Quick Shrimp & Penne With Bleu Cheese Vermouth Sauce

If you've heard the old saw that forbids the combination of fish or seafood with cheese, this is one recipe that dispels that misguided advice. Lets be real, there are loads of dishes that ignore that rule including Sole Romano or Flounder with Parmesan Crumbs; Lobster Mac n Cheese; Shrimp, Crab & Scallop Alfredo; or even good old fashioned tuna casserole. So go ahead, it's perfectly delicious to cheese up your fish with abandon!

Quick Shrimp & Penne

With Bleu Cheese Vermouth Sauce

Serves 2

• 12 jumbo shrimp, tails removed, deveined
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 4 T dry white vermouth
• 4 T half and half
• 4 T bleu cheese, crumbled
• 2 small green onions, sliced across - reserve 1 T of the green bits for garnish
• lots of fresh ground black pepper
• freshly shaved parmesan cheese for finishing
• 2 C cooked penne

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes - stir, but do not brown. Once the garlic has softened, add the shrimp. Cook until just pink on both sides. Remove just the shrimp to a plate and set aside.

Add green onions to the oil, garlic and red pepper in the skillet, then add vermouth. Stir up all the good stuff from the bottom of the pan. Add the half & half and stir again; add bleu cheese and stir until smooth. Season with pepper.

Plate the penne in two shallow bowls (to hold all that creamy, cheesy sauce), then divide the shrimp and sauce between them. Garnish with green onion and shaved parm. Add a green salad and dinner is ready in minutes!

NOTE: This really is a quickie recipe...as long as you have cooked pasta on hand, and I did. 

Pro Tip: Cook that whole box of pasta even if you only need part of it, and freeze what's left for fast future dinners (just be sure to cook it only to the al dente stage before freezing in 2 C portions). 

Low Country Grilled Shrimp, Andouille & Veggies with Old Bay Beer Butter

Feelin' beachy? Me too! So much so that I've been craving a good ol' shrimp boil...something to help assuage the longing for sand, sun and seafood until we hit Ocean City next month. This one easily qualifies under my "Quickie" category because there's almost no prep and it cooks in minutes. Nope, not in a steamer as is traditional for a boil, but on the grill. And it's done in a flash!

Usually we haul out the propane-fueled turkey fryer/steamer to do a boil...and that's just perfect with a big crowd. With just the two of us for dinner on Sunday, that method didn't make any sense at all. Out came the grill!

To get the same Maryland-style flavors we were craving, Old Bay beer butter was basted onto heaps of shrimp, small red potatoes, onions, Andouille sausages and corn right on the grill.  Yes, there were some flare ups, but that just helped to give a desirable blackened quality to the andouille and shrimp and made the corn almost caramel-y. 

The result? It seemed just like being oceanfront at the beach with the same hoppy, spicy deliciousness of a boil, combined with the smoky flavors only a grill can produce.  We were happy campers!

Even though the cries of seagulls were missing, I swear I caught just the faintest whiff of salt air. Not only that, I think our grilled "boil" may have been even better than the original! Now bring on Ocean City and crabs....I'm READY!

 Low Country Grilled Shrimp, Andouille & Veggies

with Old Bay Beer Butter

 Serves 2 - with plenty of leftovers

• 1 pound shrimp, jumbo, raw, peeled, tails on - threaded onto metal skewers (or wooden skewers that have soaked in water (or beer) for at least an hour)
• 1 pound sausage, andouille if you can find it - kielbasa is good, too!
• 1 pound red potatoes, small ones, cut in half - cooked in the microwave for a few minutes until almost done, but not quite
• 1 large vidalia onion, peeled, cut into eigths - leave stem end intact so the layers don't seperate
• 4 ears of corn, husked, silk removed

• 2 sticks butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons Old Bay Seafood seasoning
• 1/4 cup beer, gluten-free beer to make this GF - your favorite regular beer if gluten isn't an issue

Baste: In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, beer and Old Bay. Set aside.
 
Heat up your grill - keep it low because the butter baste is going to flare up...even with the heat low. It's okay because that smoky, blackened flavor intensifies the sweetness of the corn and the veggies...YUM! Also, be SURE to use a long-handled basting brush and work quickly to avoid the flames. No burns or catching on fire, please!

 

Once the grill is ready, pile on the corn, potatoes, onions, sausage and last, the shrimp. Baste liberally with the Old Bay Beer Butter. This will flare up. Be very careful,! As each item is done, remove to a platter. The shrimp won't take long at all. When everything is done, it's dinner time! All you need is some good crusty bread and a bottle of your favorite beer or wine. So easy! So good!

One Skillet Garlic Spinach and Shrimp Quickie

I promised you a couple of new twists on old favorites for Lent. This one is quick, easy and low-cal to boot!

Honestly, it took less than ten minutes to put together in ONE pan. Okay, I may have cheated just a teensy bit with frozen brown rice from Trader Joe's. Come on...that's being smart and efficient, not cheating!

With no further intro, here's a dish that's sure to become one of your own go-to dinners. Short on time but don't want to skimp on flavor or nutrition? This is it. (I called it a quickie because it's fast, but seriously....who doesn't love a good quickie now and then?)

One Skillet Garlic Spinach and Shrimp Quickie

Serves 2

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups fresh spinach, use baby spinach and you don't even have to chop it!
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• pinch oregano, or even TWO pinches...live large!
• pinch red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 12 shrimp, raw, peeled - tails on if you wish
• 1/2 lemon, squeezed over the finished dish

• brown rice, prepared - check the freezer aisle at Trader Joe's for their cooked brown rice - super simple in a flash!

In a large skillet, heat the oil, add the garlic and spinach together. Stir until the garlic begins to soften. Add the tomato halves and the seasonings. Stir. Add shrimp and cook until the shrimp are pink and opaque.
 
Pile rice onto 2 plates and divide the shrimp and spinach mixture over top. Give each plate a healthy squeeze of lemon. Serve!



NOTE: You do know this is naturally gluten-free, don't you? Now THAT'S good news!