Victor leaves for Dallas tomorrow morning.  That means my bad-habit-bachelor-eating will probably commence right about the time the plane is taxiing down the runway.

It’s tradition.  Victor leaves town, I eat chili dogs.

Okay… to be fair, I don’t only eat chili dogs, but my diet does seem to suffer a bit when he’s gone.  It’s just not as much fun just cooking for myself as it is for the two of us.  I take the path of least resistance – and dirty dishes.

So to commemorate our last decent meal together, Victor cooked up a wicked-good shrimp scampi. Wicked-Good.

Scampi is not an overly- difficult dish to prepare.  The biggest thing is just not overcooking the shrimp.

Tonight, he started off by lightly sauteing the shrimp in a bit of olive oil and garlic.  When it was about 3/4 cooked, he pulled it out of the pan.  Into the pan went some mushrooms, and then white wine, peas, and a healthy pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.  When the peas were heated through, he added a pat of butter to smooth out the sauce, and then added the shrimp to finish cooking.  A minute later, he served it over rice.

Probably 10 minutes, start-to-finish.  The rice took longer to cook than the main plate.

It really was good.  Extra large shrimp, wine, mushrooms…   And juuuuust spicy enough.  How could it be bad?!?

At least this time around I’ll be eating homemade chili and not something out of a can.  I made a big batch a few weeks ago and froze a bunch in anticipation of the trip.  And since I’m not taking time off work to do wild projects around the house, I’ll actually have access to more than just hot dogs.

Like ice cream.