Simple Shrimp Etouffe

It's Lent.  That means no meat on Fridays.  I love seafood so you would think I would love this time of year.  Not so much.  My Old School Italian Husband refuses to eat seafood and my Pickiest Eater Ever Son is, well, picky.  So, most Friday nights I end up making two different meals.  This past Friday I made three!  What the hubby wanted, the son didn't like and vice versa.  Plus, I was craving Shrimp Etouffe.  But, if I was going to make three different meals I surely didn't have time to make a traditional etouffe (the roux alone takes half an hour).  So, I figured out a way to make a simple etuoffe, no roux required.

SIMPLE SHRIMP ETOUFFE

1 lb small shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups water (or broth, seafood, chicken or veggie)
1 capful Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce
Fresh parsley to garnish
Tony Chachere's (Cajun seasoning)

In a big pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Saute onion, bell pepper, celery and green onions in butter until tender (about 5 minutes).  Season to taste with Tony's.

Add water (or broth or a combo of the two) and Kitchen Bouquet. (It doesn't seem like a lot of water but seafood makes its own liquid.  Later, when you add the shrimp, it will increase the amount of liquid).

Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. (See how dark the Kitchen Bouquet makes it?)

Season shrimp with Tony's.  Add them to the pot.

Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until the shrimp turn pink (about 10 minutes or so).

Garnish with fresh parsley (or more green onions).

Serve over rice.

This is quick (especially compared to the original recipe), easy and so good!  Perfect for Lent or anytime (especially when you're making three different meals!).

Italian Sausage Gravy with Rigatoni

OK, what do you call the red stuff you pour over pasta?  Sauce or gravy?  I say sauce, my Old School Italian Husband says gravy.  To me (a Cajun girl from the river), gravy is brown and is served over rice.  But, my husband's Italian family swears it's gravy.  So for the sake of argument (or the sake of not arguing), let's call it gravy.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE GRAVY WITH RIGATONI

2 TBS olive oil
1 lb Italian sausage
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1/2 an onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS sugar
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
1 1/4 cup water
1 lb rigatoni


Cut Italian sausage links into 4 pieces each.

Heat oil over medium-high heat.  Brown sausage on all sides.

Remove the sausage to a plate and set aside.  Drain off excess oil.  Deglace the pan with 1/4 cup broth (or water).  All that means is that you add the broth to the hot pan and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

Add the onions and garlic and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.

Add crushed tomatoes, 1 1/4 cups water, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste, Parmesan cheese and sugar.  Bring to a boil.

Return the sausage to the pot.

Reduce to a simmer.  Simmer until the sausage is cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook rigatoni.  A note about cooking pasta:  make sure you use enough water.  If not, the pasta will be too starchy and stick together.  You need at least 4 quarts of water per pound of pasta, if you have a big enough pot use 6 quarts of water.  Also, salt the water well.  This is the only chance you get to season the pasta.  But, add the salt once the water is boiling.  If you add it before, it takes the water much longer to come to a boil.

Serve the sauce with the rigatoni.

This is a hearty, delicious gravy (sauce).  It's easy to make and tastes way better than anything you get in a jar!  Plus, it is very easy to double if you're feeding a crowd.  It tastes even better leftover.  You can use it as a pizza sauce or put it in a calzone with some cheese.  Give this one a try.  You won't be sorry.

Turkey Meatball Soup

I wanted to make a big pot of soup with veggies.  But, I knew the only way my Pickiest Eater Ever Son wouldn't complain is if I stuffed it full of meatballs, too.  Here's how I did it:

TURKEY MEATBALL SOUP

Soup Base:

1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 medium potatoes cut into large chunks (if too small they will disintegrate in the soup)
1 quart chicken broth
2 cups water
Salt & pepper to taste


Meatballs:

1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix broth, water, onion, celery, carrots and potatoes in a big pot.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, gently mix all of the meatball ingredients until combined.  If you over mix, the meatballs will be tough.  Roll into small meatballs (use about a tablespoon of mixture per meatball).  It should make about 30 or so meatballs.

Put them on a baking sheet with sides (I say that because my daughter baked chicken on a cookie sheet without sides once and the juices ran over and messed my oven up pretty bad and smoked up the kitchen.  You get the picture) and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Here's how they look once baked:

Now, transfer the meatballs to the soup pot and let simmer for a few minutes and your done!  Easy peasy!

This soup is light but very filling!  It's perfect on a cold day!  And my Pickiest Eater Ever Son kept his word.  He ate it, vegetables and all, and didn't complain once!  I'd say that's a success!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

I had been craving pound cake for days.  You know when something just pops into your head and you gotta have it?  I sent the hubby to the bakery to buy one (I thought I deserved it since I just started physical therapy and have been working oh so hard).  But, the bakery was out of pound cake.  Not one little pound cake in the whole bakery.  My craving did not understand this.  So, I decided to make my own.  It wasn't easy (well it's a very easy recipe, but hard for me because I'm still on crutches) but I did it.  And it was worth the wait!

