Just do it #3: Cook full dinner for eight

I was inspired to try this "Just do it" challenge by the gourmet dishes from the Julie and Julia movie. Each dish, with the exception of Julie's swampy, over-cooked beef bourguignon, looked divine! I've got to say that I love eating fancy, borderline pretentious food. Artful swirls of sauce decorating plate? Let me embarrass Dan by snapping a picture! French food with names I can't pronounce? Ooh, la la! A dish arranged so that it has more height than a hat worn when visiting the Queen? Yes, please!

When doing this challenge, though, I knew there was one rule for cooking while on beach vacation:

No fussy food allowed.

I mean, during vacation, my family comes to the dinner table slightly buzzed and with sandy feet, so I knew that for my full meal (appetizer, drink, meal, dessert) challenge would have to be casual. So, without further ado, here is my beach appropriate full meal:

The Appetizer: Chips with homemade black bean and mango salsa


This homemade mango and black bean salsa is my version of crack. I make it four or five times a summer, sometimes devouring an entire bowl of it for lunch and then finishing it with a spoon when I run out of chips. It's that good. My sister loves it so much too that she made me promise to make it during our beach trip. Verdict: casual, fresh appetizer!

The drink: White peach sangria
My sister and I still like those uber-sweet drinks that every girl sucks down during her freshman year of college, so we loved this recipe. Add Riesling, peach schnapps, slices of peaches, strawberries, mango, a bit of sugar, and garnish with a strawberry (or better yet, a mini umbrella.)


The meal: Butter, fiery shrimp with lemon, French bread, salad, corn on the cob
I'm still sweating butter a week after eating this meal. The shrimp recipe called for four sticks. This is a great meal for vacay because having to peel your own shrimp paces the meal nicely. We talked for over two hours while peeling the shrimp and dunking the already buttered bread into the sinfully buttery, spicy shrimp sauce and nibbling on the corn. (After coating said corn in butter.)
The dessert: Profiteroles with scoops of coffee and vanilla Haagan Daaz, dark chocolate sauce, and strawberries
In case you've never had these before, profiteroles are basically fancy eclairs sans the filling. I admit that any dessert that I have to define is breaking my initial rule: "No fussy food at the beach." These homemade profiteroles are decidedly prissy. They would definitely wear high heels and red lipstick just to go errand shopping, and I can imagine them turning up their flaky, pastry noses up at the generic ice cream cakes sold at Dairy Queen. Still, a little pretention never hurt anyone, and no one from my family was complaining!
This dessert was actually the trickiest of everything I made because I had to time the profiteroles perfectly so they would be airy. If you try this, simply bake the profiteroles, cool, slice in half, put ice cream in middle, and top.

My sous chef/ hubby enjoying his profiterole:

Verdict: I may never master the art of French cooking, but I damn sure mastered the art of beach cooking! :)

For my next "just do it" challenge, I'm going to do a random act of kindness or charity. After a week of hedonism (floating in pool for hours, impromptu water volleyball games, ice cream for breakfast, it's-five-o-clock-somewhere mantras), I want to do a little giving back.