Shrimp and Okra Gumbo with Creamy Yogurt Grits, Cooking Light April 2010
When I told G that we were making gumbo tonight, he figured we wouldn't be eating for a long time. But this was one of Cooking Light's quick recipes, where it has "the game plan" for how to multitask and make a main and a side all at once in just 40 minutes. This was a nice one-pot gumbo that had tons of vegetables, so we didn't need to make anything else. Unfortunately G's not so big on grits but now we have a huge container in our pantry-- we only used 3/4 cup. He did like the gumbo quite a bit though.
While I was peeling the shrimp my hands got itchy, and I feel like that's happened before. But this time it occurred to me that maybe just maybe I was getting allergic. Not enough of a feeling to make me not eat this, but the feeling was at the back of my mind as I was eating the shrimp, and I just kept getting more and more worried about this. What if you did have an allergic reaction and your throat closed up? There's no way an ambulance could come fast enough, right? Well, I am a master of the placebo affect/hypochondria, so just by thinking about it my throat started feeling all funny and I felt off. Even if I am 99% sure that it's just my mind, that lingering 1% is enough to make me persistently worried. G convinced me to watch some "Daily Show," and though I got uncontrollable shivers (interestingly, the last time I placeboed my way into feeling really sick, I also started shaking uncontrollably), eventually I felt better. But maybe I will see if I can get an allergy test, and I think I'll pass on the gumbo leftovers :-P But G will be happy; more for him! I dunno, is there something in the shells specifically that can make people itchy? I use frozen shrimp, and so they were defrosting in some water, and the water is oh so cloudy, so it would not be surprising at all if there was something released from the shells.
Speaking of which, this recipe was kind of cool in that the ham, okra, and shrimp were all from the freezer and most other things you would just normally have in the pantry (except for grits, except that now we do). We used fresh bell pepper, but we do have chopped bell pepper in the freezer too. Meaning that any time you had celery and a normal pantry/freezer, you could whip this up. Can you imagine one of those days when you're thinking there's no food in the house, and then your partner whips up some gumbo?!? That would be the most impressive thing ever. And it could totally be done. In less than an hour.
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