here for. Happy birthday! I was more excited than he was, but he says I’ll understand in a few years when I’m old, too.

I decided to make his favorite lasagna. I’ve made this many different times and I always come back to it because it’s just so yummy. And then for dessert, I wanted to do something I’d never done before. Red velvet cupcakes showed up on an allrecipes.com search a while back, so it was the first thing that came to mind.

To start off with, I double the meat sauce in my lasagna recipe. Made as written, it’s just plain skimpy, and who wants a piece of lasagna with skimpy meat sauce? Not us. I started off with 2 pounds of ground beef and plenty of chopped garlic.

Cook it until it’s no longer pink and then drain it. Yada yada, you know the drill. Anyway, at that point, you can add tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, oregano, sugar, pepper, and dried onion soup mix. I think it’s the onion soup mix that makes this so unique and tasty.

I think I was so distracted by trying to use different settings on my camera that I neglected to get crisp, focused pictures. My bad. Anyway, stir it up, cover, and let simmer for a half hour. You can use that time to cook the lasagna noodles and prep your cheeses.

Cheese #1: The recipe says to use cottage cheese, but I’ve taken to substituting ricotta cheese. I add an egg and a teaspoon of basil to it for texture and taste.

Cheese #2: shredded mozzarella. I didn’t take a picture because it was just a zip-lock bag from the dairy section, nothing too fancy.

Cheese #3: Parmesan cheese and lots of it. Again, I didn’t use the fancy stuff. I think maybe next time, I will.

Mmm, that sauce has gotten tasty and delicious. It’s hard not to sneak tastes of it here and there.

Spread some of it in the bottom of the pan.

Lay in three cooked lasagna noodles, then layer the cheeses and meat sauce. I’d have taken more pictures, but washing my hands so many times seemed like a huge pain in the butt.

My, oh my. That dish got awfully full.

I sprayed a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray to keep it from sticking to the cheese, covered it, and then stuck it in the oven.

After 40 minutes, I uncovered it, and after another 10 minutes, I took it out.

My presentation wasn’t so hot, but neither of us cared because it was so tasty!

I’m telling you, that dried onion soup mix really makes it amazing. Try it.

So that was the main course. Also needed dessert!

In one bowl, flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, sugar and butter.

Add eggs. Four of them.

And sour cream.

And a whole bottle of red food coloring.

And some milk and vanilla extract.

Mix it up, then gradually stir in the flour mixture.

Put in paper-lined muffin cups. How pretty is this?

Bake them, and then while they’re cooling, whip up some frosting with butter, cream cheese, vanilla, sour cream, and confectioner’s sugar.

Once the cupcakes are completely cool, top them with the cream cheese frosting. I used a zip-lock baggie with the corner cut off.

Mmmmmm. Delicious.

Then my color-blind husband asked me if the cupcakes were actually red, or if they were just called that. I guess the prettiness of them was lost. But they still tasted pretty good!

Recipe in tastebook soonish.