busy

During the holidays everyone is busy between shopping and holiday prepping. Recently I was at Wegmans and purchased fresh shrimp from North Carolina. Recently the price of shrimp from North Carolina was as high as $16.99/lb. to a more recently acceptable level of $9.99/lb. Each time I saw the shrimp at Wegmans, I reached out to my sister-in-law on the Outer Banks to see what she was paying for fresh shrimp. Fortunately, at $9.99/lb. this was just $2 more per pound that my sister-in-law was paying. I grabbed a pound for supper.

​While I’ve made a pasta sauce with shrimp, this time I wanted something light and easy. This time of year, is hectic for my husband and we’re eating supper much later. I found a wonderful recipe on the New York Times cooking app for shrimp scampi. Basically, the ingredients are pantry items, except for fresh parsley. You’ll need extra virgin olive oil, garlic, white wine or broth, red pepper flakes, shrimp, parsley and fresh lemon. Even with shelling the shrimp, this dish can be prepared in under 30 minutes.

For cooking, I sautéed the shrimp shells with the garlic, wine, black pepper and red pepper flakes before adding the shrimp. Adding the shells infuses the sauce with more shrimp flavor. Once the sauce was reduced by half, I removed the shells and then added the cleaned shrimp. Another 2 to 4 minutes and my supper was done. I served my shrimp over rice that I started before cleaning the shrimp so that everything was done at just about the same time.

Recently, I squeezed in another chocolate sugar cookie test. The recipe was a “Cookie of the Week” contest winner from Martha Stewart Magazine. The recipe, Grammy's Chocolate Cookies, was from Lvle Phinney Morrow and was submitted by her granddaughter, Amy Feldman. I think what makes this cookie so rich and delicious is the Dutch cocoa powder and the 1-1/4 cups of butter. However, the cookies were a little too soft for my taste. In talking with my husband, we both think the chocolate sugar cookie recipe from Southern Living Magazine was more to our liking. This recipe had the texture that we like and a tight, lightly moist crumb. My new cookie obsession has been found!

A friend of mine recently had a gathering of friends for the holidays. One of her friends brought everyone a jar of candied pecans. Fortunately, extra jars were left at my friend’s house. She was kind enough to share jar with my husband and I. I found these pecans to have the right balance of sugar to pecan. The candied pecans were so easy to make. It takes two stiff egg whites, a cup of sugar, 1 stick of melted unsalted butter and a pound of pecans. To make clean up easy I lined a rimmed baking sheet with foil. This recipe was so easy to prepare and is done in under 30 minutes. It’s a perfect thing to make and share during the holidays.