This was part of the ‘Cajun Birthday Lunch’
____________________________________

When I don’t have a lot of time I make ‘Cheater’s Jambalaya’ in a crock pot. But reading John Besh’s awesome My New Orleans cookbook inspired me to take one for the team and stand up at the stove for a bit. However unlike his recipe suggests I did not use a giant ’spade’ to stir my pot. Yikes. That’s a lot of jambalaya.

ingredients:
1 pound of bacon, chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1″ cubes
1-1/2 pounds smoked sausage, diced
3 onions, diced
2 bell peppers, seeded and diced
5 stalks of celery, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 dried bay leaf
1-1/2 Tablespoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
3 cups canned crushed tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock
2 pounds cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined

Heat a large stock pot cook on medium high. Cook the bacon until slightly crisp. Pull the bacon out to drain, and set aside. Make sure you leave the fatty oil in the pot. Oh yes. You will need that.

Now add the chicken (still on medium high) and the smoked sausage – cook until the chicken is browned. Add the onion and cook until carmelized a bit.

Then add the bell peppers, celery and garlic. Cook until softened, just about 5 minutes.

Add the thyme, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper and celery seed. Cook and stir well, about 4 minutes.

Turn up the heat to high and add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Once it reaches a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 30+ minutes. Check and stir now and again, you really want the flavors to mix up.

Remember that bacon you cooked and set aside? Yeah, throw that back in and while you’re at it add the shrimp and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve over rice and you are ready to EAT! (Also goes REALLY good with Sweet Cornbread Muffins…)

This how-to is easy when you don’t want to go out. Keep these items in your pantry and you’ll be good to go any night of the week.

ingredients:
focaccia
pizza sauce or marinara
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni
mushrooms
shredded italian cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a baking pan with a silpat.

Now I happened to have focaccia bagged up in my freezer. I cut the 3 pieces in half – they were rather TALL pieces, and got 6 flatter slices of bread.

I usually keep homemade sauce (leftover from when I make spaghetti) in the freezer, this was a good use to get rid of it but you can also buy jarred pizza or marinara sauce. Spoon that on top of the focaccia, about 2 Tablespoons on each piece.

Then lay a slice of mozzarella on top of the sauce. On top of this you can layer whatever toppings you like. The Kid like mushrooms, the Baby likes pepperoni.

Then on top of your toppings, add about 1/4 cup of shredded Italian cheese – parmesan, mozzarella, provolone is a good mix that you can usually find bagged together in the store. Adding the shredded cheese on top will keep all the toppings together and give the top a nice melty cheese effect.

Place above the middle rack in your oven and bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Watch it, you don’t want burnt cheese.

The focaccia gave the pizza a nice crunch. It was the perfect base for a pizza with just enough heft to hold all the toppings. I served it to the kids with fruit, veggies and OF COURSE, ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

Say you like ham (SAY IT.) but you don’t want to commit to a giant Easter sized portion. You can buy one big ol’ slice of ham called a ‘ham steak’ and call it a day! And frankly, you can feed your whole family on that one slice.

ingredients:
1 ham steak
3-4 Tablespoons orange juice
2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Put the ham steak in, and pour in the orange juice.

Sprinkle ONE of the Tablespoons of brown sugar over the ham. Once the juice starts to bubble and the ham starts to heat, flip the steak over and sprinkle with the rest of the brown sugar. Cook through until the sugar caramelizes a bit. Cut into pieces and serve.

Since I spent New Year’s making over 250 pounds of mochi, I haven’t had a chance (or need) to make any at home. So this bag of sweet mochi rice has just been sitting here. Staring at me. I thought a good use of it would be to make a meatball, kind of like the ones called ‘porcupines’, just think of these as Japanese PORKupines. HAW! Ok, not that funny.

ingredients:
1 cup mochi rice (soaked for 2 hours)

1 pound ground pork
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon mirin (Sweet Rice Wine“>sweet rice wine)
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
dash of pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 green onions, chopped

Put the mochi rice in a bowl of water and let sit for 2 hours. This will soften it up and get it ready for steaming. When you start to make the meatballs, drain the rice well, and set aside.

Combine the pork and all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix together until incorporated. Form little meatballs, say 1″ balls or so, then roll them in the drained mochi rice.

