A couple of days ago, my friend, Rebecca T., texted me: “What are you doing this weekend? I wanna cook with you!” Great, I thought. An extra pair of hands in the kitchen. Awesome. Little did I know that what she really wanted was for me to COOK HER FOOD (and not chop shallots, which I had decided her contribution was going to be.) She’s lucky I don’t mind a good cry over my cutting boards.

I made us baked shrimp scampi along with a spinach, raspberry and cashew salad in a homemade dijon vinaigrette. The below picture displays the majority of the ingredients needed for the scampi: a stick of butter, the juice of one lemon and its zest, 4 cloves of garlic (minced), 1/4 cup of shallots (minced), 1/4 cup of parsley, an egg yolk, 2/3 cup of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and crushed pepper flakes. Get it? Got it? Good.

The only thing missing is...

2 lbs shrimp (crucial ingredient when making shrimp scampi) in a medium-sized bowl.

This lady! Is totally somebody’s grandma! I love her!

(And her olive oil’s not bad either.)

Pour 3 tbsp of her atop shrimp.

Also add 2 tbsp dry white.

And 2 tsp salt.

And 1 tsp of the pepps.

Mix her up and set aside.

(That’s some good flavor right there. I would cook that all by itself if I wasn't so into the scampi idea.)

There’s something so adorable about pasta nests. It might be more adorable if the nests actually kept their nest-shape, you know? And then you could place a little bird on top. Everything looks better with a bird on it.

(Start boiling a big pot of water.)

You’ve got your water on… so now it’s time to get serious… there’s no time to chit chat it up with Rebecca T. who is sitting pretty on the couch and TALKING TO MY BOYFRIEND about GOD KNOWS WHAT.

Room temperature stick of butter, plop her into a small bowl.

Add a 1/4 cup of minced shallots and 4 cloves of minced garlic.

And 1/4 cup of parsley.

Also, the zest and juice of one lemon.

And 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes.

And 2/3 cup of bread crumbs (but reserve some of it).

Even though I forgot to take a picture of the egg yolk, don’t forget the egg yolk.

Mix that gook in with the shrimp.

(That looks pretty gross, my apologies!)

Er, but that looks amazing.

I baked it in the oven at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes until it got hot and bubbly, and then sprinkled the reserved bread crumbs on top and pushed it into the broiler for 1 minute.

Over the tagliatelle (nests)!

Rebecca T. and I, happily fed.