Tequila Lime Shrimp

Happy Tequila Day! It's always kind of sad when there's a special day dedicated to liquor and it falls on a Sunday...the day of rest and the day of recovery. I'm not on a recovery track today, I behaved myself last night. I even held back from announcing to all of my friends that it's Tequila Day, in fear that I would be lured out for margaritas.

Tequila is something I can only drink in a margarita if it's masked well enough, especially gold tequila like Jose Cuervo. I do, however, love me some Patron. Patron doesn't always love me back. But that's beside the point. Today, my tequila target was shrimp, not margaritas.

I am still on a little bit of a lazy track, trying to find shortcuts in my meal planning. I recently ran out of gold tequila, and I scoured my parents liquor cabinet as well. I thought I was going to have to stop at the store and buy some tequila nips (which made me feel shameful, it being Sunday and all), but mum walked into my kitchen with this:

Tropina is a fruit-flavored tequila. I immediately dismissed it, but then my laziness and more-so my curiosity got the best of me. I figured if it was going to be mixed with some lime juice, the fruit flavor probably wouldn't be so bad. I forged ahead with the tools at hand. This made my meal planning easier, all I needed was the shrimp.

Once I had my mind set on making the shrimp, my mom let me know that she bought enough Swordfish for me share some for dinner tonight (I tend to get left out of the good stuff she buys....sometimes). So we decided to tag-team dinner and make grilled swordfish and shrimp. I wish we had high-fived when we made the decision.

Tequila Lime Shrimp
adapted from Use Real Butter

1/4 cup tequila (gold is the standard, but go crazy..I did!)
1/4 cup lime juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. cumin
shake of salt and pepper
1 lb. raw shrimp, tails on

1. Mix the first 6 ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Put shrimp into a large ziploc bag and add marinade.
3. Marinate for 30 minutes up to 4 hours. (I marinated for an hour.)
4. Skewer the shrimp onto metal skewers. (If using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in water for 30 minutes before cooking so they don't burn!)
5. Light grill and grill shrimp for 5-6 minutes per side.

Ready to marinate.

Ready to grill.

Tag-team dinner.