Red Beans and Rice with Sausage

My friend was talking about a Mardi Gras dinner coming up and I thought that sounds good. We normally make jambalaya. My grandma used to make dirty rice too. I thought red beans and rice sounded good. So I found this recipe from a cajun restaurant called Treebread. It looked easy enough. So I thought I'd try it out.

It came out good. A little soupy, but thats okay. Everything else was cooked perfectly. If you don't like the soupyness, It can easily be fixed with a slotted serving spoon.

This can easily be made vegetarian, if you don't add the sausage.



Ingredients
1 lb dried red kidney beans
6 cups water
2 medium onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped
1/2 large bell pepper, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 can diced tomatoes (I used the flavored variety with peppers)
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
1 lb smoked sausage, cut in 1/2-inch slices

1. Sort and wash red beans. In a large soup pot, add 6 cups cold water and red beans. Let soak overnight.
2. Add onions, celery, and bell pepper to beans and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to simmer about 1 1/2 hours, or until beans are soft.
3.Stir in seasonings, tomatoes and sausage. Simmer 30 minutes more.
4. Meanwhile cook a pot of rice, when done, stir rice into pot of beans
5. Serve while hot

Grandma's Cinnamon Apple Cake

DH's grandma made this cake today. We had some when we visited and it was soo good! I asked her for the recipe. So this is not something I made, but it is really very good!

Grandma's Apple Cinnamon Cake

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored, and grated
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, and oil until blended.
Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt
mix until well combined.
Stir in apples and nuts.
Spread batter in pan and bake 65 to 70 minutes

S'mores Cookie Bars

I love smores. Who doesn't. We were talking about them on the knot board and I had the worst craving for them. I found this recipe along time ago and knew it was finally time to make these. They came out great. They were a big hit when I brought them to my friend's house for after dinner dessert.

They only thing is they are sticky and messy and a pain in the butt to cut and get over to her house for dinner. I kept having to put them back in the oven because they weren't done. Plus having to wait for them to cool didn't make them exactly quick either.

So only make these if you are not in a hurry. I thought oh I have two hours - thats plenty of time. Wrong! Prep took me about 20 minutes. Plus cooking and waiting for them to cool, I was thirty minutes late. I almost gave up on these and left without them. I'm glad I didn't though.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 graham crackers)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (my store was out of plain king sized bars - so I just bought milk chocolate chips and it turned out just fine.
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and/or line an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until there are no big pieces left and there is only crumbs.

3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.
5. Place chocolate bars over dough (2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate if necessary to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick).

6. Spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate.

7. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff



8. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until lightly browned.
9. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Homemade Cornbread

We usually use a mix, but since I've been on a baking kick lately - I decided to try making cornbread from scratch.

I asked on the cooking board and got a good recipe from Kmays. Its originally from Cooks Illustrated and it didn't look too hard, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was really good. It went great with the chili I made too.


All-Purpose Cornbread

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Note: To make this in a cast iron skillet, place approx 1 Tbs of butter in the skillet and place it in the oven while preheating. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined; set aside.

2. In food processor or blender, process sugar, thawed corn kernels, and buttermilk until combined, about 5 seconds. Add eggs and process until well combined (corn lumps will remain), about 5 seconds longer.

3. Using rubber spatula, make well in center of dry ingredients; pour wet ingredients into well. Begin folding dry ingredients into wet, giving mixture only a few turns to barely combine; add melted butter and continue folding until dry ingredients are just moistened.

4. Pour batter into prepared baking dish; smooth surface with rubber spatula. Note: If using cast iron skillet, remove from oven and turn pan to coat all surfaces with the melted butter. Pour the batter into the hot pan. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes. (I just kept an eye on it until it looked done.) Cool on wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool.

Easy Chili

When I first moved in with my husband I made him what I considered chili. He called it bean soup. I grew up with that bean soup and I loved it. I always go over to grandma's for it and take a big tupperware container home for me. Nevertheless, I never made it for him again.

Then he asked me after we got married to make some chili for him. I asked if he wanted me to make mine again, and he said no, try something else. So I scoured the internet for a recipe, and found this one. It seemed simple enough. Instead of soaking and cooking my own beans - like I do in mine, I decided to just go easy and use canned. This was really good and it reheats well. You can mix up the beans - pinto, kidney,black and/or chili beans - whatever you like. I decided to stick with what I know and went with all pinto beans.



Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 (16 ounce) cans pinto beans, drained
16 oz can diced tomatoes
16 oz can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/4 cup chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

1. In dutch oven or a large saucepan, over med heat, cook beef, onion and garlic until beef is no longer pink, stirring occasionally, drain.
2. Add beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and spices
3. Cover; simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionallly.
4. Serve immediately. You can your favorite toppings on top or serve plain.

Oven Red Potato Fries

I got the idea for this from Rachael Ray. In the show I saw, she used herbs. I decided to use grill seasoning, which I think she's also done before. My husband loves red potatoes and this couldn't be simplier. Although I really disagree with RR's statement that these take 20 minutes. They take about 35-40 minutes - but maybe its just my oven?



