Visiting Old Friends

It has been a busy two days catching up with old friends.

On Monday, Dave and Kathy, friends since our college days drove over from Fort Myers for lunch:

We had a great visit. After lunch Arch and Dave went out to play 9 holes of golf and Kathy and I caught up on news about family and friends. A lovely, relaxing visit.

You can tell by the sun tans who has been in the sunny south longer

This was the first time we entertained in The Adventure Bus since leaving Halifax in October so I kept the menu very simple:

Rosemary and Thyme Gulf Shrimp with Strawberry/Spinach Salad

The recipes:

Roasted Gulf Shrimp with Rosemary and Thyme

Ingredients:
6 tbsp olive oil
6 thyme sprigs
3 rosemary sprigs, cut in half
fresh pepper
1 1/2 lb fresh shrimp
1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar (I use white wine)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400F
Combine oil, rosemary, thyme and 1 tsp pepper in a 9" x 12" baking dish and bake in oven about 12 minutes until the mixture is fragrant. Add the cleaned shrimp, toss with tongs or a fork until the shrimp is coated with oil, and roast until shrimp is pink - about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and add white wine or vinegar, toss well.
I serve these as is in a bowl ,sort of as a finger food, but you could serve over rice for a more substantial meal.

Serves 4

Spinach and Strawberry Salad
To the best of my knowledge this recipe is from Stuart McLean, host of CBC Radio's The Vinyl Cafe - a Sunday morning "must listen" in our house.

Ingredients:
Dressing:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 C salad oil
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp poppy seeds
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of paprikia

Salad:
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/4 C white sugar
2 tsp water
2 - 10 oz bags or 3 bunches spinach
2 C sliced strawberries

Instructions:
Combine dressing ingredients in a jar, cover and shake well. You can make this a day ahead and keep in refrigerator. I like to warm it to room temperature before using.

Butter or oil a large sheet of foil and place on the counter. Combine almonds, sugar and water in a medium frying pan and stir over medium heat until sugar melts, continue stirring until sugar coats the almonds and they turn a light golden brown. Immediately turn the coated almonds out onto the foil. DO NOT TOUCH. They are hot. When cool, separate them and set aside until you are ready to use them. Again, these can be made ahead of time and stored, covered, in a cupboard.

Combine spinach and strawberries. Toss in almonds, add dressing, a bit at a time, toss well. You likely will not use all of it. I use about half but we don't like too much dressing on our salads.

And for dessert, Sour Orange Pie.

On Tuesday we drove to Naples for lunch with another long time friend. But that will be another blog post.