Dinner Lacked Color Balance (it was a little orange)
While it lacks color balance, dinner was really good. Shrimp scampi with couscous, and a beet/orange salad shown below. This was such an orange meal it was hilarious lmao
Zeke and Rei went to the market after Zeke picked Rei up from school and there were no red beets so orange/yellow was the only option.
The salad called for tangerines but we had cuties which I thought would be good enough. Not really. Eh, they were fine, I just couldn’t cut them like the directions said to. They tasted fine, though.
Fortunately they picked up a few oranges so Rei cut one up to get the juice for the dressing and have nicer, juicier segments. We won’t use cuties next time but there will definitely be a next time. When I was peeling the cuties, I forgot what I was doing and went on autopilot for a bit. I probably ate as many cuties as went into the salad…(no wonder you weren’t very hungry for dinner.~Terri)
While Rei was working on homework, I prepped the beets and put them into the Dutch oven to bake at 400 degrees. I didn’t wash them or use any oil or anything else. I LOVE this method of cooking beets. Once they were cooked, I simply wiped off the skin, cut off the ends, and then sliced into quarters. Yay! We love not doing any of the work most recipes call for and still getting amazing results!
Rei chopped an onion and some carrots while I grated some garlic. This is such a brilliant trick (thank you Allison Roman). I only had to stop like three times when cutting the onion before moving closer to the stove where the fan is…Is there any way to build an immunity to onion fumes? Asking for a friend here.
I sautéed the chopped goodies in some olive oil until soft.
And then added some canned, diced tomatoes and a bottle of clam juice. Then I brought it to a boil, lowered to a simmer and let the tomatoes soften.
While that was cooking, Rei was working on the oranges and chopped up a shallot and added it to the orange juice. I squeezed in some lemon juice, added some olive oil, and mixed it up. I might have added some salt and pepper at some point. This was the dressing for the beets and oranges.
After Rei chopped some mint, Rei got back to work on their homework. They have WAY TOO much of it right now. Fun times. That was my chem textbook (gross) and, in case you were wondering, I was not writing in the book but on a sticky note (I never write in textbooks; I’m not a monster). Still gross.(No one was judging you, Rei.~Terri)
Since Rei was busy with homework, Zeke got out the immersion blender to puree the tomato mixture.
I added two cups of the tomato puree to some water and oil and brought it to a boil for the couscous. We will definitely be doing this again. Super easy and super tasty.
Zeke couldn’t find peeled, deveined shrimp so he did the dirty work and prepared them for cooking. I heated up some olive oil, added the garlic, and then added the shrimp.
And presto magic, they were done within a few minutes. I turned off the heat and added some lemon juice, crushed red pepper, and then topped with the chopped parsley. There was no flat leaf parsley, so Rei and Zeke got the old-school curly stuff. It worked out fine.
And Rei decided to try their hand at serving multiple dishes and did a pretty good job of it. Nothing spilled or dropped! Nice job, Rei Rei!
The salad, despite being so monochromatic was refreshing and a lovely accompaniment to the shrimp. The only palate it was not refreshing to was the visual — it smelled and tasted great.
The salad was from this cookbook. We’ve not made a lot from it but I’ll try a few other recipes. The recipes are grouped by full menu and not by type of food so it’s hard to quickly sift through to find something to make.
The shrimp and couscous were from Giada’s cookbook. We’ll be looking for more recipes from this one, too.
I couldn’t help but post this picture…I have no idea what these two were up to but it wasn’t a good thing. Dad and I were planning a coup when you so rudely interrupted us. (I think there were some wet willys but that’s totally gross and my child wouldn’t do a thing like that.~Terri)
Zeke cleaned up while Rei continued with that damned homework and I got back to my computer to do a little more work and draft this blog post. Oh, and I finalized the latest video for my YouTube channel that Rei edited earlier. I did the final touches on the title and description and scheduled it for release on Tuesday morning.
Rei? Are you done with chemistry yet? Do you have any creative brain cells to add your fun and witty comments to this post?
I am pleased to inform you that the Rei you knew is, as of this morning at 10:30 am, back in business. Before then, all of Rei’s brain cells were working overtime to study for the chem exam that ended at exactly 10:30 this morning.
So yeah, fun times. I’m still recovering from that traumatic event and will most likely need at least 9 business days’ bedrest to properly recover. During said bedrest, I will be completely unable to do any sort of school work (doctor’s orders, sorry Ms. B) and cooking every day is mandatory. As is reading. A lot of it.
Anyways, I will be more involved in the upcoming meals (we will be cooking together on Thursday, so expect a post on that to come up soon) now that that fiasco is over.
I don’t really have any recollection of dinner that night other than the fact that the shrimp was a bit overdone (next time we’ll need to cook it just to the point of pinkness and when the backs start to split), but the flavor was good and the couscous was a nice change. We don’t really work with couscous very much. I think I subconsciously grouped it with polenta, and I feel like this gif perfectly captures my feelings about polenta:
Alright! Until next time, ciao, and have a hylendablure day!
Rei and Terri :D
