Ingredients

• 3 Cups Quaker Old Fashioned Grits
• 7 Cups Water
• 12 Oz. Velveeta Cheese, Cubed
• 4 Tbsp. Butter, Cubed
• 2 Tsp. Poppy Seeds
• 1 Lb. Small Shrimp, Cooked and Peeled
• 1 Half, Sweet Onion, Roughly Chopped
• 4 Oz. Sweet Peppadew Peppers, Roughly Chopped
• 4 Oz. Small Mushrooms, Whole
• 6 Strips Thick Cut Bacon
• 1 Bunch Green Onions/Scallions
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp. Ground Cayenne Pepper
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Boil the water for the grits in a large saucepan, making sure to salt the water once it boils, and then let it return to a rolling boil. Stir in the grits, and lower the burner to a medium-low heat, and cook for about 12-14 minutes, covered, and stirring occasionally. In a medium-sized skillet, cook the bacon to extra crispy, and then set aside. Add the olive oil to the skillet, mixing with the bacon grease. Add the chopped sweet onion to the skillet, and saute until thoroughly cooked, then lower the burner to a medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix shrimp with the cayenne pepper and kosher salt, and add to the skillet, along with the chopped peppadew peppers, and mushrooms, continuing to saute on low heat. Once the grits have cooked, add the Velveeta cheese, butter, and poppy seeds to the saucepan, making sure to distribute evenly throughout the dish, and continue to stir until completely melted. Roughly chop the bacon.

Serve the dish by spooning a portion of the grits into an individual serving bowl, or high-rimmed plate. Spoon a fair portion of the shrimp mixture onto the top of the grits, and garnish with bacon, and chopped scallions, as shown above. Recipe makes 8-ish servings.

Notes

Everyone in the south has a shrimp and grits recipe; this is mine. Over the years the recipe has evolved based on mine and other opinions and tastes. A good shrimp and grits recipe is solidly built on attention to the basics, but stands out based on the details. For my recipe, that means the poppy seeds in the grits, and the sweet peppadew peppers, as well as the use of a sweet onion, instead of a yellow or white, in the shrimp mixture. As complicated as the ingredients list and instructions seem, this really is a pretty simple low country dish that can be put together in twenty minutes, or less. And, if I’m being completely honest, I generally buy my shrimp pre-cooked and peeled. I’ve found that sauteeing the pre-cooked shrimp mixture on a low enough heat can still bring the flavor out without overcooking the shrimp. But, if you’re serving to southerners, be careful not to burn them. There are some things that we just won’t tolerate.

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Ingredients

• 1 Medium Celery Stalk, Diced
• 1 Small Onion, Diced
• 1 Large Tomato, Diced
• 1 15 oz. Can Black Beans
• 1 15 oz. Can White Beans (Cannellini or Great Northern)
• 1 Tbsp. White Vinegar
• Salt & Pepper, To Taste

Instruction

Simply toss ingredients in a large bowl, dust with salt and pepper, and serve. Serves 4-6.

Notes

This is a recipe that’s been getting a lot of play at our house recently. The Girl unearthed it from some magazine or another, and it’s simply one more side dish that can be made on a Sunday afternoon, straight home from the grocery store, and which marinates in its own juices and gets better as the week goes on. Tastes especially good as a protein provider with a sandwich, or as a stomach filler with a light chicken or fish entree.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Spiral Pasta, Cooked
• 6 oz. Assorted Olives and Red Peppers, Roughly Chopped
• 10 oz. Dry Salami (Try Busseto)
• 4 oz. Gorgonzola, Crumbled
• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 4 oz. Dried Cranberries
• 4 oz. Pecans, Roughly Chopped
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Cook pasta and set aside to cool. Roughly chop selection of olives, red peppers, and pecans; cut Salami into quartered pieces about one-quarter inch thick. Mix ingredients in a large serving dish. Serves 6-8.

Notes

This is one of the oldest recipes that I remember The Girl and I preparing together. It’s actually something that I put together on the fly, probably after having watched the Food Network right before grocery shopping. There are many, many recipes for Antipasto Salad out there, but I think what makes this special is the sweetness of the cranberries and sweet red peppers as it mixes with the bitterness from the olives and Gorgonzola. Another is the fact that the pasta is almost an afterthought; something to hold the remaining ingredients together. Most of the time we make this recipe even easier to prepare by getting our olives and red peppers together in the deli section of our grocery store, and by using a packaged salad topping called Cherry Cranberry Pecano Salad Pizazz. Most groceries have an olive section in their deli salad bar these days, and the salad topping has been pretty easy for us to find wherever we go, as well.

