What's for Dinner?...again

I really like my own Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya.

Stumbled into this vid and Chef Paul and I pretty much cook it the same way, I just don't use Tasso, and substitute brown rice. I try to never eat white rice. Oh, and I pre-cook my sausage just enough to get about half the grease out. I also add some What'sThisHereSauce.





This batch that should be done in about 30 minutes or so. I met Paul Prudomme in New Orleans on one of my many "R&R" visits there. My second trip ever to New Orleans (like 1998), a cab driver told me about a place right in the middle of the action in the French Quarter that was renting SUITES for $25 a night!. This place became my home away from home up until my last visit sometime in 2012. ( my favorite suite was now $289 a night, I payed like $90) Anyway... Chef Paul had all his personal guests stay there and the owner introduced us one morning as I stumbled down into the lobby. Talked for a few, used some "yep, I did that" cook's lingo and he invited me to lunch at K Paul's! Like now, as soon as my guest's come downstairs. Got a tour of the kitchen after lunch. Great afternoon in NOLA.

My former hang out and, very cool little Hotel is one of the older buildings in the French Quarter...Built in 1839 ..and now I am getting homesick.

Olivier House in the French Quarter


Almost done, brown rice takes a lot longer to cook, but it is so much better for you.

That looks really tasty!

If only there were an efficient way to chop the sausages quickly. I'm having homemade four pound chili myself, tonight.

I can boil water. That’s the extent of my cooking skills.

I just looked it up and saw that Prudhomme passed away in 2015.

Yeah I read about it.

75 is REALLY old for most Cajun men, at least in my experience.

Pic doesn't make me hungry because I'm sick.

But gimmy a bowl of that anyway!

A 5k in downtown Baton Rouge always ends with stuffing your face with several bowls of Jambalaya from various booths (food included with registration) and then voting on who has the best.

They used to have one like that here, only it was doughnuts and beer.

Dunno how I'd do in Baton Rouge, but I sure am happy with this batch.

Just left it in the pot and put it in the fridge after it cooled a bit so I'd quit eating it!

Looks tasty Nixer. Looks like the kind of thing that gets even better after sitting a day or two.

Chef Paul's little video shows a bunch of good cooking tips..

I didn't sat healthy cooking, I said good cooking. Gonna have to offset this with some salads and chicken salad this week.

And no beer! ($#^&(!?!)

tylenol and a girl scout cookie

Breakfast, made bacon and Waffles, love it.

Pretty much just as you've described and shown.





Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

We limit ourselves to two bowls of Jambalaya each, sharing a little so that we've both tried 4 different booths. The BR Fire Dept. usually has the best, IMO. And add one dessert each, but no beer or soda (water only, we try to avoid drinking our calories and 'Diet' usually contains a list of chemicals).

Tonight was just an omelette, country-style, with a splash of water instead of milk. Some sliced tomato and horseradish cheese in it. I always cook my omelettes very low, I hate over-cooked eggs.

Couple nights ago it was a dish I like to make, which is I suppose technically Chicken Cacciatore. Start off sauteing onion, sweet peppers, mushrooms, and mini- cucumber in some olive oil and butter. I add some roasted garlic seasoning. When the onions and cucumber slices start to get see-through, I add diced tomatoes and a little tomato paste. All this time I'm cooking chicken in another pan. I don't bread it or dust it though.

When the chicken is just about done I add the peppers onions diced tomatoes etc from the one pan to the one with chicken and cover for ten minutes or so and let it simmer. Sometimes all of that will go over a bed of tagliatelle. If the chicken has bones I leave it as-is though.

I make my omelettes with water,some pepperoni,onions and cheddar cheese or if I have some chili left overs I put that in with some shredded pepper jack cheese and I don't over cook mine either..I generally have some kind of omelette every other day and in between days it's pancakes with sausages or bacon,,a solid breakfast sets me up for the day and with a glass of V8 hot..

