Cajun Black Beans and Rice

Gluten Free notes at the bottom of this post.So much of what I have forthcoming is from Pink Parsley.  I’m hard-pressed to find something she posts that I DON’T want to make for myself and the sous chef.  This recipe was not any different.
I’m serious…YUM!  To be fair, if you check out her recipe, you’ll notice that it should be red beans.  Yep, I had red beans purchased, too.  They were sitting right there next to the black beans in my pantry.  However, I manage to grab the black beans which is what ended up in my recipe.  Not so bog of a deal though; this was still fantastic.

What I love about good recipes that I want to share with family and friends is their capability of being good leftovers because I don’t ideally like leftovers.  I’m the kind of person that needs to have the best smelling and best tasting leftovers, which is usually how I determine what recipes I will make and then how much of that recipe I will make.  Hence the reason why this recipe was selected!

Ingredients
1 pound small red beans, rinsed and picked over (As I said above, Krista Kooks used black beans and used canned beans instead of doing the overnight process below)
Salt
4 slices of bacon, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped fine (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper (1/2-1 pepper)
1/2 cup chopped celery (1-2 ribs)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
1 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
ground black pepper
3 cups chicken broth
6 cups water
10 ounces andouille or chicken andouille sausage, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 tsp red wine vinegar, plus more for seasoning
3 scallions, sliced thin
hot sauce, for serving

Directions
Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt in 4 quarts of water in a large pot and add the beans. For the overnight brine, allow to soak at least 8 hours, or up to 24 hours. For the quick-soak method, bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat, cover, and stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the beans.

In a large dutch oven, cook the bacon over medium heat, stirring frequently. Cook until browned and almost fully rendered, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 6-7 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaves, thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in beans, broth, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat but just enough to still maintain a vigorous simmer. Stirring occasionally, cook 45-60 minutes, or until the beans are soft and the liquid has begun to thicken.

Stir in the sausage and 2 teaspoons of the red wine vinegar. Cook until the liquid is thick and the beans are fully tender and creamy, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with additional salt, pepper, and vinegar. Serve over rice, sprinkled with scallions and passed with hot sauce.

Make it Gluten Free!

• Fortunately, this recipe is easily made gluten free!  Just be sure that your bacon and sausage are gluten free, and everything will be fine.  If using hot sauce, check that as well.  If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment to ask!

Gluten Free Pork Carnitas in a Slow Cooker/Crock Pot

I’ve never…other than bacon…made pork.  EVER!  No pork chops, tenderloins or anything.  It’s never been appetizing to me or something I wanted to try.  That said, recently, friends of ours (and one of the sous chef’s co-workers) invited us over for dinner.  While they were kind enough to prepare food for my gluten-free diet, they prepared pork as the main dish.  I sat down frightened, as I don’t ever eat it, but thought to myself, “Well, what can it hurt?!  They certainly prepared it well!”  After one bite, I was impressed.

Thus, it intrigued me to see what I could do.  After ordering two cookbooks that tailor to the gluten-free diet, I decide to try this pork carnitas recipe from Carol Fenster’s 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes.  Wait a second.  I take that back.  I was having a hectic day planning for the sous chef’s family coming in town, so I must give credit to the sous chef.  He is actually the one that threw everything in the slow cooker!  He deserves the credit

The family thought it was great, as did I, and we served it with Roasted Broccoli.  Whether you eat gluten free or not, I think you should try this!

Ingredients

1 (1 lb) pork tenderloin or pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat

1/2 cup gluten-free, low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup gluten free salsa

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Cut the pork tenderloin into 1/2 inch chunks and add to the slow cooker that has been coated with cooking spray.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, pour over the pork and cover.  Cook 6 hours in a slow cooker on low heat.

Serve the pork as a main dish, spooning the sauce over it.  Or shred the pork and serve it as a filling for tacos, using the remaining  liquid as a sauce.

As you can see from the recipe, there’s nothing that makes this blaringly gluten free other than making sure you get gluten free chicken broth (not hard) and gluten free salsa (definitely not hard in Texas). Thus, if you are someone who does not need to eat gluten free, don’t hesitate to use the chicken broth and salsa YOU prefer.  Enjoy!

Crockpot Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole

Gluten-Free Notes at the bottom of this post.

