Laissez les Bons Temps Roulez, Y’all

In our Army wanderings, we found ourselves stationed at Fort Polk, LA for about 3 years. While we were still four hours from New Orleans, the entire state celebrates Mardi Gras in one way or another. Growing up in Oklahoma, I knew plenty of people who went to Mardi Gras, but I never realized all the traditions until we were at Polk.

I converted to Catholicism while there, as well, which probably contributed to my appreciation of Fat Tuesday…I had never sacrificed anything for Lent or experienced meatless Fridays (on purpose), either. If you’re Catholic, I’m sure you can relate…year-round, we eat meatless meals two to three nights a week in our family, but as soon as Lent arrives, you can bet all we want on Fridays are steaks and burgers! But I digress (imagine that).

One Mardi Gras tradition we always observe is having jambalaya and King Cake for Fat Tuesday.

This year I found a King Cake kit at World Market. In the past, I’ve made it from scratch or ordered King Arthur’s kit. Of course, when we lived in the South, every grocery store had them, so I just bought them.

I was a little skeptical of this cake once I read the directions. It came with a heavy duty Ziploc bag, and we were instructed to mix and knead the dough right in that. So we did, and, much to my surprise, it worked wonderfully. It rose the first time in the bag, even.

After it rose, I rolled it out, mixed up the filling, and spread it on. If you’ve never had King Cake, it’s a little like a cinnamon roll ring, sliced to serve. It’s so much better than cinnamon rolls, though. Really.

I rolled it from the long side, then the hubs helped me move it to a baking stone. After shaping it into a ring, I let it rise again for about 30 minutes.

Another thirty minutes in the oven, and it was perfectly golden brown.

The kids helped decorate it, and I’ll stick the baby in just before serving. Although, really, who in our house is going to throw next year’s party if they get the baby? Yeah, it’ll be me, no matter what!

If you can’t find a mix nearby, here’s a link to a tasty from-scratch recipe. You’ll just need to pick up purple, green, and yellow sanding sugars…and a plastic baby to stick inside!

My recipe for Jambalaya came from a friend at Fort Polk who was born and raised in New Orleans. I was amazed at how tasty and easy this is to prepare. I’ve taken out quite a lot of fat (the original recipe had a whole stick of butter in it), but it’s just as delicious as Lindsay’s. I serve it with French rolls, honey butter, and a salad.

By the way, there’s no photo because it’s not all that pretty…jambalaya means a mishmash, after all. But what it lacks in looks, it sure makes up for in flavor!

Louisiana Jambalaya

2 cups Uncle Ben’s converted rice

1 can condensed French onion soup

1 can double strength beef broth

1 soup can water

8 oz tomato sauce

1/2 cup green onions, sliced

2 onions, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

12 oz reduced fat Jimmy Dean sausage

3 boneless chicken breast, in 1” cubes

1 lb smoked turkey sausage, sliced 1/2” thick

1) In a large Dutch oven, brown all meats together.

2) Add all other ingredients and bring to a boil.

3) Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check it at 1 hour…you may need to add 1/2 to 1 cup water if it seems dry.

You can also add shrimp, crawfish, or ground beef, instead of chicken. You just need to end up with about 2 lbs of meat other than the sausage, in whatever combination works for you. If you’d like it spicy, substitute hot sausage for the Jimmy Dean’s.

Enjoy your Fat Tuesday, and Let the Good Times Roll!

A Couple of Random Things I Did

I admit it…I have nothing cohesive to blog about today. But I did make a couple of things this week that I want to show-n-tell…I took the photos, now you’re being forced to look at them! At least I can’t hear you, so you’re not required to “oooh” and “aaah.”

These are some extremely delectable Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies I made for the GI Joe’s office. I found them on…where else…Pinterest. They’re from the blog, The Novice Chef. She has some amazing ideas there, made with ingredients pretty much anyone has (or can obtain easily).

This horrible photo badly shows this week’s addition to the organization of my craft room. This is a chalkboard decal from Stampin’ Up!’s Decor Elements line. It’s a couple of years old and no longer available, but you can easily find similar ones at craft stores or at Stampin’ Up! I’ve been wanting chalk markers (like restaurants use on their menu boards) for a while, and found myself at Hobby Lobby with a 40 percent off coupon yesterday, so I bought them,

They work excellently, and don’t just rub off and smear like regular chalk does. The do come off easily when you want them to, however, as does the chalkboard decal. That’s important because I’m sure my next craft room won’t configure the same way and this side of my cabinet will be against the wall or something. It’s Murphy’s Law.

So there’s my Friday wrap-up for the week…great reviews for both the Red Velvet Brownies and the Chalkboard Decals and markers. I call that a good week…two explorations that worked!

Enjoy your weekend, if that’s what you choose to do.

Giving Up on Winter

I’ve decided to accept that our first winter here in Wisconsin will not live up to our snowy expectations. Today it’s a balmy 45 degrees, and I can see the gravel on my driveway again, since the snow has melted.

After taking down the Valentine’s decorations, my front door looked naked, so I decided to make a wreath. Cute, huh? I copied from one I saw on Pinterest, at Capture the Details. Mine’s not exactly like hers, but pretty close, working with what I had on hand.

This wreath was at Dollar Tree, and a little large for the project, and, amazingly, I bought this eyelash yarn years ago (really, probably 4 years ago or more) to use when gift wrapping or for a little texture on cards. I’ve used a bit of it, but the remainder was plenty for the wreath. I tied it around the wreath and started wrapping, pushing each wrap against the previous. It sounds tedious, but took less than 30 minutes. I was watching Martha at the time, so it didn’t seem like long!

