New Year Ramblings...and Shrimp with Pasta...

 from The Graphics Fairy

 

Having just entered a new year, many of us are still looking back at what has passed, and forward to what we hope will be.  I think we're supposed to reflect and feel grateful for the good things, letting go of, or perhaps blocking out, the not so good things.  I suspect we ignore the not so good because we want to be happy as the New Year comes in, we want to be positive and hold out hope for feeling renewed.  In short, we feel desperate about the lives we have created and we need to bullshit ourselves into a stupor.

I, however, remain reluctant to look back on 2009 and, if I must, I am most certainly not inclined to ignore anything that may, upon close inspection, ooze, all greenish and slimy, out of the seams.

It has been a rough year for me, one filled, oddly, with a tremendous amount of hope.  I've hoped that I would understand the absurd, accept the outrageous and feel kindly toward the assholes.  Alas, I find that I am imperfect, and I elect not to set myself up for more of the same.  I want a New Year full of success and fulfillment, and, if the New Year must bring with it crap, I want new and improved crap.  I want different crap.  I want a higher class of crap, if you will.

As I contemplated the upcoming New Year, I sat in a cluster of days that held in its sweaty little palm a big old bundle of, yes, crap. 

***I have, upon request, deleted this portion of this post.***

In the meantime, I’m looking into 2010 with a bit of caution and a shit load of conviction.  I’ll look back only enough to avoid making the same mistakes again, and I’ll look forward as I do the things I say I want so much to do.  I’ll hold nearer to me those who are dear, and I’ll close the door on those who continue to cause me, or those I love, even a second of unnecessary pain.  In Spring, I’ll plant a garden full of flowers and vegetables, and, until then, wait impatiently to smell the clean, wet dirt and taste the freshly picked cherry tomatoes as they pop in my mouth.

I’ll stop trying to understand the absurd or accept the outrageous, and I’m thinking I don’t really want to feel kindly toward the assholes after all.  If crap must float past now and then, as surely it will, it’ll have to be a higher level of crap if it wants my attention.


***I have, upon request, deleted this portion of this post.***
Apropos to absolutely nothing (like that's ever made me hesitate), we had Shrimp with Pasta for dinner.  It's easy and delicious.

Shrimp with Pasta

Ingredients

1 lb. Jumbo shrimp per person, cleaned (amount depends on the appetites you're trying to satisfy)
6 Large Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 Large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 Medium onion (Vadalia, if you can get one), finely chopped
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Butter
Asiago Cheese, grated
Fontina Cheese
Good wine (red or white, but something you would drink)

Angel hair pasta, cooked (figure about 5 ounces of dry spaghetti per person)

Preparation

1.  Cover the bottom of your hot pan with oil and a bit of butter.  (The butter adds a nice flavor, but isn't necessary.  The oil helps keep the butter from burning.  Go easy on both; you can always add more.)  Saute the onion until golden brown; set aside.  Do the same with the garlic and then the mushrooms, sauting each separately, but putting the sauted food in the same bowl when set aside.

2.  Add more butter and oil to the pan and throw in the shrimp.

Let the shrimp cook until it is browned (the pan should be very hot before you put the shrimp in, or it will overcook before browning).  Cover the bottom of the pan with wine (not too much, you only want a shallow pool in the bottom of the pan).  Cook until the wine evaporates.

3.  Add all of the remaining ingredients to the shrimp; mix well.  Add the pasta to the shimp mixture and mix well.  Top with the cheeses and mix again.

4.  Transfer the shimp and pasta mixture to a serving dish and serve hot.

This is such an easy and delicious dish.  You can really play with it--it's impossible to hurt it.

Ahh, I think I feel better now.  Thanks for listening....