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan.  I used vegetable shortening.

Then, add a little flour and shake it gently to totally coat the shortening with flour.  I forgot to take a pic after I floured the pan but you get it.  Just make sure it's completely covered.

Using a mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

You want this to be mixed very well!  Then, mix in the sour cream.  Next, beat in each egg one at a time.  Wait until each egg is mixed in well before adding the next.

Add the vanilla extract.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.  With the mixer on the lowest speed (so you don't throw flour everywhere), slowly add the flour mixture.

Mix until all the flour is incorporated, scraping down the sides
sides as needed.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and spread until even on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

Let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out and let cool on a rack.  I like to run a butter knife around the edges to loosen before I turn it out.

This cake came out great!  Moist and tender on the inside, with a sugary crust on the outside.  Delicious!  Craving crushed!

Bacon Wrapped Chicken (made in the slow cooker!)

I've been reading cook books lately.  Lots of cook books.  I miss cooking so much that I just lay around and think about what I'll cook when I'm up and around again.  (Recovery update:  I stood up without crutches the other day!  That may sound ridiculous to you but it was a pretty big deal for me).  Anyway, I found this recipe for bacon wrapped chicken that's made in a slow cooker.  Sounded interesting.  But, some of the ingredients weren't my family's favorite.  So, I fiddled with it a little and changed it up a bit.  Then, with my husband's help, I wheeled into the kitchen and gave it a try.

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices thick-cut bacon
Salt and pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 onion, thickly sliced
1/2 cup sour cream

Place sliced onion into the slow cooker.

Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.

Wrap a slice of bacon around each chicken breast and place them on top of the onions.

In a large measuring cup mix broth and soup well.

Pour the broth mixture into the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high for 3 hours.

At this point, the chicken is fully cooked.  However, the bacon is chewy.  If you like chewy bacon, eat it as is.  I like my bacon a little crispier, so I removed the chicken to a cookie sheet and placed it under the broiler for a few minutes.  Just until the bacon crisped up.

Before:

After:

Now to finish the sauce.  I removed the onions and discarded them because my Pickiest-Eater-Ever Son won't eat them.  Plus, it makes for a smoother sauce.  But you can leave them in if you like.

Then, I whisked in the sour cream.

 Now, just ladle the sauce into a gravy boat and serve it with the chicken.

This was very easy to make.  The hardest part was wrapping the bacon around the chicken (and that wasn't hard at all).

The chicken was moist and infused with flavor from the bacon and onions.  (Two of the best flavors in the world, by the way). The sauce was creamy and delicious, also full of flavor from simmering with bacon and onions.  Easy and delicious... My favorite kind of supper!  (And, if I can do it without standing up, you can definitely do it!)

Cake In A Mug

When you are recovering from double ankle surgery, there's not much to do.  You can't really go anywhere or do much of anything except read or watch TV.  Once I had reread every book and magazine in my possession and watched almost everything on the DVR (except the weird nature shows my Dad tapes when he comes over.  I really don't want to see a park ranger picking up decaying animals and trying to figure out what killed them), I turned to the internet (which, of course, is filled with even weirder things).   But, I stuck to researching new recipes.  The thing I am looking forward to the most is getting back on my feet in front of my stove.  Man, I miss cooking!  My daughter and husband are doing their very best to cook supper (and I love them for doing it because fast food gets old way too fast!).  But, I really miss doing it myself.  Cooking relaxes me.  It's my therapy.  Put on some music and dance around the kitchen, you'll see, your troubles will disappear.

Obviously, I can't dance around with a cast on one ankle and bandages on the other.  But I needed to get into the kitchen and do something.  I found a recipe online that seemed too easy to work.  It's a Cake in a Mug recipe that's made in the microwave.  I hopped on my scooter (more like gently slid onto it) and headed to the kitchen.

CAKE IN A MUG

1 box Angel Food cake mix
1 box Devil's Food cake mix

In a large bowl, mix together the two cake mixes.

Store this in an airtight container.  When you are ready for a little something sweet, get out a microwave-safe mug.  Add 3 TBS of the mix and 2 TBS water.  Mix thoroughly!

Then put it in the microwave for 1 minute.  (If you have a very powerful microwave, try 45-50 seconds).  It's easy to remember 3, 2, 1.  3 TBS mix, 2 TBS water, 1 minute in the microwave.

This is not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it tastes good.  It was moist and sweet but not too sweet.  Top it with some whipped cream or chocolate syrup or even fruit (sliced strawberries would be nice).

Don't like chocolate?  (I don't understand you, but whatever). You can substitute any flavor cake mix.  But you must use the Angel Food Cake mix!  It has ingredients that help this rise.  But, you could pair it with lemon, strawberry, spice cake, yellow cake mix.  Any flavor you like.

This would be a great mix to keep at your desk in the office.  Because all that you need is water and a microwave, you can make it almost anywhere.  Perfect for when you need just a little something sweet!

This one is too easy not to try!