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.

Picnic at the Lake

After I had gotten my allergy shots and run my errands today, I decided to take my camera down to the lake. And since it was after 1 pm, I decided that food sounded like a good idea. Except that by now I was out in the middle of the country, so what to do? It was at this point that I fortunately remembered that a friend had told me about a gas station in nearby Harrodsburg, Indiana that made a mean breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Oh yeah, now I have a plan. I got to my exit from the highway and drove to this little town that you just might miss if you drive too fast. I found the gas station and went in to order my pork tenderloin sandwich with lettuce, onion, tomato, catsup and mustard. In a few minutes I was happily on my way with a warm take-out box filled with Hoosier goodness.

Five minutes later, I arrive at my destination. This is the overlook at the dam of Lake Monroe.

And this is my lunch. Isn't it pretty? Very good; it just needed some salt to make it perfection.

Could you ask for a better view while you eat lunch?

Such a pretty day for a picnic.

I am one happy picnicker.

After lunch I headed over to Fairfax State Recreation Area. How very odd: the beach is deserted on this beautiful day.

I decided I needed to walk off my lunch, so I set off along the concrete walkway.

It was a quiet day on the lake as I only saw two boats today.

A small peninsula juts out into the lake past the beach. The concrete walkway used to circle the entire area, but over the years, much of the walkway has been lost to the annual spring floods.

This was a bit of a challenge to navigate. At times I could hear water lapping underneath the concrete all along the walkway.

This area used to be filled with bushes and small saplings. The past few years of flooding, along with the mowers, have cleared the area out.

I love fall-blooming flowers.

Click on this picture to see the damage the floods have done to this tree's root system. This area had turned into an island (see first picture in that post) four and a half months ago and the tree is now showing signs of distress.

Wow, this afternoon's excursion and impromptu picnic have done wonders for my mood. It is important at this time of the year to take advantage of every nice day.

Now, what can you do to help your uptight college student to unwind? Scroll down for my daughter's request...

Bubble Wrap! Have at it, dear.