“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
I’m going to be very honest right now. Living in Philadelphia hasn’t been what I expected.
Then again, when is moving to a completely new city ever what you expect, right? I’ve been struggling a little bit since my roommate got hurt and had to move out. I’ve always lived with people—whether it was family, friends or pets (they’re people too)—I’ve never been alone in a house. It’s taken some getting used to.
I’m grateful that I have my friends to lean on through all of this. My tendency when things aren’t going so well is to kind of internalize everything until I eventually overflow. Even in today’s modern world where I can text, call or video message a friend at literally any moment, I still end up keeping it all to myself. No bueno.
Thankfully a few weeks ago I got a last minute invite to a college friend’s birthday party—where I was reunited with the gang. Going from seeing almost none of my friends to seeing them all at once was slightly overwhelming, to say the least. But it felt great to see my two best (best) friends from college, Katie & Ellen.
Then, the weekend after, my best friend from high school visited me in South Philly.
We had planned it for a few weeks and I was really excited to show Emily around the city—despite the 15° weather.
Since I knew this was going to coincide with my 10th blog post, the recipe had to be special. So I went all out and chose Creamy Seafood Risotto—a dime if I do say so myself.
This was definitely a ball-out recipe. I usually make things that I have a lot of the staples to already in my kitchen—it saves a lot of money. But I had almost nothing for this seafood risotto, so Kyle and I ended up splitting some of the ingredients.
Like this saffron.
Did I mention it’s the most expensive food in the world? Like I said earlier, a dime.
The three of us prepped. We listened to my favorite Spotify playlist—Vietnam War Era Music. We were excited to eat this masterpiece in the making.
We definitely went all out with the ingredients. Jumbo shrimp, real crab meat, mascarpone cheese! It was decadence x 10.
Emily and I delegated the constant stirring that makes risotto so creamy to Kyle. Every time I cook with him, stirring seems to be his favorite thing to do. That’s cool, more knife work for me. 😉
Everything just sort of fused together into the perfect mass of stories to make up my 10th post. And what could be a more apt name than the overall title?
I chose The Shawshank Risotto because The Shawshank Redemption is my all-time favorite movie. To me, there’s nothing to not love about it. The voiceover by Morgan Freeman (or as I like to remember him, Easy Reader), the camaraderie between everyone. Maybe best of all is the whole f-you attitude towards authority in every aspect.
“Rehabilitated? That’s a bullshit word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my damn time. Truth is, I don’t give a shit.” – Red
The risotto turned out amazing. It was almost too rich to finish. Just needed a squeeze of lemon. 🍋 Otherwise, it lived up to being a dime.
After Emily left the next day, I felt a lot better about things.
Life hasn’t been what I expected, sure. but despite these bumps I’ve ran into lately, it’s still challenged me, made me grow and has given me a stronger sense of myself.
I don’t foresee running off to Zihuatanejo anytime soon.
Philly is my home for now. Time to get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’ I guess.
The Shawshank Risotto 