What I've Been Cooking Lately

I don't have many original recipes to share lately, but I AM still cooking!  In fact, I cooked THREE meals on Memorial Day!  
Breakfast: egg scramble & home fries

[Scramble: 4 eggs, 1/2 c cheese, 1 green onion, salt, pepper, turmeric, and Greek seasoning. Home Fries: par-bake 2 potatoes in the microwave for 4 minutes, then dice (which will remove most of the peel), and saute over medium heat with cajun seasoning in about 1 Tbsp coconut oil until brown & crispy.]

Lunch: quesadillas made with manchego, smouded gouda, and leftover dirty rice
Dinner: Amazing smoked gouda grilled cheese with bacon pepper jam.

Here's a few others:

I chopped up some Holy Trinity (celery is there too, but I was using frozen, which isn't as pretty)...

To make Chef John Folse's Dirty Rice (used pork sausage instead of livers and gizzards, because ew.)

The recipe makes a TON, so I used some of the leftovers the next day to make stuffed bell peppers (no pic, they disappeared too fast) and the aforementioned quesadillas. (For the quesadillas, I added some lime juice, dried cilantro, and cumin to make it feel a little more Latin and less "Cajun taco".)

The Hubs was out of town for a few days, so I got a rotisserie chicken (to make life easy while having to cook AND entertain the kid by my lonesome) and served it up with some baked sweet potato, steamed broccoli, and homemade bread from a friend.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might already know that one of my Resolutions for the year was "eat more breakfast", as I am a notorious breakfast skipper.  I'm happy to report that at almost halfway through the year, I've not missed a single breakfast yet!  This monkey bread made for several good breakfast mornings (note: I used 1 Tbsp of cinnamon, and pecans instead of walnuts):

And these pancakes (using Alton Brown's recipe for instant mix) are also a quick and easy weekend breakfast fave.

These pancakes are a great base. I like to add in grilled pineapple bits, or chocolate chips, or some pumpkin pie spice, or blueberries...whatever strikes your fancy.

Over Memorial weekend, I made some quick biscuits from scratch while The Hubs whipped up some of his white gravy.

I've been traveling a lot the past couple months, so stay tuned for another post entitled "What I've Been Eating Lately". :)

What I've Been Cooking Lately

Honestly...I haven't been cooking that much. At least, not trying out new recipes, since we bought the new house.  We've had pizza over the last few weeks more than I care to admit.  I have been able to find time to test out a few new recipes over the last few months---I just haven't had time to blog about them individually.  So here I'll share my results, along with a link to the original recipe I used, and then note any changes I made.

Roasted Asparagus & Mushroom Carbonara

This is probably one of the most delicious things I've made myself in a LONG time.  And it was pretty darn easy to make.  One day, when I have free time again, I WILL be making more of this.  No tinkering with the recipe--original turned out great. I was nervous about using raw egg in a sauce but it was totally amazing.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Zucchini Noodles

I tinkered with this one a lot, but still really liked the results.  The original recipe here is vegan, but we used regular milk. I didn't have tahini or almond butter, so I used peanut butter, and tossed in some grated parmesan to help thicken the sauce.  I also added a few dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce for some heat and smokiness.  Finally, we added smoked sausage for protein.

LOVE my veggie spiralizer.

One Pot Spaghetti

Saw the Video for this on my Facebook feed and thought a) that looks easy, and b) I've got a ton of basil & tomatoes to use up.  It was very easy, and delicious.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties

We made these while doing a one week Daniel Fast, and they were super tasty.  I will probably make them again, but use egg as a binder, since they were kind of crumbly (couldn't use egg during the Fast).  We definitely had to let them cook longer than what the recipe calls for to get them crusty enough on one side so that they could be flipped without falling apart (I'd say 4-6 minutes per side, rather than 2 minutes, but if you use egg as a binder that might change the cook time.  Just make one first as a tester to figure out the times, and then fill your pan with patties after that.)

Served with a side of garlic green beans.

