Shrimp Fra Diavolo and Mikey's best banana bread!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo. This came from 'The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook'. I've had this cookbook for a few years but for some reason I forgot about it. When I was doing some spring cleaning a few weeks back I was about to put it in my give to Mikey pile, but decided to sit down and browse through the pages. I'm not sure why I forgot about this book it has lots of amazing dishes, and it shows you how to do so many things with cooking. Which if I remember correctly, is why I bought it in the first place.

{Sorry for the poor quality of picture, I should have turned the light on. I was being lazy.}

Ingredients
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup cognac or brandy
12 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon sugar {I left this out and it was just fine}
1 pound linguine or spaghetti
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
Pepper

Directions
Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot for the linguine. Meanwhile, toss the shrimp with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the red pepper flakes. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over high heat. Add the shrimp to the skillet in a single layer and cook, without stirring, until the bottoms of the shrimp turn spotty brown, about 30 seconds. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir the shrimp. Sprinkle the cognac evenly over the shrimp. Wave a lit long kitchen match over the skillet to ignite the cognac. Return the skillet to high heat and shake the skillet until the flames subside. Transfer the shrimp to a medium bowl and set aside. Let the skillet cool for about 2 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of the remaining oil and 3 tablespoons of the garlic to the cooled skillet and cook over low heat, stirring often, until the garlic foams and is sticky and stray-colored, about 10 minutes.Stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, the tomatoes, wine, sugar, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 8 minutes.When the water is boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon salt and the linguine. Cook, stirring often, until the linguine is almost tender but still a little firm to the bite.Stir the remaining 1 tablespoon garlic, the parsley, and the reserved shrimp with any accumulated juice into the tomato sauce. Continue to simmer until the shrimp are heated through, about 1 minute.Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the linguine and return it to the pot. Stir in the shrimp sauce and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce before serving.

Mikey's Best Banana Bread!
The original recipe is called Best Banana Bread but Mikey added in a half cup of white Chocolate Chips which made it AMAZING! So we started calling it Mikey's Best :) I have no picture because mine pretty much spewed over in the oven. I used 3 banana's instead of 1 1/2, too much butter because I wasn't paying attention (I tend to do that a a lot!), and I was using Agave syrup for the first time. I love the agave much much more than regular granulated sugar, I just need to learn the hang of it. The banana bread still turned out tasting awesome. You can check out the original recipe here, just make sure to add in the half cup of white chocolate chips!