In Which I’m Whipping up Some Dinner

Living alone and having an active social life makes my dinners mostly unpredictable. I see tons of Pinterest posts about printable meal plans and Rachael Ray always has a weekly shopping list that lasts a whole week’s worth of dinners. I always think “Ohhh so pretty! Ohhh so practical!” Well, I’m not Rachael Ray nor am I feeding a family so a pre-planned dinner list for the week is not my style. Plus what if you’re not in the mood for what you thought you’d be in the mood for on Friday when you planned your meals on Sunday?! Tsk. Not for me.

Instead I find myself hungry with random ingredients at home and am left to whip up something. Sometimes dinner turns out horrific (like that elderberry syrup drenched chicken breast with grapes and onions– yuk!!). Sometimes I surprise myself though and surpass my mother’s cooking skills…

Tonight’s challenge: Will be going on a 5 day business trip and have 1/4 broccoli head, a lemon and two potatoes that look more like orange peel crispness wise. Definitely destination trash can if I didn’t use them tonight. Hmmmm. Further digging in my fridge produced a long ago opened bottle of white wine, some garlic, a glass of marinated artichokes and frozen shrimps. A half hour later I am eating a frickin’ amazing dinner. Sandra 1. Waste 0.

Proud chef that I am, I posted a pic on FB and my friend C was so enthralled she asked for the recipe. Here goes:

Shrimps with Artichokes & Broccoli in Lemon White Wine Sauce and Potatoes

  • Start cooking your potatoes – they’ll need the longest
  • Defrost shrimps under running water and pat dry. Season with garlic powder (I was thinking, aww shucks I don’t have time to marinate them but I want them somewhat garlicy – garlic powder to the rescue!)
  • Chop broccoli and garlic – I used two cloves
  • Heat olive oil in pan and add garlic. A little later the shrimps and finally the broccoli
  • Squeeze out half a lemon and pour juice into pan
  • Let simmer a few minutes then add a handful of marinated artichoke segments and white wine (don’t drink the wine, it’ll taste sourrrr)(ignore content of last parentheses if fresh bottle)
  • I added some white pepper and a pinch of sugar to season. Add more wine if things should dry rub against the pan
  • After it’s been simmering until your potatoes are almost done, mix some cornstarch with cold water (you’ll only need a little bit) to thicken the sauce. Stir into shrimp wine mix and bring back to a boil
  • Guten Appetit!

I made this with potatoes because they weren’t going to survive my absence and I’m German – we love potatoes (and The ‘Hoff). I could see this work at least as well with pasta, couscous or rice, too, though. Let me know how yours turned out and happy cooking!

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30 – Shouldn’t I be…

Thirty. Yep, that’s how old I turned this summer. Sounds really old to some people – sounds really young to my grand-parents. Looking back to my teenage years and early twenties, thirty was definitely the grown up crowd. You were supposed to be established in life, have a career, be wise and know everything and overall just be a grown up, mature, and serious person (unless you fell into the rare category cool adult).

So here I am, officially 30 and hopefully a cool adult and not a super serious old fart. I’ve definitely done some cool worthy activities but at the same time my silly inner ear infection induced vertigo has definitely made me feel like the lamest old fart. Le sigh!

I gave a very mature speech as the maid of honor at one of my best friend’s weddings – yet it was much less formal and more fun than the other speakers (I think they were yet at least a decade older though). But a weekend later we had tons of fun being silly at a roller skating rink for my birthday and the after-party at a bar included a burning taxi (how is that for coolness, huh?!)

I suppose your thirties are the decade that you can balance fun with life’s serious sides. I’ve been able to go on vacations because I finally have worked enough years with my company to have a comfortable (wait, there are never enough) amount of vacation days and my rainy day fund is filled so savings can go towards fun trips.

It’s interesting to leave that phase in my twenties where I would still ask myself “What do I want to do with life after college?”. I doubt I will be changing too much in my career now and I like where I live. It’s kind of nice not having to worry about that for a while. I still have goals, personal and professional, but it’s nice not having to figure out a grand master plan right this minute. Though looking back at what I thought I’d be doing at 30 from five to ten years ago I feel like I should be much further along in the grand scheme… Anyone with me?

Owning a dog, and a car and living in a two bedroom apartment as opposed to sharing one or inhibiting a studio makes me feel grown up. And my furniture somehow matches (mostly anyway… shhhhh desk that I found free on the streets)! Yet I somehow feel that I should be able to paint my place’s walls and perhaps pay a mortgage rather than rent. Perhaps I should drive a car that doesn’t squeak when I round a corner (OK my driving might be part of that). And shouldn’t I have gotten promotions and raises (OK that might be because of my visa and the stupid recession but still)? And shouldn’t my facebook photo albums show me in exotic places like Tel Aviv, Costa Rica, Edinburgh, and on Mount Fuji? I feel like I am failing myself a little bit in all those categories.

So anyway, here’s to more personal development and no stagnation!

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