I make my omelettes with water,some pepperoni,onions and cheddar cheese or if I have some chili left overs I put that in with some shredded pepper jack cheese and I don't over cook mine either..I generally have some kind of omelette every other day and in between days it's pancakes with sausages or bacon,,a solid breakfast sets me up for the day and with a glass of V8 hot..

My comment made no sense, I blame the NyQuil.

What I meant is, your Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya looks like it belongs in competition in these parts.

leftover cake i made a few days back

since the conversation seems to involve a lot of egg recipes..

let me just say everyone should at least take a look at gordon ramsay's scrambled egg video. it will change the way you do things completely. whether you prefer the result or not is a different question.

i learned to cook myself as a child and my omelettes were the kind i think a lot of people (most people?) tend to cook them - a brown crust on the outside, very thick, tons of vegetables like mushrooms, green peppers, etc., cheese, a little milk and some bacon or other meat.

when i REALLY learned to cook, i found that i far more appreciated the gordon ramsay style omelette for its better texture, simpler ingredients and only a few key flavors instead of the insanity i grew up eating.

you might prefer it too. the video shows scrambled eggs. for an omelette just cook very slightly longer, and stop stirring once the egg whites are solid.

I like everything in my omelette except for onions and peppers. Needless to say I never get the "Western Omelette" when I'm eating out.

Americans tend to over-cook eggs.

People not in America tend to eat eggs raw'ish.

Barbarians!

Tonight im eating a can of spaghetti o's that accidentally made their way into my cart at the store (think it must have fallen in while I was looking at spaghetti sauce (I remember hearing something fall into the cart but it didnt register until unpacking.)

I've not had spaghetti o's since I was a kid!

Well on Sunday we had the postponed Burns Supper after my friend's mother had the audacity to go and leave this world, so pumpkin soup from home grown pumpkin, followed by, Haggis, neeps, and tatties and cranachan for desert meal was accompanied by a selection of beers from Belgium and Scotland and of course a drappie o' the amber nectar: Founders reserve Glen Livet single malt whisky.

Monday was left overs
Tuesday was pizza 13 x 13"(32cm) pizzas for 5 kids and 9 adults there was none left at the end of the meal.
Wednesday was Osso buco, with garlic bread, glad I had made extra as we had an unexpected guest for dinner
Last night was take away as we were working on my son's new house so it was chicken kebab and kapsalon (French fries covered in spicy beef strips with an Andalouse sauce with melted cheese on top and a salad on top of that)
Tonight, well, still to go shopping after the Kinder Karnival - School kids fancy dress parade through the town,

For being a retired guy, you sure do have an interesting and action-packed life Alicatt.

Sorry to hear about your friend's mother.

**raises hand** Me too!


I like my eggs runny. If the yolk in the egg has hardened then it's way over-cooked for me.

Me too! Fried, I want all soft juice yoke, even if it means the white is a little runny.

Although I try not to think about what runny egg whites kinda look like.

you need a runny yolk to dip your soldiers in to

when making a milk shake I usually put a raw egg in it, I know the sources of the eggs and what they are fed and therefore am not worried about contaminated ones. Father in law has free range chickens and brings in about 10 eggs every fortnight or so to us.

Thanks PM, and yes I do have an interesting life here sometimes I wish it would back off a little Tuesdays can be a little too hectic around here, can't wait until it goes back to a Friday and we can relax over the meal and socialise properly.

That's awesome, Alicatt.

We normally buy Costco organic cage-free or whatever (probably a farce) but whenever possible, from a local farmer's market or someone we know (usually get lots of brownish and greenish colored eggs).

Yep it is, we get free range eggs from the middle son and from the F-I-L, I have not bought an egg in a store in many years. We get free range turkeys from the father in law of the friend mentioned above, those turkeys are in the 20 to 25kg range in size and are usually getting slaughtered around thanksgiving time.

