Pesto Cream Sauce with Shrimp

Well, I haven't really cooked in the last two weeks. Weird, I know! It's Brean's turn to grocery shop, and it's been a busy couple of weeks for him, so he hasn't been able to do it, hence we have been scrounging around what we have in the kitchen. Which I have to say has worked out well so far, with a couple of random milk runs. But I am getting the itch to make something new, so hopefully by the end of the week I will have a menu set!
This is one we tried a couple of months ago - I liked it! The recipe calls for shrimp, but Brean and I both agreed that it would probably be better with chicken. It's a nice mix of pesto and a makeshift alfredo sauce, making it somewhat unique in the world of pasta sauces.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package linguine pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1 1/2 cups grated Romano cheese
• 1 cup prepared basil pesto
• 1 pound cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 20 mushrooms, chopped
• 3 roma (plum) tomato, diced

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until tender and translucent. Stir in garlic and butter, and saute until garlic is soft and fragrant, about 1 minute. Dissolve flour in milk, then stir in. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add cheese, and stir until melted. Stir in pesto. Add shrimp, mushrooms and tomatoes. Cook 4 minutes, or until heated through. Toss with pasta until evenly coated.

I did not add the mushrooms or the tomatoes, though I would definitely consider doing the tomatoes next time. I decreased the butter by half (to 1/4 cup) because with the olive oil and the pesto, there was just a lot of grease going on already. Surprisingly, the reheated leftovers were not nearly as greasy as reheated pesto or alfredo usually is. All in all, this was a pretty tasty dish, and while I wouldn't add it to our regular routine of meals, it's definitely a "make again" kinda dish.

Factoid of the day: We have officially been in our house for a year, as of yesterday!!!!! (insert noisemakers and confetti here) It's been crazy, especially around the holidays and the month of January to look over at Brean and say "we were signing a crap-load of papers at this time LAST YEAR". It doesn't feel like it's been year since packing up our cars in the midst of the biggest snow storm last year and driving across town to unload in our pink and teal house. (which still has teal carpet going on, but at least the pink walls went away) We were (and still are!) so blessed by our apartment neighbors, who spent many trips helping us get all of our belongings transferred, as well as spending countless hours helping paint, and chip off horrible wall paper borders, and just keeping us company. We are starting to put down roots here, and it's nice. For a long time, we were just living in an apartment in our college town, just drifting by I guess you would say. But now we are getting involved in our community, and cultivating friendships of people who are planning on making this little burb their home.
In other big news, we have acquired a dog! Through a random series of events, we were basically handed the perfect situation to get a Great Dane - he's a re-homing situation that is up to date on all shots, has been neutered and had a gastropexy (which is a big deal in Danes - you tack the side of the stomach to the abdominal wall so that they are unable to bloat), is crate trained, sits/lays down/fetches, and is in general the most well-behaved dog that I have ever met (with the exception of chewing his bed) all at 9 months old! It's been several days, and the cats are adjusting actually much faster than I expected. Doof was "himself" yesterday, instead of slinking around and hiding all the time, and Minion just thinks it's fabulous that Sully's food is another potential food source for him!
It's been a stressful week - I'm fighting a sinusy/sore throat kind of cold, I'm concerned about getting finances for the family cruise in May, and despite the fact of loving Sully, it's been an adjustment adding a dog to the mix of our family. There have been several days that I've just felt on the verge of crying all day, and it just feels stupid. Today is a better day, I think. But if you think about it, send up a little prayer for me that my heart will remember the mantra that my head is repeating "God is in control". Worrying and stressing is silly, because there is nothing I can do to help the situation anyway! With that being said, I'm off to do some de-stressing treadmilling, and hopefully will blog more this week! Feel like I've been slacking! ;)