Or Dinner, if you're one of those types.

I put together a Mediterranean-ish pizza, on some Indian-style Nan bread. It didn't crust up worth a damn, but it sure was tasty. Some sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, cartelized onions, a few pine nuts ('cause why not?), and a drizzle of EVOO.







It turned out pretty. And tasty, too!







FC

Leftover veggie beef soup on deck tonight but making a bacon roux right now for tomorrows red potato soup.

I made pork carnitas, they were served plain on the plate, as fajitas or tostadas depending on who you were. On the side there was homemade refried beans, pico de gallo, and rice.

I'm stirring up a pan of cornmeal mush, topped with Brer Rabbit molasses.

Not this eve. but a couple nights ago... Moose roast with all the goodies..

Goofed up my photo.. Here is the moose dinner, I hope!!

Domino's thin&crispy, 1 with peperoni, 1 with peperoni and jalapenos.

I found some quality Australian beef so it's veggie (celery, carrot, bell pepper, cabbage, potato, zucchini) beef soup. Simmering as I type.

Last night,,,,,,,,,,, left over Chicken/Corn Chowder with fresh hot biscuits and butter.

The chowder's definitely better the second night.

Made a "Polish/German" Shepherd's Pie. Pan fried cubed up taters mixed with homemade kraut and store bought polish sausage in the bottom. Layer of cut up deer polish sausage, covered up with mashed potatoes with kraut mixed in. Baked in the over for 30-40 minutes at 350. Came out dang good....

Pan seared grouper and buttered asparagus parmesan risotto. Sliced Roma tomatoes on the side to keep it all honest..

Nothing fancy tonight; I just grilled some strip steaks while the wife prepared the side dishes. Ate early so we could watch "The Walking Dead". Then I had to turn it off about three-quarters the way thru.........

This evening it was venison bourguignon, followed by whiskey and cigars.

Hot buffalo drumsticks and a salad. A cold beer would be nice as well. Maybe I'll venture out.

Tonight it's chicken, tasso, and andouille gumbo. Cajun style, brown roux, no okra, no tomato.

Speaking of pizza did y'all see the new Little Caesars pizza that has 3.5 feet of bacon as the crust??!!

Thought about trying one but think I'll go with a salad instead.....

FC,

Here's another take (ours) on what to do with those naan breads.

We grill one side until slightly charred & just starting to stiffen up.

Add big slices of fresh buffalo curd mozzarella, fat slice of ripe heirloom tomato, torn fresh basil leaves & drizzle of "good" EVOO.

Caprese salad on naan !

Grilled naan can be rubbed with a cut garlic clove too, for something slightly different.

Looks something like this, except for the "base layer".

By the way, yours look awesome too.

We love good finger food & a glass or 2 of wine on a Friday night.

Relaxed is good !

Care to share a recipe? I happen to have tasso and andouille in the freezer.

3.5 feet of bacon?? OH HELL YEAH!!

Mike

First off I "cheat" and use dark roux from a jar. The producers down here are pretty good at making dark roux in quantity without burning it. Here's the one I use most of the time:



If you make your own, that's the color you want to achieve. But if you burn even one speck, throw it out and start again unless you like ashtray flavored gumbo.

You'll need a good sized pot. The usual gumbo I make uses a half jar of roux in about five quarts of water. Plus a chicken, plus a pound or more of andouille, plus a 3/4 pound hunk of tasso, plus vegetables, and you need some headroom to boil, stir, and so on.

I get the water boiling and add three Knorr bouillon cubes (cheat number two), one vegetable, one chicken, one beef. Once they dissolve I lower the heat and add the roux to the water. Stir, stir, stir. You must thoroughly dissolve the roux. One way to tell you're there is being able to maintain a decent boil without the liquid foaming up and climbing out of the pot.

Put a half dozen or so good shakes of Tabasco in the pot.

Put about a teaspoon of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce in the pot. (Other brands won't do.)

Cut your tasso into approx. half inch cubes and add to the pot.

Cut the andouille into 1/4" (or a bit thinner) slices. Brown these slices in a large skillet. Add them to the pot.

Here's cheat number three: I don't hone my knife skills cutting up vegetables. I just use about 2/3 of a two pound bag of fresh frozen seasoning blend.



Put the seasoning blend into the skillet and sweat it a while. The fond from browning the andouille will release from the skillet and stick to the vegetables, and they will carry it into the pot. Add them to the pot now.

Add about 3/4 cup of diced green onions to the pot, along with a good palm full of finely cut parsley.

