NOLA Here We Come

So we recently booked a vacation to New Orleans with Bob and Nicole... we are so excited to go again.  We were there on the same weekend 6 years ago!   Crazy how fast time flies by.  

Get that ice down in there ba' !!!!

We've been getting so pumped for the trip and talking about where we are going to go and what we want to eat.   So we decided to do a NOLA warm up and make some cajun food at home before we head off to the Big Easy.

Started off our cajun feast the right way with a few Hurricanes!  It had been a long few days for our best friends as Bob was diagnosed with a blood clot in his calf and Nicole had spent the last 48 hours reading every WebMD article she could find... so a Hurricane was just what the Dr. ordered for Nic!

We had some official Pat O's Hurricane Mix from our last visit and decided it was about time to use it... Jo added rum and the appropriate garnish into our Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Glasses and we were on our way.

Bob was in spirit even though he was only drinking water...

As for dinner itself, we opted for two of Mrs. Toni's recipes from Theresa's Cookbook... Shrimp Casserole and Jambalaya. 

Mrs. Toni's Jambalaya

- saute 2 onions and 1 bell pepper with butter

- add Cayenne pepper (watch out it is spicy)

- add shrimp and let simmer

- add 2 cans of crushed tomatoes and let simmer

- add more Cayenne along the way if you dare

- serve over white rice

Shrimp getting thrown into the pot to simmer...

  

Just like Mrs. Toni's... very spicy and so good.

Mrs. Toni's Shrimp Casserole

- saute 2 bell peppers, 1 white onion, 2 eggplants, 1 bunch of scallions with butter

- saute until everything is cooked down, then throw in shrimp

- place in casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs and some butter

- bake at 350 for 30 mins

 Bob and Nicole suprised us with a NOLA inspired dessert... and it was the perfect ending to our meal. 

Bread Pudding with a Jack Daniels Whiskey Sauce!

The bread pudding was awesome...recipe courtesy of Emeril.   Served with some Vanilla Bean ice cream and it was a deadly combo.  The whiskey sauce was so good, never had anything like it before... you could taste the Whiskey but it wasn't overpowering and had a great taste to it. 

 

As the parents drank and ate too much, the kids played and read books lol...

Shrimp 4 Ways

Last year on our way to the Outer Banks for vacation we stopped in Chincoteague to see my Uncle Pat & Mike.  They made us an awesome dinner that we still talk about whenever we see them... shrimp 3 ways with some awesome french fries.   So that was the inspiration for our dinner tonight.   Jo brought some shrimp home from work and we worked with the ingredients on hand to make shrimp 4 ways (had to go the extra step):

The 4 Ways = fried, garlic & parm, bang bang, and traditional.

New to the kitchen, the fry daddy made fried shrimp an obvious choice.

Asian Style Cocktail Sauce - courtesy of B. Flay

For dipping we made a really easy but unique cocktail sauce.  Ketchup is the base and then lemon, fresh ginger, soy sauce, serrano pepper, pepper, salt and cilantro are added in.... thrown in the fridge for an hour and then it is ready.

Bang Bang Shrimp (Bonefish inspired)

Shrimp peeled and deveined

Season shrimp with salt and pepper

Dip shrimp in corn starch

Lightly fry and toss in sauce

Sauce = combo of mayo and sarracha with a touch of sweet chile sauce



Spinach & Walnut Pesto Salmon and Cauliflower Parsnip Puree

Busy week... seeing as though I am off tomorrow, tonight's dinner was a perfect way to start my weekend.  Glass of red wine with the wife as she prepared everything, very relaxing (for me).   Well deserved after a day of snowblowing and shoveling driveways after we were hit with 7" of snow over night.

Spinach & Walnut Pesto - we love pesto so much we made it without the standard ingredients!   Spinach instead of basil and walnuts instead of pine nuts... turned out awesome and went really well with the fish. 

Lemon, parmesan, olive oil and garlic along with the spinach and walnut, all into the food processor and there you have it.  As for the salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper and thrown in the oven for 15 minutes at 375... added the pesto on top for the last 10 minutes or so.

Cauliflower Parsnip Puree.... Jo steamed both vegetables and then threw them into the food processor along with sour cream, a dash of milk, fresh garlic, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.  

Served with some green beans.... lots of green on the plate but it was awesome.   Pesto went so well with the salmon.  Very healthy as well, we had grean beans, spinach, cauliflower and parsnips all wrapped into this meal. 

As for the standard photo of Reed at the bottom of the post lol.... with the Eagles and Phillies off he has the Flyers Fever going on!