French Onion Soup

This was to satisfy a craving, and can only *sorta* qualify as semi-homemade.  I had some canned French Onion soup, but wanted to step it up, so I sauteed some fresh onions first to caramelize them, then added the canned soup and brought it to a boil.  Then I preheated my broiler, and set two ramekins on a cookie sheet.  I cracked open a raw egg into each of the ramekins (a weird trick one of my Louisiana buddies taught me), added a little pepper, and then gently ladled the hot soup over the top of the egg (the heat from the soup & broiler will cook the eggs).  

Next, I placed a 1 inch slice of french bread onto the top of the soup, and topped with 2 slices of Swiss cheese.  Broiled just until the cheese was melted, and then, devour.

What I've Been Cooking Lately

While I haven't had a ton of time to blog lately (the posts you've seen have been compiled over several weeks, pieced together here & there), I have still been cooking.  When I went back to work we quickly realized we needed to do some meal planning so we didn't starve to death or end up eating pizza every night.  Having a meal plan written down for the week helps us to figure out who's cooking what, which nights we won't need to cook anything and can just eat leftovers, and helps us to make sure we have enough leftovers for lunches.  

I've been ever-so-slowly working my way through my Recipes to Try on Pinterest. I try to keep a running list of what recipes I want to try next alongside my menu plan for the week, so I can cross things off as we use them and then add new recipes based on what's on sale or what we need to use up in the fridge. So, here's what I've tried recently, and my thoughts/tweaks to those recipes:

Easy Weeknight Chicken Parmesan - This was the recipe found inside a can of Progresso  Fire Roasted Tomato Recipe Starters in our pantry.  I've used a few of these Recipe Starters and have thus far been underwhelmed.  They all have a pretty "prepackaged" flavor.  I added a ton of garlic and basil to this sauce, which helped.  We used the excess sauce to make a pasta side dish.

"Chicken parm you taste so good..."  Thanks, Manning.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup:  This one was practically perfect as-is. I made it for my church small group and everyone requested that I send them the recipe. I did use more cumin (probably closer to 2-3 teaspoons) and used smoked salt instead of regular--what can I say, I like my Mexican dishes a little smoky!

Crockpot Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs:  This is possibly the easiest meal I've ever made, and it was really tasty.  You literally cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, plop the two halves into the crock, then pour in a jar of sauce and toss in some frozen meatballs, set to high for 3 hours, then go back to playing with your kid.  Perfect.

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes:  This one ended up being a flop for me, but I think I accidentally used too much milk--I also think it would have worked better with russets instead of red potatoes.  Reds have a tendency to not be as fluffy, and when I OD'd on milk the end result was a gluey mess.

Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli:  This one was also a flop.  The meat completely fell apart after having been cooked for 8 hours on low, so we essentially had shredded beef & broccoli over rice.  The sauce also didn't really ever thicken up, and was sweeter than I would have liked, so we added extra soy and sriracha. 

Baked Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges:  While not as crispy as I had hoped, these were still delicious.  Great as a side with burgers or brats.

All grilling best when completed by The Hubs with his young apprentice.

Hummus Crusted Chicken:  The hummus "crust" never really got crunchy, but it DID keep the chicken nice and moist and even my father-in-law, who doesn't like hummus, said this was a really tasty dish. I used Sundried Tomato Basil Sabra hummus, and seasoned both sides of the chicken with Cajun seasoning before adding the hummus.

Baked Garlic Paprika Chicken:  This was tasty. I recommend using smoked paprika.  Also--I was lazy and didn't heat the oil & spices together--I just tossed them in a gallon Ziploc and then added the chicken to the bag, tossing to coat.  Still a delicious result.

Biscuit Waffles 'n Gravy:  Technically only "pinspired" by Pinterest, and the trend of waffling everything these days.  We stuck some Grands biscuits in the waffle iron, and my Hubs made his famous sawmill gravy.  The biscuits were a little tough, but tasty--and no fork required, you could just pick them up & eat them.  Good schtuff.

