It’s Mrs. H-Man here. 
I cut back all of our Genovese basil moments ago and am removing the leaves in preparation of making pesto. There’s roasted garlic and toasted walnuts awaiting these gorgeous and fragrant leaves. My phone will probably smell like basil. Here’s the recipe I made with the basil: Basil and Roasted Garlic Pesto. I used toasted walnuts instead of pine nuts.
I took chicken and sausage gumbo to a Souper Christmas party last night. I did not bring a drop of it back home. This recipe comes from a friend who grew up in Louisiana with a couple of added things from Emeril Lagasse. It makes a real tasty gumbo. It’s not the most healthy soup you can make but like I always say everything in moderation.
What a beautiful day it was yesterday. I got out and walked both dogs a mile each. Then went for a 10 mile bike ride. I also took our outside Christmas lights down and made my gumbo. It was a pretty productive day. I did not do so good calorie wise at the party last night but I did get a lot of exercise.
So here is the gumbo – enjoy!
Makes 17 cups and is 298 Calories per cup and 25 grams of fat.
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
2 medium onions chopped
6 stalks of celery chopped
2 large bell peppers chopped
4 garlic cloves minced
8 cups chicken stock (Giant eagle has a nice boxed stock or you can make your own.)
1 chicken (I bought the roasted chicken at the store or you could boil it yourself.)
1 lb. smoked sausage,(i.e. andouille or kielbasa, andouille is the desired)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf or an 1/8 teaspoon of dried crushed bay leaf
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning.
½ teaspoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon file powder
2 cups cooked long grain white rice
If you are going to boil your own chicken and make your own stock here is what you should do. The day before you’re ready to make your gumbo, take a whole chicken and place it in a large stockpot (ours is about 5 qt.). Add enough water so chicken is covered by 2” of water and cover with lid. Heat to rolling boil and reduce heat to medium-high and cook, covered, at a low boil for 1 ½ hours or until meat falls easily from the bones. Remove chicken and bones from water and set aside in dish. Strain stock into container and, when cooled, place in refrigerator. When chicken is cool, remove meat from bones and refrigerate. The next day, skim the fat off the top of the chicken stock; if it is not congealed enough, you can put the pot in the freezer for a half hour before attempting to skim off the fat.
Bring chicken stock to rolling boil. In another pan add the oil and stir flour is slowly and stir constantly for 20 to 25 minutes, make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and continue to stir for 4 to 5 minutes, or until veggies are wilted. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute. Now add roux and veggies to your boiling stock and mix well. Add the next 8 ingredients (chicken through hot sauce). Stir until the roux mixture and stock are well combined. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Add file powder after about 45 minutes of cooking. Remove bay leaf and serve over rice.
Well, if this article doesn’t make you think twice about fast food, nothing will. Claims about food preservatives have been floating around for decades. Take the Twinkie shelf life rumor, for instance. Some have said a Twinkie has an indefinite shelf life. While it’s true that its shelf life is pretty long for a baked good, it’s not that long.
How about the burger you grab on the run at Micky D’s? Read on:
Above, you see two of McDonald’s Finest. On the right is a Big Mac, freshly made in 2008. On the left, a rather more vintage specimen, embalmed at the factory with the usual edible preservatives to keep it juicy and tender right up until you gobble it down. But nobody ate it, and it still looks as fresh as it did the day it was made, twelve years ago. …Continue reading “Big Mac Lasts Longer than 6 iPods”
I’m reminded of Randy Stonehill’s classic, American Fast Food. You can hear the original version in this fan video, but here’s his acoustic version (perhaps easier to understand – am I really saying that?):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIX1qOlDc_0 350 300]
You can see the complete lyrics on this page.
I Googled the phrase “local sources for long-grain wild rice” (without the quotes, of course) and one of the hits was a page on opensourcefood.com. This URL’s title tickled the geeky girl in me and the recipe sounds delicious.
Found a new recipe for butternut squash.
Let’s start with my weight loss for this week. I’m down 3 lbs to 258. Kimberley maintained at 224.
I’m trying a new thing here. I’m going to start having a recipe of the week.