Guests are in town, you sweated and slaved over dinner last night, or you know you’ll sweat and slave over dinner tonight.  Maybe you’ll do so for both meals.  How on Earth will you provide them a decent breakfast, too?!  Easy…pull out the crockpot!

I’d previously tried another version of this recipe that Stephanie with Crockpot 365 suggested, but it was not my favorite at all.  It was good enough for the sous chef, but it was not for me.  Thus, he ate all of it.

This try, however, was certainly tasty!!!  I attribute most of the taste to the fabulous sausage that I purchased specifically for this recipe.  Jimmy Dean’s new All Natural Regular Pork Sausage is absolutely terrific!  It tastes like it came straight from a butcher.  I realize that sounds odd, but, what I mean is, it doesn’t taste like it’s made with other things than just meat and some seasonings.  When you compare the ingredients of this sausage with that of other sausage on the same shelf, above, and below, you’ll see exactly what I mean!  This stuff is amazing, and I buy it 3 at a time now   I love love love the flavor!

Nonetheless, this breakfast dish is incredible because you can put these ingredients in the crockpot the night before, and, the night morning, you have a hashbrown, egg, cheese, sausage, onion, and bell pepper heavenly dish.  I imagine this would be GREAT for kids that have a big test one day; perfect “I have a big test today” breakfast

Below is how I prepared this dish, but click here to see Stephanie’s original recipe.

Ingredients

30 oz package of plain frozen hash brown (shredded) potatoes
1 lb. already-been cooked and cooled sausage (see above note on the HIGHLY suggested Jimmy Dean All Natural Regular Pork Sausage)

1/2 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
12 eggs
1 cup skim or fat free milk
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper

Directions.
Use a  6 quart Crockpot for this full recipe.

Spray the inside of your crockpot with cooking spray. Dump in the whole package of hash browns. Spread them out with your fingers, and break up any clumps.

In a mixing bowl, mix the dozen eggs with the milk, salt and pepper, cheese, cooked sausage (make sure it’s cooled down), and diced vegetables. Pour everything on top of the hash browns.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4. This is done when the eggs are fully cooked and the edges start to brown a bit. If you want the cheese to brown and get a bit crispy on the sides, cook it longer.

Note that the edges of the dish in the crockpot did brown a bit.  Simply cut those portions off and do not serve them.  Nothing is wrong with the dish, it’s just the way the dish cooks.

Make it Gluten-Free!

• Be sure that the sausage you use is gluten-free.  The suggested sausage above is a gluten-free selection.
• Ensure that your hash browns do not have any additives with gluten.

Pasta with Fresh Corn Pesto

Gluten-Free notes at the bottom of this post. I have to say that Pink Parsley has had some fabulous posts lately.  So many of my bookmarked favorites are from her blog!  Thanks for the inspiration Pink Parsley!

I’m sad to say that my cousin can’t partake in this dish due to the pine nuts, but, as long as you can eat everything in this recipe, you totally should!  I and the sous chef both agree that this dish is great and even more fabulous as leftovers. 

On a side note, however, I busted my Magic Bullet in the process of making this dish :(  I’m on the hunt for a repair part.  Sad day!

Source: Pink Parsley adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients


4 bacon slices, preferably applewood-smoked
4 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from 4-6 ears
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 ounces fresh pasta (I used gluten-free pasta)
3/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used a mixture of basil, parsley, and chives)


Directions


Cut each bacon slice in half length-wise, then crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces.  Cook in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp and brown, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.  Pour off all but 1 Tablespoon of the fat.


Add the corn, garlic, salt and pepper to the skillet, and saute until the corn is just tender, but not brown, 3-5 minutes.  Transfer 1 1/2 cups of the corn to a small bowl and reserve.  Transfer the rest to a food processor, and add the pine nuts and 1/2 cup of Parmesan.  With the machine running, slowly stream the oil through the feed tube and blend until pesto is almost smooth.  Set aside.


Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until just tender, but still firm to the bite (not quite as done as you would want it).  Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the pasta water and drain the pasta.  Return pasta to the pot and add the pesto, reserved corn kernels, and 1/2 cup fresh herbs. 


Toss well and add pasta water 1/4 cup at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  Cook an additional 2-3 minutes, or until pasta is cooked through.  Season with additional salt and pepper if needed.


