Shrimp Creole, Chardonnay, and Guilty Pleasure TV

I have been busy. I know, I know! Everyone swears that they are always busy. For me though, this was a busy few months. As an Events Marketing Specialist for Best Friends Animal Society, my job revolves around the adoption and fundraising events that we have throughout the year. In the spring, I traveled to New York City and Salt Lake City for our Super Adoption events, which were amazing! Hundreds of pets were adopted and went to good homes. After that I went right into the marketing for ten Strut Your Mutt events across the country. If you have ever tried to manage volunteers, media, and other staff from all over the country, then you know what I mean when I say that for six months, I feel like I was wrangling cats...lol. At the end of September, though, we had raised over $2.1 million for homeless pets, gained recognition for both Best Friends and the rescue groups we work with, and everyone had an amazing time! Translation: Totally worth it!

Me at the Super Adoption in Salt Lake City

Representing NKUT (No Kill Utah) in Salt Lake City 

A look at Strut Your Mutt

Well now that I can finally breath again, I realized that I hadn't made a great gourmet meal in ages! Hubby actually started getting worried for me because I was so stressed that I was beginning to burn everything when I cooked. Not good! Well during my recent trip to NYC, I went to a New Orleans themed restaurant and had the worst shrimp creole that I have ever had! It was literally shrimp tossed in marinara sauce. How could they desecrate such a wonderful dish?! Well when I came home, I was determined to make an authentic shrimp creole. 

Where do you go when you want a great recipe? Pinterest, of course! How I lived life before this wonderful website it beyond me! I searched dozens of recipes for shrimp creole. Everyone has their variation, but the one that caught my eye was one that instructed me to make my own stock. Anyone who would take that extra step in making a labor-heavy stock is going to be my expert on a good creole. 

What I did not anticipate, though, was that with a great, detailed recipe comes lots of ingredients! Hubby and I broke the bank alone on spices and fresh herbs. And have you seen the price of quality shrimp lately? Whew! Well I did the full recipe, did not skip steps, even making my own shrimp stock, and the end result...MAGNIFICENT! I strongly suggest that you make this recipe. Seriously, leave your house now and get the ingredients. Check it out here.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Oh, what is that behind that delicious plate of shrimp creole in the picture? Wine, of course! The recipe requires a dry white wine to be added and that was all you needed to tell me to send me in search of a good bottle. Automatically, I thought Chardonnay. Since this would be used for cooking, I stayed away from the more expensive French or Italian wines and walked over to the American whites. I went with the Poppy Wines Chardonnay. The description of the wine said that it had notes of lemon, melon, nutmeg, and clove. Because this was a shrimp dish, I knew that all of those flavors would work really well and would not clash with any of the other spices in the dish. 

Additional notes about this wine: It stayed within my budget comfort zone of under $15. My local market is great in giving the wine rankings of wines, which helps wine newbies like me, so with a ranking of 90, I felt good about trying this out. The verdict: It was actually a really good wine. I expected it to be too dry, but it went down smooth and left a great citrus aftertaste that went well with my meal. It was so good that I finished the bottle and did not know it was empty until I reached for another glass. Sad Face! This will definitely be going into my wine arsenal. 

Hubby and I sat down to a great meal with great wine and it was a great evening. Then we capped it off with horrible TV. OK, ok, it is not horrible, but it is a definite guilty pleasure! Tyler Perry's newest dramatic soap opera, "If Loving You is Wrong." 

Let me first say that this show is LITERALLY just a rewritten version of his movie, "Single Mom's Club." Did he not think we would notice this? It even has the same actress playing the same role in both movie and TV show. Come on Tyler, stop being lazy. For some reason though, while I thought the movie was only so-so, I am addicted to the TV show. Maybe it is because of all the juicy drama that seems to be nonstop or maybe the bad acting that I love to make fun of. Either way, Hubby and I DVR it every week and every week, we are absorbed in the antics of this new soap opera. 

Movie Version

TV Version. You ain't tricking me Tyler!

So there you have it - a night in the life of me and Hubby. He definitely deserved a special evening because he has been amazingly understanding with my work and constant travel. And I am sure he is thanking God that I will now stop burning all of our food. Lol.

Talk later!

Crystal