Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Just thought I'd update my blog since I haven't in forever :)
Here's a YUMMY gumbo recipe that I'm making for Wes and his dad for Father's Day.

This is a pretty involved recipe, but it is very worth it! It is even better a day or two later! Serves a houseful!
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into small chunks
1 pkg. Cajun Style sausage (I found it in the meat dept. at Publix), cut into pieces about the same size as the chicken
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 large cans of crushed or diced tomatoes (depending on the consistency you want)
1 bag of frozen chopped okra, thawed (leave out while you're cooking and it will be thawed enough)
1 box of chicken broth
1 stick of butter
½ c. flour
Small amt. of olive oil (around a tablespoon?)
Old Bay seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Oregano
Parsley

Season the chicken with a generous amount of Old Bay and salt. In a cast iron skillet (if available), sauté the chicken in olive oil, until just done. Put the chicken on a plate and tent with foil.Add the sausage to the skillet, cook until done. Drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and tent with foil. Wipe out the skillet with a paper towel, leaving a small amount of grease and any small bits of sausage. Turn the heat to low, and melt the butter in the skillet. Slowly whisk in ½ c. of flour, a small amount at a time, making sure to scrape up any bits off the bottom of the skillet. Whisk constantly as roux simmers, until dark brown, about 20 minutes. **CAREFUL…this will burn easily (I speak from experience)**Add the celery, green pepper, onion, and garlic to the roux, and continue to stir for approximately 5 minutes. Add about ½ of the chicken broth, and stir until thickened. Remove skillet from the heat.
In a large stockpot, put the two cans of tomatoes over medium low heat. Add the roux/veggie mixture to the tomatoes (easiest way for me was with a large ladle). Once you've gotten as much of the roux out of the skillet, add the rest of the chicken broth and stir to get the last of it out of the skillet, then pour into the tomato mixture. Add the okra to the pot, along with Old Bay (1T), salt (½ T), pepper (1 T), cayenne (1 tsp), oregano (1 tsp) and parsley (1 tsp) to taste—these are approximate measurements.Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes, and then add in the chicken and sausage. Simmer for at least 20 minutes more. Serve over rice. YUM!

3 Months Later...

...I have finally cooked!! And boy did I...
Saturday was Wes's company Christmas party at our house. No biggie...hotdogs, hamburgers, salespeople bringing appetizers. Well, that's too simple for me, of course. So I decide I want to make chili. Not too hard, right? HA! Of course I can't just do the chili seasoning mix + ground beef + tomatoes = chili. Nooo way. So here's what I made. It turned out GREAT...but I think we'll be eating it for the next month and a half. I definitely had to send Wes out to Wally World to buy a TURKEY FRYER to cook it all in because it made so much. Oops.

6 lbs. ground beef (shoulda realized it was going to make a ton at this point...)
8 cans diced tomatoes
6 cans RoTel tomatoes
4 cans tomato paste
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans dark red kidney beans
2 cans light red kidney beans
2 cans cannelini beans
2 cans chili beans
2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (I stuck them in the food processor with a couple of spoonfuls of the diced tomatoes to chop them up well. Feel free to add more chipotles, this chili wasn't very spicy)
2 large red onions, diced
1 head of garlic, diced
2 green peppers, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 to 1 beer--I used a Fosters because it was in the fridge :)
2 packets of chili seasoning mix
about 2 T. Worcestershire sauce
ground cumin
chili powder
salt
Tabasco
water

I first sauteed the bell peppers, onions, and garlic (in batches) in a little bit of olive oil. I then added that into a pot with 6 cans of diced tomatoes, the RoTel tomatoes, the 2 cans of chili beans, the cans of all the other beans (drained and rinsed well), the beer, the chipotle peppers and some seasonings (salt, cumin, chili powder, Tabasco, Worcestershire). I let this mixture simmer for a bit. At this point, it was near midnight, so I went to bed :). Assuming you're doing this all in one fell swoop, just let the veggie mixture simmer while you brown the beef in batches. Drain well each time. Also, I added a bit of the last 2 cans of diced tomatoes and the seasoning mixtures each time (once the beef was cooked) and let it simmer for just a few minutes before adding it to the veggie mixture. I also was mixing the tomato paste and water and adding it to the pot to get the amount of liquid in the pot that looked good. Writing this all down, it doesn't seem nearly as complicated--and time consuming--as it was. Anyway, I let it all simmer (in the turkey fryer pot on the side burner of the grill) for about 3 to 4 hours. I continued tasting it and adding whatever it seemed like it needed during that time. I served it with fritos, grated cheese, and sour cream. YUM! In fact, I'm going to go eat a bowl right now :)

Yummy Chicken Recipe--from MC

We had this a couple of nights ago, and it was great! I stole it from MC, but she made it in the crock pot, and I didn't think of it until the evening I wanted to have it...so this is my version of MC's Ranch Crockpot Chicken!