Place them in a steamer and steam for approx 20-25 minutes.

The mochi rice makes these a little sticky, but very tasty!

I got this sandwich maker for xmas and was SO excited only to find out there were no images of Hello Kitty burned into the sandwich. What.

Nope, just a plain old sandwich press. BO- to the RING. Oh well. I had promised the kids sandwiches for dinner, so we tried it out anyway.

I was going for a ‘pizza pocket’ so I set up pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, colby cheese, salami, turkey and olives. (These were the ingredients requested, btw).

My SIL went heavy on the olives, the Kid went heavy on the cheese, and the Baby? Just meat. Nothin’ else. He couldn’t be bothered, I guess.

As everyone assembled their sandwiches, I buttered both sides of the bread and stuck it in. Oddly enough, the Baby’s (cheese-less) turned out the BEST. Just perfect little sandwich shapes! Meanwhile the overloaded cheese did a number on the machine and it was a cheese-apocalypse. Melted cheese everywhere that took me over and hour to try and scrape off. Not. Good.

I love this thing, but really the clean up will be the death of me. Since this one only cost $10 at Target, I’m thinking I should go big pimpin’ and buy a ‘professional’ one, I think (hope) the clean up wouldn’t be such a nightmare.

The kids (and the SIL) had so much fun making their own sandwiches they asked to do it again the following night! I’d still like a Hello Kitty face burned into mine, just sayin’.

A traditional mac ‘n’ cheese starts with a roux. This is not a traditional mac ‘n’ cheese. This is easy fo’ sheezy mac ‘n’ cheese where you get your kids to do most of the work so you can kick it and watch Oprah. And the kicker? It’s baked with a topping of crushed up Goldfish crackers! How cheesy is that? No child (or adult) can resist…

ingredients:
1 lb pasta (I prefer pennette)
4 cups cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 bag goldfish crackers (save 1 cup, crush the rest)
1 Tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9×13 pan. Boil the pasta according to the package.

While it’s boiling, in a large bowl, combine THREE cups of cheese (setting aside one cup), cream, milk, salt, pepper and paprika. Set aside.

Set aside one cup of goldfish crackers, and put the rest in a freezer bag. Now get a kid full of aggression who likes to bash things, luckily, I have one – give him a rolling pin and stand back. Let him go at the freezer bag of goldfish, til all are crushed. Take away the rolling pin. (This is for your own safety and sanity.)

By now the pasta should be ready. Drain it in a colander, then immediately pour into the bowl of cheese and stuff. Stir ’round until it’s all melty and combined. Pour into your prepped pan. Top with the reserved one cup of cheese and the crushed goldfish crackers AND the whole goldfish crackers. You are putting the whole ones just cause the kids get a kick out of seeing whole goldfish crackers sitting on top of the pasta. Add dabs of the butter here and there on the top of the crackers.

Place your pan on a baking sheet – this is in case it bubbles over. No one wants a cheesy oven to clean up – trust me. Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven, until bubbly. Let cool a bit before serving.

This makes a good side dish OR main dish. And the kids really get into helping since it’s just mixing and crushing! Sure this is kid’s food but uh…I like to sneak a few bites late at night. Usually while standing over my sink in my pjs…

So I got this book, What Hawaii Likes to Eat. What caught my eye was a chili recipe – now it says right in the book ‘Zippy’s won’t give out their recipe, here’s our version’. Uh…yeah. This is NOTHING like Zippy’s chili, however I can tell you, it’s a good hearty chili recipe just the same.

I made a few adjustments and made it in a crock pot. I was having a party and wanted to make my life easier. And I needed to watch back episodes of the Amazing Race. I have priorities you know.

ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 onions, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (28 oz) can stewed tomatoes
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1-1/2 (14.5 oz) cans kidney beans
5 Tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons garlic salt
2 teaspoons oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Brown meat in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft.

In a large bowl, combine the meat mixture with all the other ingredients. Stir well.

Pour into a crock pot and set on low for 4 hours.

I like to eat this over rice, topped with a little onion and cheese, but you can always serve it the way Zippy’s does – over hot dogs or burritos.