Divide among serving bowls and sprinkle with additional herbs, cheese, and reserved bacon.
Make it Gluten-Free!
-Make sure to use Gluten-Free pasta.

Paella

I know Cinco de Mayo was a while ago, but it got me inspired to make Paella for the first time!  Yes, that’s right, I’ve never made Paella before.  Usually, when I’m making a somewhat traditional dish that is a first try for me, I’ll dive into my Fannie Farmer Cookbook.  This cookbook is great for that sort of thing!

The sous chef and I discovered that we aren’t big fans of clams, so…we ended up removing those little guys and tossing them.  Otherwise, this dish was TERRIFIC!  We had plenty of leftovers and ate them all!!!  The recipe I’m posting below is the halved version of the recipe as I just can’t imagine needing the full recipe that the cookbook lists.  As it is, we had to use our largest tupperware dish to save the leftovers!

Paella
adapted from Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Ingredients
1/16 teaspoon of saffron
2 cups chicken broth
2-3 chicken breasts
salt
freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
6 thin slices spicy Spanish sausage (Chorizo)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup short grain rice
1/2 pound shrimp, cooked, shelled, and deveined
1/2 package frozen tiny peas, or 3/4 cup fresh peas
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Put the Saffron to soak in 1 Tbsp of the chicken broth.  Rinse the chicken, pat it dry, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the chicken and brown well on all sides.  Add 2 tbsp of water and the oregano.  Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until the chicken is done.  Remove the chicken and set aside.

Lightly brown the sausage slices; remove and set aside.   Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.  Melt the butter in the pan and stir in the rice, saffron, and about half a teaspoon of salt, cooking for 5 minutes.  Add the remaining chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a shallow 4-quart casserole, arrange the rice, chicken, shrimp and sausage so that some of each shows on the top.  Heat in the oven about 15-20 minutes.  Meanwhile either pour boiling water over frozen peas or blanch frozen peas 2 minutes.  Scatter over casserole, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

Breakfast Scramble

I definitely need more breakfast recipes on my blog, don't ya think? I do. Since I had some breakfast sausage left at my house from Christmas, I decided to cook up some sausage and egg combintation for my sous chef; he really loves that kind of stuff.

After taking a quick browse on FoodNetwork.com, I decided upon this recipe to give me some help. The following is my adaption of that recipe:

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 lb. sausage
1/4 large white onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
6 large eggs
4 flour tortillas
Shredded Mix cheese

Directions

Heat an iron skillet and lightly spray with the cooking spray. Add the sausage and break up into small pieces. Cook thoroughly. Drain grease if any has accumulated.

Add the onion, garlic, green chiles and cilantro. Saute until the onions have softened, about 1 minute. Add the eggs. Stir until the egg is scrambled and thoroughly cooked.

Warm the tortillas in toaster oven or on top of a stove burner. Divide egg mixture equally among the 4 tortillas. Fold each tortilla up like a burrito or a cone and top each with 1/4 of the cheese.
My sous chef was very excited when he woke up to see this on the stove! If you want to anything else to this scramble, small diced potatoes would be a great addition as well. You could also add some chile peppers for some spice!

Chicken Saltimbocca

If you like salty foods, this is for you! I mean, hello...salt is in the name of the dish! After a family dinner to Maggiano's Little Italy recently, I decided that I had to try this dish on my own. While this recipe that I made was not the same as Maggiano's, it's still tasty. This is also a very easy recipe to make! Any food preparation, like chopping or slicing, was easily done while another part of the recipe was cooking. This is one of the easier recipes that I've made.

2 Tbsp. Fresh sage, chopped
2 oz. Prosciutto, thinly sliced (4 slices)
4 oz. chicken breasts, pounded
½ cup Seasoned breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
½ tsp. Kosher salt
¼ tsp. Black pepper (freshly ground)
½ oz. and as needed Olive oil, divided use
4 slices Provolone cheese
4 oz. White onion, ¾-in. dice (I just used one large onion)
1 oz. White wine

4 oz. Chicken stock
1 oz. Unsalted butter

1. Distribute ½ Tbsp. sage evenly over each chicken breast; place ½ oz. prosciutto over each chicken breast.

2. In small bowl, combine breadcrumbs, parmesan, salt and pepper. Lightly bread each breast with mixture on both sides.

3. Coat sauté pan with olive oil; heat over medium-high flame. Add chicken to pan; sauté until browned well, about for 3 minutes. Turn; continue cooking until browned and cooked through.

