I am a 5'-1" Survey Monkey!

A monkey of all she surveys!

Whoops, you've caught me playing with a new toy on the internet....

Actually, I was learning...and it was Fun! So it felt like playing...even though I spent my day either in front of the computer - resume-ing, email-ing, (a little bit of) Facebook-ing (I'm an honest gal! well, maybe more than just a little...) and learn-ing - or in the car, shuttle-ing...and my neck hurts.

See, we have one of those Funhouse or Magic chairs in the study that lowers of its own volition. And I don't often realize that I'm craning up at the screen until the sharp pain skewers my neck and I'm hit with the memory of sitting on phone books (plural) to reach the kitchen table as a kid. In terms of height, I've always been on the deficient side of average: That's me in the front row for all school pictures; never airline attendant material; petite pants need to be tailored; guys got me a long grabber thingy to get stuff in the pantry...

Yup, when I played lacrosse in college, coach called me Peanut, so I've heard it all: Peewee, Short-Stuff, Lil'thing, Shrimp....

Which brings me to tonight's dinner: Shrimp scampi. No great twists or turns tonight...gotta taxi Jere to work on a project across town this eve, so it had to be easily assembled and fast cooking once I returned from the outbound schlep. (Remember, he doesn't eat anything that lived in water...so I didn't have to have it ready before he left.)

Details?

Here goes:

-Put salted water to boil for pasta...used what was left in a box, about a third of a lb, the shrimp were the stars anyway.

-Mince 5 garlic cloves and dice a third of an onion, defrost shrimp if necessary. Many thanks, Sous Chef Extraordinaire as I scrambled to play taxi!

-Heat pan on med low and melt a T each butter and olive oil. Add garlic and onion to sweat.

-Season with salt and cracked black pepper (about a 2:1 ratio) then add crushed red pepper flakes to your taste...I did 1 t.

-Add 1 lb shrimp to pan...I had a bag o'uncooked shell-on (poor John hates working for his dinner! Sorry!) lovelies that mostly defrosted beforehand.

-As they start to turn pink, splash on a third c white wine...yes, it's that same chardonnay from the fridge...grate on a t fresh lemon zest and toss in a T dried parsley flakes (Hey! It's what I had!)...season again with salt and freshly ground black pepper (2:1 ratio works here too).

-Keep a lid handy, 'cuz the shrimp'll cook faster with it on and you might want to encourage the process like I did.

-When all the beauties are pink, squeeze on the juice from a third of a lemon and pour over the drained spaghetti.

(Aside: John has this thing that if there's green on the plate, the food is non-caloric...at least it seems that way to me. Anyway, I put about a c and a half of poly-bag frozen peas into a long-handled sieve and John floated them in the pasta water when the spaghetti was almost done as not to cool the water too much. Worked like a charm in nuthin flat!)

Remember, it's tough to survey when your chair is sinking...maybe I can get that grabber-arm-thingy from the pantry and lift myself up...Nope, forget it, I'll just scampi to bed.