These bookmarks are one of the easiest crafts I have made in a long time. After working all day, I usually come home, have dinner, do some cleaning up or some laundry and basically crash at about 8:30 pm. But this bookmark craft got my creative juices flowing again. I can’t take all the credit for being this creative with bookmarks; I had help from my renewed craft club that my friend Regina and I started up after 5 years or so.

Regina and I have been friends for almost 30 years. When our children were younger and we both needed a little “mommy free” time without kids, Regina and I started a craft club, which would meet once every 4 to 6 weeks on a Saturday. Regina, who is amazingly talented in quilting, needlepoint and much more gathered a few friends and I gathered a few friends. Everyone in the craft club takes a turn hosting a meeting. The person whose turn it is to host the craft club at their home, makes lunch, and teaches a craft to the group. Now no one has to be a craft person; the best part is everyone helps everyone. Our craft club ran for almost 10 years and then our children grew up and our lives became busier than before. Craft club ended. This past December Regina and I decided it was time to bring back craft club. We never stopped creating on our own, her with her quilting and me with my card making.

I hosted the first craft club this past Saturday. Regina brought three friends, Barbara, Theresa and Gerry. I brought Sue and Diane. After appetizers and lunch, I showed the ladies the memory and other cards that I had been making. As an afterthought I showed them a magazine clipping I had saved to make Valentine bookmarks. Well, the bookmark craft turned out to be a big hit. Valentine’s Day was just an idea for this bookmark craft, but a bookmark for any day is just as fun.

Whether crafting yourself or with a Craft Club, this bookmark definitely makes its mark!

1 bunch of asparagus
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 plum tomatoes, chopped small
2 tablespoons of red onion, chopped
¼ cup of red wine vinegarette salad dressing

1. Cut a 1/ 2-inch off the bottom of the asparagus. Wash and place in a steamer. I steam mine in the microwave with a microwave dish filled with a little water on the bottom, for about 5 minutes. Check in after 2 ½ minutes, turn and cook for 2 ½ more minutes. You can also steam on the stove for about 7 minutes. Either way, check by sticking a fork into the asparagus stem to check for doneness. Cook until tender but not mushy(too soft). After cooling down, cut into 2-inch diagonal pieces.
2. Place the asparagus, tomatoes, onion and garlic into a bowl. Mix together.
3. Add the vinegarette dressing. Mix again. If desired, add a little more dressing to your taste. This is easy and quick. Everyone will love it at your next barbecue.
4. You can use a low-fat or no-fat dressing and you have a very healthy vegetable dish that tastes good too. Next time you serve dinner use as a side dish instead of plain asparagus.
5. ENJOY – Perfect for your any season.….

Winter months always have me craving fresh vegetables. I love them veggies! Thankfully, asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower are available all year long and easy to find. Other favorites of mine, zucchini and eggplant, are especially great on a sizzling summer grill. Not to let that stop me during the frosty winter months, I slice ‘em up, toss them in the oven with a little olive oil, with or without stuffing, and sit back and savor the smell!

Tomatoes aren’t exactly in season either, but you can still find some beauties in the supermarket. Shapes appeal to me, and I find myself oddly attracted to plum tomatoes. They’re shaped like eggs and look very appealing when sliced and draped across a pretty plate. I use them for everything, and they really enhance this salad.

Who said cooking has to be hard? Some of my favorite dishes are simple and stress free. This basic Asparagus Salad recipe is tried and true, but still lends itself to experimenting. Think about using broccoli instead of asparagus or change the red onion to a yellow onion or even scallions. Some of my best dishes are born of combining a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Who knows? Your next great recipe could be sitting in any or all of those Tupperware containers in your fridge!

