SHRIMP SCAMPI

In a concerted effort to give my sister, Sheryl, every morsel of shrimp she could possibly want while here visiting the island, we have a list of "places she wants to go" and a couple of places she hasn't been before.  We started at PadreRitaVille so she could experience their big pile of nachos.  We actually shared them and elected to have beef instead of shrimp...but the teen had Grilled Shrimp Alfredo...which was incredibly good...as were our nachos.  She loved the homemade chips.

After a walk on the beach last evening we both crashed in order to get up relatively early and take the teen to his volunteer job at the Sea Life Center and then go to Zumba.  Peter worked us but we really enjoyed it and after recuperating for an hour, taking showers, and picking up the teen, we all went to Pirate's Landing for lunch.  I had a Frequent Diner gift certificate for a free shrimp cocktail so we started with that.  Jumbo sized shrimp - only had 4 on the dish instead of the 6 described on the menu...hmmm.  Sister had her mandatory grilled shrimp salad...and I must say, that was a very generous amount of shrimp on that salad!  Looked great.  The teen had their lunch special fried shrimp basket with humongous steak-type fries and I had their Patty Melt with the same fries - incredibly delicious all around.

After the gorge fest, we stopped at Delicious Seafood aka Dirty Al's Seafood Market and picked up some jumbo shrimp and then, after dropping off the shrimp in the fridge, I gave her a tour of the island since it has been a year since her last visit.  We stopped in at Paragraph's on Padre Blvd and managed to scoop up 5 books and visited with Joni and Griff and the Book-ends.  We drove as far north as possible - but found the road blocked off far short of the usual "end of pavement".  Guess the dunes are still on the road.  We then stopped in for drinks at the newly opened Clayton's Beach Bar and Grill (will write more about that tomorrow) and enjoyed some ocean front deck time - what a great location!

We finally made it home and enjoyed sitting on the couch for a bit and catching up with the news.  

I had planned a couple of meals to prepare at home (to mix in with the eating out) and tonight was Shrimp Scampi night.  It turned out delicious so I finally have a post of something I prepared again.  We had some leftover Dulce de Leche Banana Cream Pie for dessert after a 30 minute evening walk on the beach.  Thursday is "being lazy on the beach day" where we will start some of those books and be ladies of leisure, possibly strolling down to Wanna Wanna for burgers for lunch.  Tonight though, it was Shrimp Scampi, a side salad, and garlic toast.  Simple, really easy to fix, and delicious.  Here's the way I do it!

SHRIMP SCAMPI My Way

Ingredients:

5-6 Jumbo shrimps per person - peeled, deveined, sliced in half down the middle
2 large cloves garlic - finely minced
3 shallots - finely minced
1/4 cup sweet cream butter
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Fresh Basil - to taste
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Whole Wheat Cappellini

Method:

Heat butter and olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat.  Set pot of salted water to boil for the pasta. Don't drop the pasta yet.
Add garlic and shallots and saute until softened, but not browning (if so, your pan is too hot - lower the heat).

Add the shrimp to the oil and butter pan and drop the pasta into the boiling water (my pasta takes 3 minutes to cook).  The shrimp will be ready before the pasta is because it is thin if you have halved it long ways.

Pull the pasta with a pasta fork and place it into the pan with the shrimp.  Toss thoroughly.  Add the torn leaves of basil and the Parmesan cheese and toss.  Add a bit of the pasta water if too dry.  Plate and serve.

A very simple and fast meal.  The most laborious part was peeling and cutting the shrimp...and really that wasn't much trouble at all because there were just three of us - didn't need a ton of shrimp.

Served with a tossed salad and garlic toast, it was filling and everyone walked away happy!

We briefly discussed how we might lower the calories...and then shrugged, "nah", why bother...it's just too good.  I guess you could use less olive oil and more starchy water...but really...it's pretty delicious just the way it is :-)

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!