Cajun Black Bean Soup:  My soup did not end up as creamy as I would have liked--I could never get the puree to be thin enough, so it just had some bean chunks in it. I did use Camellia brand black beans. However, flavor-wise this was delicious.  Also--before you start this recipe, note the long cook time.  I didn't and we ended up eating dinner at about 8pm that night. :)

Mushroom & Kale Ramen:  This was a nice spin on regular ramen.  I used baby portabellas instead of shiitake, but it was still a yummy bite. I also added a bit of fish sauce because...well, because it's in our fridge, and it makes me feel fancy.

Ravioli Lasagna:  We didn't really follow any recipe exactly, but the recipe under the link is close to what we made.  I used frozen cheese raviolis from Aldi, 1 lb of sliced smoked sausage links, 1 jar Italian sausage pasta sauce, and tons of mozzarella & Italian cheese blend.  Just layered the ingredients and baked for 40 minutes at 350F.

PF Chang's Style Lettuce Wraps:  These were super-tasty & really easy to throw together. I will definitely be making again.

Herbed Chicken & Pasta:  This dish had great flavor but ended up being WAY too salty for our taste. I think if you could find a low-sodium version of the soup mixes it might help, or just eliminate one of the mixes (either the garlic mix or the onion soup mix).

There's a few other things I've made recently but they were tinkered with enough (or are Cajun enough) to warrant their own post, so I'll save those for later.  You know...when I have time. :)

Tiny Drops of Fame: Pumpkin Pancakes!

So, if you’ve been reading this blog a while now, you might remember back in January when I posted my recipe for pumpkin pancakes.
Well, our local magazine, 417 Mag,  has started hosting a monthly “Reader Recipe” contest, and the October theme was pumpkin!  So I of course submitted this recipe, because I LURVE it SOOOO much.  And…lo & behold, I WON!  Totes crazy.
They called me up at work to let me know, and then said, “Okay, I’m going to transfer you to our art department so we can set up a photo shoot.”
*GuLp*  Photo Shoot?  Um… okay.  You should know…I’m not 100% comfortable in front of a camera.  I very much prefer to be the one BEHIND the camera. 
But, still slightly stunned and very humbled, I set up a day so that the photographer from the magazine could come out to our house & take photos.
OUR HOUSE.  Holy crap.  We don’t have a fancy house.  So as much as I would LIKE to do some fancy kitchen photo shoot like Julia Child:


…our kitchen kinda looks like this (but with appliances):

(Took this before we moved into our new house.)

But we make do.  The photo shoot was scheduled for a Monday.  So….we spent the entire weekend before that scouring the kitchen, steam mopping the floors, clearing counter tops and clutter…and cleaning the rest of the house too, because OMG Strangers/Photographers In. My. House.  Gotta look nice for these people! What if they want to sit on the couch!  What if they want to shoot photos on the porch?  What if they need to USE OUR HALL BATHROOM???  We even cleaned & conditioned the leather furniture in our living room.  We were THOROUGH.  (In all honesty though, it really needed it.  We’re more of a “vacuum & dust once a month” type of family.)
Monday morning rolled around, and I baked up a HUUUGE stack of pancakes, so that at least a few of them would be perfect.  When Jamie, the photographer, showed up, she was all about shooting the tall stack, rather than just picking out a few.  We busted out some pecans and spices and a bottle of maple syrup, and they made food-photo-magic happen.

Jamie loved the natural light from our dining window as much as I do…that’s my favorite spot for food photos.

The end result?

Utterly gorgeous.  And SOOOOO much better than the pics I snagged when I first posted that recipe!  They did a great job and I am just overwhelmed and super happy about the whole shebang.
This post is littered with links to their article, but if you haven’t accidentally stumbled upon one of those yet, CLICK HERE.
And for those who are too lazy to click?  Here’s the recipe. :D

Makes 6-8 pancakes (3-4 servings)
Ingredients
3/4 cup flour
1/8 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (nuts are optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
a pinch of  salt
1/2 cup fat free milk
1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 can pumpkin puree
Directions
1. Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl (or your mixer), reserving half of the chopped nuts for garnish.
2. Add milk, brown sugar, oil, vanilla and egg, and beat until well mixed. Stir in pumpkin until well combined.
3. Spray a non-stick pan lightly with butter-flavored cooking spray, and heat over medium heat. Scoop about 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan per pancake.
4. Turn pancakes when the tops are covered with bubbles and the edges look cooked.
5. To finish, sprinkle with the remaining nuts, and drizzle with maple syrup.

