Good Food - Good Company

We are on the last lag of the construction adventure at the Stachel household. I couldn't be more excited!! It has been quite some time since I've been able to cook a decent meal in our construction dusted kitchen. The end is in sight and I know it will be well worth the wait (before and after post to come).

Although intricate meal making has come to a halt (not that it existed before), that doesn't mean entertaining has. A few weeks ago I decided to have a dinner party. I wanted to keep it simple considering we were lacking a put-together space. Initially I thought, "what a great night for a patio, dinner party", unfortunately MN weather refused to cooperate and we ended up inside. I dusted, it worked out. ;)

I wanted to serve something light, including only ingredients I had in the house. I started out with tortilla chips and Mango Salsa. For the main course I decided to serve a Curry Shrimp Flatbread. I served both of these with my favorite cheap white wine, the Kirkland Chardonnay. You can purchase a bottle at Costco (and Costco alone) for about $8.99. YES!!! Believe it!!! For those of you who don't know me well, I consider myself to be somewhat of a wine snob. I do NOT lead you astray. If you're a fan of a delicious buttery chard, this is the perfect everyday chard for you!

Anyhow, I was nervous about the mix and how everything would come together, but it turned out GREAT!! The wine paired awesome with the mango salsa as well as the flatbread. Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most enjoyable!

A "must have" summer wine!

Curry Shrimp Flatbread

Recipes
Curry Shrimp Flatbread
Shrimp seasoning (adopted from www.eat-yourself-skinny.com)
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 lime
1-2 T. chopped cilantro for garnish
Shrimp (you could use frozen small or fresh large, depends what you prefer)

2-3 T. Goat cheese
1/4 of  a Red onion
2 T. Sour cream
1 Cooked flatbread

Preheat oven or grill to 375. Mix all dry ingredients together. Heat 1-2 T. olive oil in sauce pan. Toss shrimp in the seasoning mixture. Cook shrimp. when shrimp is almost done, spread evenly on flatbread. Sprinkle onion and goat cheese over the top. Bake for 5-10 min. Top with cilantro and sour cream.

Mango Salsa
4 Mangoes 
1 Red onion
2 Jalapenos 
1/4 c. cilantro
salt
pepper

Dice all ingredients and mix together. Salt and pepper to taste.