Quick and Tasty Shrimp Caesar Salad
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008The other night I wasn’t sure what to have for dinner, but I had a feeling it would involve the bag of shrimp in the freezer. Other than that, I had a few items that needed to get used before they went bad. Sometimes I find that these thrown-together, clean-out-the-fridge meals turn out to be some of my favorites….
The shrimp
While thawing the shrimp (a third of the large bag) under running water for ten minutes, I microwaved a few pieces of bacon until crispy. Then I chopped the bacon into small pieces along with two green onions, including the leaves and some of the white part. When the shrimp are defrosted, get a skillet over medium-high heat, with a turn of olive oil. Add shrimp and then a turn of bourbon. Or two. Then toss in bacon and onions and cook until shrimp turn peachy-pink. This doesn’t take long. Then remove from heat and crumble a bit of blue cheese over the mix.
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I made one of my mom’s recipes and recently shared it with you, and it’s already time for another:potato salad. This one, however, is an instance where I have surpassed her, and she refuses to admit it. I give her credit for the composition, but there is one area where she goes wrong—her choice in mayonnaise. Helman’s, Shelman’s. It’s all about the Blue Plate Mayonnaise. Perhaps you shake your head because you’ve never heard of it. Poor you. It’s only available in the southeast, though you can order it to be shipped, as 
Now, on to the recipe for my mama’s potato salad.
While my apartment is much more spacious than the last one, the kitchen is quite tiny by comparison. One thing I love, however, is the built-in spice rack by the sink. I once bought one of those pre-filled spice racks but found myself unhappy with some of their choices. I’d rather collect my own and remember which meal made me seek out each one. Last night I decided to organize the area to make it more accessible. Now the salts (sea, gray, kosher, Himilaya pink, and more) are on the same shelf as the peppers (white peppercorns, multi-colored ones, ground white, and coarse black). The nutmegs are together as are the vanilla beans and extract. And all the dried herbs are grouped loosely according to cuisine (Cajun,Italian, Indian, etc). I’ve tried to organize my cabinets this way, but it doesn’t always last.
Mezzaluna: Italian for “half-moon”–a single or double curved blade, with a handle. Also called a crescent cutter, but that’s not as good a name, I think. Used for chopping herbs and such. Added bonus of the double handle is a little arm workout.
In my intro post I mentioned my mom’s cooking skills. One of my very favorite things she would make when I was growing up was salmon croquettes. You might call them salmon cakes or salmon patties, but they’ll always be croquettes to me. We would almost always have them with green beans and 
Shame on me. I almost forgot to mention the original writer of this blog—Jenny. I know she had gotten a lot busier, what with teaching and going back to school, so she probably didn’t have time to work this into her schedule. So please don’t think I was a tiger waiting to pounce on her blog because I’m sad to see her gone. (I just thought it might be nice to write on another subject.) We actually met one afternoon and combined her thing with my things: winetasting in Los Gatos with a picnic lunch at Savannah Chanelle on what I remember to be a chilly and slightly drizzly day. She even came into Thomas Fogarty Winery where I used to work once or twice and brought AB and some friends along. 
Hello, to those of you who like to cook and those of you who like to eat. (I definitely fall into both categories.) And even though I write two wine blogs, 