Guest Post: Crawmlette!

It’s just a week of firsts around here, isn’t it?  This is my first time hosting a guest poster on my blog.  As such, it’s only appropriate that my first guest poster is also one of my favorite people on the planet—my cousin Primo.

(Former Missourian-turned-NOLA resident, fellow Cajun food lover, and Dive Buddy Extraordinaire.)

Primo moved to Louisiana in 2008 for work & then stayed for school (along with all the other awesomeness that is New Orleans).  Now he’s got a rock star job with one of the consulting firms in the Crescent City. Like myself, Primo loves the local fare—along with putting his own unique spin on it.  So here we go!

(NOTE: Portions in italics are comments from me.)

~~~~~

Crawfish season; it’s the magic time of year between February and June when these amazing crustaceans are in full swing and everyone is happy. Well, everyone in my area at least. These guys are consumed by the sack full (that’s about 30-35 pounds for those of you not fortunate enough to live near the Gulf) at crawfish boils. Rarely do I have any leftovers when I boil.

One of my local watering holes holds a crawfish boil every Friday evening. This past weekend, they had had an excess of crawfish at closing time, so I was able to purchase an ice chest full for $30. …It sounded like a great purchase after a night of drinking. When I woke up, I had 40 pounds of crawfish boil leftovers in my kitchen.

  

(A thing of beauty, I tell you…)

I knew I could salvage the tails. What about the rest?

Being time for breakfast, the answer was easy. The Crawmlette had been born. All of the ingredients were already in my kitchen. All but one was in the ice chest awaiting preparation.

(Breakfast of Champions!  …or, hungover Cajun foodies.  Whatevs.)

 

The recipe is simple:

2 large eggs

½ C crawfish tails, removed  from the rest of the body

¼ C spicy boiled corn, cut off the cob

1/8c spicy boiled mushrooms

2 spicy boiled Red Potatoes

 

Directions:

Heat a skillet to a medium-high heat.

Chop up the mushrooms to your desired consistency. The ones I had were button mushrooms so I quartered them. 

Whisk 2 eggs.

Combine the eggs, crawfish tails, mushrooms, and corn and cook yourself the best high protein, omelet your taste buds have experienced. That’s it. No seasoning required. All the flavor of the boil is still with your ingredients.

Dice up a couple potatoes from the boil leftovers. Throw them in your skillet and quickly pan-fry the outside to a nice crisp for some spicy home fries.

(DUDE.  I am stealing this plate next time I visit.  You’ve been warned.)

 

Rough nutritional facts for the Crawmlette: 332 calories, 15 grams of fat

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesdays.

Thirsty Thursday, Part Deux: Green Hurricanes!!!

Okay, so the moment of brilliance from this morning resulted in an after work cocktail.  I’ll try to keep this quick, since I’m like 3 days behind on Words with Friends (sorry, friends!!!)  I mean, come on—even St. Patrick’s Day can be Cajun-i-fied!

Ingredients:

1 part white rum

1 part blue curacao

2 parts pineapple juice

3 parts orange juice

Mix with ice, & strain into fancy glass.  Serve with green garnish.

Sláinte!

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday

Louisiana “Truck Stop” Chicken

Hey there kids, here’s one of those Kitchen Improv recipes.  This recipe gets its name because, well, most of the ingredients were, in fact, purchased at a truck stop in Louisiana. 

As you know, I have a tendency to smuggle my favorite Louisiana products back to Missouri with me when I visit down South.  During my last adventure, I stopped at a truck stop near Franklin, Louisiana, on my way from Lafayette to New Orleans, and I picked up a bag of Zapp’s “Voodoo” Chips and some pork rinds.

The Voodoo chips are my favorite Zapp’s blend—the story goes, someone in the Zapp’s kitchen accidentally knocked several spices off a shelf, and when they tasted what had spilled, it was pretty darn tasty!  And they recreated the happy accident & started selling them.  It’s sort of a blend of salt & vinegar, BBQ, dill, and….well, probably everything else.  It’s delicious, that’s what it is!

