Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

I am a sucker for all dishes Cajun or Creole.  The problem is, I can’t eat most shellfish. But you can’t go wrong with catching the same awesome flavor with a Chicken and Andouille sausage gumbo.  This is truly worth the time.  The roux may be a long haul to get to the color you like, but you won’t regret it. This “recipe” made of many other recipes over the years, and I wish I could say where they all came from.  I first learned by looking over gumbopages.com, and I suggest you check it out!  The one addition over the years I never leave out now is File powder.  Serve Gumbo over steamed white rice and enjoy!

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Five-Spice Steak with Rice Noodles

This is another stir fry-type recipe from CL – we really only used the sauce and went with our own veggies and shirataki noodles.  That said, it was great and may be one of my favorite new stir-fry options.   Any veggies you have on hand would be great with this, so it’s a good clean-out-the fridge option.

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Spiced Braised Beef and Sweet Potatoes

Great slow cooker recipe for a cold day.  This was a little twist on beef stew that we liked a lot – I turned down the heat on it by cutting the cayenne in half, so you could easily adjust however you like.  Made a lot – leftovers even better the next day.  This came from Real Simple, and though it suggested serving over couscous, we actually skipped that, just ate it as a stew, and it was great that way.

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Turmeric Chicken Thighs

We really liked this one from – gasp – Rachel Ray.  It would actually work well with chicken or pork (or maybe a strong fish, too).  I really didn’t make too many changes to this – used stock instead of water for braising.  I did accidentally buy boneless chicken thighs and it was still great – but I think much better bone-in.  Will definitely be making this again.  I served this with roasted green beans.

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Savory Braised Pork

This was another good CL recipe, though I substituted a pork loin roast rather than Boston butt because that’s what I had on hand.  Probably a hair more dry than I would have liked it in part because of that (I didn’t remember to adjust the cooking time for a loin), but still quite good.  I also substituted white wine for half of the chicken broth and thought that helped the flavor a little bit.  The original recipe required a pressure cooker, but I did it in a dutch oven and it was fine.  We had this for New Years Day dinner with black eyed peas and braised brussels sprouts.

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Black Eyed Peas with Bacon

We always do black eyed peas for New Years Day, because…well, they’re supposed to be lucky!  And even more delicious with bacon (what isn’t?!).  Made this as instructed and it was excellent – this is from Serious Eats.  You can adapt this for canned beans – just less liquid, and combine everything in a sautee pan instead of the oven until the beans are heated through.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This is one of the first things I ever learned to make, and for some reason, I haven’t done it in years.  So easy in the crock pot, and the leftovers are great.  This is a recipe I got from Cooking Light, modified it a little bit, and served over whole wheat spaghetti.  Definite make again – below is with my changes.

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Spinach, Feta, and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed ‘shrooms are one of my favorite appetizers for parties, since they’re easy, portable, and tend to be a crowd-pleaser.  I’m actually not a huge mushroom fan myself, but I’ll eat anything with cheese and bacon. 😉  I got this one from Bon Appetite, and just added a bit more bacon and feta, and a bit less spinach (I thought 10 ounces would overwhelm everything else).  I think adding some roasted red peppers would be awesome both for color and taste, though, and would do that next time.

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Mustard-Peppercorn Rib Roast

We decided on a standing rib roast for Christmas dinner this year, and I don’t have much experience with them – but this was a winner.  Nice cut, easy to do, and found a rub recipe that we really loved!  This came from Chow and we were thrilled with it – only change is that I only put the rub on the outside – didn’t cut into the roast.  We served this with garlic blue cheese mashed potatoes and green beans…I think this goes down as my favorite holiday dinner I have ever done.

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Coffee Cake

I’ve coveted a Kitchen Aid mixer for many years, and my amazing boyfriend Shawn got one for me for Christmas this year!  Excited is an understatement!  I had already done all my Christmas cookie baking, so I had to think of something else to do (oh jeez, poor me 😉 ) and we decided on coffee cake…it made a nice after dinner snack later in the evening.  I’m still stunned over the ease of baking with the Kitchen Aid!  This recipe came from one of my favorite baking sites, Joy of Baking, and I combined her coffee cake with a streusel recipe I had on hand.  It was my first time making coffee cake and we like it a lot!

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