4/26/10

Shrimp for lifeGroup

It was my turn to host lifeGroup today. Each week, a group of us from The Church at Christ Memorial here in WI meet for food, fellowship and time to study God's word. Tonight, our worship included singing "Jesus Loves Me," which reminds me so much of sitting in the church during vacation bible school. But it also reminds me of how, even as a child, this was a stated fact. 

Before the singing began, I treated my friends as guinea pigs with a new dish. Other friends of ours have been kind enough to practice new recipes before getting nine people over for dinner with nothing else except one frozen pizza and the spaghetti noodles at home in case the experiment fails.

Here is the thought process that went in to this dish: "I have spaghetti noodles - a ton, I bought a package at Sam's" and then, "But I don't want spaghetti" followed by, "It's spring - it should be something with veggies" to "Shrimp sound good."

What I came up with was a Shrimp Pasta Primavera. I'm calling it LG Shrimp Pasta, and here is the recipe for my friend who not only asked for the recipe but was willing to take home some leftovers.

My LG Shrimp Pasta recipe

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped (1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon dried red-pepper flakes
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
4 tablespoons snipped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 (9 oz) bag fresh spinach
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 zucchini, diced
¼ cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons butter
cooked pasta
Parmesan cheese

1)   In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, red pepper flakes and garlic and cook for 2 minutes or until onions are crsip-tender.  Add more oil as necessary during cooking
2)   Add mushrooms
3)   Add zucchini,
4)   Add tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
5)   Add shrimp to pan and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through.
6)   Add spinach and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently until spinach is wilted.
7)   Add white wine to pan, stirring to combine
8)   Add butter, stirring to melt
9)   Serve immediately over pasta

I didn't come up with this recipe completely on my own - here are my sources:


A couple of additions/caveats:
1) I have no idea what "crisp-tender" means for onions. What I did was cook them in the olive oil until I was done cutting up veggies
2) Measurements are a guess. I filled up my big skillet/wok with veggies and shrimp, and it fed eight adults and one kid with leftovers enough for two meals
3) When your pot is very full, it takes a bit for the spinach to wilt. I put the lid on and then went pack and stirred it in
4) Notice the lack of salt and pepper on the ingredients list. I'm horrible at remembering to season things, which is why I'll never make it on Top Chef. I ended up putting a sprinkle of Kosher salt in and then 3-4 dashes, oh and one for good measure of Special Shit. If you don't know what Special Shit is, go here. This is the secret to my cooking. I bought mine at the county Ace Hardware (not WI, but back down home). You're lucky they have a website, because otherwise you'd be out of luck. I can only get so much back in my suitcase. Speaking of which, BLady, I might need another jar. I think mine will stretch another month or so.

To finish out the meal, we had some fresh fruit, bread, a yummy salad and beverages, including Supper Club from Capitol Brewery (thanks guys for the contribution to dinner). 

I was assured of one success with dinner, even if we were eating peanut butter and jelly - dessert. I made a pan of Lemon Bars (thanks mix from the grocery store) last night that turned out perfectly.

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