Shrimp and Grits

This past Tuesday night, I had a strong desire to cook something different. (Here lately it's been almost non-existient). I had been craving Shrimp and Grits, and I found a wonderful recipe that I knew Brent would like. It has bacon. I knew I'd be safe with this if it had bacon on it. And I was so proud of myself because it turned out so good. I've actually had it for lunch the past two days as well, and that almost never happens either.

I can't take credit for it - I found it at Tasty Kitchen from the Pioneer Woman's website. They have yummy stuff there, and a lot of it is easy to prepare. I am definitely an EASY girl. No, not in that way. More of in the way of "if it has more than 5 ingredients and/or steps, then I don't want to make it" girl.

Pardon the poor quality photograph, but the shrimp had all of the pretty colors in them.

Shrimp and Grits with Spinach and Bacon


12 ounces, weight Cooked Small Shrimp (Peeled And Deveined, With Tails Removed)—If Frozen, Thaw And Drain

1 cup Grits (not Fast Cooking)

4-½ cups Water

2-½ teaspoons Kosher Salt, Divided

4 strips Bacon, Crispy And Crumbled

⅓ cups Chopped Bell Pepper (I hate red, but love yellow, so that's what I used)

10 ounces, weight Baby Spinach, Washed And Dried

1 clove Garlic, Minced

½ teaspoons Black Pepper

¼ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper (I used Tony Cacherans)

1-½ cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Preparation Instructions

Bring water to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Stir in grits and 2 teaspoons salt. Continue stirring and simmer until thick, about 4-5 minutes.

In a large frying pan, heat olive oil and saute peppers until soft. Add spinach and garlic and saute just until the spinach is wilted. Add shrimp and cook through. Stir in crumbled bacon. Sprinkle with remaining salt, pepper and cayenne.

To serve, spoon grits into a bowl, top with shredded cheddar, then top with the shrimp and spinach mixture.

It's like a hug from the inside. Serve with a big glass of sweet tea, and you can't get any more Southern than that.

Fabulousness? Not So Much

Last Sunday was the Oscars, and for some reason I got caught up in the pre-show hype, so I early tuned to E! and ABC to catch all of the fabulousness. But let me just say, Hollywood - you let me down. I should have known better really. I liked looking at the fashion, but I was SEVERELY bothered by the fact that nobody had any hairspray. Now, I am not wealthy by any means, but come on! Tressumme makes some good stuff and it's $2 for about 32 ounces, so surely Sarah Jessica Parker who is a millionaire can afford some good hair spray.

Case in point...

Was she trying to get a poof up there? Did she not have a bump-it? In my humble hair opinion, if you're going to have that big bump on the back, the front needs to be slick. Like her forehead. But that's another story.

Here's another bad one...

Again, no hairspray. Plus, her dress looked like she got caught up in a cotton candy machine at the fair. But that's not the point. 

Oh K-Stew... 

Here's another bad one. Now, I love me some Twilight, but I'm not a huge K-Stew fan. She does the lip biting thing all the time and it's not cute. I did love her dress and the fact that she didn't look grungy, but her hair looked like she had corn rows. Don't get me wrong - I'm not haing on the corn rolls, but when you have a dress with a large end (not butt), you need some big hair to balance it out.

Here are some good ones:  

We love 30 Rock and Tina Fey makes me laugh every Thursday night, and she had a good balance of up/down/poof. Good job Liz Lemon.

And of course, the belle of the ball was Sandra Bullock. Her hair was awesome. That is all.

Basically, the show was boring and long and not entertaining at all, but for some reason I stayed up super late watching it. I think it's cool that your industry nominates and votes on the top performers, but really, does it need to take the place of Brothers and Sisters and Desperate Housewives? Probably not. Next year, I will rely on Perez and TMZ to fill me in.

My Valentine's Present

Sometimes it's scary to leave Brent at home by himself for a week, but while I was gone to Honduras, he was planning a big surprise for me. I knew he was up to something when we got home late Saturday night and he shut the door to the office, but I didn't know exactly what. The Sunday after I got home from my trip just happened to be Valentine's Day. We're not big V-Day people - in fact, I told Brent not to get me anything (and really meant it).  Well, V-Day just also happened to be Sick Day because I woke up that morning with a stomach bug, and spent most of the day knocked out on Phenegren. But late that afternoon, he finally let me see my present and this is what I walked into. A brand new office! A few weeks before we had gone shopping for a new desk and more organization in our catch-all room we call an office, and he actually designed this himself. (I did the actual decorating, but he did the layout).

So here's the finished product. I have to get a few more pictures for the frames.

This is Brent's side of the desk.

And this is my side of the desk.

And this is our organized closet. Now if we could just get the other closets in the house to look like this, I'll be doing good.

Our next project is to clean out our storage room. When we got married, we had to consolidate two households into one, so that meant some stuff had to go live at the mini storage place. I have a nice, big bedroom suite that won't fit into our bedroom now, and some other things that I don't want to get rid of, but half of the stuff in there is junk. Our goal for March is to clean and organize the storage stuff and donate at least half of it to charity. We thought about doing a garage sale, but we are just not haggle people. I'd rather get donate it and get a receipt. It's a win-win situation!