Who, What, Why

I have always loved to cook and bake. I am fascinated with food and I am at home in the kitchen. I am the mother of two grown daughters. A year ago I retired from my work as a Family and Consumer Science teacher in our local high school where I taught Food and Nutrition classes. I loved watching my students develop their confidence in the kitchen.  

I have come to realize there are many people yearning to cook beautiful food which is also nutritious and delicious, but they are unsure how to go about it. So, my goal here is to give my readers a little peek into my kitchen and see what I am cooking. I will give directions and offer advice along the way. 

I was home by myself and faced the task of making my dinner for one. I hadn't thought too far ahead, but I try to always have ingredients on hand from which I can make a variety of meals. I put some frozen shrimp in a colander and set it in the sink to thaw. If you want to thaw the shrimp quickly, set the colander in a bowl of cold water.

 I perused the fridge for veggies. Here's what I chose:

• half a green pepper 
• half an onion
• one each of red, yellow and orange mini peppers from their bag
• half a zucchini
• a fresh picked red ripe tomato

Tada! It all became this ~

Here's how ~

I cut all the peppers into thin strips. These are called julienne strips.
I put the onion half (cut from top to bottom) flat on my cutting board and cut it into thin strips.
I cut the zucchini into thin slices.
I minced a clove of garlic. You could also use a little minced garlic out of a jar.

I took the tails off the shrimp and put into a small bowl. I juiced half a lime over it and sprinkled on some oregano and cumin.

I put a teaspoon of olive oil into a skillet and heated it over medium low heat. When the oil was hot I added the veggies and a couple of grinds of salt and pepper. I let it cook a few minutes before stirring. Let it cook till the veggies are beginning to get limp. Stir it a few times, but not constantly. I also added a bit of cumin and oregano to the vegetables in the skillet. I can hear you asking, "How much?" I don't honestly know, but I suppose around a 1/2 teaspoon of each. Maybe more cumin; I love that stuff!

While those vegetables are cooking I cut a tomato in half and thin sliced it into wedges.

Once the veggies are limp but still just a bit crisp I added the shrimp and a bit more lime juice before dropping in the tomato. Cook about a minute, just to heat the tomato and shrimp.

I put it on a plate and ate the entire thing. It was wonderful! It would also be good wrapped in a tortilla with a bit of salsa. YumYum!