Food - on Foodies Untie?

Who knew that a blog titled Foodies Untie might actually cover food once in a while. I mean, what are the odds of that happening?

But first, if you have an orchid and are unlucky enough to break off the flowering stalk, just plop the stem in water and voila, you have an instant flower arrangement. Orchids last well in water. This particular bloom has been in water for over a week now since I had knocked it off the plant.

All right, now we get to the food. After this stressful week, I have to admit that the last thing on my mind is food. But still, we have to eat, so we might as well eat well. Since the dear daughter is still on soft foods after having all of her wisdom teeth pulled this week, I only had two people to feed for dinner.

I decided that a quick salad would be good for dinner and would be good for us. I have Romaine lettuce that I had cleaned and cut the other day, red onion, celery, Memphis BBQ Rub and shrimp. In the rear are some of the ingredients for a vinaigrette: Pinot Grigio vinegar, black pepper, sea salt, bacon fat, Dijon mustard and a shallot. I later added honey to the vinaigrette to cut the tart edge.

I de-shelled the shrimp and patted them dry before sprinkling them with the rub. This went back into the refrigerator while I worked on the rest of the meal.

Once the salads had been assembled and the vinaigrette was started, I heated some bacon fat over medium-high heat in a non-stick skillet. The shrimp were then added and quickly cooked. The shrimp weren't very large so they cooked very quickly. Don't overcook your shrimp.

After removing the shrimp from the pan, I added more bacon fat to the pan along with about 2 tablespoons minced shallot. The bacon drippings and shallot were poured in with the Dijon mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper and honey. I mixed this and adjusted seasoning and sweetness to taste.

I shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese over the salads and added some homemade croutons along with the shrimp over top. The dressing was drizzled over the salads and forks were raised.

The vinaigrette had a nice bite to it and complemented the barbecue flavoring of the shrimp. The salty cheese added just the right counterpoint to the other ingredients.

Not too shabby for a frazzled, worn-out and stressed-out caregiver to a sick cat and a daughter who's recovering from having her wisdom teeth removed.