Christmas seafood chowder

I sure enjoy anything with seafood in it. I was inspired this year to try something a little differnt and this was what I came up with! We really enjoyed this rich chowder and I hope your family will too!

3 T butter

3 T bacon grease

1 diced red onion

1 stalk celery cut very small

1 white potato peeled and diced

1 small sweet potato peeled and diced
3 T flour

2 packets of seafood concentrated flavoring

2 cups water

1 tsp thyme 

Salt and paper to taste

1 can of minced clam in clam juice

1/2 C fresh crab meat

1 lb peeled deveined large shrimp cut into haves

4 oz. of fresh white fish ( I used tilapia)
1/2 cup of  creamed corn
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups of half and half
Minced fresh parsley
In a very large soup pot put the butter and bacon grease. Turn up to about medium heat and add the onions, celery and let simmer till soft. Throw in cubed potatoes. Stir and let sauté for about 5 min. Add the seafood concentrate,water, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Let simmer about 10
minutes till potatoes are soft. Add the entire contents of the minced clams can, the shrimp, the fish and the crab meat and stir then cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add the creamed corn. Stir and break up fish into the soup. Pour in the heavy cream and half and half then turn down to low. Let soup warm through but do not boil it. I let mine sit for 20 minutes on low and let the Cajun crawfish cornbread bake!
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve hot!

Merry christmas and may you and yours  be blessed in the new year!

Cajun crawfish cornbread

You could make a meal on this stuff alone!

1 stick of butter melted but cool

1 small red onion diced small

1 small bell pepper diced small

1 can of green chillies

1 lb of crawfish tails

1 cup sharp shredded cheddar( I also added 1/2 cup of chipotle cheddar cut in small cubes, found it at target)

1/2 cup sweet corn

1 good pinch cayenne

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cup yellow corn meal

1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a very large bowl, put the first 10 ingredients and stir to combine. Add the eggs and buttermilk stir 

and add the rest of your ingredients and stir to combine well. Pour into a large buttered and hot cast iron skillet and bake almost 28 minutes. Remove from oven when golden on top then slice, butter, and enjoy!

Pizz-tastic pizza pasta (crockpot)

Believe it or not this is cooked in a crockpot! It is a genius idea to add to this dish to you crockpot meals for those busy week nights! You can add whatever toppings you like on your pizza but this is how we did it.

12oz box of veggie pasta ( I used a bertolli tomato and carrot penne. But really 12 oz. of any pasta will do)

8oz block of mozzarella cheese shredded plus maybe some Parmesan 

1 med bell pepper diced

1 med onion diced
Handful of black olives

1 small package of mushrooms sliced

2 jars of Bertolli tomato Basil jar sauce

1 package of pepperoni

1/2 lb of ground sausage ( I used half a roll of Bryan mild)

1/2 lb of ground chuck

Few dashes of Italian seasoning

Get out your crock pot and set on low. Drizzle one jar of sauce over pasta. Run 4 tablespoons of water in the jar and shake it. Pour that back into the crockpot. Brown your meats one at the time and mix together then drizzle over the sauce and pasta. In the pan you browned the meat in sauté the mushrooms, onions, peppers till just a little soft. Sprinkle over the meat and then add 1/3 of the shredded mozzarella and spread out a few pepperoni on top. Drizzle the next jar of sauce on top and add water again to jar and shake it up and pour into crockpot. Top with lots of mozzarella cheese....maybe a little Parmesan. Spread out the pepperoni on top of the cheese. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Set crockpot on low for 5-6 hours.

Gnocchi with butternut squash sauce

K

I read the book Pumpkin Soup to my kindergarten class today and it left me wanting a taste of Fall so bad. I had roasted about 6 butternut squashes and had individually bagged each one and froze them. So thinking about that gave me this idea.

