Feast or Famine!

You don't hear from me for days and then I have two posts within hours?!?!? Really this post is for the benefit of my friend Vanessa who could use a good laugh. In an effort to not be rude to my other readers I'll try to include some background. It's been a little over a year now since we were treated to an authentic Louisiana Crab Boil while vacationing with Vanessa in Sarasota(see January 4, 2009 post for pictures of this event). She and Big Lee greeted us after our loooong two days of driving, standing in my Dad's driveway with the boiling pot and food on the ready. We learned how to crack open crabs and which parts NOT to eat thanks to our NOLA friends! Sad to admit but we come from the "avoid all seafood" branch of the mid-west. This is mostly due to our looong distance from the sea resulting in less than stellar seafood offerings during those impressionable childhood years. I am gagging as I type my memory of our Lenten penance food of salmon patties....YUCK!!!! Seafood has improved drastically around here but imprinting is hard to erase!!...............until you sit with your little junior chef and watch the Barefoot Contessa prepare roasted garlic shrimp with cracked pepper. It looked too simple to be true but it also looked veeeeery appetizing. We tried it out as one of our New Year's party knoshing offerings. Big hit!!! So tonight..... they begged for a repeat and many a shrimp has only his tail left to prove he ever lived. Now this is where the inside humor lies....so do these qualify as 'real' shrimp Vanessa? Honestly, we ate them with only garlic flavored olive oil and cracked pepper....no breading involved. See!!! Notice that Mari's popcorn potatoes went first...she eats only one thing at a time and tonight the spuds went first but she did 'clean her plate'! Now I know Vanessa is noting the sauce in the middle of the picture..... Baby steps Vanessa, baby steps! We let go of our breading but we aren't quite ready to ditch the cocktail sauce!!! Who knows, Iron Chef showed some scallops that looked easy too.....