Timelines

Have you ever had one of those kids? You know the one who tells their teacher, "I can't bring in timeline photos of my life because my mom only takes pictures of my brother." When the teacher inquired about this statement my first thought was . . . which brother? It's really not fair! He has 9 years on him! Of course, I have more photos of Gentle Giant!

So I spent about 3 hours of my evening looking for and printing out timeline photos . . .

              

. . . of guitars . . . because evidently his life had no meaning before he had guitars.

While I was searching around I stumbled across these . . .

Birthday cakes! I think this was Darling Daughter's 4th.

Guitar Boy's 6th, it suffered some damage during unveiling . . . it was not the cat, IT WAS NOT THE CAT!

Gentle Giant's ice cream cake.

Our Little Buddy's light sabers. This is definitely one of my favorites! I have to say though I hated assembling and frosting a cake just an hour before a party!

I can hear the mechanical breathing . . .

Cake's for Mother's Day made by the kiddos! They even decorated the tablecloth.

Pink Guitar cakes . . .

Pikachu cakes . . . I have been dealing with Pikachu for 12 years now . . . when will the pain end?

This . . . monstrosity . . . but Little Buddy thought it was cool!

Hehehe, I notice that there's sliced limes out for Gentle Giant's 21st birthday . . . we had cocktails before dinner.

Some were fancier than others . . .

Others were purely fun!

If I dug around the old photos I could make a timeline of birthday cakes!

Shrimp Pasta Salad

There's nothing quite like a good pasta salad. Especially on a hot day! We've had a few hot days this month and I jumped at the opportunity to make this taste treat!

Boil your pasta in some heavily salted water. You know I'm talking 2 teaspoons of salt in a half gallon of water! Otherwise you really are going to have to let your salad set in the fridge 24 hours to get some flavor in those noodles. What type of threshold do you have for self denial? Mine is low and my thighs attest to that.

I'm using elbow noodles since it's what I have on hand. I really prefer rotini pasta in a salad like this. Cook 'em until they're done to the tenderness you like in a pasta salad. I like mine a little chewy! Then drain them and rinse them with some cold water. It'll stop the cooking process.

Now embarrassingly enough I drained my noodles and when I checked them I discovered several were less than done! So I rinsed them with a little more water a couple of times while I was preparing the other ingredients. They soaked up enough excess water they were fine by the time I put them in the salad.

Now to make a really tasty dressing we need to get some good shrimp flavor going. One way is to make shrimp stock. Of course that requires you cook your shrimp from scratch! I'm going to assume you've got some frozen precooked shrimp. Thaw them out and pinch their tails off. You don't want tails in your pasta salad do you? Put the tails in a little dish. We'll use them in a minute. Stow your shrimp in the refrigerator.

We're going to base our dressing on this. There's a cup of clam "juice" in here and you want to boil it down to half a cup. So put it in a pan and start it boiling. How long it'll take depends on how high you turn the heat up and how big a pan you use!

I had some frozen artichoke hearts I wanted to use in the salad so I actually threw them in the broth to thaw out. Mmm! After they were cooked a little I picked them out and added . . .

The lemon, a little garlic and a bay leaf. They'll give good flavor to the dressing. You should also add the shrimp tails at this point. If you thawed your shrimp in the bag like it recommends on most packages you can even throw that liquid in here. Bring it to a boil!

Strain it after its reduced to around half a cup. (You'll have the smallest bit covering the bottom of the pan.)

You'll need a half cup of mayonnaise! Isn't it pretty? I just want to eat a big spoonful right now!

I threw in a couple of green onions. I mixed them up and let them sit in the mayonnaise for a minute or two while I was boiling down the juice.

Mix your stock and your mayonnaise together!

I added a little celery seed because I was out of actual celery! I love real celery in this dish. If I had known I was out of celery I would of added the seed to the broth while I was boiling it!

Taste it and add salt and pepper as you like it. I obviously like it peppery! Now if I had it on hand I would of added some Old Bay seasoning at this point.

This is what's going in the salad! Look at the disproportionate sizes! This is why I prefer rotini! Oh well nothing a knife can't fix.

That's better!

My ingredients were all a little too pastel and savory for me so I decided to add some raw bell pepper chunks. For crisp sweetness! I like a little texture in my salads.

Toss it all together to chill! Garnish with a little chopped parsley if you like! This is so light and refreshing! The shrimp is briny and meaty. The pasta has a nice chew to it. The artichokes are rich and tender. The red pepper adds a crisp sweetness. Parsley has a herbaceous bitterness I crave in all things.The mayonnaise is where it's at though! It has all the seafood flavor in it and the lovely tang that mayonnaise is known for. If you like serve this salad with a lemon wedge so guests can amp up the acid right at the table!

This salad is delicious with celery and peas in it too! Which I hear normal people have laying around their refrigerator and freezer . . .

Shrimp Pasta Salad

1 lb cooked shrimp, shelled
8 oz. frozen artichoke hearts
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 lb cooked pasta, macaroni, rotini, or shells

For dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2-3 large green onions, sliced
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/2 cup shrimp stock
salt and pepper

For shrimp stock

1 8 oz bottle clam juice
tails from shrimp
1/2 lemon sliced
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf

Make shrimp stock. You can poach your artichoke hearts in the stock if you're including them in the recipe. Stir dressing ingredients together. Chop shrimp and artichokes as necessary to make salad ingredients similar in size. Mix dressing and salad together and enjoy. Refrigerate for an hour for best results.

Beer Poached Shrimp

With the coming of warm weather we're all watching our waist lines a little closer. I've also been breaking out a few cool make ahead meals too. Boiled shrimp is just the ticket!

