Saturday, February 03, 2007

A Little Spice for Bitter Nights

Last night before we went to see one of the stupidest movies I've seen (Epic Movie) because Pie was dying to see it & neither of the movies we grown folks want to see (Arthur & the Invisibles, Happily Never After) was showing, I made a big batch of shrimp Creole to warm our insides as we walked through the cold, cold night. I served it with jasmine rice and corn with thyme butter.

Shrimp Creole
1/2 stick butter, cut in pieces
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1/2 lg. green pepper, chopped
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Several dashes Louisiana hot sauce (or whatever kind you prefer...my 14 y.o. douses everything with Frank's)
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 lb. shrimp, peeled & deveined

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the next four ingredients & sauté 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, reserving some of the juice. Add Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and marjoram and stir thoroughly. Cover & simmer 15 minutes. Add juice, if you wish to thin the mixture. Add shrimp and cook until pink, 3-5 minutes. Make sure not to overcook! Serve over rice. Serves 4.

Tonight, we are having the bounty of a trip to the West Side Market. We found some beautiful kielbasa at one of the stalls and huge, luscious-looking potato & cheese pierogies at another. J's got some of the kielbasa, made by a family that's been in the business since 1912, baking with sauerkraut and will pan-fry the rest for our children, who are afraid of kraut. She's going to sauté the pierogies with butter & onions. To go with all this, she is heating up some succotash and quartering some oranges.

Tomorrow will be Super Bowl food, also prepared by J. She is doing traditional Buffalo wings (with celery & carrots on the side, Ranch & blue cheese for dipping), loaded potato skins and cheeseburgers. Boot loves wings, Pie loves cheeseburgers, we should all be pretty happy.

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