I got a wild hair up my butt

to make some dinner that didn't involve a microwave or the deli chick at Safeway who is quite willing to hand me a fully cooked meal. I actually do get this desire to cook up a good meal pretty frequently, I am just lazy as hell. I think tonight's meal should be called "Chunky Colors" which sounds like something you pay tribute to the Porcelain God with, but I assure it you it was much better.

First up: Panzenlla or Italian Bread Salad. Traditionally, I think the bread is supposed to be almost bread crumbs and not big pieces like I have here, but I like to chew and I like the bread to retain body. I took a nice sourdough loaf, cut it up, and put it in a low temp oven until it got almost croutony (Yes, it's a word... now). To that I added a yellow bell pepper, green onions, cherry tomatoes, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 30ish green olives - I got these spicy numbers from the Olive Bar - and about 20 leaves of basil. After tossing that all together, I drizzled about 3/4 cup of olive oil and tossed, then 1/2 c of red wine vinegar and tossed again. Cover, refrigerate, and stuff your face after an hour.

Next up: BBQ shrimp with orange bell peppers and more cherry tomatoes. I marinated the shrimp (beheaded, deveined, flayed, and amputated) in a mix of fresh orange juice, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and ginger for an hour. After cooking in a basket on the BBQ, I decided there wasn't enough flavor, so I made a dressing of lemon and orange juice, ginger and white pepper which I dredged the cooked shrimp and veggies through. Delish! I was quite pleased with how this all turned out. I think the shrimp may have been missing something but I was never able to really put my finger on it. Maybe not tangy enough. Or fresh ginger - def will try that next time. UPDATE: this was GREAT cold the next day. Maybe toss it over a bed of butter leaf lettuce and add some mandarin oranges with a garlic/lemon vinegrette?

More photos of this meal in the making can be found on our Picasa.

Not that Eric ate any of this; he had nachos.




I 'spose I could have chosen the dishes better to make a prettier presentation, but MMMmm nom nom nom.