Imagine the scene.  It’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The weather outside is your typical early winter: overcast, windy and cool. Eating yet another serving of turkey dinner is unappealing at best; nauseating at worst. Cooking a complex meal is out of the question because this is Rivalry Week in college football, and the wife is out shopping for leftover Black Friday deals.

The answer to all your problems – Shrimp Creole.

What you’ll need:

• 1 lb. of shrimp
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• A medium onion
• Mushrooms
• Several cloves of garlic
• Celery (Just use your judgement on how much. I like an onion to celery ratio of about 2:1)
• Spices to your liking.
• 3 Tbsp. of butter
• Fresh parsley

Before you do anything, start cooking your rice; you’ll need about a cup.

Chop the onions, celery, mushrooms and garlic. Put butter in a deep saucepan. Add the chopped up stuff into the pan and cook until the onions become clear on the medium high setting. Add the can of diced tomatoes. You’ll need to cook this concoction until the resulting sauce is very thick on the medium low setting. This is the time to add your spices. I like to add cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, onion powder and garlic powder.

While the sauce is cooking down, peel and devein your shrimp.

Once your sauce is cooked down to a very thick (about as thick as canned tomato sauce, maybe a bit thicker), add your shrimp. Mix ‘em in real good. Cover. Let the whole dish cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Make sure the shrimp turn a pinkish-orange. If you like your shrimp a little firm cook them closer to the ten minute mark; for chewier shrimp cook them a little longer. You’ll notice that as the shrimp cooks, your dish will get watery again. If it gets too runny, remove the lid for the last five minutes of cooking and turn the heat up a bit to cook the liquid off. This is why you want a very thick sauce before you add the shrimp.

Be sure to serve it while it’s hot.  I like to add a little gumbo file’ powder and fresh Italian parsley as a garnish.

This dish goes perfect with beer and football.

Enjoy!