Sometimes you just can’t leave the house and you have to pull from the pantry. That’s how I came up with was this quick but hearty soup. (If you don’t have pastina you could use rice just as well.) Even the meat-hating Kid loves this!

ingredients:
2 cans chicken broth
4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/8th teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves chopped garlic
2 cups meatballs (I keep these in my freezer)
1/2 cup corn
1/4 cup pastina (tiny pasta)

I like to make meatballs from scratch and then just keep them in the freezer. I like to use this recipe – ifreezing them for later makes it easy to add them to pastas, or soups or sometimes I just give them to the boys as a main dish. Otherwise just buy frozen meatballs for this recipe.

In a large pot add the chicken broth and water and bring to a boil. Add the onion powder, paprika, oregano and chopped garlic.

Then add the meatballs, corn and pastina.

Pastina is just super tiny pasta. I like it because it adds a little heft to a soup but without being large pieces of pasta overwhelming the soup. If you don’t have pastina you can substitute with rice instead. Just cook until the pasta or rice is softened.

I like to serve this soup with Sweet Cornbread Muffins, the Kids love this meal on a cold winter’s day. (It’s 75 degrees here in November, shh.)

How has O.G. lived for so long? Eating a lot of things that are bad for you, wrapped in more things that are bad for you. As if all that ground beef wasn’t enough, she had to go and wrap it in bacon. Heart attack? Yes. But she is 88 years old, so what can I say?

ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 cup bread crumbs
5 slices of bacon
1 TB brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a loaf pan, I have a very cool meatloaf pan that automatically drains the meatloaf as it cooks, great especially since there is bacon in this recipe…

In a large bowl combine the beef, milk, eggs, salt, pepper and breadcrumbs. once combined, press into your loaf pan.

On top of the loaf, lay strips of bacon down. Trim or tuck in the edges on the sides. Now to go even more over the top, rub 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar into the bacon.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until juices are clear.

Let sit for 5 minutes, then serve.

Tyler Florence makes me want to cook. And he’s cute too. Here is his recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically a ground beef ’stew’ covered with a yummy jacket of mashed potatoes. How could you go wrong, really? I changed it here and there, but it’s basically the same.

This recipe makes a great one dish meal, however – you can freeze it and just pull it out to bake anytime you want a hot meal. PERFECT for new mothers, I like to bring it over as a baby gift since new parents never have time to cook…Really flavorful and delicious!

ingredients:
mashed potatoes:
4 or 5 big russet potatoes, peeled quartered
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning 3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 a stick unsalted butter
Freshly ground black pepper

the pie:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 container of mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup canned low sodium beef broth
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup grated Parmesan, on top

Start off by making the mashed potatoes. Here’s a tip, if you cut the potatoes into small pieces, they will boil WAY FASTER than if you just toss them in whole. When they are done, drain the potatoes, mash them, and add the butter and the milk.

On to the pie. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Start off by making a mirepoix. If you don’t know what mirepoix is, it’s the Holy Trinity of carrots, onions, and celery, diced into the same size.

Heat the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Why both? Olive oil won’t burn at high temps and the butter adds flavor.What am I, a teacher? Just do it. It’s good.

Add the onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, half the salt, and oregano. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the tomato paste and cook until mushrooms are soft and tomato paste has turned brick red, about 8 minutes more. Stir in the beef, the broth, the remaining salt, the Worcestershire, and some pepper, breaking up any large clumps of meat, cook until the meat is no longer pink, about 3 minutes.

Transfer the meat and vegetables to a 2-quart oval casserole dish and spread the mashed potatoes over the top, leaving a 1/4-inch border around the edge.

That last part is super important! If you don’t leave that space, the beef will bubble over and you’llhave a whole bunch of trouble on your hands. Come to think of it, make sure you put the casserole dish on a cookie sheet before you put it in the oven. That will catch any ’spillage.’ Sprinkle with cheese, if using, and dot with the remaining tablespoon of butter.

Now if you are a nice person, you stop here, cover in plastic wrap and freeze it to give to a mother of new baby – leaving her the instructions on how to bake it. However, if you want to just eat it up yourself tout de suite, then put it on a baking pan and bake it until potatoes brown and the juices bubble around the edge, about 40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Let cool for a bit, then serve it up!