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Okay guys, I am giving away secrets here. I use yogurt in a lot of my cooking. It is one of my culinary secrets. When a dish needs a little extra tang or some creaminess, I dig out the ubiquitous carton of plain yogurt in my fridge. I prefer the Greek style yogurt, as many of you know, but sometimes it is not available, so I just go for the all natural, organic plain stuff. No one can ever guess that it is in there, but it really adds a wonderful element to some of the best dishes I have made.

My Dad and Step mom were here this weekend visiting us. I wanted them to see the things about St. Augustine that we love so much, so on Saturday AM, bright and early we took a trip to the Farmer’s Market. We picked up some beautiful fresh local shrimp. We got some more of those huge Meyer lemons. I had pasta at home already and standing there at the market with fresh shrimp, lemons and beautiful green spring onions a plan began to form. This is the kind of cooking I love – being inspired by the best products you can find. The recipe is almost secondary.

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After the market we took them to the the beach where we are going to get married in April. As you can see it was REALLY cold here this weekend. I am so glad I brought my parka with me from New England! We had a really great time. Roberto was the best sous chef ever and we had a great time cooking together in the kitchen while Dad and Kayzie relaxed in the living room with a glass of wine (did I mention that Kayzie is a wine distributor and they brought their own wine on their trip?! – lucky us!) The pasta was delicious by the way…

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INGREDIENTS:

2 TBS olive oil
2 lbs fresh shrimp
½ cup fresh spring onions
4 cloves of garlic
Juice from ½ huge meyer lemon, or from a whole regular lemon
2 TBS white wine
1 lb spaghetti (you can use corn or rice to make it gluten-free)
3TBS capers
½ cup feta cheese
4 TBS plain yogurt
slices of lemon from other half of meyer lemon
salt& pepper to taste
drizzle of good quality olive oil

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METHOD:

Bring salted water to a boil for pasta. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with 2 TBS olive oil. When oil is hot throw in the shrimp and garlic. Sautee just until one side of shrimp flesh become pink. Add the spring onions, lemon juice and wine. Cook together until shrimp is pink all over. Remove from heat and place lid on top. Finish cooking pasta until al dente. Place pasta in the skillet with the shrimp. Mix together. Add the yogurt and salt and pepper to taste and mix together. Place in serving bowl. Add the capers and feta cheese and arrange the lemon slices on top of the pasta. Drizzle with good quality olive oil. Serve immediately with good bread to sop up the juices. Yum!