So Long, Sweet Summer
I am unabashedly a winter person. I love cold weather. Scarves. Hats. Wool coats lined with thinsulate. I love waking up on a crisp winter morning and freezing my fingers on the way to the car. I love seeing my breath when I walk outside and that rosy, tingly feeling that spreads all over my face when I get inside.
I love winter.
I also love fall. Yet despite the 20th-of-September date on my calendar, the weather outside is positively sticky. It makes me grumpy.
So I am officially declaring this the end of summer, at least on this little blog. I'm done. It's time for pumpkin cupcakes and butternut squash soup and sweet potatoes and ohmyword cranberries. I adore cranberries.
And even if the weatherman doesn't agree with me, this is my defiant cry: so long, sweet summer. It was lovely while it lasted, but it's lasted much too long. If you keep this up, I'm moving as far north as I can (as long as we can still get Alabama football).
This week has brought a mountain of squash to my refrigerator ... mostly winter (finally! my first butternut!), but still a few pesky yellow summery ones that as much as I love, I AM SO DONE WITH THEM. Thanks, but no thanks. They were nice in May. And June. And July. And August. But if I see ONE MORE YELLOW SQUASH I just might explode. Tonight, I suggested we feed them to our cat. It's that intense.
So in my quest to BE RID OF THE YELLOW SQUASH, I decided to have one last summery meal. And it was oh-so-summery ... the kind of meal you crave-like-crazy in December. It was delicious, in a tired kind of way. (Gosh we're spoiled.)
But here it is, and with is I hope this chapter in our year is done. Because if I get one more yellow squash, I might poke someone with it.
Orzo with Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Shrimp
It started like this and ended up like this:
-1.5 cups orzo
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 counts olive oil
- 10-12 large shrimp
- 4 summer squash (I used yellow and yellow zucchini), diced
- 2 diced roma tomatoes
- several hearty shakes of dried whole thyme, basil, and oregano
- salt & pepper
- lemon, zested and juiced
1. cook the orzo
2. melt the butter with the olive oil in a large skillet, add chopped garlic
3. poach the shrimp in the garlic-butter (this is very, very, very good)
4. remove the shrimp and set aside
5. add the squash to the garlic-butter skillet
6. sprinkle with herbs, salt, and pepper and cook through; add tomatoes near end
7. mix with orzo
8. stir in lemon zest and lemon juice
9. top with shrimp
Easy. Delicious. Summery. And we're done. I hope. Please just let this be the end of the squash.