ArcaMax

What Season is This Again?

This has been the strangest winter. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear I was living in North Carolina and not Chicago.

As many of you know, I was born in Wisconsin. One state up from where I now sit. Almost every year of my life it has snowed on my birthday. This year it was 51 degrees in Chicago on January 10th. That’s not exactly snow weather.

Then two days later we got six inches of snow. Just a tad late.

When I was a preschooler we used to go ice skating at the neighborhood rink up to three times a day. We could go in the morning after breakfast and be back for lunch. We repeated that and were back for dinner. Then after dinner we even went one more time. Each time we were able to put our skates on in the house and just walk to the rink. It was just around the corner and down the block. As we walked we were careful not to walk on bare sidewalk or that would dull our blades. We didn’t have any trouble. We just walked on the ice around the edges of the sidewalk. There was always plenty of ice thick enough that our skates were safe. This year my husband and I were stepping out for lunch and went to a place where the boulevard along the side of the sidewalk had grass so green he joked about needing to get out a lawnmower.

When we were kids we’d go sledding on the weekends. There was a major hill at the back of one of the university buildings in our small college town. We’d get on our metal snow coasters and go racing down to the bottom. Then we’d trek back up the hill and do it again. And again. And again. We’d go the whole day. Our buddy Tony was a reckless hellion at times. One time he got going so fast on his coaster he stayed on too long and he and his coaster broke through the snow fence and landed on the ice covering the river below. If that had happened this year we would have lost Tony. The waters are freezing cold but there’s no ice. Tony probably would have died of hypothermia. That river is fast and deep.

Today in Chicago it’s warm enough that we started out the day with fog. Later today it’s expected to rain. Then it’s going to turn to snow and leave us about two inches tomorrow. After that it’s expected to shoot back up to well over 40 degrees by the end of the week. This is just nuts.

Shrimp with a Creamy Mustard Sauce (VERY easy)

This dish comes together in what feels like an instant. The sauce is quick and easy and because you are using cooked shrimp it doesn’t take long to cook. Maybe 15 minutes total. This tastes very gourmet without the fuss. It’s nice enough to make for company.

Serves six

Ingredients:

2 lbs of cooked shrimp. (approximately 8 per serving of medium-large shrimp) thawed. Tails on or off. Your choice. I leave the tails on for looks but I don’t eat them.
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil spray
2 medium shallots, minced
2 Tbl of minced, fresh tarragon
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 cup of organic chicken broth
1/4 cup of heavy cream
3 Tbl of Dijon mustard
1 Tbl of minced, fresh chives

Directions

Using one or two large sauté pans lightly spritz with olive oil. Season shrimp with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In the pan(s) add the shallots. Saute lightly just to loosen up the shallots. Add the tarragon. Deglaze the pan with the balsamic vinegar. Then add the broth and the shrimp. Heat until the shrimp are hot. Then add the cream and mustard. Simmer on medium just until the sauce begins to thicken a bit. There isn’t that much cream in this dish so it won’t thicken like a regular sauce but you should be able to get it to thicken a bit.

Serve the shrimp on plates with a scattering of the fresh chives.

Cheers,
Zola