should've gotten take-out.

So yesterday was an interesting day for me. After visiting a client, I decided to walk around the block and enjoy the sunshine - since I'm usually stuck in the office all day. I stopped for a few minutes and looked at the river... which was literally 2 blocks away... and it took everything in me not to run straight for the water and skip out on work altogether. But, like a good little worker I returned back to my desk and started writing reports. This is the moment I realized: I am growing up.

So I started thinking about how independent I have become and how I will have been married for 2 years come this August. Then, I got the worst idea ever: I will surprise Sean with dinner. Not just any dinner, something from scratch and really really fancy. Keep in mind, the only things I "cook" include PB&J, Grilled Cheese, Spaghetti, Pizza Subs, Mac & Cheese {from the box} and salad. Yes, I count salad. Long story short, anyone who has ever known me knows that I do not and cannot cook. Yet, I was inspired and spent the last hour of work planning the menu. 

Sean usually does the cooking in our house. I like to have my pajamas on by 7:00 pm and while I'm watching reality tv, he cooks up something really good and serves it to me... like, I don't ever get off the couch. This is how spoiled I am. Anyway, over the weekend I wanted to have mac and cheese for dinner and Sean informed me that this was a side dish not a meal... who knew? I then had a very scary thought -- what will I do when we have kids and Sean is out of town? I hardly think pop-tarts and ice cream will do... thus, the dinner plan was born.

I decided to make fried shrimp and couldn't think of a side... so I decided to try egg fried rice and veggies. Originally I wanted salad and garlic bread, but a co-worker informed me that those things didn't really go with fried shrimp. I'm no Denise, but I figured how hard can this really be? The recipes looked simple and only had a few ingredients... and I was so excited that I rushed home and started cooking. Usually I am really sloppy with directions and just throw things together, but I actually took my time and measured everything out perfectly... this dinner took me 2 hours to prepare!

I have only been eating seafood for several weeks, so I was absolutely appalled when I had to peel the shrimp out of their little shells. Nasty. I realized that uncooked, they look a lot like grubs, which reminded me of The Lion King, which in turn almost made me puke. But I peeled them and soaked them in a marinade for 45 minutes while I prepared the rice.I began to realize how messy cooking is and how long it takes... and this is exactly why I don't cook. It gave me a whole new respect for Sean.

Anyway, I will say that the shrimp turned out amazing! The downfall was that I decided to mix them in with the fried rice... which was soggy and altogether disgusting. Here's a picture of the shrimp though, to prove I'm not a total idiot:

Good, right?

So I put it all together in a bowl and I won't even show you what it looked like... it was that bad. Sean didn't even realize there were eggs in it. And I watched him as he poured spice after spice into his bowl, and his face as he took his first mouthful was priceless. I kept watching him force this awful meal into his mouth, then he would look at me and tell me how good it was. Sean, you are too good to me. I told him that I knew it was nasty..... and that it seems like there's only room for one good cook in this family. So he had chips for dinner, and my stomach hurt so bad after finishing my bowl that I had to go to bed early. Awesome.

Anyway... here's the recipe for the shrimp. I should've just left it at that. Better yet... I should've just ordered a pizza.