Shrimp Failure

I can cook. At this point in my long and practiced cooking life I usually can cook, not bake, most anything without a recipe. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy trying new recipes, but most of the time I am just winging it in the kitchen. This is what comes from years of study and eating.  
There are certain foods that are so easy you can hardly screw them up. Shrimp is one of them. That is what I used to think until I went to a friend’s house for lunch a few years back. She was attempting to make us shrimp salad, using a recipe. The only problem is that she wanted to impress me and so she put the recipe aside and just started cooking. I was horrified as she put the shrimp in cold water and put it on the stove, brought it to boil and left it boiling for twenty minutes. Needless to say she should have revisited the fact of the recipe.  
Shrimp is a quick cook. Do it hot and fast in order to preserve the tenderness and flavor. I usually boil shrimp by bringing a big pot of water to a rolling boil, seasoning the water well with lots of salt and throwing the shrimp in for less than two minutes. As long as the shrimp have enough water to practically swim they will be cooked that fast.  
Tonight I had a pound of shrimp from the freezer that my Dad had brought me from Pawleys Island. I decided since they were so large that I would throw then on the grill in the shells. I did not have a recipe for this but thought it was a no brainer. I was wrong. Although I did not over cook the shrimp, they were very hard to peel once they were cooked. The flavor was good, but I think I should have peeled them and then grilled them.  
Sometimes thinking you can cook anything means you fail, but at least I learned a lesson. I am not sure how fresh shrimp would have reacted, but I don’t think I am going to try that experiment. I am too cheep to waste good shrimp.
Don’t get me wrong, we will be eating all these shrimp. It will just take more time to peel them than I would like. Consider my fail, your bonus recipe, and never over cook your shrimp.