Hi again, friends. :). I’m glad you’re here.
And I’m glad I’m here. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting recipes (or ‘kind-of recipes’ because I typically do a lot of innovating, and like I said before, I never measure spices) and rating them (with smiley faces!) according to ease of preparation and yummy-ness, on a scale of one to five.
First, a couple of mine and The Boy’s own creations.
A Seafood-Sausage Extravaganza:
Ease of Preparation: 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yummy-ness: 🙂 🙂
This, unfortunately, missed the mark. It was a lot of fun to make, as The Boy and I had a — what is quickly becoming traditional — kitchen date. Our extravaganza required two sets of hands, with veggies to sweat, sausage to cook, and seafood galore (yummy, high-quality, wild-caught shrimp, scallops and squid from our neighborhood Wegman’s) to prepare. The preparation, though not the easiest, was a lot of fun, and the final product turned out beautiful.
But the sausage was just too hot. We chose andouille sausage, and there was our mistake. In this, we failed our own dish. The sea creatures were delicious. The vegetables cooked perfectly. But the heat from the sausage overwhelmed it all. Now, we know.
Let’s Try this Sausage Thing Again:
Ease of Preparation: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yummy-ness: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
First, I beg of you, please forgive the image quality. I do believe it’s time to invest in a better camera.
This dish came as an attempt to redeem ourselves after the sausage failure from a couple nights previous. German sausage this time, cooked with onion and red bell pepper, with a side of garlicky cauliflower. My dears, we had a winner. Sausage and veggies were cooked and seasoned perfectly. And no stinging taste buds this go ’round.
…And on to those recipes for which I can claim no credit.
from Delish, Tasty Tilapia (served with sauteed zucchini and squash):
Ease of Preparation: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yummy-ness: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
We gobbled it up before I thought to snap a picture of the completed dish, but trust me, you would have too! The spice mix had just the right amount of kick, and The Boy seasoned the zucchini and squash (one of our favorites) perfectly — which is, of course, open to your own interpretation. I love my tabletop grill, so I grilled the fish (without foil) instead of pan searing it, and I’m glad I did.
from Kalyn’s Kitchen, Beef and Refried Bean Chili with Salsa and Lime:
Ease of Preparation: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Yummy-ness: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
This was a hit! I just realized I forgot to add the lime juice, but I don’t think it mattered. I’ll admit, I cheated, and cooked it on high in the slow cooker for about 4.5 hours, just for the sake of time. I put it on right when I got home from work, and it made for the perfect low-maintenance rainy Wednesday dinner. And, man, was it delicious! Next time, I’ll add a little more spice, to kick it up a notch. And hopefully I’ll get to sop a little cornbread. 😉
That’s all, folks. Thank you for visiting, and thank you again to the wonderful people at Delish and Kalyn’s Kitchen for sharing these incredible recipes with me.
Too-da-loo!
Two Happy Chickens 