Southwest Shrimp and Corn Chowder and Cat Cora's Chocolate Budino

Cooking Light is one of my favorite sites to go check out when I'm bored and want something fast to make. I knew making a soup in May in Tucson might be a gamble but the weather cooperated today-it was chilly and windy and raining! Perfect soup weather! This was a fast chowder type recipe: 30 minutes start to finish. Mostly fresh stuff: green onions, red bell pepper, a serrano chile, shrimp, cilantro, milk, chicken stock and a few packaged things: mexicorn, fire roasted green chiles and southwest style hash browns. So flavorful and filling. I paired it with simple quesadillas: refried beans, cheese and green chiles. Definitely a keeper!

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1886389

Cat Cora did it AGAIN! This is her chocolate budino recipe. She describes budino as more of a pudding than a cake. It's purposefully undercooked and it's molten, gooey, chocolate-y goodness. Incredibly rich, I only had one bite but the boys both polished off entire pieces WITH vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries. I highly recommend a scoop of vanilla ice cream when there is ever hot gooey chocolate involved.

http://www.wchstv.com/gmarecipes/chocolatebudino.shtml

If I haven't mentioned it before PLEASE check out Cat Cora's cookbook "Cooking From the Hip" It's amazing and I have loved every single recipe I've tried out of it!

Grilled Lemon-Oregano Chicken Drumsticks and Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary and Orange

I love, love, love the magazine Bon Appetit. I found this recipes over a year ago but I'm just now getting to it. This was some of the most moist chicken I've ever had in my life! It marinates for two days with a lemon juice, oregano, garlic and olive oil marinade. I removed the skin but you don't have to. Super simple and so tasty! It's also amazing cold the next day-I pulled it from the bone and put it over a salad. WOW! Try it!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Lemon-Oregano-Chicken-Drumsticks-354311

For the side dish I did yet another recipe from Cat Cora: Roasted Sweet Potato with Rosemary and Orange. I am a huge fan of fresh rosemary, especially when paired with sweet potatoes. Sea salt really adds a nice touch. The "orange" of the recipe is actually fresh squeezed orange juice that is spooned over the potato once it's done roasting and scored (hence the lines in the potato). It was such an amazing touch to the sweet potato. Definitely a quick, flavorful side dish that I'll cook again!

http://www.wchstv.com/gmarecipes/roastsweetpotatoesrosemaryorange.shtml