Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk + Nostalgia {What's for Dinner? 3/5/2010}

Last night I came home from work in a foul mood and this close to being in tears. It was just one of those days where I felt defeated, both personally and professionally. Luckily, I have an amazing husband who wrapped me up in his arms and told me everything was going to be okay. Then he told me to go relax and he would take care of dinner.

Of course, because I'm a control freak, I ended up helping make dinner anyway but it was a team effort. Then we ate dinner and proceeded to watch an episode of Parks & Recreation {I really wanted to watch True Blood Season 2 and I thought we could find it On Demand but alas we couldn't...so this was our second choice}.

We had never watched this show before but it turns out it's totally HILARIOUS! It's a lot like The Office in the way it's filmed and the humor {which is okay with us because we love The Office}. We ended up watching all 4 episodes of it that were available On Demand for free and it was great.

After we finished watching the shows I started feeling nostalgic so I made Alex tell me the story again of how he decided he wanted to propose to me and how he went about planning it all. I love that story. It makes me happy. :)

When he finished the story he said "Hold on one second" and went to put our engagement video in the DVD player. I don't think we'd watched it since we've been married so it was so fun to relive it all again. And just because I feel like it, here are some photos from September 2, 2006:

Realizing what's happening

Will you marry me? under the Century Tree

Saber Arch

Suddenly a horrible start to my Friday night turned into a wonderful date night with my husband. I love when that happens!

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NOW, enough blabbing. Dinner was a delicious Thai-ish shrimp dish! Here is the original recipe for Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk that we bookmarked but we realized that the recipe was a bit off on some of the measurements so below I will post the recipe the way we did it.

We served the shrimp over brown rice, which is really a must since this make SO much extra sauce. You have to have something to soak it all up! We also made some simple roasted snap peas on the side. All I did for those is toss them in some olive oil & kosher salt and then just roasted on a sheet pan for about 15-20 minutes in the oven on 400 degrees.


Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk

Ingredients

* 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
* 2 tablespoons coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
* 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes {The original recipe wouldn't have been spicy at ALL so I think it's a little ridiculous that it is called Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Milk. We added the red pepper flakes to add some spice.}
* 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
* 1 can unsweetened coconut milk {NOTE: We had never cooked with coconut milk before so when we first opened up the can and found the milk solidified and separated we were very close to throwing it away. However, upon googling, we found out that is perfectly normal. All you have to do is stir it up. So don't be afraid of solidified coconut milk!}
* 1/2 cup water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 pound shrimp, peeled and cleaned
* 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
* lime wedge (for serving)
* Cooked rice

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium heat.

2. Add onions and cook for 3 minutes.

3. Add garlic and ginger, cook 2 minutes.

4. Add all the spices, cook 1 minute.

5. Add tomatoes, cook 1 minute.

6. Add coconut milk,water, and salt, and bring to a simmer.

7. Simmer until thickened 5-10 minutes.

8. Add shrimp, simmer, stirring for 5 minutes.

9. Stir in cilantro.

10. Serve over rice with lime wedges.