Spicy Shrimp

You might not have noticed, but I've added a few handy dandy tabs across the top of my blog.  While I was working on one last week, Dave's Faves, I discovered that one of my husband's favorite meals was not listed on my blog.  So, I decided that I needed to remedy that oversight immediately.

We're kinda big on shrimp around this household.  All three of us love them.  Molly especially; it's her favorite food.  What, don't believe me?  Well, let me give you a few reasons why I know this for a fact.  One, it's one of two types of food that she will drool for (the other is ice cream).  Two, she will indignantly bark at your feet while you are either peeling or cooking them.  Three, when David grills them she will purposefully get underfoot in hopes of him tripping and dropping delicious morsels on either end of the transportation route between kitchen and outside grill.  And four, she will beg shameless putting on her best teary-eyed expression and throwing in the periodic cold nose nudge.  Needless to say, when shrimp are on the menu, it's an experience in this house.  Such is the case when I make this recipe.

I found this particular recipe a while back on Souffle Bombay's blog.  You can view her original post about this recipe by clicking here.  I always cut the recipe in half (unless we have guests) and I cut down on the seasonings a bit.  But, it's almost exactly the same recipe otherwise.

Spicy Shrimp
adapted from Souffle Bombay

1 pound of raw shrimp (don't get the small guys, get big ones!)
a little more than 1/4 cup light olive oil
a little more than 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning - I use Old Bay
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
Tabasco - shake it until it fits the mood you're in...in my case, a lot
Cayenne pepper - again, shake it until it fits the mood you're in

Peel shrimp, remove the tails and pat dry.  Combine all ingredients except shrimp and whisk until fully incorporated.

Throw the shrimp into the marinade and stir around until they are all coated.
You can let the shrimp marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. Not much longer than that.

Skewer the shrimp onto metal or wooden skewers.

 

Cook on the grill for about 2 to 3 minutes per side - until all are pinked up and cooked through with a nice char. 

Remove the shrimp from the skewers and enjoy!

What I Can't Do...

My friend, Nicole, had a cute blog post yesterday and I thought I'd copycat her.  Nicole talked about how on personal blogs that people are always highlighting what they can do.  Let's swing that around for a day and share a little bit about what we can't do for a change...here's my list.

• I can't blow up a balloon. 

• I can't sing...I'm tone deaf.
  
• I can't pick ticks or fleas off Molly.  Which is why I'm super diligent about her meds.
  
• I can't write cursive very well with some letters, so my handwriting is a mishmash of print and cursive.
  
• I can't do the splits...anymore.  Sucks getting older.
  
• I can't eat anything that looks like it did when it was alive (i.e. lobster)
  
• I can't ice skate.  At least, as far as I know...I've never tried.
  
• I can't handle any situation with blood.  This includes watching movies and television.

What can't you do?

The Elephant's Journey

The Elephant's Journey was recommended to me by one of David's family members.  This relative knew that I had really enjoyed Water for Elephants and had heard that this was really good.  After all, the author is a Nobel Prize winner. 

The premise of this book is actually a true story.  Back in the mid-1500s, the king of Portugal gifts the newly married Archduke of Austria with an unusual wedding present: an elephant (and his keeper).  This book follows the tale of this elephant along with his keeper from one end of the continent to another, in pursuit of their new home. 

Like almost any book covering true events this long ago, the author had to fill in bits and pieces so that the story flowed well.  Because of this, the book is considered a novel, not a true story.  But, I feel that Saramago does a pretty good job of keeping to what probably really happened.  A lot of what occurs within the storyline I could see being documented record.

Honestly, this book was not my favorite.  It's very short (200ish pages) and the story is cute, but the translation leaves much to be desired.  While the translation won an award, the punctuation and dialogue format was hard to read.  There were virtually no paragraphs and you had to piece together where a sentence probably ended in most places; lots of run-on sentences.  If the story had been properly edited and printed, I would have enjoyed it much more.  Overall, I'd probably give it a C...which I hate since I know that it's received accolades and the author is an award winner.  Oh well, it just wasn't my thing.

Do you ever read an award-winning book or watch an Oscar-winning movie and just not get what all the brouhaha is about?