Additionally, this is the second straight combine and serve recipe, which, if you hadn’t already guessed, is going to be a common occurance.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Watermelon, Cubed
• 1 lb. Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
• Cilantro, Chopped, To Taste
• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt, To Taste

Instruction

Simply toss first four ingredients in a large bowl, dust with kosher salt, and serve. Serves 6-8.

Notes

For me, any recipe with cilantro brings about thoughts of summer, and warm weather, and a light, fresh feeling that can only truly be appreciated during a certain time of the year. I think a bunch of cilantro should be an item on the weekly shopping list every week from Easter until Labor Day, and that’s greatly reflected in the meal’s that I make and serve throughout the spring and summer. The Girl doesn’t share my enthusiasm for cilantro, but she does tolerate it in occasional dishes, of which this is one. We first had this combination of flavors at a Spanish tapas restaurant named Jaleo, which is one of our favorite restaurants. The recipe originally involved peeled, steamed tomatoes, and a cilantro paste, and had the tomato and watermelon on wooden skewers, and we loved it. We decided to recreate it at home, and we made this already simple recipe even easier by losing the skewers, using uncooked cherry tomatoes, and a handful of chopped cilantro. The result is a salad that goes with a complex entree such as roasted chicken or pork just as well as it goes with a chicken salad sandwich.

I have, in the past, written about trying to find my voice. Personally, I believe I have only recently been able to partially accomplish that, at least in the context of this site. In the beginning, I feel as if I was simply trying too hard to make the site popular, and trying to make it look cool, and be stylish, and have hundreds of thousands of visitors. It’s not about that anymore, not for me, and I’m glad for that, but in the mean time, I’m finally beginning to write about things in my life that are more relevant to me, and the life that I live.

This blog has seen me through those changes, every step of the way, and you can see the changes in me reflected in the writing of my posts, as well as the categories, and general attitude of the site. Sports have taken a backseat as something that I post about. While they’re still important to me, they’re something that I watch, not something that I do. New categories have been created, to write about The Girl, or Work, or our Travels. The ‘Moments’ category sprouted up, inspired by another site, and meant to convey what makes mine and The Girls relationship uniquely ours. Articles in the category of Life have taken on a greater importance to the site.

With that said, I hadn’t ever written at all about food until the previous post, but it’s an important part of our lives, The Girl and I. We enjoy going out to a multitude of ‘favorite’ restaurants. Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown for brunch, or Jaleo for tapas, or Old Ebbit Grill for the Trout Parmesan, and an experience that’s the essence of DC. But we also like to bring the tastes that we find into our own kitchen, cooking for ourselves and our friends, and families, and for whatever reason, we haven’t really shared that.

Until now. In the future I’ll be sharing some of the recipes that we’ve found, or created, or copied that we like the best, and that have become staples in our cooking. Some are complex, most though, are quite simple.  I do this now, to continue what I spoke about above; to share those things that are important to me with those that want to know more about me. There’s also the hope that, like with a blog in general, we can take a snapshot of a moment in time in our lives. And inevitably, I hope that others can get some joy out of those tastes that have brought us, and our friends, together.

The Girl is gone this weekend, having traveled to the West Coast for a weekend work trip. Usually, when The Girl goes out of town, I spend a lot of time cooped up in the house. We are homebodies together, when I’m alone I’m even more of one. And this weekend has had its share of that, for sure. But yesterday I left work early, bought a new phone, rented some movies, and went out to dinner with friends before retreating to the comfort of home, and I’d also gotten it into my head that I wanted to treat myself to a really nice dinner tonight (Saturday), as well.

Both The Girl and I can be real food snobs sometimes, and for me, tonight was no exception. & Deluca - Georgetown, Washington, DC" href="http://www.deandeluca.com/Aboutus/Default.aspx?id=200&selItemId=200&parentItemId=14">Dean & Deluca is a really trendy, really high quality, really very expensive grocery store in Georgetown. I made the trip in to the city tonight in early evening to do some shopping for dinner, and breakfast and lunch tomorrow, which included some bleu cheese burgers, topped with prosciutto and pears, and some tomato, basil, and mozarrella and orzo pasta for dinner, while I watched basketball. Tomorrow, it’s fresh fruit and the remainder of the prosciutto for breakfast, and another burger for lunch (I told you I was a food snob).

The question is, when The Girl returns, will she be A) upset at me for spending so much money on so little food, or B) upset that I did so when she was out of town, or C) simply upset that I even thought about going to Georgetown without her? Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.