Can't wait for Saturday, headed to Bob and Nic's for our warmup to NOLA feast!  Using Theresa's cookbook to make some of Mrs. Toni's famous jambalaya and shrimp casserole... plus we found some Pat O' Brien's Hurricane mix.   Will finally get some use out of all the Pat O glassware we have stored in our kitchen!   Should be a good time, unless of course you are a newspaper or magazine rack.... beware cause Jo might take you out.

Football Feast

NFL Championship Sunday... had great friends over to watch the Bears Packers game.  So we made some pizza and nachos, perfect for football and we even had our first guest Chef in the kitchen.  Got to see Stoof and Tom for the first time in a while, first time since they made it official (on facebook) that they are expecting.  We are so excited for them and can't wait for Reed to have a new friend!

Jo loves to make pizzas for us... usually pretty quick and simple but all sorts of different pizzas over the years and always sooo good.  Today we went with two standards and introduced a new one to the mix. 

Pizza #1 - Buffalo Chicken = buffalo sauce as the base with pulled chicken and red onions along with some ranch and of course topped with mozzarella cheese:

Buffalo Chicken

Pizza #2 - BBQ Chicken = bbq sauce as the base with pulled chicken and red onions along with mozzarella cheese... then some bbq sauce drizzled on top with some cilantro as well:

BBQ Chicken

Pizza #3 - Margherita (new) = Sauteed thinly sliced tomatoes in olive oil and garlic.  Olive oil was the base for this one, topped with mozzarella cheese, the tomatoes and basil and then topped with parmesan cheese.  So good, we will have to make this again sometime soon:

Margherita

   

"HAAS to be HAAS" says Chef Bobby C.


Special guest Chef Bobby C came ready to impress.  A broken foot and a full leg walking boot couldn't keep him from the kitchen!   He made a nice guacamole to go along with his Bacon and Monteray Jack Quesadillas.... I don't think bacon when I think quesadilla, but it was awesome.  Bob finally admitted after the "Pocono Avocado Incident" that Haas avocados were the only way to go, his guacamole was much improved lol.    

Jo tried to add some Creme Fresca on top of the quesadilla, tasted awesome but didn't turn out so hot for the camera lol... Chef Bob wasn't pleased with her plating skills.

  

 

Jo also whipped up some crazy nachos, which went great with the guacamole and quesadillas:

What didn't these nachos have on them?  Shredded chicken, fresh homemade pico de gallo, scallions and creme fresca (el vez inspired) all topped with a cheese sauce that Jo made with butter, flour, whole milk, monteray jack cheese and sharp white cheddar.  Threw that 20 lb tray in the oven for a few minutes and it was so goood. 

Mom's French Toast

Today we are headed out for our 2nd annual "Xmas present dinner" with my parents, Theresa and Aunt Pat  at El Vez... we all buy each other gift certificates to the same place (last year Buddakan) and then we go and try to order almost everything on the menu.   We are going to eat dinner around 2:30 and then heading out to see Rich Cox at Curran's in Palmyra, should be a fun day!  So Jo and I thought we should have a good breakfast and skip lunch so that we were ready to eat everything possible at El Vez.  For weeks Jo has been talking about how she can't wait to have the crab meat guacamole, nachos, and margaritas...  

So for breakfast we decided to make French Toast... a favorite of mine from when I was growing up, my mom would make it just for me.  A pretty simple recipe but I have made a few little tweaks.  First tweak for this morning's breakfast was getting a big loaf of just baked wheat bread from the supermarket...  not sliced, this way I could cut my own nice and thick slices:

4 eggs beaten with a little bit of milk and a small splash of Vanilla (Jo's suggestion).  I always thought the Cinnamon made the french toast, so I pretty much add it at every step.  Sprinkled in some cinnamon into the egg mixture then throw the bread in there and then into the pan with some butter.  Sprinkle cinnamon on top of each piece as it cooks as well.   When it was done we threw some confectionate sugar on top (along with cinnamon again) and some butter and syrup. 

It was so good and filling... will keep us good to go until El Vez.

So good, even Reed ate it!

Crabcakes with Asparagus

Props to the wife... Reed woke us up at 4:30 yesterday morning and didn't want to go back to sleep.  We watched some Elmo, played some real early Scrabble and then eventually got Reed back to bed around 6:30.  Then Jo worked 11-7 and came home and was still excited to cook!   Naturally she didn't disappoint:

Jo busted out her awesome wedding shower gift from our cousin Theresa... full of recipes from family and friends and covering the entire globe.  So much thought was put into it and it shows.   We love it and there are even music CD's in the book for us to play with the theme of the dinner!   Tonight Jo only used it for a quick reference as all the ingredients weren't on hand, but we had to take a picture and share it.  More dinners from the cookbook to come!

Speaking of Theresa!  She brought us home some special Mayo on her last trip to New Orleans... don't know what makes the mayo special but it just is sooo good, and as far as we know only available down South! 