Something New

OK, so I've decided that I need to learn to crochet.  And knit.  And maybe tatting too.  There are so many cute things that you can make if you know how to do these things and I am so pumped to try!  It kinda started last year when one of my best friends said that her daughter learned how to knit via YouTube.  For reals, is there anything you can't learn to do on YouTube?  Same friend told me the other day that she learned how to repair her washer from YouTube.  And hey, it worked!

So, what kicked started this idea into motion was this book.

 

Remember when I talked about cleaning out my Aunt Naomia's house to help her move a while back?  Well, this book was in her house and it's one of the things I was able to have at the end of that week.  It tells you how to do virtually EVERYTHING in needlecraft.  No joke.  But, I'm also a visual kinda gal, so while I looked at what was in this book, I also started to look at some videos on YouTube.  You know, the initial inspiration.

Here's what I've made so far.  The coaster was my first and it way too tight, but the dishcloth is a bit better, albeit a little uneven.

 

I actually bought a whole bunch of yarn the other day to start some more projects soon!  And I really think that Pinterest either helps or hurts (depending on your point of view) when it comes to this obsession.  I mean, look at all the cute things you could make!

Source: etsy.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Source: outstandingcrochet.blogspot.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Source: ravelry.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Seriously cute.  We'll see what I can come up with and you know I'll share pics as I finish different attempts at crocheting...and knitting eventually.  So far, I'm only tackling one at a time...crochet. 

Oh yea, and I mentioned tatting up above.  That would be the last of the three I'd try.  It's the technique doilies are typically made out of, but there's some seriously cute stuff out there for it too.  I mean bookmarks...hello!

Source: yahoo.com via Pauline on Pinterest

We'll see how accomplished I become at any of this...  Do you know how to perform any needlework like this?  Or want to learn too?

50 Shades

Last week, I fell into that black abyss that is the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy.  Everyone I know (minus my fellow book club-ers) were all shocked that I hadn't read it.  Well, I initially hadn't heard such great things when the series first came out, so I had thrown it on the back burner...and kinda decided to not try it.

But, then one of my favorite girls from book club, Natalie, told me she had read it on her Kindle and said, "It's really just like Twilight, only the guy isn't a vampire, he's a sexual deviant."  Umm, OK.  Then, another girl, Karlin, came to book club bearing the actual physical copies of the books.  And she LOVED them.  At this point I thought to myself, "why not?"  So, I borrowed them.

And, if I'm completely honest, I was a little scared.  I actually held on to them for about a month before I worked up the courage to crack the first cover open.

And boy, was I in for a treat...I got totally sucked in.  Let me tell you, Christian is so suave and appealing from the get-go, that I was smiling to myself after reading only 20 or so pages.  And Ana?  Well, Ana is very Bella.  And Christian is very Edward...everything from the way he dresses, the music, his old-fashioned manners, etc.  Yea.  If you've done any research about these books, you've read that the author specifically wrote them for the adult women who love the Twilight series.  And I can honestly say that she hit the nail right on the head.  There's even a little bit of a Jacob figure...only he's not Indian, he's Hispanic and named Jose.

As you gradually get to know Christian, you begin to realize that something is not quite right.  While he appears to have everything together...rich, well-groomed, articulate, shrewd businessman...you can tell there's a weakness there.  And you see it, almost, from the very beginning.  He doesn't like to be touched and he doesn't show emotion well.  You learn as the books progress that Christian's way of coping with these fallacies (and the reasons behind them) is, indeed, this sexual deviancy.

I was so nervous as I progressed farther into the first book because I was just waiting for...it.  I had heard about the infamous deflowering scene...thumb interlude and all.  But, by the time I got to it, I was already so wrapped up in the two characters and what was going on, that it didn't bother me.  That part kinda made me go, "ew," but, overall I was OK.

And, as for the rest of those kinds of scenes, they aren't that bad.  Yes, they're pretty graphic, but have you ever read a real romance novel?  Instead of there being 5 scenes the entire book, there's one every 20 pages (after the deflowering scene, of course).  And while there's some pretty, umm, creative instruments that Christian likes to utilize...there's not anything I hadn't heard of through television shows or bachelorette parties.  And there's not anything that could cause any real physical harm (i.e. no choking).  With that being said, I don't get the whole obsession to run off to the hardware store...no.  Even if E.L. James makes it sound good in the book...no, thank you.

