Garlic Shrimp with Spaghetti...An Easy Dish Yet a Privilege to Prepare

As we slowly pulled into the lot the first thing I noticed was the police car. It could have been a coincidence. Just a routine drive through the neighborhood most likely but my heart sank a bit as I thought to myself, "Please keep them safe. Please let them be treated kindly."

We climbed the open, outdoor staircase and knocked on the door. As the father pulled open the door we were led into a clean, sparsely furnished apartment. The lights were dim. The place was quiet. My friend, Stefani, shook hands with the father. I followed behind. The mother appeared from around the corner. A huge smile across her face. And then little ones slowly made their way into the living room. The boys in their best khaki outfits. The girls in lovely dresses. Stefani and I trying to blink back tears of emotion at their gesture of being so dressed up for their photographs.

At first, we had all eight of them bundle up. I thought the lighting would be better outside. But somehow as I clicked away, I realized that to cover up their outfits was a shame. No these pictures wouldn't be the ones. We would make do with the light inside.

With coats set aside and everyone gathered in the kitchen, I snapped away at their family. Two parents. Six children. And I tried to make sense of what I had been told about them. Left their home in the middle of the night to escape civil war violence. Spent six years in a refugee camp waiting to come to America. Six years.

When I was done with the whole family. I took pictures of the parents. So beautifully regal in the way they looked into the camera.

After the parents, I snapped pictures of each child. They were reluctant at first but then the littlest one came forward in her long white dress with the little pink flowers. She encouraged her brother to get in on the photography shoot. They were precious. Holding hands. Posing unabashedly for the camera. I wanted to reach out and just bundle them up in my arms.

The older ones. The almost teenagers. Were shyer. More self-concious. And yet, despite their efforts to stay reserved, the camera captured their personalities. A shy one. An outgoing one. One of mature beauty. And a littler one, not quite sure about himself...yet.

The eldest children said they went to the nearby middle school. I thought, "Please, please let them be treated well."

We shook their hands and said good-bye. Stefani promised to be back soon with framed copies of the photographs.

On the car ride home, my dear friend explained to me that within 30 days of moving to the United States, all of the children must be enrolled in school. The parents, usually the father, have about 8-9 months to find regular employment. The organization she works for, Lutheran Community Services, helps support refugee families like this one through their arduous transition of settling in the United States.

I tried to comprehend what it must be like to move to a foreign country, to learn a new language, a new school system, a new culture and find employment all in one year's time. I thought of the things on my To Do list that had been languishing on there for not just a year...but years. Fix broken window in living room. Put photos of kids in photo albums. It's almost embarrassing to type that. They are extremely trivial in comparison.

And so, while I can write and say the words - Violence, Civil-War Unrest, Refugee Camp - I can't really know what it is to experience them. No. Not really.

But I can know what it feels like to look into their eyes. To be taken away by their beauty. To want desperately for them to be treated well. To want to gather up the little ones and hug them. To be overcome with emotion by a long white dress with little pink flowers.

And I can know on some level, that the dinner I'm cooking for my family....this simple little dinner of shrimp and pasta...is a privilege to be able to cook in my own kitchen. And it is a privilege to sit around our worn kitchen table. In safety. Eating our meal together.

And I can know what is is like to hope that this family of eight...that I had the privilege of photographing...can now sit around the safety of their own kitchen table and do the same thing.


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Garlic Shrimp with Spaghetti
I love this dish. So fast. Perfect for a weeknight. I use frozen shrimp for this. I find that I use a lot of frozen seafood in the winter. Many times frozen seafood, once thawed, is fresher than the "fresh" fish at your grocery store especially when the seafood was frozen soon after being caught. I have made this with bow-tie pasta and penne but my favorite pasta with this are the longer types - spaghetti, spaghettini, fettucine and so forth. And I must insist on one thing...that you use fresh Italian parsley. It is easy to find in the grocery store (or perhaps your garden) and lasts a long time in your crisper especially if you wrap it in a paper towel.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb spaghetti
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (dethaw, if frozen)
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 c reserved pasta water
juice from 1/2 a large lemon
1/4 c chopped Italian parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Sprinkle in some salt and then, drop in your spaghetti. Cook 8-10 minutes or according to directions on packaging.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add your olive oil and butter and heat until butter is melted. Drop in your garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add in your shrimp and saute over medium heat 4-5 minutes or until the shrimp has turned pink all over.

(For some reason typing that just now made me think of the riddle: What is black and white and red all over? A Newspaper. Ha! Ha! But I digress...)

By this time your pasta should be done. Before draining it, scoop out a 1/2 c of the pasta water and set aside. Then, go ahead and drain your pasta.

Once the shrimp has finished cooking, add your 1/2 c of reserved pasta water, the lemon juice, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Maybe 1/2 tsp of salt...1/4 tsp of pepper... Then, stir gently to combine.

I like to put the pasta in a large pasta bowl and pour the shrimp over the top. Then I gently toss everything together making sure to coat the spaghetti with the delicious garlicky-lemon sauce. Scoop up into individual bowls and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Yum....

