Movie, Bowling, Shrimp,

We decided to watch The Green Mile on Thursday night and of course it went on quite late so although I had written a bit of this blog, I hadn't finished it. We both enjoy that movie, one of our favourites. Tom Hanks is brilliant in it - well he is in anything he takes on - and I love the John Coffey character played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Tonight I thought more about the acting than I ever have before and the guy who played the nasty little prick Percy Wetmore, Doug Hutchison, did a brilliant job in making everyone hate him. In fact I think the whole thing was brilliant. Especially the makeup job on Tom Hanks for his "old man" look. Must have taken quite a while to achieve.

Bowling wasn't too bad today, one of our team joined us and bowled ahead. So we decided to bank ours as well. Turned out that the league who always play on Thursday afternoons, were having their missed Christmas get together today. Bad snow day before. As usual we were invited to partake. I had a glass of wine and some cookies. Team member had more to eat but Matt, as usual, didn't have anything. One of the ladies from the league had given us a couple of wafers a previous week, they were so good I asked her to pick some up for me. She gave me a couple of packets today but wouldn't take any money which means I can never ask her to get any more for me. They are a Dutch coffee flavoured wafer, delicious.

This is a recipe I picked up from the local paper, K.W. Record, many, many years ago. I cannot tell you the times I have made it, mostly when we lived in NC and had access to really fresh, tasty shrimp. We had a friend who owned a shrimp boat and he would give me 5 lbs of shrimp, heads on of course, and ask me to make it. I usually saved a few of those shrimp for us. I don't think it is totally authentic, but we all enjoyed it and our friend even ate it for breakfast. I may well have posted this recipe before, but I came across it tonight and I was hungry for it once again. I wonder if I can get some really decent shrimp. Trouble is the stuff we get here has been on ice for a while and the good flavour tends to leech out. They should freeze it instantly and sell it that way. I used to freeze fresh shrimp and it stayed tasty for a long time.

Jambalaya

To freeze, don't add onions or tomatoes.

2-1/2 cup water
1 cup rice - Basmati is best
1 tsp salt
3 tsp red pepper sce (hot)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 lb cooked shrimp (I usually use more, much more)
1 cup diced ham
1/2 med green pepper cut in 1 x 1/4 in strips
4 green onions, with tops, sliced
2 med tomatoes, roughly chopped

1. Bring water to boil, add rice, 1 tsp salt and red pepper sauce. Simmer 20 mins. covered. Remove from heat, let stand approximately five mins til liquid has disappeared. Put in a large bowl. Combine garlic, oil, remaining salt with rice. Add rest of ingredients except tomatoes. Chill a minimum of 3 hours. Stir in tomatoes to serve.

Servings: 4

Source: KW Record

Have a great day