1 pound shrimp, shelled, deveined and cleaned
1 16 ounce box of jumbo pasta shells
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/ 4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 / 2 cup white wine
Oregano
Basil
Parsley
Bread crumbs

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup half and half
1/ 4 to 1/ 2 cup Romano cheese, grated

1. Cook pasta 2 minutes less than according to the directions on the box. Drain and set aside on wax paper till
needed. Cut shrimp into smaller pieces.
2. In a large frying pan heat 2 tablespoons butter with olive oil. Add garlic and cook a few minutes, add shrimp.
Add oregano, parsley, basil and white wine. Cook until shrimp turns pink. Stir often. Sprinkle in bread crumbs
by the handful until mixture thickens into a nice stuffing consistency.
3. Put the still warm pasta shell in your hand and add about a tablespoonful of shrimp stuffing. Place the stuffed
shell into an oven baking dish. You should get 22 to 28 shells.
4. In the meantime, melt 3 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan. Add the grated cheese by starting with a 1/ 4
cup of grated cheese; add more if needed to make the consistency of what you would use to make the same as a white
sauce. Add half and half slowly while continually stirring to blend. Sauce will be smooth and thin. Don’t
worry; it thickens the longer it sits.
5. Pour sauce over shells and serve immediately
6. ENJOY – White shells from the sea to your table!

Christmas Eve is the night of the fishes.

For years, on Christmas Eve, my Uncle Dom would treat our family to dinner at different Italian restaurants. It became our tradition to start dinner at 5:00 with a smattering of fish appetizers, work our way through some wonderful fish entrees, pursue lots of conversation and hand gesturing, and wrap up our night with hugs and kisses four hours later. Unfortunately, my uncle passed away in 2003 and even though my brother and I tried to continue the tradition with our families, it just wasn’t the same without Uncle Dom. However, my husband and I continued to take our family out each Christmas Eve up until this past year. As our family continued to grow, the cost of an evening out simply exceeded our budget. Not to let that stop us, we decided to begin a new tradition, starting with Christmas Eve dinner in our home.

This did not go over so well with the kids for whom this tradition was all they knew and very much enjoyed. My husband, Tom, is a good cook as I have mentioned before. We understood that replicating our traditional Christmas Eve dinner would be a major undertaking, but I knew we were up for the challenge!

It’s all about preparation and organization. About 4 days before Christmas Eve, I prepared a big pot of sauce. The day before Christmas Eve, I made manicotti, a cheesecake, and set the table. My husband took care of purchasing more than $200 worth of fish such as mussels, scallops, tilapia, calamari, and shrimp. I also prepared a small roast beef for anyone who didn’t want fish. A platter of antipasti and chips and dip also rounded out the menu, much to the delight of our grandkids.

Years ago, I used to make my featured recipe, Shrimp Stuffed Shells. The chef, Tom, allowed me to make one fish dish this year and this was it. It became the first course and it was a huge hit. Everyone was impressed by the presentation as much as the delicious taste. Because I hate to waste anything, I decided to serve some of the leftover plain shells with some extra white sauce I had. My granddaughter, Mackenzie, really liked the unstuffed shells with the white sauce and an extra helping.

Shrimp Stuffed Shells can be served as a first or even as a main course and are great to serve any “eve”, not just Christmas Eve, when you want to impress your guests. Who needs to go out to a fancy, pricey restaurant when you can serve a very special meal at a less painful pricetag!

My latest venture over the last 6 months has been as a freelance food writer for “Patch”, an online local newspaper for the Westchester area. Most recently, I’ve delved into writing restaurant breakfast reviews. If you’re a breakfast lover like me, you can surely appreciate that this is the kind of job you can really sink your teeth into!

I hosted a breakfast at my house for a group of friends over the holidays. I usually serve a frittata, quiche, strata or another vegetable egg dish along with fresh bagels. I was feeling a little more creative, so I decided to mix things up a little by baking a French toast dish. I was inspired by my friend, JoEllen, who made this dish last year and gave me the recipe. Naturally, I made it right away, but felt hers tasted better. Unable to find JoEllen’s recipe under all my holiday gifts and wrapping paper, I turned to the magical Internet to search for French toast recipes. Well, if you have about three hours to scan pages and pages of recipes, this is the way to go……I just don’t have the patience. On the first page of my search was a Paula Deen recipe for overnight French toast. That worked for me; I had all of the ingredients except for corn syrup. I printed the recipe, and then began to do what I love…… improvise with what I already had in my pantry.

And that’s how I came up with the breakfast menu: Oven French toast, home fries, cream cheese crescent rolls, cherries and raspberries. A plate of some homemade cookies added just the right note to this combination of foods.

Crescent rolls are very versatile and can be filled with almost anything and still taste delicious. My kids made bacon, cheddar, and cream cheese crescents on Christmas morning, giving me the bright idea to make them for my breakfast guests.