I could easily nom down a bag of these chips in one sitting by myself, but the pork rinds were purchased more for my husband.  We ate about half the bag, and then I had an apostrophe.

“Lightin’ has just struck my brain.” “Well, that must hurt.”

 

I know back during the Atkins phase, using pork rinds as an alternative for breading on chicken was pretty popular.  And I’ve seen potato chips used as breading before as well… so why not mix them together?

Ingredients:

2 oz bag of your favorite potato chips (The more flavor, the better)

2 oz bag of pork rinds

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 egg

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pulverize the pork rinds & chips using your favorite method (we used a food processor, but a blender would also work, or if you prefer a non-mechanize method, you can put them in a large freezer bag & smash with a rolling pin.)  Add Cajun seasoning & mix well & place in a large bowl or lipped plate.

Crack egg into a bowl & beat until well blended.

Create a work station to keep things organized & cut down on messes:

Dip the chicken in the egg wash until well coated—then let excess drip off.  Drop chicken into the chip/pork rind breading mixture & toss to coat fully.  Then transfer chicken to a roasting pan with a wire rack.

Bake for 30 minutes or until no pink remains.

Serve with your favorite non-truck stop side dish (we went with steamable pasta & broccoli).

Makes 4 servings.

NutriFacts:

Calories 234.8

Total Fat 11.1 g

Saturated Fat 3.6 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g

Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g

Cholesterol 75.3 mg

Sodium 421.2 mg

Potassium 386.2 mg

Total Carbohydrate 7.3 g

Dietary Fiber 0.7 g

Sugars 0.0 g

Protein 25.1 g

Shared on The Sweet Spot

Duck & Smoked Sausage Filé Gumbo!

When I lived in Louisiana, the majority of my coworkers were big into hunting.  Fishing too, of course.  Deer, turkey, duck, rabbit, squirrel… you name it, they’ll shoot it.  I learned the different game seasons by observing the Mondays that the office fellas showed up late because they’d been out in a field in camo at daybreak….or when they all started growing their beards out to protect their faces from the early morning winds.

After all, Louisiana is The Sportsman’s Paradise, particularly to those who have a long family lineage in the state.  Their great-granddaddies grew up living off what Mother Nature could provide, and that culture is as ingrained in their blood as their love for rice & gravy or pecan pie.

(Cal & Griff…two of the aforementioned coworkers, and the proprietors of my favorite Cajun seasoning, Fontenot & A Half…)

They all acknowledge that it’s an expensive hobby, and when you factor in the cost of gear, guns, ammo, & hunting leases, you’d be far better off taking your car to the nearest supermarket for pre-packaged meat rather than driving out to the Basin marshes.  But they continue on all the same, and who am I to say anything?  Me, who now lives in a landlocked state & has a closet full of scuba gear that gets used about 3 times a year (FYI—Missouri water is COLD.)

Plus, these are Southern gentlemen.  And Southern gentlemen share.  Which is why I actually know how to cook wild game, ‘cuz Lord knows my sleep-lovin’ butt isn’t going out to sit in a cold duck blind at 4am.  No thank you, I’ll still be tucked away in my warm bed.  You just bring it back, all cleaned & pretty, and I’ll cook it up when the clock says a reasonable hour & feed it to you.  How’s that sound?

So in 2007, when Chef John Folse (owner of the Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant and proprietor of the John Folse Culinary Institute) released his massive cook-bible “After the Hunt-Louisiana's Authoritative Collection of Wild Game & Game Fish Cookery”, I snagged an autographed copy from a book signing (at a pricetag of over $40—by far the most I’ve ever spent on a cook book.  But it’s over 800 pages, and according to Amazon, they retail for over $60 now, so I got a heckuva deal).

--

