Shrimp Uggie

Have I ever told you that I'm an excellent cook?

I don't do it as often as I used to because I'd rather knit, I haven't built up my pantry since the move, I don't like my kitchen or my oven, there may be some backlash from culinary school and the fact that I work with food (ok, flavors, big difference), etc. etc.

This evening I made a fantastic dinner I've been looking forward to for a week. It's from my favorite St. Louis foodie friend, Ann Lemon, whom, with her husband, writes a fantastic blog: St. Louis Eats and Drinks with Joe and Ann Pollack. If you're not from or in St. Louis it has limited value (it just makes me homesick) but if you're there, you shouldn't miss it. But then again, I may be a bit biased. On the other hand, if you are from or in St. Louis, Joe and Ann have written a few books about the St. Louis food scene which are readily available at Barnes & Noble with which you are probably already familiar, so you can rest assured their blog is a treat to read as well as informative.

Anyway, tonight's dinner was Shrimp Uggie, (as seen above) which you can read all about in the post attached. Basically, it's based on a dish served at the now-defunct Uglesich's in New Orleans, my favorite place in the world, destruction-and-sludge or no destruction-and-sludge. I particularly liked this recipe because it was assembled in such a way that I can easily have it fresh two nights in a row. The sauce/marinade sits for up to a week, and the rest of the stuff (shrimp and potatoes) is added as the sauce/marinade cooks. I just used half of the sauce/marinade and will use the other half tomorrow. I made french bread to accompany it, and that will not be fresh tomorrow night, but that's ok. I'd rather have day-old homemade french bread than fresh store-bought any day. (Unless it's from a real bakery, that's different.)