We had planned to be coloring Easter Eggs tonight with our great-niece and great-nephew – dinner out. Alas, little niece was up all night sick. Dinner in.

I have faith in the resilience of little kids, so I’m expecting to see her smiling face tomorrow.

In the meantime, though, I had set the table for tomorrow and hadn’t planned anything for dinner. It’s not like we’re lacking in food, right now, but I didn’t want to dig into tomorrow’s fixin’s.

One of our appetizers, tomorrow, is a marinated shrimp, and, since I hadn’t started making it, I took a few pieces of the shrimp and put the creative juices to work.

I thought a shrimp risotto would work – quick and easy. No thought required. And as I opened the vegetable bin to see what was there, I espied a leek and a poblano pepper. Southwestern risotto. Why not?!?

I started it off as a traditional risotto and sauteed the leek and poblano in a mixture of olive oil and butter. Then went the rice.

I cooked it for a few minutes – until it started getting translucent – and then, instead of adding my customary wine, I added a hefty shot of tequila.

It continued on in a traditional way, except I then added just a bit of cumin and a bit of cayenne. Then the broth, half-cup by half-cup.

When it was all but done, i added the shrimp. When it was 90% cooked, I stirred in some pecorino romano, and dinner was served!

It was a good one!

Rich, creamy, and familiar, with just a hint of foreign flavors.

Not bad for a throw-together meal!