Traditions

Fri. Aug. 28, 2009

Tradition has always been important to me; the things I look forward to season to season are more often than not actually things I am looking back to. I love pulling familiar slouchy sweaters back out from storage, I love digging up seasonal recipes, and I love the silly little crafts that, while aimed at ten-year-olds, really takes another decade or more to appreciate.

As the summer continues to wander away for the year, I've decided to indulge in tradition a little.

My dad has never really cooked too much from what I can remember, but his #1 dish, made almost every Saturday night for mom when she would come home late from work, was shrimp scampi. I remember sitting on the counter when I was young, excited to help make such a "fancy" dinner that required such cool gadgets as a garlic press! As such, it's one of my favorite dishes to make when I'm feeling kind of stressed or just plain nostalgic.

Today the situation was of the former kind-- work is getting pretty busy with the school year about to begin, which of course means that well, the school year is beginning and oh my god the summer's over and I'm a junior. So for Lonely Lunch today (all by myself) I whipped up a fast scampi of my own. I boiled the last couple nests of fettuccine I had left, finished off a bottle of white cooking wine and a couple tablespoons unsalted butter left over from yesterday's biscotti, crushed a clove of garlic and let these simmer for a while. To this I added a handful of imitation crab I've had frozen for a while and more of the giant spinach bunch I've been working off of this week. Almost as good as I remember :).

(The second tradition I'm going to enjoy tonight is Chinese Food Fridays with my gent. Happy eleven months indeed!)