Shrimp Wonton Soup

September 24, 2014 by Christine Skari

A comforting and delicious recipe for shrimp wonton soup that’s not only easy, but healthy and filling with only 110 calories for a huge serving!

Are you hungry yet?

Specifically, are you hungry for a healthy and comforting soup that’s filled to the brim with flavor and steamy-hot homemade shrimp wontons? Yeah? Me too.

I know I mentioned this in my last post, but I’ve been in a bit of a food blogging funk for the last two weeks or so. A combination of diving into the portrait photography world and a weekend camping trip in Big Bear have sucked up most of my time and interest, and to be honest, cooking in a hot kitchen just doesn’t seem to be too appealing to me. Yup, California is embracing the Fall with 90 degree weather, which is putting a major damper on my plans for #OMGpumpkinspicelattesEVERYDAY and cold-weather food.

Sometimes, though, you get a craving at 7:30 in the morning for a big steamy bowl of shrimp wonton soup and nothing, not even hothothot weather or the fact that you haven’t had your morning coffee yet so you can barely type out a text messages canceling your morning gym session with your boyfriend because you’re taking a “rest day” from all the strenuous chewing you’ve been doing the last few days (don’t want to exert myself too much, you know how it is) can stop you from making it. What am I even saying?

Sorry, it’s hard to concentrate with photos like this staring you in the face. Like, COME TO MAMA.

This is one of those recipes that’s just plain good. It fills you up and makes you feel full, but not overly weighed down since it’s made with a broth base, filled with perfectly cooked fresh veggies, and a lean shrimp filling. One bite into a tender wonton with a small sip of broth and trust me, you will be in lightened-up comfort food heaven! Talk about a perfect combination of health and deliciousness- this is my kind of meal.

I know wontons can seem a bit intimidating to make at first, but they’re easy as pie. You can find pre-made wonton skins in the refrigerated asian section at most grocery stores and they honestly come together in a flash!

One small note with this recipe, it should be served immediately or within 30 minutes of cooking the wontons in the broth or else they will absorb too much of the liquid if left to soak! Eaters beware!

Big Bear Camping Trip Recap

September 23, 2014 by Christine Skari

Hi friends!

Sorry I’ve been MIA lately, I’ve been busy (read: borderline obsessed) working on my portrait photography and camping it up in Big Bear the last few days. Cooking has been on the back-burner for me and I’ve just been too lazy to work on recipes. Anywho, here’s a small recap of my camping trip!

To say the trip was filled with testosterone would be a bit of a understatement, since I was the lone female in a group of 8 guys. We had a combination of friends from college (Ryan, Forrest, Kevin, and one of their friends) and some older friends that Kyle and I have had since our high school days (Max, Kevin #2, and Patrick). Kyle picked all of the high school friends that live in our hometown up in his old truck on Saturday morning and we drove up to the mountains to meet the other guys. The soundtrack in the car included the boys chanting “MORE DUDES, MORE DUDES, MORE DUDES!!!”, which is when I started to doubt agreeing to go on a trip being the only girl (I joke, but seriously, MORE CHICKS).

Once we got to the camping grounds, everyone got to work unloading and setting up tents. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, cooking up some steaks and canned baked beans for dinner, drinking hot chocolate, and sitting around the campfire.

My friend Kevin borrowed my camera and got the most amazing photos of the stars and even tracked them by taking photos every 15 minutes or so and stacking the photos on top of each other.

After a not-so-great sleep on the ground, we got up and made some breakfast before heading over to a bait shop to pick up some nice big worms and fishing licenses for the day. We all split an enormous pontoon to take out on the lake for 4 hours and had an amazing time from the beginning of our time on it to when we had to drive it back to the docks!

This was Max’s first camping trip and I was really hoping he would catch a fish, and luckily, he randomly pulled in a huge… 3 inch catfish that we released back into the lake. You would have thought he had reeled in a huge 250 lb fish by the way we were cheering for him when he brought that fighter up 😉 . Halfway through our pontoon time, I caught a slightly bigger foot long Rainbow Bass, which totally made my day!

After returning the boat, we went back to the campground and immediately gathered up our things and went back down to the lake (a short 5 minute walk from where we were camping). Most of the guys decided to sit around and play a board game, but Max and I tried our hands at fishing from the shore.

Once it started to get chilly, we got a fire started and roasted some sausages and heated up some cold pesto pasta for dinner. Marshmallows followed!

