Lemon Pasta with Roasted Shrimp

    My mom was in town for a few days so I decided to make dinner one night for everyone. What can I say other than that this is a new favorite. I've never thought of roasting shrimp before but this has to be the next best thing to heaven (besides cheeseburgers or chocolate). The shrimp was perfectly moist and the lemon pasta was so refreshing. Perfect summer meal...and so fast you can make it on a  weeknight! We served with a simple garden salad, a loaf of crusty bread, and a bottle of white.


Lemon Pasta with Roasted Shrimp
Adapted from Ina Garten

2 pounds (17 to 21 count) shrimp, peeled and deveined
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound angel hair pasta
(1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Zest and juice of 2 lemons ( I used 1 1/2 lemons)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the shrimp on a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.Toss well, spread them in one layer and roast for 6 to 8 minutes, just until they're pink and cooked through.
Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add the angel hair and cook until al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Quickly toss the angel hair with the melted butter, 1/4 cup olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and about 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Add the shrimp and serve hot.

Pigs In A Blanket

To celebrate America's birthday, we hosted an impromptu 4th of July party. Since we were last minute getting everything together, we needed a few fast and fun eats for the party.  I wanted to stick with an All American Cookout theme but without the hassle of fighting for the grill upstairs. Enter mini sliders (recipe to come) and pigs in a blanket.  These were so cute and so yummy! If you like pigs in a blanket then you will love this quick and easy recipe. The recipe makes about 72 piggies.. much more than you see in the picture. We brought them out in batches.


Pigs in a Blanket

2 packages of hot dogs
2 cans of crescent rolls

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out crescent rolls and split each triangle into thirds. Cut each hot dog into three pieces. Roll crescent rolls around the center of hot dog. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes or until golden brown.