I don’t really approve of chicken nuggets. But I’m not too proud to feed them to my kid, even if they’re really old (so long as they’re organic).

To make a short story long, this is what we have in our freezer: Five pounds of butter, a 72oz bag of chocolate chips, some ‘fancy’ brownies, Baker’s unsweetened chocolate, coffee, vodka, ice and compostable waste. Compostable waste takes up a good 70% of our freezer space, much to my husband’s chagrin.

You see, we live in a cooperative apartment in the city and it’s not so easy to dispose of our compostable waste on a daily basis. Once a week, or when I remember, I bring my frozen veggie scraps etc. up to the compost collection spot, two blocks away. The operative word here is remember. More often than not, I forget until we’re at that critical point where frozen organic waste is preventing the freezer door from closing properly.

Today we were at that point. When I returned home from dropping off 30lbs or so of compostable waste, I discovered some old chicken nuggets in my, now spacious, freezer.

Shane is out and I decided to give the (organic, for kids) chicken nuggets to Rose for dinner. She didn’t like them, perhaps because they were old, probably really, really old. I gave the rest to the cats, and now we have room in the freezer for another pound or two of butter.

Tonight I told Rose we were having shrimp for dinner and asked how she’d like it prepared. “Well, I would like it cooked” she replied. Done.

I am very happy with the results of my Shrimp Scampi recipe modification. I wanted it to be extra saucy so that it could be served over grilled bread. The result was excellent even though I forgot to add the parsley. We had roasted broccoli on the side.

• Shrimp Scampi, for serving over Grilled Bread •
(modified from this Shrimp Scampi recipe)

1lb peeled deveined shrimp, large shrimp work best
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 small shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup white vermouth (or dry white wine)
1/3 cup broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
chopped fresh Italian parsley

I find it’s best/easiest to prep everything before you get started on this one, as the cooking is pretty fast. Chop your shallot, garlic and parsley, squeeze the lemon and measure out and combine the broth and vermouth (or wine). Before you start cooking, prep the bread so it’s all ready to pop in the broiler.

Rinse and pat the shrimp dry with paper towels. Melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large saute pan. When the butter foams, add the shrimp in one layer. Cook shrimp for one minute, without stirring and then add garlic and shallots. Cook for another minute, flip shrimp and cook for two minutes more. Remove shrimp from pan to a serving bowl, leaving butter, shallots & garlic in pan. Turn heat to high and add vermouth, broth, lemon juice and additional 2 tablespoons of butter. Cook sauce for about 3 minutes over high heat while you’re making the grilled bread, until it is reduced and slightly thickened. Pour sauce over shrimp and serve shrimp and sauce over grilled bread.

I really wanted farro tonight but the two stores I went to were both out of it. I asked Shane to bring some home but he couldn’t find it either. He did find barley and we figured that would do. When he arrived home after 7pm, with barley that needed to cook for 40 minutes, I had to come up with something else. Fortunately, my mom put a package of red rice in my Christmas stocking this year, and it only takes 15 minutes to cook.

The red rice was a fine substitute for farro in Warm Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Fontina. I will make this dish again for sure, it would probably work well with any hearty, nutty grain.

We also had Chicken with Wine, Lemon and Butter Sauce, which I’ve posted about before. It’s always well received around here. Plus it gives me an excuse to open a bottle of wine, which I haven’t been able to do for a while (okay, a week or so).

And speaking of drinks, we also shared one single glass of lemonade, made from one single Meyer lemon from my mom’s indoor lemon tree (she lives in Massachusetts). Thanks for giving us your lemon, mom.

I went to acupuncture this morning and saw the lovely Christiane… or was it angel I saw? She gave me a good long treatment with loads of needles that felt like heaven and made my migraine finally go away (after 6 days of hell). Hallelujah! I was seriously considering asking my doctor to put me in a coma until the whole thing resolved itself.

So here we are back to Lazy Wednesday, happy and healthy again. Rose had a small piece of grilled chicken and plain salad. I had a slightly more interesting and hearty salad.

For days I’ve been eating boxed greens with bits of leftover dressing from the fridge, because I didn’t have wherewithal to assemble anything more. Tonight I had arugula with roasted eggplant, goat cheese and miso, lemon, honey, balsamic vinaigrette. It wasn’t fancy but it sure was a welcome change of pace.

Salmon with miso butter glaze, rice, roasted italian peppers, fennel salad, migraine. (Photo of me on day 4 of migraine, with ice pack tied to my forehead, taken by Rose.)

I’m on day two of a migraine and have been in no condition to think about what to have for dinner. Shane said to order takeout, but even that would involve more decision making than I’m up for.

Fortunately, I froze half of that Easy Pasta Bake from a few weeks ago. With a simple salad and already made dressing (I like to make a big batch of dressing and keep some in the fridge), we were all set.

Oven fries with dill sauce, salad, steak & migraine.