A Very Non-Valentine's Dinner

Boyfriend and I aren't Valentine's Day fans. At all. So when we realized we had scheduled a dinner party for "Valentine's Weekend," we weren't all that upset.

I thought about making a more intimate dinner for the four of us (steak, potatoes, the works), but I gave up red wine for Lent (I KNOW. Don't say it) and our guest gave up chocolate! So, I settled on something totally not associated with the big day- shrimp creole!

I've been meaning to make this for years now and since boyfriend and his friend got back from New Orleans fairly recently, I figured they'd be good judges. Most of the recipes I looked at were super time intensive and complicated, so I adapted this one from skinnytaste. I served it over white rice (cooked in chicken broth and garlic to give more flavor) with really crusty bread on the side.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup plus 1T olive oil (divided)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
• 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• red pepper flakes to taste (I totally overdid it)
• 1/4 tsp Cajun Seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp of all purpose flour (1 tsp corn starch for gluten-free)
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 lb of large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp hot sauce, to taste
• Scallion and pasley for garnish
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First, peel and devein your shrimp (if not done already). Then, combine olive oil (about a quarter cup) and 5 chopped garlic cloves in a large Ziploc bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for ~3 hours.

While shrimp is marinating, you can make the tomato base. Heat the tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic and onion. Once that's fragrant and the onions are turning clearer, add the green bell pepper, garlic and celery and saute until tender. Next, add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, spices, bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes.


While the tomato base is simmering, take the shrimp out of the bag and dump onto a large baking tray. Cook at 350-375 for about 6 minutes until opaque and no longer pink. Season with a bit of Cajun seasoning when they are hot out of the oven and set aside.

When the tomato base has simmered, combine the flour and water in a small bowl, and then dump into the tomato mixture. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce; stir together.



Add the shrimp to the dish and adjust seasonings to taste. Top with parsley and sliced scallions.


The evening was complete with Irish coffees with homemade whipped cream-- complements of B, who had never made it before! Look how proud this girl is!

Shrimp Scampi Recipe > Worst Blogger Ever

We can talk about how I am the worst blog updater ever (whoopsies!), or we can talk about the fabulous shrimp scampi I made this weekend. (Woo hoo- crossed another item off of my 52 weeks of new foods list!)

I had a small fear of cooking shrimp. Okay, I'm still a little scared of those suckers. Usually I bake it so it's perfectly cooked and delicious, but when I first started really cooking a few years ago, I got cocky and served basically completely raw shrimp in a salad. Awesome.

For this recipe, I lightly sauteed the shrimp in good olive oil and took them off the heat when they pinked up. This food actually tells you when it's done! (Be careful of reheating this recipe though- shrimp gets gummy and disgusting.) Not that you will have leftovers...

I wanted a simple, healthy fresh and classic dish for a cozy dinner party and went straight to my "Cooking 101" aka America's Test Kitchen 547985835483 page cookbook. I found this recipe, made a few tweaks and it came out pretty great! I believe Boyfriend gave this a 9/10. I was sort of pushing for a 10, but diva informed me he "doesn't give those out so easily."

I served this with Parmesan shavings, Celebrity Chef Obsession Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman's) Spinach Salad (amazing!! Ree's food is always so much prettier than mine!) and crusty garlic bread with whole roasted garlic cloves to soak up the lemony sauce.


Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined (I used fairly large shrimp at 21-25 per pound)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp olive oil 
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 3 Tbsp. dry white vermouth
• Juice of 3 lemons (mine were small when I tried this recipe, though! Put them in the microwave for 15 seconds before you squeeze- they juice better!)
• Finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves (for garnish) 
• Grated lemon zest (careful! This is strong!)
• Cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Rinse and pat the shrimp dry. Arrange them in one layer on a serving platter or cookie tray and season both sides with salt and pepper. 

Heat  1 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium high heat. When the olive oil is shimmery, add half of the shrimp and sautee with a soft spatula and tongs until the shrimp pink up. Remove to a large bowl and repeat with the second half of the shrimp.

When the shrimp are done, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the shrimp and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. (Don't make the shrimp in advance. This recipe works best fresh!)

**NOTE: If you plan to serve the shrimp over pasta, double the ingredients in this next section. Pasta soaks up the sauce quickly! Nobody likes a dry scampi!**

In a large pan over medium heat, melt 3 Tbsp of butter (yes; not a health dish, friends). Add the garlic to the melted butter (you can do this off the heat if you tend to burn your garlic) and cook until fragrant. OFF THE HEAT, but to the hot pan, add the vermouth and remaining lemon juice and scape the flavor-packed brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the mix come to a boil and season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. 

Add the shrimp back into the pan to ensure shrimp are heated through. Add fresh parsley and lemon zest.

Serve over angel hair pasta (to which I add the last Tbsp of butter!) to make it extra delicious.