In preparation for this gathering, I made extra baked potatoes for dinner the night before. The next morning I cubed about five leftover baked potatoes, gathered together 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 small onion, and 1 sweet Italian green pepper. I quickly chopped and then sautéed everything to make home fries. A little paprika, salt, and pepper and the home fries were done. Just before serving, I broiled the top of the potatoes to make them extra brown and crispy.

Lastly, the oven baked French Toast that I prepared in no way resembled the picture from the recipe, but I was determined to serve it anyway. I can’t justify throwing out good food. While it wasn’t exactly a good-looking dish, but it was a darn delicious one! Two of my friends asked to bring a piece home.

So what’s cooking for breakfast at your home?

Don’t you just love a bargain, especially during these tough economic times? Well, you gotta be ready to venture out the day after Christmas to find some of the best shopping opportunities. You may even bump into me! I’m out there bright and early getting my cards, wrapping paper, gift bags, etc. for the next year all at half the price. Usually, there’s no rhyme or reason to where I shop, but those nifty gift cards I got over the holidays are the first stores on my radar. With a whisper of thanks to my boss, I headed to Target first this year. I take pride in being considered a smart shopper, and some of the hottest deals can be found after the big holidays are over! As a special thanks to Somebody’s Mom subscribers, I want to share with you many shopping tips I’ve picked up over the years.

When buying wrapping paper on sale look for versatile solid colors. Solid blue Christmas wrapping will work well for future Chanukah gifts, or that solid red paper for Valentine’s Day. Birthday gifts can always be wrapped in any solid colored paper and jazzed up for children with those puffy shaped stickers, also purchased on sale. Either way, I still save money. Try using white wrapping paper with a non-holiday glitter design to create an original and lovely look for a wedding or shower gift; there’s no need to purchase overly expensive “occasion” paper and ribbon when you can save money by doing it yourself. I just found a non-holiday Tinker Bell design paper for my granddaughter’s future presents. Grab a cup of coffee, muster up a little patience and think outside the holiday box.

This past Christmas Eve, I had 12 guests and only 6 napkin rings. Uh oh, so much for thinking outside that box! Then I remembered ….. after last year’s holidays, I was walking around Michael’s craft store and spied a woman buying all this fake sparkly greenery that one would use to make a Christmas wreath. She told me she was buying all these sparkly decorations for her daughter’s upcoming sweet sixteen party. I thought that was a very smart idea. This triggered something in me and I started to think, “What can I make with this stuff?” Eureeka, napkin rings for next Christmas! I’d put them away, safe and sound….and almost forgotten. I had spent under $5.00 for the pearly accessories, one bell ornament which I pulled apart, and two packets of tiny red bows. All items were 70% off. Better yet, I made these napkin rings without using a glue gun. By simply taking apart the little red bow, I was able to slip the bell on, put the bow back together, and twist it onto the pearly accessory. I purchased enough supplies to make close to 16 napkin rings. They became a conversation piece at my Christmas Eve dinner table. Now you know what can be accomplished while watching TV!

The next time you see holiday items on sale, remember it’s always worth it to take that second look. That half sale item you pass by might become someone else’s treasure!

Olive oil
2 medium cooked baked potatoes, cubed
1 cup cooked broccoli, cut into small pieces
1/4 red and 1/4 green pepper, chopped
1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
9 eggs
1 tomato, chopped
1/ 2 cup half and half
1/4 cup scallions or onions, chopped
pepper

1. Oven 425 degrees
2. In a 10-inch oven proof casserole dish put olive oil. Place on top of the stove under a low flame. Saute scallions, peppers in olive oil until tender. Add broccoli and potato. Cook everything until hot, stirring well. Dash in some pepper.
3. In a bowl beat eggs with 3/4 cup of half and half.
4. Pour eggs over vegetables. Sprinkle top with grated cheeses. Pour that
1/4 cup of half and half over the cheese.
5. Bake 20 to 30 minutes depending on your oven. Serve warm or hot. For 4 to 6 people.
6. ENJOY – It’s breakfast, it’s lunch. It’s brunch!