Ingredients
4-10 red potatoes.
1/4 cup grill seasoning (I like McCormick Montreal Steak)
1/4 cup olive oil


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Wash potatoes really good
3. Cut potatoes in half and then into wedges. I usually get about 6 fries per potato.
4. Grease a cookie sheet and place the potatoes on in a single layer, not overlapping.
5. Sprinkle with the grill seasoning

6. Place in oven and cook until tender and crispy. About 30-35 minutes.

Garlic Burgers

I got this recipe off the side of the worchestire sauce bottle and I've been using it for years. I love it. Its very easy and the burgers are flavorful and juicy.



Ingredients
1 1b. lean ground beef
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup worchestire sauce
1 tablespoon or 2 cloves minced garlic - as fine as you can get it

1. Mix all together, cover and refridgerate 30-60 minutes
2. Form into patties and cook

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

The flavor of this chicken was really good. It was juicy and moist too. I think this is what I'm going to do from now on with any fried chicken, maybe any chicken dish in general. I don't think the buttermilk added any taste. It tasted more like garlic and cumin. I'm sure you could play around with the spices and flavors you add.

Ingredients
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
2 chicken breasts marinated in a buttermilk brine
4 cups oil

1. Heat the oil in a cast iron dutch oven over medium heat
2. Mix the salt and pepper with the flour
3. Set up a flouring station - buttermilk chicken, egg, and flour.
4. Dredge the chicken in the flour
5. Dip the chicken in the egg
6. Dip the chicken in the flour again
7. Make sure the oil is ready - I like to put a wooden spoon in the oil to see if the oil bubbles up around it.
8. Place the chicken in the oil and let it cook until golden brown on both sides.

9. Take it out of the oil and let it drain on paper towels for a few minutes.

Buttermilk Brine for Chicken

I love fried chicken, but sometimes it dries out from cooking. I'd like to be able to just fry boneless skinless chicken breasts - since thats what we normally buy. It would be nice to be able to just use what we have.

I've heard that buttermilk brines make really the chicken moist and juicy. What better to try it out with than a piece of meat that gets dry when fried?

Ingredients
1/2 qt buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cumin

1. Mix all together and stir until sugar and salt are dissolved
2. Place chicken in buttermilk mixture, cover and refridgerate 8-24 hours. (we marinated ours for a little less than 24 hours)
3. Remove and cook

Ultimate Game Day Nachos

Ingredients
1 bag of tortilla chips
1 lb of monterey jack cheese - shredded
1 cup of salsa
3 cups of pico de gallo
shredded meat of your choice - I used spicy shredded beef

1. Grease a 9x13 pan and preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Layer tortilla chips and sprinkle a lot of cheese over the top of the chips.
3. Make sure that the meat is drained of the juices so that the chips don't become soggy. Layer the meat on top of the cheese.
4. Make another layer of chips and cheese on top.
5. Add the rest of meat, sprinkle the cup of salsa around.
6. Bake in the oven until cheese is melted - about 8 - 10 minutes.
7. Add the pico de gallo on top and serve.

Spicy Chipotle Shredded Beef

Ingredients

1.5 lb pot roast

1 onion peeled and quartered

1 small can of green chiles

1 - 7oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 cup fresh cilantro - roughly chopped
5-6 garlic cloves - minced

3 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp oregano
1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp chili pepper

1 cup water

2 tsp salt

3 tsp ground pepper

1. Liberally salt and pepper the roast and place in crock pot

2. sprinkle the roast with chili pepper, cayenne pepper, oregano and cumin.

3. chop all the veggies and crush the chipotles

4. Put all the veggies into the crock pot

5. Pour in a cup of water

6. Turn crockpot on low for 6-8 hours

Salsa and Cream Cheese Dip

This is probably so old and overdone, but it is so good. There was a point that I had never heard of this.. so maybe there are others like me.

Ingredients

1 - 8oz block of cream cheese - softened
1 - 16 oz container of salsa - any kind the thicker the juice the better

* Cut softened cream cheese in half - lengthwise.
* Place in container
* Pour salsa over cream cheese
* Eat with tortilla chips

Yummy!!

Easy Pico de Gallo

Ingredients
3 tomatoes
1/2 white onion
1 1/2 cups cilantro
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 jalepeno (optional)

* Chop the tomato, onion, cilantro and garlic
* If using the jalepeno - seed it and finely chop it
* Put into a bowl and stir together
* Add salt and juice of the lemon
* Stir together and enjoy

Black Bean Salsa

I made this for the super bowl. It was really good!

2 - 16 oz cans of black beans
2 - small tomatoes
1 - jalepeno seeded and finely chopped (or more depending on how hot you want it)
1.5 cups fresh cilantro - chopped
juice from 1 lemon or lime
1 teaspoon of salt

*Put black beans into a colander and rinse well under cold water
* Chop tomatoes, jalepeno and cilantro.
* Combine the chopped items with the black beans and stir
* Sprinkle with salt and citrus juice
* Stir well.
* Let salsa sit for about an hour for the flavors to marry.