Good ole Blue Plate Mayo!

Ok so onto the recipe.  Crab meat, mayo, stone ground mustard, 1 egg, fresh garlic, worcestershire, old bay, cayenne, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and some pepper..... that might be it lol.   All into the bowl and mixed by hand...   get those hands down in there!

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes and then 400 for another 10....





 

Bring on Big Daddy's Crabcakes!

The asparagus is slightly overlooked in this post, but it was awesome.  Cooked in some olive oil and garlic and then a squeeze of a lemon.  Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top... so good!

My Little Lamb Chops

The inspiration for this whole blog thing was the fact that we loved food so much that we started taking pictures of it... this started on our Honeymoon, we took pictures of everything we ate (future post?).   So I am going back to the photo library for one of my most random, yet favorite meals...

Reed picking our tree...

It was just this Xmas season, Jo, Reed and I were planning our day which revolved around decorating our tree.  We planned on having some cheese and crackers as a snack while we decorated the tree and then after Reed went to bed we wanted to cook an awesome meal together.  Jo simply asked me what I wanted for dinner, I paused and out of nowhere said "Lamb Chops."   Don't really know why or how I came up with the idea but a quick search online and moments later we were at ShopRite grabbing a rack of lamb, some pesto and other ingredients for our first ever lamb dinner.

 This was a very simple recipe... just season the rack with salt and pepper then throw it on a very hot grill pan with some EVOO to seal in the juices (about 3 mins per side).   Then throw it into the oven for around 20 mins. 

Meanwhile Jo was working on the mint basil pesto...  pretty much your standard basil pesto (pine nuts/olive oil/basil/parm cheese) but with mint mixed in which is supposed to go well with lamb.

Jo also was working on some veggies for the side... roasted some carrots, sweet potatoes, red onion and parsnips.  They were seasoned perfectly with salt, pepper, olive oil and some fresh rosemary!

Back to the lamb, cooked it for about 22 minutes or so and then let it rest... had fun trying to cut it into individual chops but when we finally got a chance to eat it we were blown away.   An awesome surprise, especially for our first time working with lamb.  It was so tender and moist and almost melted in our mouth, the pesto and vegetables were perfect.   Couldn't have asked for a better meal!

Hoping to make this a few times each year.... just so good and so simple!  Oh and I learned later on that you can almost get 2 racks at Sam's for the price of 1 at ShopRite...

Simple Scallops

Working at a seafood restaurant has its perks... Jo brought home some fresh scallops and made a very light and tasty meal in about 15 minutes! 

She sauteed spinach in lemon and white wine... extremely easy and very fresh tasting!   Spinach has become our new favorite green vegetable, so easy to make and goes well with almost everything!

For the scallops, Jo sprinkled them with salt and pepper and then sauteed them in shallots and garlic in butter, lemon and white wine for about 7 minutes. 

As simple as that!

Lately we love making seafood feasts for friends and family... and scallops are always a tasty part!  Will share our full blown seafood feast in a few weeks when Reed's grandparents come over for our monthly dinner...

Poblano and Chicken Soup

Working from home today afforded me the opportunity to notice that Jo had left Rachel Ray on the TV this morning as she left for work.  I caught the very end and only saw her tasting her Poblano and Chicken Soup, but it was enough for me to know that I wanted some and that I was going to give it a shot today.  I seemed to do fairly well with my Turkey Soup so I know a little bit about how to make a stock.  Making soup does require a lot of steps but the steps themselves are pretty quick and can be spread throughout the day.  

First up was the Stock:

Best part of the stock -> the lime!

Pretty standard (I think)... carrots, celery, chicken on the bone (Grandpop will be happy) and onions... but then some lime thrown in which smelled awesome.  After making the stock, I had to deal with the roughest part of this job, which was dealing with the peppers.   Broiled them to blacken them on all sides and then had to peel the skin off of each pepper and remove all the seeds.   At this point I was questioning if it was worth the work required. 

 

I also had to cook two large potatoes and then mash them with some of the stock.   Then the potatoes and the pepper mixtures were combined and processed until they were nice and smooth.  Then that was combined in a large pot with some fresh garlic, cumin, coriander, and white corn.   Finally took the chicken that was in the stock and cut that up and put back into the soup...

Threw some crumbled tortilla chips in the bottom before serving.

With Jo working till 7 I was able to finish it up after work and let it simmer for a while.... I thought it was very good but it definitely did not blow me away.  Plus it was fairly complicated dealing with the peppers so it may be a while before I make this again. 

Jo came home and really liked the soup which was nice... Reedman went to bed on time so it is time for some Scrabble!   Yesterday I dropped a 96 point word with "Charlie", a personal record!