Shrimp fra diavolo foodie style!

It's Sunday, I'm watching football and what goes better with Sunday football than a big bowl of pasta? (especially after the 5k I ran in the morning)

I indulged my craving and took this carbo-opportunity as a chance to clean out my pantry and fridge. While my pot of water was boiling, I defrosted and peeled some frozen shrimp I had in the freezer. I heated up my trusty large saute pan and set two cloves of minced garlic and about a quarter of a thinly sliced white onion to soften. I prefer white onions in tomato based sauces for the sweetness it adds to the dish. A can of crushed and a can of peeled tomatoes joined the onions and I let that simmer for about ten minutes.

As the angel hair pasta was cooking, I added some julienned basil and a few chopped sundried tomatoes to the sauce. Finally I added the shrimp and continued to cook until the shrimp turned pink. Along the way I continued to season with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder and a hefty dose of crushed red pepper.

After adding the angel hair to the sauce and giving it a twirl with my tongs; I garnished with a bit of parsley from my herb garden and dinner was served!

Who says you can't get good Italian in the burbs?

Cherry Blossoms and a trip to the Ironbound

Saturday I met up with Brian and Ron at Newark's Penn Station. From there it was a short trip on the light rail and we were transported to the middle of Branch Brook Park's Cherry Blossom Festival. The trees were in full bloom and the park was filled with parents putting their kids up in trees and snapping away on their digital cameras. We didn't have any children to toss up on a branch so we just walked around the park a bit and enjoyed the beauty.

All that nature can sure work up an appetite, so to top off the day, we headed back into Newark's Ironbound section where we met up with Brian's family for some Portuguese food at Casa Vasca. After starting the meal off right with quite a few pitchers of sangria, we were seated and the feast began!

We started with a few appetizers: clams in green sauce, mushrooms in garlic, grilled chorizo and the mother of all apps, shrimp in garlic sauce. This was my first time having the mushrooms and they were garlicky and delicious with just enough parsley to elevate the dish.

And I have extolled the virtues of shrimp and garlic in previous posts and this (double) order certainly did not disappoint. After I scooped up as much shrimp as I possibly could without being rude and gluttonous to my dining companions, I sopped up most of the remaining red garlicky oil with a few crusty Portuguese rolls!

For my main course, I couldn't resist my all-time favorite, Paella Marinera. Of course there were many stand out dishes on the menu (including roast suckling pig and octopus) but I knew that if I didn't go for the paella I'd feel I was missing out. The paella was delicious and it was like seeing an old friend...lots of nostalgia for the good times we've shared over previous meals.

The lobster was chewy and the clams, mussels and shrimp were fresh. Fresh tomatoes and peas rounded out the dish and there was plenty to share. Spanish and Portuguese restaurants in the city just cannot come close to what you can find in Newark... and having been to both Spain and Portugal, I can tell you it's pretty authentic too!

For dessert, I tried the orange cake which was two thin slices of pound cake soaked in an orange and sugar sauce. Moist and quite tasty, especially with my 10 year old ruby port!

As the three of us ran to make our train back, I almost forgot my tin of leftovers and ran back into the restaurant in a frenzy to retrieve my package. I think you can guess what's for dinner tonight!

Busy Week from Hell made Real Simple!

This past week and a half at work has been insanely busy. Late nights and high stress do not lend themselves to eating well or eating right.

In anticipation of this hectic time, I chose two recipes from Real Simple that I could quickly prepare in advance to make my lunch a pleasant experience.

My first recipe was salt and pepper shrimp with Thai fried rice. Just about all of the ingredients were pantry staples, I had frozen shrimp in the freezer and there was some nice long grain brown rice on sale at the supermarket. Easy! The recipe (on the link above) was pretty simple to execute, however, I omitted the chorizo to save myself a few calories.

When the dish was complete and I was getting ready to pack it up in my Tupperware, I decided to mix the shrimp in with the rice to save some space in my work fridge. It looked beautiful and tasted great! I didn't find it as filling as I had hoped however, so perhaps the chorizo would had made it a more satisfying meal.


The week had taken a lot out of me (and it's not over yet) and I was really in need of some comfort food. That being said, for my second recipe I chose the turkey and roasted red pepper meat loaf in this month's issue of Real Simple. The magazine's been sitting unread on my table all week, so not only was it quick and handy but also gave my cookbooks a rest.

Chopping the onions and red peppers were the most labor intensive part of this dish but once you got past that it was a breeze. As I was mixing the meat, I could smell the herby goodness of the parsley and the zest of the dijon mustard. As the meat was resting on my cutting board, I realized that I accidentally omitted the Parmesan cheese called for in the recipe. After giving the meat a little taste, I can see where they were going with the cheese but I think it came out just fine without it.

So now I have a delicious satisfying lunch to look forward to next week. Hopefully I'll have the time to enjoy it!

Mediterranean Shrimp Salad

Par for the course this time of year are lots of articles on easy quick no-fuss heat-free meals. Mark Bittman suggested 101 meal ideas in The Dining Sections of last week's New York Times and this month's issue of Real Simple magazine did a feature on some fast "heat-free" meals.

I decided to give Real Simple's Mediterranean Shrimp Salad recipe a trial run and bring it to work for lunch this week. The results were quite refreshing and light. A bit of a traditionalist in the kitchen, normally I wouldn't pair feta with shrimp but in this case it works; especially with the addition of lemon juice. The citrus balances the saltiness of the feta and adds some flavor to the shrimp which I cooked with a bit of crushed red pepper for a spicy kick.

The crispy green bell peppers add a crunchy contrast and the sliced olives really adds to the Mediterranean flair. Herby freshly chopped basil is the key to bringing the freshness of the dish together and one ingredient I make sure to use in everything I make whenever I have it on hand.

I added some radicchio to the dish and have eaten it both as a wrap as well as a simple salad. You certainly feel like you are doing something good for yourself when you have this healthy low-fat meal.

Thanks Real Simple!

Everything but the kitchen sink!

The genesis of last night's dinner was quite interesting. It began with me asking RRR if she thought I should add fresh basil or parsley to my shrimp with tomatoes in a garlic white wine sauce. The basil seemed to be a natural complement to the tomatoes while the parsley worked with the shrimp. Decisions, decisions...

As I reached into my produce drawer, I realized that I also had some slender asparagus spears and a bit of rigatoni in my cabinet. Determined to be less wasteful in the kitchen, I figured why not combine all of these ingredients?

I began by sauteing some garlic and added the finely chopped asparagus spears. I added a bit of chicken stock and covered to steam and soften. After some seasoning, I added the chopped tomatoes to the pan and again let it simmer for a few minutes.

The shrimp and white wine were added next along with a squirt of tomato paste. By this point, the pasta was almost al dente, and I took my sauce to the next level by adding (gasp!) a healthy tablespoon of butter!

Being calorically challenged, it was a huge step for me to add butter. Any cook worth their salt knows the addition of butter or cream at the end of a dish is what makes most food flavorful and certainly not something you won't find happening on a regular basis at your local restaurant. In those cases, what you don't know doesn't count in your food journal right?

I gently spooned the pasta into the pan, bringing in a bit of the pasta water to add some starch to the dish and finished with a generous helping of freshly chopped parsley.

I wound up with a fresh delightfully unexpected meal and a much cleaner fridge!