4. Add provolone cheese; cook until melted. Place on serving plate.

5. Wipe pan with paper towel. Add ½ oz. olive oil and onions to pan; cook until brown and caramelized, about 8 minutes.

6. Add wine; reduce by ¾. Add chicken stock; reduce by ½. Finish with butter.
7. Pour onion and sauce around chicken; serve immediately.

Bacon Quiche Biscuit Cups

Ever wanted to know how to use your Pillsbury refrigerated products for more than their basic use? Yesterday morning, I made these biscuit cups before we headed off to the beach. These biscuit cups are great because they are easy to make and have an easy cleanup process. I changed the original recipe up slightly but not by much.

INGREDIENTS
Real Bacon Crumbles (I used about half of a 2.5 ounce bag. You can always cook bacon you have at home. If you do, I'd cook about 6 slices.)

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons milk

2 eggs
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (2 oz)
2 tablespoons chopped green onions (2 medium)
2 cans Pillsbury® Grands! Reduced Fat Buttermilk refrigerated biscuits

Extra bacon crubles for topping

Extra Swiss cheese for topping

Heat oven to 375°F. Spray regular-size muffin pan with cooking spray. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add milk and eggs, beating at low speed until smooth.

Stir in Swiss cheese and onions. Set aside.

Open biscuit cans, and press or roll each to form 5-inch rounds. Place 1 biscuit round in each muffin cup; firmly press in bottom and up sides, forming 1/4-inch rim. Place half of bacon in bottom of dough-lined muffin cups. Spoon cheese mixture evenly into cups.
Bake 21 to 26 minutes or until filling is set and edges of biscuit cups are golden brown. Everyone's oven varies, so keep an eye on these.

Sprinkle each with bacon and more shredded Swiss chese; lightly press into filling. For garnishing, cut some additional 1" slanted green onions and top them on the biscuit cups. Remove biscuit cups from pan.

These are delicious! Here's the original recipe from the Pillsbury website for the Bacon Quiche Biscuit Cups. I'm off to eat the leftovers because they are so yummy!

Creole Meatloaves with Trinity Gravy and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Krista Kooks is proud to bring you...

drum roll please...

Mrs. Courtney Mayfield!

This wonderful young lady is bringing you a new realm to Krista Kooks with pork and sweet potatoes, which is something you will NEVER see me cook. That's why I was so excited she made this recipe because I told her I wanted a well rounded blog! Her hubby loved this recipe, so, without further ado...

"After many complaints by my husband of the "same ol' stuff," I decided to try this "real" cooking thing - starting with Krista's blog and her Fake Bake Rigatoni post. After surprising success with it, I started watching Rachael Ray's talk show and have tried a few of her fab recipes as well. These are both recipes that I will definitely be keeping around and making again.

For the first recipe - Creole Meatloves with Trinitiy Gravy, I have to honestly say I didn't know there was even a such thing as ground pork - beef and turkey of course and then bison if you were a little out there, but pork??? Turns out it's actually already in the prepackaged section at Central Market, so maybe I'm just naive.

We really really liked this recipe. To quote my husband Will, "This is on the verge of being not just good, but great." It was a very easy recipe, but still a nice change. I don't eat traditional meatloaf either, so the absence of the ketchup taste was quite nice for me too.

I do think I'll make a few tweaks to the recipe in the future: add salt and pepper to the meatloaf mixture and cut down on the veggies in the "gravy" - probably to one onion, maybe one and a half, and leave out a little celery and bell pepper. As you will see, our gravy was more just wet chunks of veggies and I would have preferred it a little more saucy.Rachael Ray suggested Mashed Sweet Potatoes to accompany the meal and I thought they were a very nice compliment and actually tasted great with the gravy on them. And since I already had the buttermilk for those, I made up a quick batch of buttermilk cornbread too.

As someone looking for good, but not too pricey dinner ideas, I hope these help you the same way Krista's posts help me - I can't wait to try the Golden Onion Baked Chicken this weekend!"

Sausage and Rigatoni Fake-Bake

Yet another recipe from our new Big Orange Book! I didn't get a picture of this one, but it looks really great. We actually went to Maggiano's Little Italy the night after I made this, and we ordered the exact same thing pretty much. My taste tester says he likes the version I made best. What a great tester!