Note: If you have an 11-year old who loves shrimp like I do and he is first in line to serve himself up....make sure you let him know that he has a 6 shrimp ration. Otherwise he will take up to 12 or 15, leaving only a few meager ones to be split between the remaining four members of his family.

Enjoy

Yield: Serves 4...but in our house, it serves 5 since the Kindergartner eats like a bird.....

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Spring is Springing
I just adore the work of clay artist, Rae Dunn. Her pottery always catches my eye. And today was no different. I happened to come across her post announcing her new spring plates. Adorable. You'll have to check them out here.

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Organizing Project Progress
The bags to be donated are still in our entryway. We are just stepping around them. They don't seem to be bothering anyone.


All original text and photographs copyright: Carrie Minns 2009-2011

Shrimp Fresco for Just the 5 of Us

As they circled back round past our home once again, we waved and hollered "good bye" and "drive safely" to them with all the fanfare as the first time. I watched as my 10-year old darted through beach grass and hopped over rocks trying to make it to the next driveway before they did. Trying to make the time with his beloved cousins last a little bit longer and then....my sister-in-law, my niece and my nephew were gone.

We had, of course, performed this same good-bye ritual, with the hugs, the waving, the blowing kisses, the circling around a few times, the week before when my sister and her little ones had left. After they had driven out of sight, my 5-year old had tapped me on the arm and said,"Mom?" When I turned to look at him and reply, "What?", I could see that he was trying to keep his lower lip from quivering as he asked me, "When will we see them again?"

Once my sister-in-law's car was out of sight, the 5 of us silently headed back toward the house that had moments ago been teeming with activity and now suddenly seemed very empty and quiet. Each of us, perhaps, a little wistful that the last of the vacations within summer vacation was drawing to a close.

Now, I would be lying if I didn't come forth and say that sometimes, during the past couple of weeks with all of the cousins, the noise level and chaos grew to such heights that I couldn't even hear myself think. And other times, like a good housewife right out of the 50's, I would hear myself holler, "My nerves!" and then, proceed to pour myself an old fashioned a nice, chilled glass of Pinot Gris. But...even with all of that said...I wouldn't change the time spent with all of us together. And once it was over, a bit of emptiness seemed to settle over the house.

That first day of just the 5 of us, we each retreated to our own corner. Some reading, others listening to music, another dozing in front of the TV. Not sure what to do with the calm. But soon there came requests for walks to the ice cream store and bike riding along the paths. And the next day, we hauled ourselves down to the beach. My older two out in the ocean. My little guy quietly, but with great intensity, building sandcastles and me and my sweetie....simply sitting. Next to each other. And watching.

And in the evening, as I stirred the heavenly mixture of garlic, tomatoes and white wine for our shrimp pasta and hummed quietly to The Sea, I thought about how, even with the food, there was something comforting about the rhythms of my own family. Knowing our likes and our dislikes by heart. The schedule we needed to be on...or not. How much activity we needed or how much we could simply "be". And even though I had been sad to say good-bye to the cousins, there was definitely something lovely, harmonious even, about simply being together....just the 5 of us.

(That is until the boys practically broke out into a fist fight over not just legos but lego heads...you know those teeny, tiny pieces that go on top of lego guys and of which we have at least a hundred, but apparently only one of those hundred would do....but hey....the calm was nice while it lasted.)

Shrimp Fresco with Angel Hair Pasta
Adapted from Flavors by Michael Northern

I have to reiterate how the aromas wafting from your stove while you are making this dish are so heavenly they will attract not only your family members but people off the streets. The original recipe called for crabmeat but since neither standing at the counter picking a pound of crabmeat or paying for already picked crab meat sounded appealing, I went with shrimp. Also, being the vegetable pusher that I am, I made this one time with double the spinach but I wouldn't do that again. It was too much and overpowered the dish. And one final note, be careful not to overcook the cherry tomatoes otherwise you're left with skin bits throughout the dish that some people will refuse to eat.

Ingredients:
1/3 c extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c finely chopped garlic (about 8 cloves) Don't skimp on this!
3/4 c dry white wine
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
2 tbsp butter
4 c firmly packed baby spinach leaves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 lb angel hair or spaghettini pasta
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
12 fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped

Directions:
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil over high heat for your pasta.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. With your wine already measured and sitting to the side, add the garlic to your pan and cook for about one minute, stirring constantly being careful that it doesn't brown too quickly. After this time, immediately add your wine which will stop the garlic from browning further and cook for about 4 minutes or until the wine has released its alcohol and reduced by about half. Add the shrimp and saute for about 3 minutes or just until the shrimp starts to turn pink. Add your tomatoes and cook just until they begin to soften, about 3-4 minutes.

Reduce your heat to very low. Fold in the butter until incorporated about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until it wilts, about 1 minute more. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.

Next, add your pasta to your boiling water and cook according to the directions on the package usually only 3-4 minutes. Drain and then return the pasta to your pot.

Add about half of your tomato mixture to your pasta. Stir to coat evenly. Then, dish up your pasta into shallow bowls. Top with more of your tomato/shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with chopped basil and parmesan cheese. Eat. And enjoy.

Yield: About 6-10 servings depending on whether you have just adults or a mixture of children and adults.

All original text and photographs copyright: Carrie Minns 2009-2010