Allora…

I got to see my cousin Scott play football yesterday! He did a great job but Penn lost in overtime to Lafayette. And naturally, because it was a sporting event, and I was in attendance, it rained.

Today I made a recipe I adapted from Lidia Bastianich’s “Lidia’s Italy”. It’s called “Jumbo Shrimp Buzara Style”.

I had no shallots, and I used champagne instead of white wine, which i was nervous about because I thought that it would be too sweet, but it worked – i don’t know how!

First saute two minced cloves of garlic in 3 tbsp olive oil. Once its sizzling, add 1/2 cup champagne. reduce for 3 minutes. Add a pinch or two of crushed red pepper. Stir in 1 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tsp chopped capers. Add pinch of pepper and a little salt. Stir and simmer 2 minutes. Add about 12 medium size shrimp (shelled, deveined – i used frozen that i thawed). Meanwhile cook half a pound of cappellini. Cook shrimp about 3 minutes until pink and curled. You don’t need a lot of the sauce to coat the pasta. But if it looks like too little, add some water and simmer to stretch the sauce. Add 1 tbsp butter to finish sauce. Add cappellini to pan and combine w/ sauce and shrimp. Finish with chopped parsely/basil. Serves 2

OK, I can’t fight it anymore. It’s here.

ok – I was desperate for some soup bc it has been a really chilly morning. Nothing better than tomato soup on a chilly day. So I turned a jar of tomato sauce into some tomato soup, and it was really good.

Combine 1 small can of chicken broth and a 1 jar of tomato sauce. Simmer for 10 mins and add 1/2 cup of milk (or half and half, whatever you have) and simmer for 1 minute. Top w/ parmigiano or serve w/ grilled cheese! that did the trick!

Had a great time on vacation despite a few solidly rainy days! It just made the days at the beach even sweeter. Here are the photos. All 750 of them! haha