But when I moved to Missouri, I was no longer surrounded by hunters.  Which is nice at times because it means I don’t  get caught in “staff meetings turned fish tales” anymore, but it also means I don’t have coworkers sauntering into my office anymore saying, “hey, I brought in some extra packs of venison/catfish/squirrel; they’re in the freezer if you want one.”  And that part makes me miss my old beard-covered, marsh-loving coworkers a bit.

So when I found out that a couple of the guys in our field department actually are duck hunters, I got really excited.  And one of them was kind enough to bring me a freezer bag full of duck breasts.

What to do, what to do???

I busted out John Folse’s bible & flipped to the “Waterfowl” section.  (For the record, this is the only cookbook I’ve ever seen that has a “Waterfowl” section.)

(Other “normal size” cookbook & phone included for scale.) 

 

Also, said Waterfowl section is about 80 pages long.  So I had a LOT of choices.  Too many, perhaps.  So I ended up reserving half of the duck for a future recipe. 

But I figured it’s high-time I did a gumbo.  I haven’t made a gumbo post on this blog EVER, and I haven’t made a gumbo from scratch since…well…since I lived in New Orleans.  (Note: at that time, I was not aware of the subtle “rules” that govern gumbo making, and that one typically shouldn’t use more than two meats in a gumbo…so my chicken-sausage-clam-shrimp-okra gumbo had some really weird flavors going on.)

 

Ingredients:

3 moderately sized duck breasts (about 1 lb of meat)

6 cups chicken stock or broth

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

1 cup roux (whether you use instant roux or the traditional method is up to you)

1 cup diced onion

1/2 diced bell pepper

2 stalks celery, diced

3 minced garlic cloves

9 oz smoked turkey sausage (the original recipe calls for venison sausage, which is a great option if you have it.  I did not.  Sad face.)

Seasonings to taste (S&P, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder)

1/8 cup dried chives or green onions

Filé powder to taste (a somewhat earthy spice made from ground sassafras leaves, typical for gumbos that don’t have okra in them)

4 cups cooked rice

 

Directions:

Rinse the duck breasts & cut up into bite sized pieces…rinse again. Duck breasts are super lean & high in iron…but they’re also pretty bloody.  Thus the gorgeous dark color:

 

Place the duck meat in a large stockpot with the chicken broth & bring to a boil.  Add the bay leaves & red pepper, then cover, reduce to simmer, & let cook for about 45 minutes or until tender.  The salt from the stock will help tenderize the meat.

In a large skillet, make your roux:

(I will “rue” the day that I run out of this stuff.  HAH…rue…roux…get it??? *snorts* Ahem…moving on…)

 

…and after it turns a nice dark brown, add your veggies & garlic.  Sauté for 5 minutes.

When the duck appears to be ready, fish out the bay leaves & discard.  Add your roux-veggie mix one scoopful at a time to the duck & chicken stock, stirring well to combine & integrate the roux between each scoop.  When that’s all added in, add your sausage. 

Cover & let simmer for about 30 minutes, then add seasoning as needed to taste.  (File powder can be placed on the table for guests to add to their own taste, since it’s a very unique flavor, and some aren’t as accustomed to it as others.)

Serve one heaping cup of gumbo over 1/2 cup rice.

(Center rice ball formed using an ice cream scoop—then gumbo poured around & over it.  This is a pretty traditional serving presentation.)

 

NOTE: It’s also traditional to have potato salad as a side dish with gumbo—some people mix the potato salad in with the gumbo as well.  It REALLY complements the flavors of gumbo well, so I highly recommend this.  In fact, I may make some deviled egg potato salad soon to serve with this.  Some people really like to have a hard boiled egg on the side.

 

Many thanks again to the Eichmeyers for providing the duck!  I can’t wait to pick another recipe to use the rest of the duck meat for!!!

 

Nutrifacts: (Makes 8 servings)

Calories 388.2

  Total Fat 12.5 g

  Saturated Fat 3.8 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 4.1 g

  Cholesterol 104.6 mg

  Sodium 1,077.1 mg

  Potassium 368.0 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 39.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 4.5 g

  Sugars 4.1 g

  Protein 26.1 g