Snow, Speeding, Mockingjay and Anatto.

Well we finally had some more snow. Not a lot you understand, but enough to turn everywhere white again. The local road was certainly covered but Matt left at 7 to go shopping and said the driving wasn’t too bad. What a funny winter for us. We’ll have to move back to Europe for winter snow at this rate.

Funny story on GMA today, a couple heading to the hospital because she was having a baby, her waters broke in the car so he put his foot down. A cop car started chasing him so he called 911 told them what was happening and they conveyed that to the cop car who then proceeded to escort them to the hospital. She got there with 10 minutes to spare. They had a baby boy, when the husband left the delivery room the cop congratulated him and then handed him a ticket for speeding. He had actually clocked 102 mph. The courts are sticking to the charge as well. Legally they are right, but……… You’d think the cop and then the courts would have cut him some slack.

I have finally got hold of the last book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. It is called Mockingjay – so far this has been a very good series although its classification is actually young adult. The first book details how young people are taken from their homes and forced into the Hunger Games in the capital where they are expected to kill to win the games. The protagonist is a young girl called Katniss who’s performance at the games inspires a revolution. Excellent story.

Yesterday I made Shrimp Creole or Camarones a la Criolla as it is called in my Time Life book. My recipe is actually a combination between that recipe and another – don’t know who was the author of the second recipe. One recipe talks about using anatto oil, anatto being basically a colouring agent which grows in the Dominican Republic (a tour guide picked some of the seed pots and smeared it on our hands and faces, but they use it a lot in cooking). These seeds are not exclusive to the DR, but just where I happened to come across them although I had already used anatto powder in cooking.

Shrimp Creole

1/2 Cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 cloves garlic crushed

3 Tbs canola oil mixed with 1 tsp liquid anatto

2 cup fresh tomatoes or

1 16 oz can tomatoes, drained

1 6 oz can tomato paste

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp chili powder (or 1 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh chillies)

1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp tabasco

1/2 cup sherry

1 lb shrimp, cleaned and deveined

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

1 Tbs finely chopped parsley

1 bay leaf

Black pepper

Hot cooked rice

Heat the oil in a medium sized pan over moderate heat. Add the vegetables, cooking for about 5 minutes stirring frequently until soft but not brown. Add tomatoes, herbs, sugar salt and a little pepper. Cook briskly until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is fairly solid. At this point you can hold the sauce until you are ready to serve. Later add Worcester sauce and Sherry to the mixture adding Tobasco if needed. Then add the cleaned shrimp and cook for 4-5 minutes until they are pink.

Serve over hot cooked rice.

Have a great day