Frittata is a one dish wonder; a quiche without the piecrust. Preparing a frittata is definitely the easier option as it can be prepared in a single baking dish…no piecrust involved. For me, it’s all about sautéing my frittata vegetables in my square 10-inch Corning Ware dish on the stove, tossing in a few other ingredients, and then popping it into the oven. Viola!

My house is always buzzing with people, and that’s the way I like it. I also like using leftovers; whether it’s meat, vegetables or pasta, I will find a way to add it to something else. And the frittata is the perfect dish to utilize those leftovers. Take a good look inside your fridge. This morning I discovered 4 pieces of bacon, 10 cherry tomatoes, and one-half cup of cooked spinach. I just added some eggs and cheese and ended up creating an awesome tomato, bacon and spinach frittata. My mood and my leftovers dictate the type of frittata I’ll be serving. Eggs and cheese provide the foundation, with certain cheeses complimenting certain ingredients. Mozzarella is good with tomatoes and veggies such as broccoli, spinach or asparagus. In addition, these vegetables go well with cheddar, Swiss or provolone cheese. The only meats I add to my frittatas, if any, are chicken, bacon or a small amount of salami. In lieu of adding meat to my frittatas, I might choose to serve bacon or breakfast sausages as a side dish.

So, take that peek into your pantry and fridge and create that frittata – your way!

1-box graham crackers
2 sticks butter
1-cup brown sugar
1 – 12 ounce package special dark chocolate chips OR
1 – 11 ounce package of dark chocolate Hersey kisses
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a 10 x 14 inch cookie sheet with a raised edge all around (or slightly larger size pan Of 11 x 16 is okay). Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and then grease the foil with margarine or use Renyolds Release Wrap and no greasing. Make a single layer of graham crackers to cover every inch of the foil lined pan. (Graham crackers usually come with 3 packages in a box. You will use 1 and 1 / 2 packages or a little more to cover the entire bottom of the pan.) If necessary cut the graham crackers to fit the entire pan.

3. Cook butter and brown sugar in a saucepan until butter melts and the mixture is well blended. Do not let mixture boil. Remove from heat and pour mixture over the graham crackers. Spread butter / brown sugar mixture evenly over the crackers to cover them completely.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately spread dark chocolate chips over the top. Wait a minute and then spread melting chips with a spatula or a butter knife, which I prefer to use. (If using Hersey kisses, since they are larger than chips, use a double boiler to melt kisses and then pour over the brown sugar mixture after you take it out of the oven.
After the whole top is covered with chocolate, sprinkle the chopped pecans over the chocolate, covering it all and press down lightly pecans into the chocolate using a piece of wax paper covering your fingers/hand.

5. Chill for 4 hours or overnight in refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator and break into small pieces peeling the aluminum foil away from the bottom. Keep in a tight container in a cool, dry place.

6. ENJOY! – Toffee is great with coffee!

This Pecan Toffee is one of the simplest recipes I have ever made. The bottom of this Pecan Toffee is graham crackers but I have seen similar toffee recipes made by others that were prepared with saltines or matzoth as the bottom layer. Also, almonds and other nuts have been used instead of pecans. I prefer my version with the graham crackers and pecans. This recipe can be altered to your own personal taste. No matter how you make it, the best part is the tools that are available to use to make baking easier. I used Reynolds release non-stick aluminum foil for this recipe.

Think about the handy men you know in your life: they have a love for their toys….er….I mean tools that borders on obsession! The thing is, the cook and baker in me really appreciates and understands this love story. I am so into time saving recipes and the tools of the trade it takes to help me get the job done.

I went to hog heaven when Reynolds came out with that easy release non-stick aluminum foil. When I started cooking way back in the Stone Age there was one style of aluminum foil; it was great, but stuff did tend to stick to it. Then came the cooking bags for roasts and even bags for barbecue; we could throw almost anything into that bag, tie it up, poke a few holes and just sit back and wait for the dinner bell to ring! Clean up is a snap so there’s more time to spend baking….

And about those baking tools…so many are disposable now. I use the disposable decorating bags for everything from filling deviled eggs to writing Happy Birthday on a cake. I’m also a fan of those pre-cut cake liners made from parchment paper in round and square shapes for different sized baking pans. Hey, no greasing or flouring required! When the cake finishes baking, just loosen the sides with a spatula and flip the cake onto a wire rack to cool. The liner is now on top, so just cool down the cake for a few minutes and then peel off the liner. A perfect outcome every time. You can purchase pre-cut chocolate leaves, letters and other designs to put on top of cakes right from your better local supermarkets. Baking aisles are getting larger and larger to accommodate all the choices.