Pumpkins and butternut squash we grow ourselves, also 3 grape vines which produce some really delicious grapes, a few gooseberry bushes green and red, and we have an assortment of all sorts of different strawberries. 4 plum trees at the front of the house, I planted a walnut tree a few years ago and it is now about 1.5" in diameter and about 3 meters tall, it will be a good few years before it bares nuts, we also have a couple of olive trees and last year they started to bare fruit, they are about 25 years old now so a lot of growing still to go, but we are keeping them more for decoration than fruit. My daughter in law gave me a small bayleaf tree which has been kept small but it has wonderfully flavourful leaves which I use in cooking, there are various herbs in pots all around the garden for cooking with too.

Tuesday is the local market day here and the town square is packed with sellers from local producers, the only interloper is the fish van which comes over from Holland but their produce is quite fresh and my wife loves their maatjes haring with onions.

It sounds like you live on a grand farming estate or something similar Alicatt.

It is a rural village we live in, and we are near the edge of it. Most people here had a large garden that they farmed in one manner or another and usually an out house with a pig in it to dispose of the kitchen waste etc. I don't have that large a garden compared with some, Vic the youngest son has about the largest garden in the family at 32Are (34,444sq ft), mine is the smallest at 10are (10,764sq ft)

Now I used to have 2 farms, but sold the last of it off in 2010, together they were about 124 hectares (306 acres) but most of it was scrub heather hill side, and a swamp called the Dubh Loch (black lake) as it was really liquid peat bog.

My house, gable end on to the road, the round white thing is 2" thick insulation panels for the blow-up swimpool, it is being replaced this year with a 9.5m x 4.5 swimming pool which will occupy most of the grass on that side of the driveway.


To the left is my youngest son's house where we are working at just now, and next to it is the middle son's house and workshop where he runs his steel construction business from, It was originally a farm and the workshop was the barn and stables.

My my my. If the two stages of cooked eggs are 1) overcooked or 2) raw-ish, we have serious problems!

What is the loaded missile launcher for Alicatt? (the white object on the right of the photo)

LOL looks like a boat to me.

Oh...and you sure can't eat it for dinner!

It's a catamaran, not mine, been there for a good number of years too and I have never seen it move. usually horses in that field.

I know it is a catamaran.

...but what am I?

Chicken salad and bread rolls for me tonight. Oh, and vodka.

A humongous piece of King Cake with a large cup of Community Mardi Gras King Cake coffee (w/cream and sugar...dessert coffee as I'm used to drinking it plain black). And I'm thinking about going back for seconds.

That's supper. Sometimes ya gotta live.

Salmon
with roasted zucchini and roasted cherry tomato

Well down here with the trailer trash, it's an anniversary of sorts for me.

Forty One years ago today I got out of the Army in Ft Bliss, TX. I don't always remember that date, but for some reason it seemed important today.

So, I spent money I shouldn't have, went to my local watering hole and chatted up a couple of cuties. While I was there, I finished my plan for dinner.

All on sale, all real alive stuff. or grown in my little porch garden. Ok, A little flower from a bag, the pork chop medallions were from probably a factory farm (ughh) and I didn't grow the green beans or carrots.

Cut the medallions from cheap; on sale, almost old, center cut pork chops. Threw the trimmings and bones in a pot with water and garlic, and some fresh sage. As it reduced I added a diced fresh tomato, some fresh basil and some more garlic..and a tiny pinch of fresh thyme.

The fresh green beans and carrots I had blanched, then cooled, then sauteed in too much butter HOT, right before serving.

Best thing I have made in awhile.




The sauce, what little there is was a spur of the moment..."Hey let's do this" thing. Reduced pork stock. fresh tomato, sage, crushed red pepper and, finally some fresh basil as a nod to the Rigatoni.

If I had gone out to eat some where and had this served to me I would have been a happy customer.

But, if I had been working there, some *&%#@! customer would have been telling me how to cook it THEIR way. Then I would have done exactly what I did my last night working in a NICE restaurant. Instead of choking the penguin (waiter) and urinating on the customer, I calmly lit a cigarette right on the line, threw my apron on that customers plate and walked out the back door.

It took me at least a year before I enjoyed cooking again.

Tonite I had a wonderful dinner...certainly not reminiscent of 3rd Cav field food though.

Salute to all our Veterans!