1 roasted and mashed butternut squash

3 tbs butter

4 sage leaves

1 tsp parsley

1 bay leaf 

1/4 cup half and half

3tbs heavy cream

2 garlic cloves minced

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup good pecorino Romano 

1 lb of your choice gnocchi boiled in salt water and drained with 1/4 cup pasta water reserved

Sauté garlic in very small pan with 1 tbs of butter. Just till soft then mash with a fork and set aside. In a lager pot place butternut squash, half and half, heavy cream, bay leaf, parsley, sage, rest of butter and bring it to a slow boil while whisking. Let it boils softly for 10 min. add the roasted garlic and its butter to the mixture. Pour gnocchi and pasta water and stir gently. If too think add more half and half. Salt and pepper to taste! Plate it up and sprinkle with cheese! 

I hope you enjoy it and much as I did! I got my little taste of Fall for sure!

Warm Fall Wassail

As Fall rolls in I always crave a nice warm cup of Wassail. Over the years I have made it a few differnt ways and this one happens to be my favorite. The only problem is I make it in a gallon tea jug and I never measure. I mix it up and sip it and usually it's a bout right.

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. throw in a Lipton tea bag just like you were going to make a gallon of tea and let steep for about 15 minutes. While it steeps add a cinnamon stick and 3 cloves. Add 1/2 brown sugar stir. Pour through a sieve into gallon pitcher. Add about 1/4 cup lemon juice. Add 1/2 can of frozen orange juice concentrate and 1/2 can of frozen pineapple juice. Add about 2 cups of apple cider. 1 cup of water stir and then add cranberry juice till its just about full. Now stir it really well. You can heat it up again and drink or you can have a cup and refrigerate the rest for later only warming a cup at a time. 

Let me know if you have any questions! I hope you enjoy ....even though I am the only one drinking it, a gallon never last long!

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Pancakes

 

  What do you do when you want pancakes, cinnamon rolls and something with pumpkin for breakfast? Well this morning I was leaning towards pancakes because I knew I could add the pumpkin to those and then I thought why not add a cinnamon swirl.......so I did and they were absolutely divine!

Swirl:

1 freezer quality zip lock bag

1/2 stick butter melted

1/2 C brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

 Mix these things together then set in the fridge so the butter starts to harden again while you work on the pancake batter.

3/4 cup of pumpkin puree 

1 1/2 cups of Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake mix

3/4 C Milk (add a little more if too thick)

1 T pumpkin pie spice

Mix these things together in a bowl and get your griddle all hot and ready. I put a small pat of butter down and let it melt then pour on  a little pancake batter. Grab your ziplock of goodness ( the cinnamon and butter filled bag you put in the fridge) and snip the corner just a bit. now you are going to use it like a pastry bag and squeeze the goodness out that little corner. Then start in the center of the pancake and make a swirl pattern on the pancake with the cinnamon goodness. when pancake bubbles at the edge you are ready to flip it! flip it over and let it the sugar and butter melt into that pancake! when it has browned just a tad pull if off and you really don't even have to butter these babies! However I do recommend that you make the cream cheese Topping below and drizzle it on top!

Cream Cheese Topping:

3oz Cream cheese

1/4 C powder sugar

2 T Milk

soften cream cheese and blend with sugar the slowly add milk to the consistency you would like!

Pumpkin Spiced French Toast

Well September rolled in and everything in my life gears up for Fall. I cant help but just love everything about it! I also begin to cook a lot of things with pumpkin and what better way to kick off September than to make some French toast?!
here is what you'll need:

6-8 slices of bread ( i toast them, I like them dried out so they soak up the batter better. I also use a good nutty grainy bread. I like Arnold's)
1/2 can of pumpkin
1/4 cup of half and half
4 to 5  eggs ( i have fresh yard eggs and they are kinda small so i used 5)
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
1tsp of vanilla
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 T of honey
5 T butter
Powdered sugar or whipped fresh cream, or syrup for topping!

whisk everything from the pumpkin to the honey together! Heat a griddle pan up nice and hot! place a dab of butter in the pan and let it swirl around. dip a piece of toasted bread into your batter and place in hot pan. let cook 3 min or so ( depends on how hot you got that pan) and then flip. I like mine to get just golden on each side then remove from heat and top how ever you desire!! I am a fan of alternating all three toppings. sometimes you want maple syrup.....sometimes you want some powdered sugar (this makes me think New Orleans and beignets) sometimes you want to whip up a think fresh cream and put in a touch of sugar and cinnamon and really just go to heaven!
I sure hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does!!!!