When the baking is done, there are so many delightful ways to package it. There are decorative disposable containers for nearly every holiday. Baking bags and saran wraps are offered in every color under the rainbow. When will the food madness end! I hope never because I love it all right down to the pretty toothpicks available for every occasion!

No matter how easy they make these baking tools for us to use when cooking, preparing and serving food for others, we still have to remind ourselves that to do it with love is to do it without effort!

1. Oven 400 degrees.
2. Wash potatoes, stab with fork all around the potato skin and place in oven on top rack. Bake 60 to 75 minutes or until baked thoroughly but not too soft. Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Hold potato with a pot holder and take a serrated knife, cut the potato lengthwise in half. With a tablespoon, scoop the inside of the potato into a bowl containing the 3 1 /2 tablespoons of butter. Try not to scrape all the way to the skin, otherwise it might break after re-stuffing it and baking again. Place the scooped out skin onto a cookie sheet. Continue until you have 12 skins.
4. In the bowl with the potatoes and butter, add milk and sour cream. Whip potatoes with a mixer until all lumps are gone. Then add the parsley, scallions, 4 ounces of cheddar cheese, salt and pepper. Stir with a wooden spoon at this point until everything is mixed.
5. With a large spoon, put the potato mixture back into the potato skins. After stuffing all the skins, sprinkle the remaining 4 ounces of cheddar cheese over the tops of the potatoes.
6. Place the re-stuffed skins back in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more on a 375 degrees oven.
7. Serve immediately.
8. Enjoy! – Re-stuffed will never taste overstuffed or stuffed enough!

Who doesn’t love the combination of potatoes and cheese? I ask you…is there a better dish to please both man and child? Kids seem to especially love the cheddar cheese topping for its high gooey factor, while the guys tend to relate to the re-stuffed potato because it brings to mind their favorite haunt – the sport’s bar! In fact, it’s probably where I first chowed down on one of these “make a meal of it” potatoes. When I like something, I usually try to make it myself at home. My family loves their sport’s bar menus; cheeseburgers, onion soup, buffalo wings and potatoes. And I do mean potatoes of any kind.

Recently, all 10 members of my family spent a day in Manhattan walking around together at the Central Park Zoo. Less than an hour had passed when that familiar buzzing began: “Where are we eating?”, followed by “When are we eating?”. As a person who loves to cook, I love that my family loves to eat. My son, Tom, and my daughter, Marisa, usually take charge, searching the internet via their cellphones scoping out restaurants in the area. Not only were they looking for something close by but also someplace relaxing and reasonably priced that could accommodate a large family. With Marisa in the lead, we walked and walked and walked. I am not kidding, we walked 25 New York City blocks (which I personally think are much longer than blocks anywhere else) for what seemed like an hour. So where did we end up? A sports bar, of course. We sat down and I proceeded to tell our waitress that after walking 25 blocks, this better be the best cheeseburger I ever had. Everyone ordered cheeseburgers, waffle fries, wings, sweet potato fries and soup, typical bar food. At the end of the meal, our waitress thoughtfully brought us an extra pitcher of beer on the house because we walked 25 blocks to eat there.

Obviously, there is no limit to how far one will go for a good burger or a good re-stuffed potato!

3 1/2 cup flour
1 16 ounce can natural pumpkin
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/ 2 tablespoon nutmeg
1 cup Canola oil
4 eggs
3 cups sugar
2/ 3 cup water
1 cup chopped nuts

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 2 loaf pans ( 9 x 5 x 3).
3. Mix together pumpkin, sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl.
4. Add flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder.
Sift together in another bowl.
5. Gradually add dry ingredients to the larger bowl of wet ingredients beating on a low speed. Lastly, add water and chopped nuts. Beat on low or with a wooden spoon until mixed altogether well. Fill ½ to ¾ of the way of loaf pans.
6. Bake on middle rack of the oven for 1 hour. Take out and cool for 20 to 30 minutes before removing from pan. Cool on wire rack for at least an hour or more. This recipe freezes well if frozen in a Ziploc bag after completely cooled.
5. ENJOY- Autumn tastes like pumpkin bread…..

