I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #8
Shrimp, and veg on pasta
Today’s post is the 8th of “I eat, I read, I watch,” my column highlighting one of my solo dinners and my reading or Netflix accompaniments. Please treat yourself well at mealtime too. Don’t just eat alone - dine solo! You’re worth it. And it’s not hard to do. Missed the earlier instalments? Click:
I eat: Shrimp & veg with pasta
So who doesn’t like pasta? And shrimp? And cleaning veg out of the fridge? Tonight’s meal accomplished a lot of this.
I pulled six frozen jumbo shrimp and started them on a quick thaw under water. At the same time, I chopped up half a very large red onion and got it sautéing in olive oil in a stainless steel pan. I pulled two tiny sweet peppers, a very large sliced garlic clove, six or seven cherry tomatoes starting to look a little wrinkly and one fresher looking heirloom tomato. When the diced onion started to lose a little of its purple colour, I added the garlic slices and the peppers to soften them a little.
In a separate pan, I started to boil salted water for pasta - wholewheat spaghetti in fact. Healthy! My induction stove top boils water almost instantly so soon I dumped all my dried noodles in, just enough for one (mental note - add spaghetti to list). Package says 10-12 minutes and I set the timer for 12. The induction seems to take a little longer than a conventional stove top for boiling things - you save time on the fire-up but take a little longer for the cooking.
There’s a half glass of white wine in a bottle in the fridge so I dump that in with the chopped tomato and a few pinches of fresh oregano and thyme. Things are starting to simmer nicely so I turn the pan down, add my six frozen shrimps (still hard but no matter), and stick a lid on it.
After a quick rummage in the fridge, I decide to add a spoonful each of sliced black olives and marinated mushrooms and a small dollop of Calabrian chilli sauce. You can’t have too much heat in life, is my view. Give it all a good stir and replace the lid.
I’m one minute away from the timer going off so I pull a pasta bowl and a colander. I test a piece of pasta - perfect. I drain and plate the pasta, pull the shrimp out, and then smother it all in veggie sauce. Oh who’s kidding whom - everything deserves cheese and I have that edible-but-not-all-that-terrific pre-grated parmesan just for such an occasion. I give it a healthy sprinkle, pour myself a glass of water, grab some cutlery and a napkin, and take a seat with my Netflix dinner companion. Voila!
***
I ate all the shrimp and pasta that evening. The next morning, I took the leftover vegetable mixture, heated it in the frying pan and added an egg. In a city where people go hungry, I make sure I respect my leftovers and used them as best I can.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cost: $7 (these shrimp were a bit pricey)
Tell me about your dinner. In the Comments below please!
I read: My own blogs from 3 years ago
When I started blogging in May 2021, I really didn’t have a sense of how it would go. Would I have enough material to sustain this? Would I enjoy the weekly deadline? And perhaps most pressing, would anyone read it? Well, yes, yes, and yes!
In the first year, my readership was very low, mostly because I wasn’t using Facebook much, so I’ve been reposting them every week on “Throwback Thursdays.” For most, it’s fresh material, although often reflecting a different time, a time when COVID consumed as all. For a few of us, including me, this is a chance to re-read the pieces. In some cases, I have no memory of writing them. I remember the content of course, but the form, and the words are new again. It’s fun! I’m both reliving a life I’d like to forget and glad I kept a record of that extraordinary time.
Hey you writers - do you ever go back to old material? Tell us about it in the Comments below.
I watch: Something other than news
For decades, I ended my day with The National, CBC’s 10 pm newscast. Knowlton Nash, then Peter Mansbridge, and eventually Adrienne Arsenault sung me their versions of a night-time lullaby. I became friendly - in my own mind - with all the reporters and enjoyed the occasional flirtation between them - recall, Peter and Claire Martin, the meteorologist from a decade ago. I even introduced the gang to Jack who got on board with the whole ritual, although for the night owl in him, it was most def not bedtime!
When we all shifted everything in March 2020, and my pandemic anxiety was at its highest, I put a moratorium on watching news. I listened to CBC radio reports at regular intervals during the day but I just couldn’t let myself see the images of body bags, mass graves, and emergency hospitals popping up in New York City, Italy, and China that I knew were flooding the airwaves. I just couldn’t. So The National was a no-go zone for me.
And I’ve never returned. I go watch TV before bed but it’s all Netflix now. I wind down with an episode of a series or part of a movie. Always fiction. I get enough reality from the radio and social media. I don’t need to poison my dreams with bad news.
Are you a news-watcher? In the Comments below please!
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