Well, mark that experience up to bad judgment, but what was I thinking getting a job in a country club? I should have known when they used the words "fine dining" and "bargain to our guests", that they where not serious about putting out the best food possible. I just didn't want to believe the generalizations about country club food. Live and learn.

Couple the failed job, and add into that the blistering heat, and odd schedule the household has been under, and you get very little cooking, and very little writing. Until today. I had a craving, a fairly odd one for me, to have fettucini alfredo and shrimp. Rarely do I cook anything other than angel hair, and almost never do I do cream sauces, especially in the middle of summer. Perhaps it was a way of nature telling me to fill up before the hurricane, but there was no turning back, off to the market for the fixings.

First section, seafood, and some nice looking domestic pink shrimp. As you may or may not know, those numbers that they now advertise with the shrimp, indicates the number per pound. So instead of guessing what my jumbo is versus your medium, we see the same measurements that restaurants have been using for years. These were 41-50s. Nice little bite size pink shrimp.

A quick spin through the produce section for some broccoli florets, a big ripe tomato, and a bulb of garlic (a didn't really do an inventory of what was in the pantry). A shot down the pasta and rice aisle for the fettucini (not a pasta I normally keep on hand), and then off to the dairy section to get some cream. I knew I had some sort of Parmesan in the fridge, but that would really be the only other main ingredient needed.

As I've stated before, I like to put the water on sooner than later, as it can sit on simmer, and be ready to go when you are, rather than waiting around for the water to boil with everything else ready. An added advantage in this situation, is you can blanch the broccoli florets in the water, scoop them out, and keep the water (don't worry, the little chylorophyl let out by the broccoli won't color the pasta). Another note about the broccoli, since you are cooking it ahead of time, its going to sit, so either cook the broccoli to your liking, and run under cool water to stop the cooking, or under cook the broccoli a little, to account for the fact it will continue to cook a little after being removed from the water.

To start the alfredo, dice half a medium onion, and few cloves of garlic. Sweat the two in a little butter (remember, to sweat means to saute lightly to get the moisture to release from the onion). Add the heavy cream (a pint is a good amount, if just for two with no left overs, half pint would do). I recommend doing this in a non-stick saute pan, for two reasons. One, it'll be easier to clean up, and more importantly, it will reduce faster in the saute pan. The wide surface area allows for quicker reduction. Be very careful as the cream comes to a boil, it will, and can, boil over. You ideally want to stir occasionally while coming to a boil. Lower to a simmer, and go ahead and peel and devein your shrimp (you may want to think about saving the shells in the freezer. A couple of times of that, and you can make a quick broth to have for soups, stews, sauces, etc- see my risotto recipe).

You can either grate the Parmesan directly into the sauce, or ahead of time, and whisk in, either will be fine. Now there may be some recipes floating around that call for an egg to added to alfredo, but I don't play around with that. If I want a cream sauce, I want a cream sauce. I'm not going to thicken it with flour, starch, egg, anything. Just cream and cheese. A note about consistency of the sauce. You don't want it too thin, and not too thick, but keep in mind the other ingredients are going to give off a little moisture, so it will thin the sauce just a bit. As far as quantity, about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of cheese should be good. Just whisk in the grated cheese, and lower the heat. Season with salt and white pepper.

For the shrimp, I just tossed the peeled and deveined shrimp with a generous amount of Paul Prudhomme's blackening spice. I don't normally use commercial spice blends, but this one, I can vouch for. Unless you are going to be cooking a lot of blackened dishes, then I might buy the numerous spices to mix up my own (hint, the main ingredient of blackening spice isn't cayenne, it's onion powder, then paprika, add to that some thyme, white pepper, garlic powder, then some cayenne, you'd be close). Saute the shrimp over medium heat in a little butter. I wasn't really trying to "blacken" the shrimp, but if you prefer, by all means. Just know that blackening isn't about charring, it's about caramelizing the onion powder and other spices.

Toss the fettucini in your boiling water, another hint, generous amounts of water and a good splash of canola/olive oil is needed with the wider noodles. Also rapidly boiling water, and the slow addition of the pasta, and you won't find your self with all the noodles stuck together.

To finish putting the dish together, I added a few florets with the hot pasta, a couple spoonfuls of the sauce, and tossed them together. Put that in the bowl, spoon some shrimp over top, some of the nice diced tomato over that, and a fresh grate of Parmesan, and dinner is served. A big glass of oaky chardonnay, and the table is complete. Enjoy!