seafood cook off

Living on the Gulf Coast means growing up with sea food. Most of my family loves seafood. Fish, scallops and especially shrimp. Even my daughter who doesn't like to eat meat will eat shrimp! My dad makes a really delicious pepper shrimp. We all love it and gorge ourselves til nearly sick on this feast! We've even had it for Thanksgiving Dinner in place of turkey!

This past year we had a college age friend over for his birthday. I wanted to make him something special that he would enjoy. I asked him what his mom would make him if he were home on his birthday. He told me "Cajun Shrimp". So I emailed his mom and got the recipe. It is very close to my dad's pepper shrimp, but much more heart healthy.

I know that if we had a seafood cook off in our family, Dad would prefer his pepper shrimp. As for the rest of us, I'm not sure. We may just have to plan a seafood Cook off for our Thanksgiving Dinner this year!

Since we live close to the coast, we can use fresh shrimp, which makes it even tastier! If you want to try this dish, it's really pretty simple (and you can use frozen shrimp too.)

Cajun Shrimp
2 lbs large fresh shrimp (shell on)
1 C butter
1/2 C olive oil
5 minced cloves garlic or 1 1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 T salt
2 t crushed red pepper
1/4 C Worcestershire sauce (I may have left this out once...)

Place shrimp in 9x13 baking dish. Melt butter and combine with other ingredients. Pour over shrimp. Bake in preheated 375 oven for about 30 min, basting every 10 minutes. (Shrimp should be pink when done.)

**thanks goes out to GS for sharing this great recipe with me!**