Snazzy Seafood Summer Dinner

Hello you!

Plans are to become a lot more active on my blog this year! I realise that close to all of my blogposts start like this. The thing is that I have so many passions and hobbies that I just keep to myself or don't really explore with any significant depth that I feel like I'm wasting a beautiful opportunity!

This past month I've spent away from home, living and working by the beach in the beautiful province of Zeeland! I'm sure you've snooped and seen some photos of my experience back over on my Instagram. It was a month's worth of vacation partnered with a summer job at a restaurant on the beach called Kon-Tiki! I had a job in serving which I was really nervous for but ended up enjoying a lot! It is a type of job that really isn't cut out for anyone, and whereas I did have my difficulties I do believe that it's a job cut out for me. The only downside is what little payment you end up with, but that is something I discovered a little too late into my journey... :p

I've learned so much, working at this restaurant, and it somehow sparked some sort of gastronomical interest! I hate that word by the way, 'gastronomical', it makes me think of body parts. My Pinterest and Tumblr addictions made that I started hoarding recipes during this summer, almost as if my life depended on it. I have that every so often, a passion that hits me with the power of a thousand suns and I just cannot wait to dive completely and utterly into it.

So here I am now, with bucketsful of recipes waiting to be tried out at my leisure. And of course! Waiting to be shared with you once they turn out to be absolutely, freaking amazing!

My first try-out bore wonderful fruit, hence why I'm more than excited to share with you my first foodie blogpost. :)

This past Tuesday, I surprised my Mum and her boyfriend with a lovely seafood dinner including a light cocktail to sip all the while. They were thrilled! Not only by the fact that I cooked for them, because that might as well have turned out horribly, but especially by the wonderful flavours in this meal! I highly recommend you try out this recipe. I will make sure to list where I've found it, so that all credits go to their original author.

 This Rosé Lemonade went incredibly well with this dinner dish since the sweet/sour lemony taste complemented the seafood very nicely. I could also recommend sipping this drink on a sunny afternoon before dinner with your family or friends. :)

Click here to find the original recipe!

This recipe was made for two drinks but I personally just went ahead and altered it so that I could fill up this weck bottle which I'd saved. If you've half a lemon left or so, I recommend using it to garnish the drinks! I completely forgot to do so in the rush of dinner, but I think it would look mighty cool! The yellow contrasting with the gorgeous pink drink.

It's incredibly easy to make and a delicious thirst-quencher for summer/dinner since it's not too boozy. :)

Now as for a lovely seafood dinner! 'Seafood Spaghetti Marinara'. I was incredibly eager to try out this recipe after having had 'linguine au fruits de mer' at an Italian restaurant when I was in Paris. Spaghetti with seafood is a common dish at our house, and I've always been a big fan. But the way we've always prepared it is without a tomato sauce. Having ordered 'linguine au fruits de mer' in Paris, I was expecting to be served a similar dish to the one I was used to at home. What I got, however, I have taken even more of a liking to!

It's a magical world of flavours to have the gentle, sweet taste of a simple tomato sauce mixed with the chewy, savoury seafood. Add to that some parsley and you've got a celebration on your plate right there!

This recipe I found came close enough to what I enjoyed in Paris, despite it being a spaghetti dish and not linguine of course. This is also because I altered the recipe to my convenience a little bit. In the original recipe, the seafood mixture contains fish as well as shellfish. I only used a mixture of shrimp, mussels, squid and surimi. Mmmm I love seafood. Also, you may want to change the amount of spaghetti you cook depending on your appetite. I found that the recommended amount was a bit too little, so I altered it with accordance to my family's tummies. ;)

You can find the original recipe over here!

I give it 2/5 for difficulty, because it wasn't difficult at all but it did cause me a little bit of stress at one point. That's probably just my lack of cooking experience, but I will state this for other beginners in the kitchen. :)

Taste wise, 4/5! For definite. It was a really nice meal that I will definitely be making again in the future!

Hope you all enjoyed reading this new type of post, and I hope I will be writing even more of these in the future. If you prefer me to write the recipes including my alterations in these posts, let me know!

Have a good day!

Kisses,

 Eva