Autumn is that clean, crisp, clear season that’s gone before you know it! I love taking walks on those special days when the sun is shining and nature seems at its brightest. The best thing about autumn and the approaching winter is that after you’ve enjoyed that chilly air, you can anticipate the warmth of your cozy home. That’s what baking does for me; I look forward to the aroma permeating my home and the heat overflowing my oven. A very close friend of mine gave me a candle last year that gives off the scent of pumpkin bread when you light it. It’s such an enveloping, comforting smell, and it makes me feel like all is right with the world.

When I combine the smell of pumpkin with a great spice like cinnamon, it becomes one of those moments when I close my eyes and just focus on the present! I find cinnamon so enticing, that nearly all my pumpkin recipes contain this knockout spice.

This recipe is easy enough to be a success every time. When making moist breads, I find the smaller the bread the better the odds that it will stay intact. I like to bake many smaller breads rather than larger ones – it makes it easier to spread the wealth. I recommend those dollar ceramic loaf pans found in the discount stores so you can give them away without worrying about folks returning a pan or dish. Last time I counted I had 13 of these small loaf pans, ready to be filled and shipped to our American soldiers. Our heroes deserve the best!

Honestly, I find cooking with real pumpkin pulp from real pumpkins is something that’s not realistic for most of us hard working folks who don’t have a lot of extra time. I’ve tried it, but it took way too much time and energy and the bread wasn’t wonderful enough to warrant all that. The timesaver option is to just pop open a can of pure pumpkin and get that ball rolling, all to the tune of about a mere $1.39.

So, after all is said and done, we don’t need to prepare delicious baked goods entirely from scratch – especially not this wonderful Pumpkin Bread. I don’t need to be perfect in the kitchen anyway, just happy!

1 pound shrimp
1/ 2 cup butter
1/ 4 olive oil
1 1/ 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
1/ 2 teaspoon salt
1/ 2 teaspoon oregano
1/ 2 teaspoon basil
1/ 2 teaspoon parsley

1. Oven 450 degrees.
2. Melt butter in a small pot, add all other ingredients except shrimp
3. Peel and devein shrimp, leave tails on.
4. Butterfly the shrimp.
5. Place shrimp in a shallow baking dish with tails sticking up.
6. Pour the sauce over all the shrimp.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Then broil for 5 to 10 minutes.
8. Serve with rice, risotto or spaghetti.
ENJOY – Delicious and shrimplyious!

Shrimp Scampi is high on the list of my son Tommy’s all time favorite meals. When my husband or children celebrated a birthday, I always cooked whatever they wanted for dinner and dessert. Tommy always requested shrimp and steak over the years, and now that he’s married, his wife, Christine, makes her own version. It’s different than mine, but I love it!

Before I continue my story, let me confide in you… I am not crazy about fish. Please do not judge me too harshly; not every good cook loves to prepare every type of food. As a child, my family followed the rules of the church at the time; we weren’t supposed to eat meat on Fridays and the only other popular option was fish. The smell of fish to me was and still is, at times, very unpleasant. Thank goodness my mom understood and made a dish of pasta for me when Friday dinner rolled around!

I spent many years teaching Japanese women how to cook a variety of meals and desserts. However, teaching them how to cook fish posed something of a challenge for me considering what I just told you. In my classes we would always have jobs to do together. I will admit that while they tackled the shelling, de-veining, and cleaning of the shrimp, I made sure I was busy handling another part of the recipe away from all that business!

It’s also no surprise that when we prepare this dish at home, my husband’s job is cleaning the shrimp. Yep, he’s quite a guy! If you’re not too excited about cleaning shrimp, you can also call the fish store to clean it ahead of time or spend a bit more money buying shrimp that’s ready to be cooked. Hey, nobody knows that you’ve cheated a little – it’s worth the splurge.

A last and most important note about this Shrimp Scampi recipe…. that tantalizing aroma that will float through your house will not be the shrimp; it’ll be the garlic. So, if you’re like me but have loved ones at home who want to experience the joy of Shrimp Scampi, this will be one fish dish that they and you will run to, and not from!