My little helper.

Here is my personal assistant. 

I pay him with milk and clean diapers.

He's always there to lend a helping hand (and will one day be the most fabulous taste-tester). 

Perfect Iced Coffee

I'm not going to lie, ever since I've become a momma I have become quite the coffee addict. 

I need it to survive, ya know what I mean?

I love to drink it on my front porch first thing in the morning... but down here in Louisiana, even at 7 a.m., it is a warm 80 degrees (or in the case of today, 87 degrees). So when the temperature rises, I love me some iced coffee. 

Problem is, I could never make it taste quite right. My traditional method was to brew it hot, let it cool, then put it in the fridge to pour over ice. But it always tasted a little bitter and went sour quite quickly. 

And then I thought, what if I cold-brew it? 

And so I did. And it truly makes the difference between good iced coffee and ah-mazing iced coffee. Not only that, but it lasts at least 3 weeks in a tight container in the fridge. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb. of coffee of your choice

2 gallons of water

Creamer/milk/half & half to taste (optional)

Sugar to taste (optional)

Step 1: 

Pour your coffee in large container/bucket/bowl/whatever (as long as it can hold the coffee and 2 gallons of water). 

Step 2:

Pour in your 2 gallons of water and let sit for at least 8 hours (or longer if you like).  

Step 3: 

Take a mesh strainer (preferably a fine-mesh strainer but I had one available to me) and cover with a paper towel or two. Then begin to pour your liquid through the strainer into another container. 

Once all the liquid is poured through, be sure to press against all of your coffee grounds to get that good stuff that may be left. 

Step 4: 

Put your coffee in the fridge in an airtight container. Once cold, pour your coffee in a nice (if you're like me) large glass. Make sure to leave room for your ice and creamer. 

Next pour in your milk. Or if you naughty like me, some good ol' high-calorie creamer. 

Add a spoonful of sugar (or two... who's counting?).

Add your ice cubes, grab a straw, and enjoy that caffeinated goodness!

Louisiana Red Beans & Rice

 

There's nothing better than some yummy Southern comfort food. I grew up with Red Beans & Rice being a supper staple and I have always loved it. However, I have never attempted to make it. 

I'm not going to lie. I was a little terrified. "It's easy," one of my friends said. "Make it in the crockpot." But I wanted to make it the real way. The Louisiana way. The way it's served at some of my most favorite Cajun restaurants. 

And so I asked a couple of people that used to serve at some of those delish Cajun restaurants for some tips, scouted a few recipes from various websites, and put together this mutt of a recipe. 

I must say, this recipe turned out delicious and flavorful and my uber-picky husband loved it. Mind you, I tripled the amount of sausage most recipes call for to satisfy his carnivorous tendencies but I was quite pleased with the final result!

Ingredients:

1 lb. dry red kidney beans

1 lb. smoked pork sausage (preferably spicy!)

2 slices of bacon

1 ham hock

2 stalks of celery

1 green bellpepper

1 lg. yellow or white onion

1 small head of garlic or 4 extra large cloves

3 cubes of chicken bouillon

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 dried bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

1 tbsp. Tony's Chacheres or Cajun seasoning of choice

6 sliced green onions

dried parsley to taste as a finishing garnish

Step 1. 

Soak your kidney beans for at least 6 hours. 

I did mine overnight. I also chose to use Camellia Brand red kidney beans. These are particularly popular down here in the South. 

The next morning (or 6 hours later) your kidney beans will have absorbed some of the water and look similar to this: 

Step 2:

Slice your sausage. You can slice them however you like (half-moons, chunks, etc) but I prefer to cut mine into medallions. 

Saute the sausage in a large stew pot over med/high heat until the sausage is cooked thoroughly and nicely browned.  Remove the sausage from the pot with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pot. 

Next cook the bacon in the pot. Again, leave the grease in the pot. 

Step 3. 

While the sausage and bacon is cooking, dice the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic. 

FUN FACT:

Celery, onion, and bellpepper is called the "trinity" in the South and often used as a delicious Creole seasoning. When added all together, it smells delicious. 

Add these to the large pot with the grease once the sausage and bacon is finished cooking. If needed, add the tbsp. of vegetable oil. Saute until soft and transparent (about 10 min.). 

Step 4. 

Drain the water from the beans and rinse them well. Add 7 cups of water, the beans, the bouillon, bay leaves, thyme, oregano, and ham hock to the pot with the diced vegetables. Bring to a rolling boil. Then reduce heat to a slight boil and cook until the beans are soft. If the mixture gets too dry, add more water. 

By the way... has anyone else cooked with a ham hock before? I was thoroughly disgusted when I saw what it was but my friends who worked at some of those Cajun restaurants swore it made all the difference. Still... bleh. 

I mean, that's actual pig skin. Gross. 

Step 5. 

Once the beans are soft, use the back of a large spoon to smash about a quarter of the beans against the side of the pot. This will help give your final mixture the thick texture you're looking for. 

Add the sausage and the bacon and remove the ham hock. You can choose to cut up the ham and add it back into the mixture, however, since I was totally revolted by the look of it, I chose to feed it to my dogs. 

Dogs love a good ham hock. 

Add the Tony's and the Tabasco. Boil for about an hour more or until the mixture reaches the desired thickness. 

Step 6. 

Garnish with green onions and dried parsley and serve over rice with a side of cornbread. 

Enjoy!

Spice, spice, spice it up!

And so I begin. The first day of my journey on the road to domestic bliss. 

This morning I woke up completely motivated to get started cookin' and tastin' and feeling immensely proud of myself for finally biting the bullet and learning to do wife-y things. I found one of the recipes I had been dying to try and as I was going through the ingredients, I opened my spice pantry to see what I already had available. 

And holy mess... 

That ladies and gents, is my disaster of a spice pantry. 

There's no way, I thought to myself, that I can legitimately start attacking some of these recipes with that disorganization. So I closed the cookbook and decided that before I could even begin, I'd have to go through the spices. 

And go through them I did. 

Fun fact: I had spices in there that expired in 2008. They expired 5 YEARS AGO! Truly a testament to how often I cook. 

So, like, 95% of my spice pantry was thrown away.  

I think I was left with a bottle of Tony's Chacheres, salt, and Pam cooking spray. 

So, I loaded up the baby and we went to Whole Foods where they sell fresh spices in bulk. Since I had a few mason jars lying around, I chose to go that route since spices can get expensive. It was definitely more cost-effective. 

Then I painted the tops of the mason jars black, painted the name of the spice that would go in it on it, and filled those suckers up. 

It's still a little bare... but it's definitely a start.