3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 pkg. of ranch dressing mix
1 can of cream of celery soup
1/2 can (soup can) milk
1 block of low-fat cream cheese
1 box of long grain and wild rice, cooked
salt and pepper
olive oil


Salt and pepper the chicken, then cook for about 3-4 minutes per side in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium or so heat. While the chicken is cooking, combine the ranch mix, soup, and milk in a large bowl. Remove the chicken--it will not be cooked through yet!--and set aside. Reduce heat to med-low/low, and add the soup mixture to the pan, scraping up all the bits from the pan and stirring for a second. Add the chicken back to the pan, coating in the soup mixture. Cover, and cook until chicken is cooked through.

Hmm...

So I'm not doing a very good job cooking! Monday night I cooked, Tuesday I was tired, so we had Mexican, Wednesday was my school's Chick-Fil-a night, so I was the good little teacher and got dinner there (remind me not to do that...too many parents wanting to discuss their precious children!!), and tonight we went out to celebrate a friend's birthday (that was a MONTH ago, I'm a bad friend!!). Not much cooking going on in the Vicars' household! And I'll go ahead and tell you...tomorrow night we've got a football game, so I'll be coaching the cheerleaders, and my dinner will come from the booster club. Another non-cooking night!
I apologize to all of ya'll because I'm not posting recipes, but I apologize MORE to my dear husband...poor guy!

Our Staple Veggie!

I don't know why I haven't posted this yet, because its one of the few veggies I cook that Wes really likes...and its easy too! I have never measured the ingredients, so I'll estimate the best I can!
Garlic Green Beans
1-2 pats of butter
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. minced garlic (best if its fresh, but I admit...I've used the jar stuff too)
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 c. milk
salt/pepper
1 bag frozen cut green beans

In a saucepan, combine the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Saute garlic in this. Stir in flour, making sure to get rid of any lumps, as it will thicken quickly. While still stiring, add milk slowly, allowing to thicken. Add salt and pepper, and stir in bag of green beans, coating all in garlic sauce. Cover, reduce heat to low/med-low, and let cook til beans are warmed through.

We're having these, along with wild rice, stuffing, and turkey breast (if it ever finishes cooking...ugh!) tonight.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Chicken and Rice Casserole...YUM!

Sorry I haven't posted in FOREVER...I haven't cooked in forever either! School has started, I've been exhausted, so Wes went to the grocery store last time. He came home with $150+ worth of chips and dip, frozen lasagna, frozen pizza, frozen chicken pot pie, bologna, and Little Debbie cakes. Not exactly what I buy at the grocery, but it was really sweet that he went!
So last night I decided it was time for a real, home-cooked meal. I'd heard good things about Paula Deen's Chicken and Rice Casserole, so I basically made her recipe, but you know I like to change things! So here it goes...
1 rotisserie chicken, pull all the chicken off and dice
1 6 oz. box wild rice, cooked
1/2 sweet onion, sauteed in a pat or two of butter
2 cans of green beans, drained
1 small jar (4 oz.?) pimentos, drained
1 small bag diced almonds (next time I would use more, but Wes didn't like them at all...)
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 can cream of celery soup (I may try it with cream of mushroom next time for fun)
1/2 of a small container of reduced-fat sour cream
1 big spoonful of mayo
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
optional: sleeve of ritz crackers (crushed), melted butter for topping
This recipe is soooo easy...just preheat the oven to 350, cook the rice while you get the chicken ready, then put everything in a big bowl, mix it up, and put into a greased casserole dish! If you want to add the ritz crackers, cook the casserole for about 15 minutes, then sprinkle with ritz and butter, and cook for another 10 minutes or so. If you don't want the topping, just cook it for around 25 minutes.
I put it in two small casserole dishes, and froze one of them.
(Don't tell anyone...but I liked this so much that when I got home from school today, I ate some of it cold, straight out of the casserole dish!!)
YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!

"Baked Potato" Salad

Last night, Wes and I were going out on the boat (yup, we got a boat!!), and I thought it would be fun to take a picnic dinner. So, we had ham and provoalone wraps, watermelon, and this "baked potato" salad. I tried to copy the salad from a restaurant on John's Island that has now closed, and I think I did a pretty darn good job! And, Wes ate his entire plate of it...he's branching out!!! Now, of course I didn't do a good job measuring, so you may need to tweak these amounts.

1/2 a bag of petite red potatoes, rinsed and diced into small pieces

2 T. white vinegar

1/3 c. mayo

1/3 c. sour cream (plus an extra spoonful I think :))

1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese

1 small package of already cooked bacon (the little bags near salad dressings-the 'recipe sized' pieces)

about 2 T. diced up fresh chives

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, boil the potatoes in some generously salted water for about 10-11 minutes, until just tender. While that is boiling, combine the mayo, sour cream, cheese, bacon, chives, and some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Drain the potatoes well, and while they're still hot, sprinkle with the vinegar. When the potatoes have cooled to room temperature, combine with the mayo mixture. Serve at room temperature or cold. So yummy!!

And just 'cause I know you want to see it, here are a few pictures of the boat :)