Treaty Fridays

Friday is a treaty day in our house. It's the end of the work week and we splurge a little. At least we try to. But with me, it's very difficult. We sat down several years ago in one of my spurts of trying to be normal and we decided that we would go out for dinner and a movie every Friday night. We did that once. Movies are ridiculously expensive to see in a theatre and I really have difficulty with the whole experience. There's no pause button for one thing, I resent paying admission and then having to sit through advertisements - but if you don't go early, you don't get a good seat. Theatres aren't licensed and I really don't like pop, but I want something... And then it's hard for Ken and I to agree on what we want to see. He loves action movies with a superhero theme but I can't watch all that movement on the screen without getting a headache. I prefer quieter, more thoughtful movies, but I don't need to see those on a big screen.

Our solution? Dinner and a rental video. Perfect. Except, I want wine with dinner, but boy do I hate paying restaurant prices for a mediocre bottle of wine and it's not a treat to have dinner without wine, especially when Ken is perfectly happy ordering two beer with dinner. I get a little resentful given the outrageous mark-up on alcohol in this province (or anywhere I suppose).

Our solution? Take-out and a rental video. Perfect. The take-out could be from the little catering place around the corner, or two or three restaurants (including my favourite Montfort's) also do take-out in the neighbourhood. The video store is just around the corner. It worked out wonderfully. Except, the catering place has disappointed us twice now with somewhat bland or undercooked or cold food. We forget about Montfort's most of the time, and end up with pizza (really good pizza) from around the corner. And since we've discovered the DVD's at the library, our extra special treaty Friday night consists of us watching a video we've got from the library, drinking a homemade bottle of wine or some fairly cheap beer, and eating a pizza. Boy do we know how to live!

Fast forward to now...when we've faced the dire situation and decided that we are only going to do the pizza and a movie thing every other Friday night. For the Friday's sans pizza, we are going back to the salad days of our marriage when we couldn't/wouldn't even buy take-out pizza, and instead spent the evening with big band and jazz records playing on our flashing console stereo, drinking cheap wine as we danced, sang, cooked some yummy, fussy food together, and snacked on appetizers until the food was ready several hours later. Now that's a party.

Here's one of my absolute favourite recipes. I first tried this about 10 years ago. My friend lived in Toronto and her mother had just returned from the US west coast with a Santa Fe style cookbook - I think, maybe it was San Francisco. Whatever the cookbook, the recipe was amazing. It has a few expensive ingredients in it, not truffle expensive, but you couldn't have this on the Hunger Challenge. Still, way cheaper than dinner and a movie, and surprisingly, cheaper, and yummier, than a really good pizza.

Shrimp with Orzo and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Pasta
1.5 cups orzo
3 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp olive oil, divided

Cook the orzo in boiling water for 8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large oven-proof serving bowl, add basil & 1 tbsp olive oil. Cover and keep warm. Of course, I don't do this. I time it so the orzo and the sauce are ready at the same time - I put my bunch of unchopped basil in the bottom of the colander that I drain the pasta into to quickly blanch in, then put the orzo and basil back into the pasta pot until I serve it.

Sauce
You have already got the stereo on and poured yourself wine and set cook-mate to prepping the munchies before you start this.
2 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp minced shallots (I use the white part of green onions if I don't have shallots)
1/2 cup drained and chopped canned plum tomatoes (I use the whole 28 fl oz can, and reserve the juice to add if the sauce starts to look a little dry)
1-2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp fresh oregano (I use frozen if I don't have fresh, but dried could work too)
1 lb large raw shrimp (don't use the cooked ones unless you absolutely have to, they don't add as much flavour - and of course just heat them quickly if you do)
6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted (you can buy them pitted, but it's more cooky to pit them yourself - don't use black or green)
7 oz feta cheese, crumbled

In a large skillet, melt butter in remaining 2 tbsp olive oil, add shallots and cook till soft. Still in tomatoes, garlic, and oregano; mix well. Add shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes and cook until shrimp turns nicely pink. Sprinkle with olive, feta cheese and pepper to taste. If you put the lid on at this point for two minutes, the feta cheese melts nicely.

Frugal tip of the day: The navy shower - Get wet, turn shower off while you shampoo and lather, turn shower on again to rinse off. Women get a really close shave this way too because of the goosebumps. Of course, if other people in your house won't play along, just turn the thermostat setting on the hot water heater down far enough so that they have tepid showers - that will hurry them up.