Now...down to my real question.  I LOVE and I do mean LOVE Ana's inner goddess and her subconscious.  They are soooo hilarious.  I'm just wondering if and how they'd incorporate them into the movie...because you know there's going to be a movie, right?  I seriously don't know how it's not going to be rated XXX...but, we'll see!

One more point I want to make...I love it when books refer to classics.  Duh, one of my goals is to read as many classics as possible.  And when books allude to a particular work, I'm always more apt to move it to the top of my list (in the classics genre).  These books talk a lot about Thomas Hardy and Tess of the D'Ubervilles specifically.  These were Ana's favorites and I will be excited to pick Tess and Hardy's other works up soon.

I really enjoyed these books and the story that goes along with it.  They won't win any great literary prize...but, neither will Twilight.  In fact, the first time I read Twilight, I mentioned how after being 10 pages in I wanted to grab my red pen.  If you loved Twilight, you'll love this.  If you're looking for a hot, romantic page-turner, you'll love this.  If you're looking for something that has a complex literary plot and really makes you think...this is not it.

OK, now I'm going to brush my hands and move on to my next book...  And oh yea, I'll leave you with the funniest Pinterest board I've seen regarding this huge 50 Shades hoopla.

Source: simurl.com via Shawntel on Pinterest

Pinterest Inspiration - Book Shelf

Do you remember this ol' thing?  I blogged that I was going to do something with it a little while ago...

 

Well, I did!  I was initially only planning on sanding and then painting it.  But, then one day I was pinning on Pinterest, and I saw THIS.

Source: livelovediy.com via Crystal on Pinterest

Now, wouldn't a pattern like that look fabulous on the top of this little book shelf?

So, I set about sanding and painting this bad boy.  After sanding the heck out of it, I gave it a first coat.  The paint I used is our trim paint inside, so it would match perfectly when complete.

Then, another coat.

 

It's amazing what just a couple coats of paint will do.  Better, huh?

Next up, I bought a wall/floor stencil from Hobby Lobby.  By the way, if you want to go to Lowe's because that seems logical, don't.  They don't carry wall stencils.  True story.  Luckily, Hobby Lobby does and I also bought some sponging applicators along with some stencil paint.  Dark cherry.  We like crimson and cream around here...boomer.

 

Because of the lip at the back top of the shelf and because this stencil is just so big, I had to line up the edges and make a centered pattern for my project.  As opposed to the Pinterest idea shown above, that covers the full table top.  I fully intended to continue the left side of the stencil on the right side of the shelf top as well, in case you were wondering why this looks off-center.  It is...on purpose.

Here's what this looks like post-paint application.

And here's a picture of the full, finished product.

Some of the red seeped under the stencil in the process, but I'm OK with that...kind of a small bit of shabby chic.  And I love how it turned out.  Now, to fill it with books...that shouldn't be too hard for me.

The Duchess

Sometimes I watch a movie and become so intrigued that, if it's based upon one, I am moved to read the book.  This is the case with The Duchess, by Amanda Foreman.  Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, is an amazing woman and I was fascinated to learn more about her.  Truly, she was the first female "celebrity" to be bombarded with, what you would call today, tabloids.  Her limelight was highlighted in the late 1700s to early 1800s, around the time when newspapers were printed and made affordable for the everyday person.

Georgiana was the first-born in a family and was forever the favorite child and daughter.  Because of this, she was overly coddled and therefore, became obsessed with pleasing her parents.  She ended up marrying who her parents desired for her, throwing her into a loveless marriage.  In an attempt to impress her husband (and perhaps encourage him to love her), she throws herself into the upper echelons of society and politics.  Everyone comes to love her and what she stands for.  Georgiana also becomes a true fashionista with her dresses and hairstyles causing everyone to follow her newest fashion trends. 

What might be most interesting about her life, includes the relationship between herself and her best friend, Bess.  Bess begins sleeping with the Duke, Georgiana's husband, and the three manage to keep a strange marriage and love triangle.  It's truly an odd relationship.

I'm not going to lie, the book is a much drier representation of this woman and her story than the movie.  Although, there is a TON more information.  I really enjoyed it, but if you're not used to reading biographies or historical works...this might not be for you.  I only recommended it to a couple of girls in my book club, who already lean towards historical and more-dry material.  But, if you're not gutsy enough to pick up the book, PLEASE rent the movie!  It's wonderful.  I've linked the preview below!

In fact, watching this makes me want to re-rent this movie and watch it again!