Define an easy after work dinner….Shrimp Scampi! Who needs 30 minute meals when you can have a delicious 15 minute meal? Right on! This is so delicious and simple. Toss with pasta or rice or load on to grilled bread or go light as we did with a big salad.
- 1 lbs of medium shrimp–cleaned and deveined
- 2 cloves of garlic–minced
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of fennel
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of oregano
- 1/2 cup of white wine
Heat the olive oil on low heat and add the garlic. Stir the garlic and add the fennel seeds and let both cook for a few minutes. Add the shrimp and the other spices and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the shrimp are pink. Don’t overcook the shrimp. Add the white wine and stir for a minute or two to absorb the flavor. Dig in!
Boeuf Bourguignon and Beef Stew and are both homey, hearty, comforting and delicious dishes. They are similar, but Beef stew is more simple and American. Boeuf Bourguignon has a French name and it is a little more elegant with the addition of cognac, red wine and bacon and is famous because of 
Cabrito, kid, chevon, are all names for baby goat. And whatever you want to call it I don’t eat it or cook it. BUT our friend Mike McIntosh and his lovely wife Julie Wickett invited us over Sunday afternoon for a bbq and that is what they were serving. Jesse and Dashiell were up for it so off we went. I tasted a small bite of the cabrito and it was delicious. I know I just said that I don’t eat baby goats but I had to try it because Mike is so sweet. Mike smoked it for hours in a special smoker that you add water to so the meat was moist and succulant. Our friend Tim made the tastiest pinto beans I’ve ever had. He did not skimp on the salt pork and they were really a meal in themselves. Julie made a lovely peach sorbet for dessert that hit the spot on this summer evening. I made fatoush, a Lebonese bread salad. Fatoush can be made with lettuce or not and adding garbanzo beans works too. I did add the lettuce this time, however, I have made it in the past with just the tomatoes, cucumbers and spring onions.
Once a month I get together with 10 or so brilliant, witty and beautiful womem to discuss a book that we’ve read. We all bring wine and or an appetizer and some of the most delicious desserts I’ve ever tasted. This month it’s at my house so I’m serving an olive plate and roma tomatoes. I baked the tomatoes slowly for hours and then added some buffalo mozzerella and fresh basil. This is a good recipe for store bought tomatoes that don’t always have a lot of flavor. It’s kind of like making them into sun dried tomatoes but in the oven.
With Labor Day around the corner my basil garden is almost finished. It lasted through the summer and actually seemed to thrive in the heat as long as I remembered to water it. To me biting into basil is summer. It’s fresh and green and kind of spicy and so versitile. There is pesto and fresh basil torn and tossed in a salad. Basil added to tomato sauce or basil on grilled fish or chicken and on and on…It’s also good for you with a lot of nutrients, especially Vitamin K! And it is an anti-inflammatory, too. Hooray for basil!! This is my favorite pesto recipe.
My favorite grocery store 
It’s been above 100 degrees here in Austin the past week. Who wants to cook? Not me. However I do enjoy fresh and delicious food and I love to create something in the kitchen. So I went to Central Market and bought some heirloom tomatoes, a cucumber and a red onion. Central Market is my favorite grocery store. The produce is fresh and exotic, the meat is prime, the wine selection is excellent and everything always looks so good that I want to buy it all. I also get great ideas while shopping there. I like Whole Foods Market as well. Whole Foods originated in Austin in the 1970′s as a small store on Lamar Boulevard that flooded anytime it rained hard. They sold delicious coffee beans, and they were the place to get vitamins and special health tonics that you couldn’t buy anywhere else. Now of course they are not only a health source but one of the greatest gourmet markets in the world. Several more organic grocery stores and lots of Asian and Indian stores call Austin home. This city has become a foodie paradise and there is really nothing that you can’t get. I just bought some truffle butter. I can’t wait to use that. But for now back to Panzanella.
Enjoy with a good bottle of wine. I recommend two; one is a French Chardonnay and the other is a nice red. The red was introduced to me by my inimitable and delightful friend Ed Ward who lives in Montpellier, France. He is an writer, and a radio personality and an expert on food and wine. He has a terrific blog called “
