Then a yen for barbecued shrimp, so I added a pound of wild-caught shrimp--also eye-crossingly expensive, but I was in an expansive mood, and it was the day after Moon got paid. Throw in some bread and a little fresh yellow corn on sale (which looked, surprisingly, pretty good. Most produce at my local Kroger looks like it's one step away from wilting away from ennui. Not nasty, exactly, just a bit depressed) and there was dinner. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but occasionally it is necessary to eat a meal based on butter and oil.
So home again. Put the water on for the corn and found a great crab cake recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks--Cooking for Comfort by Marian Burros. Starting making it before I realized that I had no mayo in the house. Endured a small fit of pique since I had JUST BEEN AT KROGER...but I got over it. I am woman, I am resourceful. I am not pregnant or immune-compromised, so I can eat raw eggs if necessary. I pull out the good ol' The Joy of Cooking and whip up some Blender Mayonnaise. A quick taste test reminds me why homemade mayo is so much better than the jarred stuff. Mmmmmmmmmmm...what was I saying?
Oh, yes--crab cakes. Throw together the rest of the ingredients--adding a generous shake or three of Old Bay seasoning because crab cakes aren't crab cakes without Old Bay--and toss in the fridge while I work on the shrimp.
While I work, I think of the over-the-top, eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-my-head good meal I had at Canoe last week. Then I think of the Lemon Drop Martini I had at the bar there. It was goood. I want one. Now. I have no vodka in the house, but a quick search through my pathetically stocked bar reveals some orange rum. On a whim, I thow a couple shots of that together with some lemon syrup and lemonade I have on hand, and shake it all up over ice. Pour it into martini glasses. It isn't half bad. Not a masterpiece, but drinkable.
I pour one for myself and my husband (who is kindly tending to the children so I can cook) and return to the shrimp.
I always look for a recipe when I'm starting out to make barbecued shrimp, but I never end up using one. The reason for that is once I start looking at recipes for barbecued shrimp, I realize it's more of a whatever thing. Once you commit to using that much butter in anything, the rest of the ingredients don't really matter. It's all about drowning the shrimp in butter and adding enough spice to keep things interesting. So I dumped the shrimp in a dish, melted a stick and a half of butter in a pan, and--because I cannot fathom using more of a butter-to-food ratio than that, I glug in some olive oil. Let the spirit move me as I poured on some Worcestershire, lemon juice, coarse salt, a few shakes of pepper and a little Cajun seasoning (I have 2 kids under 4--I do not have time to grind my own spices and blend my own spice blends. Get over it.) Oh, and hot sauce. Can't forget the hot sauce. Poured it all over the shrimp and baked it at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Checked to make sure the corn was done, fried up the crab cakes, and served the whole mess with some hot, crusty bread to sop up some of that shrimpy, spicy butter sauce. Promised my Inner Nutritionist I'd eat healthier tomorrow to make up for the butter. Sighed with happiness.
The only thing I would have liked more would have been some roasted red peppers on hand to puree up as an accompaniment for the crab cakes. A dinner based on this much oil and fat needed a little astringency, a little vegetative sternness to rein things in a bit. But I didn't have any (another thing to add to my grocery list, darn it!), so there you have it. Friday night dinner.
My 3-year-old, the Pickiest Child on Earth, even tried some of the crab cake and said he liked it--a small miracle for the kid who so far seems to only like fruit, peanut butter, mac-n-cheese, pizza, sweet tea and crackers. And he ate corn, which was a large miracle. This also confirms my deepening suspicion that children would like more adventurous food if it was cooked fresh from scratch, rather than the dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator versions we so often buy as "convenience foods".
But that's another essay.
Why, you ask, am I telling you all this?
To give you a taste (bad pun, I know) of what's to come. I am not a gourmet cook by any means--too busy. But I love fresh food, especially fresh organic food. I love the smell of open-air markets and really good grocery stores. I cook with recipes, but use them more like suggestions than orders--I'm bad with following orders. It's the punk rock in me. The cook I idolize most is the late, great Edna Lewis, who you should know about if you don't. The food writer I love the most is the late, great Laurie Colwin. And a really happy day for me is a day when I get to buy and make good food, and even better if I get to talk about it a bit.
So today was a good day.
Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about our recent trip to Canoe and Colonel Poole's BBQ.
'Night, all. Don't forget to eat your veggies.
Link to Edna Lewis' info and recipes:
http://www.epicurious.com/features/chefs/lewis
Link to Laurie Colwin info and articles:
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~esmith/colwin.html
Recipe for a Lemon Drop Wannabe:
1-1/2 shot of Bacardi O
1/2 shot of Monin Lemon Drop syrup
6 ounces of lemonade
Throw into a cocktail shaker over a mess of crushed ice. Shake and strain into martini glasses.
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