Mince a half dozen large toes of garlic and add to the pot.

Cut up a chicken and add it to the pot.

Cook on a low boil about two hours. Check on the chicken. I want the chicken tender of course, but I don't want it falling apart in the pot.

Remove the chicken from the pot. Once it has cooled enough to handle, debone it and set aside.

With the chicken out of the pot, increase the heat so the pot is boiling a bit faster. We want to reduce and intensify the liquid a bit.

While that's going on, cook a few cups of rice. Once the rice is cooked and the gumbo "juice" has reduced a bit, taste the juice and adjust the seasoning if necessary. We waited this long to do it because the sausage and tasso will gradually season the juice, and if you get the salt and pepper just right earlier in the process it won't be right later.

With the salty meats and bouillon cubes I usually find little need to add salt. Maybe a teaspoon at most of something like Tony Chachere's.

Serve the chicken, andouille, tasso and juice over rice. Add some fine chopped green onion and/or parsley on top if you like.

Looks about like so:




I hope I haven't left something out, but I don't have any of this written down other than here now. I've done it enough that I don't think about it too hard, I make it on autopilot.

Next time I order from LA I will get me some canned roux

If you buy a jar of roux from Kary's, Richard's, Savoie's or the like they usually have a serviceable, easy gumbo recipe on the label. When I started cooking I pretty much followed them, and the results were good. Over time I've developed my own tweaks that result in a richer result without introducing a lot of prep time overhead.

Tonight's dinner will consist of grilled moose sirloin steak (m/r of course), jasmine rice, and fresh steamed spinach.

Grilled cheese sandwich, potato chips, and two slices of dill pickle.

Bacon weaved veal meatloaf mixed with diced hot pepper and cheese

Dis what dey got

http://www.cajungrocer.com/food/prepared-mixes/roux.html?limit=all

tag

Please explain why members here do that instead of just adding to their watch list? I am simply curious as the watch list makes it easier to find rather than going through posts.

I can not help there, but let's get back to passionate debates on food, and cooking!
That's the entertaining part of all this.

There's some nice lookin' roux here. Got a little Cajun restaurant opening up right down the street shortly. Can't wait!

That's a nice looking gumbo!

But damn.....I can kinda maybe understand a pre-made roux, but buying a bag of mirepoix is like ice in scotch, only worse

Feel free to chop your own. I've done it both ways for gumbo, and they're both fine. But don't ice the sipping whiskey!

Also with bell pepper instead of carrots it's not quite mirepoix.

Ah! I see the reddish orange bits are indeed peppers! The trinity!

As to the whiskey...I buy mine premixed with water. Just add ice

Earlier this week was 'street tacos'.

Couldn't find any skirt steak, but flank steak is fine. Marinated in a diced and crushed up mix of jalapeño, onion, garlic, cilantro, coarse salt, coarse pepper and some oil. After mashing that together in goes a couple cups if orange juice and some lime juice. Marinated fur two days instead if my normal one day, turned out better.

Prior to submersion


The sauce to drizzle lightly over the finished product. Onion jalapeño cilantro salt pepper oil oj.


Grilled some corn tortillas lightly, topped with the grilled, chopped flank steak. Top with raw cilantro, onion, and drizzle the sauce. Beats Taco Bell by a bit

Saturday night, big size.

Montreal Smoked Meat on Rye with deli mustard, coleslaw, pepperoni/green olive pizza, and bacon pizza, green salad.

A variety of foods for a variety of people.

Lynn, how did the hootenanny you were worried about last week go over?

fried some yard bird legs

Chicken tetrazzini.........Bride and daughter were most pleased.

We're having some sort of hamburger/cabbage/onion/carrot/rice concoction that is awash in a sauce based on tomato soup. I am going to stuff some of it into a couple of green peppers. (The wife can't eat them.) Later, we're going to experiment with making brownies in the waffle iron.

These are going on in 5..4..3..2..1........




Mike

Dry aged?Those steaks are marbled so well !

You folks are all eatin' high on the hog.

Pepper jack grilled cheese sandwiches here.

Perhaps some popcorn later for desert.

Prime?

Had a cheeseburger earlier, crab cakes coming up soon.


PS. Mike, those steaks look awesome!

i made some chile the other night. so we had chili and grilled cheese sandwiches

I had some potato sticks and a little Black Maple Hill. Just did not feel like cooking or eating today!

Going to try my first fast during Easter.

Prime, but not the dry aged. The dry aged will be coming out of the bag this coming Friday.

Mike