After another restless sleep on the ground (filled with a pack of coyotes singing us a nice bedtime lullaby at 3 in the morning), we woke up early to pack up and get back on the road. The cleanup was pretty easy and we were saying our goodbyes and in the car by a little after 10. All-in-all, it was a great trip and we’re already talking about making it a yearly thing and potentially getting together sometime this winter to all go skiing!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Caramel Apple Tart

September 20, 2014 by Christine Skari

FALL BAKING! FALL BAKING FALL BAKING!!

Can you tell I’m excited? Warm muffins, pumpkin spice err’thing, PIE. While I’m not big on the weather getting too cold as winter approaches (remember I live in California and am a weather-wimp so 50 degrees is freezing for me), there’s nothing more comforting to me than a warm baked good with a big latte in the morning. That, my friends, is my happy place.

I like to pretend that Fall has already come, but the truth is that California isn’t showing too many signs of the season. My sister helped make this tart in 85 degree weather with the sun blaring outside and our air conditioning on. The other day I did a small dance when I was able to order my first pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks after church, but then proceeded to sweat my face off while drinking it. Cute.

Where are you, Fall?

So worth it, though. The hot drinks and having the house heat up from the oven are a price I’m willing to pay to get more of the Fall experience. Especially this caramel apple tart. Ya’ll know how I feel about apple pie… it’s just about my favorite thing EVER. This embodies all those delicious flavors in flaky tart form. Voila! It’s perfection, especially with a bit of powdered sugar drizzle. Not to mention it’s easy. With pre-made puff pastry, you can whip up these in no time and impress everyone you feed!

Photoshoot: Erin, Lauren, & Karissa

September 11, 2014 by Christine Skari

Hi everyone!

These past few days have been gloriously spent hanging out and fooling around with my camera with some old friends. And when I say old, I mean old. I’ve known these girlies since kindergarten and we’ve gone to the same elementary school, middle school, and high school! College has separated us, but we all live in the same hometown so summer vacation gives us some time to reunite.

Here are some photos from a mini-photoshoot we did! They (Lauren, Erin, and Karissa) are all incredibly gorgeous and made photographing them a breeze. LOVE these girlies!

It just happens to be Lauren’s birthday today, so a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her! We all went to a delicious seafood/steak restaurant tonight to celebrate and it.was.heaven.

Shoot me an email at christineskari@gmail.com if you’re in the LA/Santa Barbara area and need photos done! I’d love to be of some assistance .

Chorizo Huevos Rancheros

September 9, 2014 by Christine Skari

A crunchy baked tortilla that’s chock full of fresh veggies, flavorful chorizo, and topped with a perfectly cooked egg! These Chorizo Huevos Rancheros are the perfect way to start your day!

I never want summer to end. The toasty warm weather, relaxing vacations in Hawaii, the lazy mornings spent chopping fresh veggies to make a delicious and hearty breakfast. In other words, I want every day to be chorizo huevos rancheros day!

I’m going to be honest here and throw out that I’ve been more of an oatmeal-for-breakfast kinda girl for the last few years, and this is one of the first times I’ve gone the extra mile to make something savory to start the day. It’s not that I necessarily enjoy sweeter things for breakfast more, it’s just that I have my whole oatmeal routine down.

It goes something like this:

Take out the Quaker oats container. Throw a few handfuls into a big bowl, add water and a sliced banana. Microwave for two minutes (laziness reigns supreme when I haven’t had my morning latte yet). Stir in a splash of vanilla extract and a mountain of cinnamon and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Done and done. Easy as that.

While these do take a bit more time than my morning oats, they are so worth it. The crunch from the baked corn tortilla that’s supplemented by a giant burst of flavor from all the chopped veggies. That drippy egg yolk that gloriously breaks in slow-mo and drizzles over every part of the dish. Oh! And good amount of queso to top the whole thing off and add a soft and creamy texture. Can you hear my heart pounding?? I think I’m in love.

I pass these off as a breakfast food, but c’mon, look at how versatile they are! They’re a cross between a deconstructed omelet and crunchy taco, which automatically allows them to traverse the breakfast-lunch-dinner boundary.

As usual, I had Kyle by my side throughout the cooking process to help be my official taste tester and overeater. It’s a hard job, but he’s always up for a challenge. I actually put him to more work than usual this time and had him cook up the eggs and left him busy trying to form a “good-looking egg”, which he obviously took to mean perfectly circular. Kyle is the type of guy that gets borderline obsessed with trying to figure out how to fix or make things a certain way. Like I mentioned before, the engineer in him gets him fixated on any and all projects. Sunny side up eggs are no exception.

25 minutes later and with scraps of egg and cookie cutters lying around (don’t ask, he tried to use them as a mold), I forced him to give up. While the perfectly circular egg eluded us, this recipe was still a big success ;).