First, I can not believe that it has taken 6+ Months of Besotted’s existence for me to put up this Shrimp Scampi recipe. It’s one of my favorites (more so than my other favorites), is a consistent crowd pleaser, and is easy enough to make for a Weeknight Dinner, and it’s just butter-heavenly delicious.

It also has the added, though unintended, benefit of vindicating my slightly-neurotic frugality. I have to me a few confessions – I buy in bulk…. A LOT, I buy meat on sale and freeze it, I scan my grocer’s circulars for special deals, and I am adamant that they give me my $.10 off for using my own carrier bag. I know that I should be more focused on letting my culinary creativity guide me, and I do often, but, the fact is, I love to penny pinch.

I had intended to share a recipe for Gourmet’s Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits to accompany the Souther Fried Chicken and Mustard Vinaigrette Green Beans from last week, but, quite frankly, I wasn’t crazy about them.

They had a few things going for them, in that they were easy and took less than 20 minutes of prep time, but the result wasn’t exactly what I was looking for – they were nice and airy, but didn’t have enough flavor. I’ll tweak the recipe, post at a later date, and let you decide for yourselves.

In the meantime, I have been meaning to post about a recent weekend trip out to the Wisconsin Lakes.

Green beans (or haricot verts if you’re feeling fancy and worldly) make a great side for the Summer Fried Chicken, and, as I’ve made them probably 18 different ways this summer, I thought I would include two of my favorite recipes.

The first, Haricot Verts with Crispy Shallots, is one that I’ve been making for years, with slight tweaks here and there, depending on the season. At it’s core, it’s simply shallots fried in an olive oil and butter combo until crispy, mixed into ever-so-slightly cooked green beans. But, depending on my mood or hunger level, I’ve been known to toss in some toasted walnuts, or add a bit of lemon juice to brighten the flavor. I’ve served this to company, and also made it the core of a lazy, weeknight dinner for myself, making its versatility one of its most commendable features.

I’ve come to the realization lately that my farm share may be taking over not only my fridge, but also a large portion of my life. As one friend put it, “the pressure to consume” all of the wonderful veggies can be a bit overwhelming, and I did find, as I looked back through the latest Besotted posts that they almost exclusively dealt with vegetables – noble and lovely as they are, I started to feel that there was something a bit lacking.

I spent a couple of quiet hours on Sunday pouring through my cooking magazines and books and came up with a lot of happy inspiration for delicious (and omnivorous!) meals. And, to get the ball rolling, I decided to start-out with one of my favorite carnivorous meals – Fried Chicken.

My farm share has been inundating me with firm, vibrant bundles of bok choy, and, while I enjoy Asian-inspired recipes more than anyone, my recent consumption of ginger and five-spice-powder has been bordering on excessive.

Which is why I was so thrilled to find a provencal recipe for bok choy, allowing me to enjoy this wonderful, jewel-colored veggie with the bright, pungent flavors of Provence. Hearty, summer tomatoes mingle with briny kalamata olives, garlic, orange peel, and thyme producing a rough sauce in which the bok choy stews to tenderness.

I love cucumber sandwiches, as I’ve stated before, but I do have a couple small gripes with them. The first is the daintiness and the second is that, in their original carnation, they were intended as a polite snack; whereas, I’d like to re-fit them slightly for lunchtime consumption.

My first attempt at un-civilizing the cucumber sandwich was a tangy blend of cream cheese, green onions, cucumbers, and spices smushed between an everything bagel. This was in the Spring time when running along the Charles didn’t feel quite so much like crossing the River Styx into Hades, temperatures were cooler, and appetites more robust.

For those of you that think that vegetarian dinners consist of greater amounts self-righteousness than flavor, let alone decadence, meet the Veggie Popover and…. Eat. Your. Hearts. Out.

Hearty veggies steeped in a deep, rustic wine sauce, baked inside a flaky, buttery pastry shell and drowned in a gorgonzola cream sauce obliterate any notions that vegetarian dinners are an ersatz gourmet experience. Every bite is more delicious and satisfying than the last, and if you also happen to feel a little self-righteous for getting so many veggies into your diet, all the better.