Sausage and Rigatoni Fake-Bake

Salt
1/4 lb. rigatoni or whole grain rigatoni
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 link of sweet Italian sausage
1 link of hot Italian sausage
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water, add the rigatoni, and cook to al dente. Preheat the broiler.

Heat the EVOO in a small or medium ovenproof skillet. Remove the sausage from its casing and add to the skillet, breaking it up with a spoon as it browns, 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for a minute or two more, then stir in the tomato sauce and cook just to heat through. Fold the basil into the sauce and stir in the cream. Simmer the sauce over low heat for 5 minutes. Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss to coat with the sauce. Sprinkle the pasta with the cheese and place under the broiler until browned, 3 to 4 minutes.

I used our iron skillet to make this in, and I actually doubled the recipe. This recipe is created for one person, although it can feed two people as is. When doubling the recipe, it allows you to have leftovers for both people. This is a quick and easy recipe, and it tastes absolutely great! This makes great "guy food." :)

Italian Sausage Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Cream

Italian Sausage Ravioli? Where do you buy that? Well, to my knowledge, you don't. Thus, I made this ravioli! That's right! I made homemade pasta! It was really fun and an interesting experience. This pasta recipe is from my Pasta cookbook that my parents bought me back in high school; Betty Crocker's A Passion for Pasta.

Fresh Pasta

Prep Time: 30 minutes Roll/Cut: 40 minutes
8 servings

5 large eggs
1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour

I'm including the Food Processor Mixing directions, although I used my Stand mixer to make this.
Food Processor Mixing:
Place eggs, oil and salt in food processor. Cover and process until smooth. Add flour. Cover and process about 10 seconds or until dough leaves side of bowl and can be pressed together with fingers. (If dough is too dry, add a few drops of water; cover and process 5 seconds. If dough is too sticky, add a small amount of flour; cover and process 5 seconds.) Remove dough and press into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Let stand 10 minutes.

Now for the recipe for the ravioli! This really is an easy recipe, so don't be intimidated. Technically, this recipe calls for Chorizo, but I wasn't able to find it in the grocery store after searching FOREVER! Thus, I chose the alternate for this recipe, which is Italian sausage. IT was great!

Chorizo Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Cream
Prep: 50 minutes Cook: 10 minutes
6 servings

1/2 recipe Fresh Pasta (above)
1/2 lb. bulk chorizo or Italian Sausage
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 jar (7 ounces) roasted red bell peppers, undrained
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
1 cup whipping (heavy) cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Prepare dough for Fresh Pasta. Divide into 5 equal pieces; roll each piece as directed on page 261 into 14x14 inch rectangle. Cover rectangles with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Cook sausage in 8-inch skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink; drain. Cool 5 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup grated cheese and the egg, breaking up sausage with spoon.
Spoon sausage mixture by teaspoonfuls into mounds about 1 1/2 inches apart in 2 rows of 6 mounds on one of the rectangles. Moisten dough lightly around mounds with water; top with second rectangle. Press gently around mounds to seal.

Cut between mounds into 12 squares, using pastry cutter or knife. Place on lighltly floured towel; sprinkle lightly with flour. Repeat with remaining sausage mixture and rectangles. (For fifth rectangle, cut crosswise in half. Place 6 mounds of sausage mixture on one half of the rectangle. Moisten dough lightly around mounds with water; top with second half of the rectangle. Press gently around mounds to seal. Continue as directed.) Cover ravioli with plastic wrap until ready to cook.

Heat bell peppers and onion to boiling in 1-quart saucepan; reduce heat to low. Simmer uncoverd about 5 minutes or until mixture is soft. Carefully pour into blender. Cover and blend on medium speed until smooth. Pour back into saucepan. Stir in whipping cream, basil and pepper. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, just until hot; remove from heat and keep warm.

Heat 4 quarts water to boiling in Dutch oven. Add ravioli. Boil uncovered about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until firm but tender. Drain ravioli. Spoon sauce over ravioli. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded cheese and the walnuts.

Now, I didn't use a blender to make the sauce because I don't like losing so much as the bottom of the blender. Instead, I used the magic bullet. It's much easier to use for sauces like this. Additionally, because I don't really like them, I left out the walnuts. Otherwise, this is basically what I did to create this recipe! It was extremely yummy!