I have a few issues with boiling shrimp. I'm never quite sure how much to salt the water! Some shrimp is really salty and others are really bland. Then of course there's the fact that a lot of it gets over cooked just waiting for it to "come back to a boil." Oh and if you have to go help a screaming child you know it's going to over cook in about 30 seconds! Who likes shrimp jerky?

What about a kinder and gentler cooking method? I was watching Alton Brown poach some fish and started to wonder . . . about shrimp.

These packets of goodness have been on sale a LOT lately. Thank you Lenten Season! I like them because they make a cut down the back and clean out the digestive track for you. Ick!

We need a flavorful poaching liquid! So let's start out with these lemon wedges I had in the fridge! Since I'm using a nice big 12 inch skillet I would normally slice a lemon thinly for this but the wedges will do since I cut them up last night for dinner. I threw in a couple of bay leaves too!

Some peppercorns too! Red pepper flakes would be delicious in addition but I was feeding a few friends . . .

I thought I was done so I threw my shrimp in! They're bigger ones 26-30's. Did you know that means there's 26-30 per pound? Helps to know if you're making shrimp cocktails!

Ooops! I forgot shrimp's best friend, garlic! Throw a couple of those in there too. If you don't want to peel them just rinse them off and give them a bang with a knife so the poaching liquid can mingle with the garlicky goodness.

Some thyme leaves too! Don't forget the thyme! Normally, I'd throw in some fresh thyme still on the stems but mine is just coming up and isn't quite ready for me to start harvesting it. :(  I am going to add my shrimp to another recipe and it needs to look nice so I'm wrapping my thyme up in some cheese cloth.

Now for some flavorful poaching liquid . . . you want a mild beer. My hubby and I call this "camping" beer. You can drink it all day while camping and don't have to supplement with water because its so weak! Okay that's OUR theory at least. Now if you want to substitute an actual flavorful craft beer I would recommend ,using a cup of beer and adding a half cup of water to it. I'm thinking a Boulevard Zon or a Pale Ale might be nice. This is a lovely application for any of your standard Budweiser, Miller, or Coors products too! You know if somebody leaves one at your house . . .

Pour it in and turn the heat on low! Yes, LOW! We want to avoid a boil for as long as possible. I unloaded the dishwasher, and did a Sudoku puzzle while this was warming. For those of you worried about bacteria and other organisms does it comfort you to know that 140 deg F for 5 minutes has killed just about everything dangerous in it?

Look it practically covers it! I do this with up to two lbs of shrimp. By the time the shrimp thaws it's all under the beer. Stir it periodically. You want to get the shrimp thawed out good before it starts to cook. Oh and salt! Add about half a teaspoon or even better add a teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning. If a seasoning has been around for 60 years you know they're onto something!

It's all thawed! That only took 10 minutes or so.

Look! It's starting to get pink! If you can turn your heat any lower do it. Slow and steady wins the prize!

They're all pink and firm now so I fished them out with a strainer! At this point if you have no other plans you can just cover them with some plastic wrap and throw them in the fridge to chill.

They babies are sweet, juicy, shrimpy deliciousness! They taste of the salt and the sea. They're done all the way through yet they're tender because you didn't over cook them.

I'm going to use the poaching liquid and the shells to make a nice shrimp stock. These shrimp are actually headed to a shrimp salad today. They're perfect for it because they pack a punch of shrimpy flavor. Besides, how else can you economically feed four adults shrimp as an entree?

Beer Poached Shrimp

1-2 lbs frozen raw shrimp
1 light beer, 12 oz size (or 1 cup craft beer with 1/2 cup of water added)
1/2 a lemon, sliced
1-2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried
3 cloves garlic, smooshed
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning or 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together and cook over low heat until shrimp are pink and firm.  (It should never reach a boil!)

Shrimp Stock

Shrimp stock! What? That's not exciting to you? But it's delicious! Why throw away those shells when you can make something delicious to add to your next pasta salad or gumbo? Why pay for clam broth when you're half way to stock already?

Remember these shrimp? The beer poached ones? The delicious slow cooked ones?

I'm going to make a lovely shrimp stock from their shells!

This is what was left in the pan after we took the shrimp out. It's beer and spices and a few extraneous peppercorns. Usually there would be a few bits of onion in there too but I am adding green onion to this recipe further down the line.

Let's gather the lemons and garlic out of the shrimp . . .

. . . and put them back in your poaching broth! There's my thyme packet too! My fresh thyme is almost ready to go, I can't wait!

Now peel your shrimp and . . . taste one to make sure it's wonderful and briny and sweet and then stop yourself before you eat 10 of them.

Throw the shells in the broth too!

Now if you happen to be "serving" these shrimp as peel and eat shrimp I whole heartily recommend you put a nice clean bowl in the middle of the table and tell your guests to put their shells in the bowl. After they're done doing the work for you throw the shells in a bag with the broth, lemons, garlic, etc. freeze it and make your stock at a convenient time!

Throw them all in!

There was some juice in the bottom of the bowl! Waste not want not.

Now we're going to bring everything to a big hot boil! In 5-10 minutes you're going to be losing serious water here.

Eventually you have only a little liquid on the bottom of the pan so get a strainer and get all your solid stuff out of the pan. It'll make the pouring easier.

Now pour the broth threw the strainer.

Give the shells a squish. I gave them a flip and a squish too but that's not pictured. How would you photograph a flip squish?

Look at that stock! There's a half cup of it there and it's full of shrimp flavor. You can put it in the freezer and store it for some time when you're using frozen precooked shrimp in a recipe that could use a little extra shrimp flavor. You could put it in a soup. You could even make your own Clamato drink! But you'd have to call it shrimato . . . imagine the Bloody Marys!