After I finished wrapping, I tied it again before cutting it. I rummaged through my craft stash and found some tiny paper flowers in a Stampin’ Up! Pretties Kit, and the felt flowers are from a Stampin’ Up! Floral Fusion set. I had various size pearl beads that I glued into the center of each flower after I glued the flowers to the “grass.”

For the tag, I printed the saying from my computer and notched the corners to make a tag. To distress it, I wrinkled it all up, smoothed it out, and rubbed some distressing ink over it. To finish, I put in a jumbo eyelet and tied it to the wreath using Early Espresso baker’s twine.

Then I hung it on my door and hoped it will jinx this early spring we’re having! I know, I’ve not really accepted that we won’t have the Blizzard of the Century yet this season. A girl has to have dreams.

Spaghetti Squash Rocks!

As I’ve said before, my hooligans, troublemakers though they are, will eat just about anything. Each has a couple of quirks, so although I do force them to try whatever it is once in a while, I mostly let them avoid those few foods. For the oldest, it’s oatmeal. I think it’s a texture thing. For the middle one, it’s nothing. That kid eats everything and anything that’s not nailed down. The youngest doesn’t like spinach, but she will eat a few bites of it.

This is one of their favorite meals, and it’s really pretty healthy, not to mention quick to prepare. I decided last week to make this, having everything on hand, and it was on the table less than 30 minutes later.

Spaghetti Squash with Italian Sausage and Spinach

1 spaghetti squash

1 lb bulk turkey Italian sausage

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan, plus more for topping

12 oz spinach

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp water

drizzle of balsamic vinegar

1) To make the squash: Cut it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and place cut side down in a shallow microwavable dish. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave for 15 minutes, until it gives a little when you squeeze it (using a hotpad). Let it cool for about 15 minutes…I just leave it in the microwave while I cook the rest of the dinner.

2) Brown sausage in a large skillet with a lid. Don’t cover the sausage, but you’ll need the lid when you cook the spinach. When the sausage is well-browned, remove from pan and keep warm.

3) To cook the spinach: If you don’t have about 2 Tbsp of oil from the sausage, add enough olive oil to make 2 Tbsp to the skillet. Over medium high heat, add spinach and toss to coat with the oil. Add the 2 Tbsp water, and put the lid on it. It’ll take just a couple of minutes to wilt. After it wilts, turn off the heat and add the balsamic vinegar.

4) Finish the squash: Hold a half in one hand and use a fork to scrape out the “spaghetti" inside. Repeat with the other half. I scrape it right into the same dish I cooked it in...why get another dish dirty? Toss with 2 Tbsp butter and 1/2 cup Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5) To serve, place squash on plate and top with sausage. Serve spinach alongside, or under sausage. We mix it all together when we eat…extremely tasty! This serves our family of 5, but with no leftovers.

If you haven’t tried spaghetti squash, you should consider it. We like it substituted for pasta with almost any sauce. Obviously, mac-n-cheese still requires the pasta, so don’t try that on your kids and blame it on me!

Scrapping Valentine’s Day

We love to celebrate holidays around here, but I do think Valentine’s Day, along with many other holidays, is becoming way over-commercialized. I heard on the news that the average that each American will spend for Valentine’s Day is $125 this year. Really?

So I’ve tried to keep it handmade this year, for the most part. The hooligans got a few little handmade Valentines from us, and we made the ones for their classmates. Teachers just got a few chocolates, which the kids wrapped in decorated paper. The hubs did leave roses for me this morning, which was super sweet, along with a card and my favorite coffee. I’m pretty sure he didn’t make any of it, but he’s busy saving the world every day, so that’s understandable!

As one of my wise friends said on Facebook today, (paraphrasing here) I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day, and are appreciated for the love you give, and not for the overhyped gift expectations for the day!

Just so I’m not remiss in posting something creative today, here’s a digi-scrap page I made for our albums…nothing makes my heart happier than a happy family! (and my GI is happy, he’s just not pictured on this particular page!)

Enjoy a love-ly day!

Filling a Football-less Sunday

Everyone at out house seemed to be adrift yesterday, the first Sunday without football in a very long time. Not that we’re total fanatics…we usually don’t turn on the television until 3:00 or so. I’m not sure why everyone was so aimless.

We go to Mass on Saturday evenings (because that’s when our kids are the least ill-behaved), and usually try to keep our Sundays as a day of rest. Their dad takes them swimming at the YMCA, or we go for a hike, or just stay home and sled. None of that was appealing yesterday. So I needed to kickstart our day a little, and these doughnuts were just what we needed.

Cider Doughnuts

(modified slightly from King Arthur Flour’s)

• 4 tablespoons butter, almost melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Penzeys baking spice (or cinnamon)
• 2 tablespoons boiled cider or thawed frozen apple juice concentrate
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• Glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar; 2 Tbsp boiled cider; water to loosen if needed

1) To make the doughnuts: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a standard doughnut pan. I bought one at Target a couple of weeks ago. They had round or hearts then. I’m a little addicted to these baked doughnuts, especially since it’s over half an hour to Dunkin’ Donuts.

2) Beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and spices.

3) Beat in the boiled cider, then the egg. I really like this boiled cider. It’s just concentrated cider, but much better than using frozen apple juice concentrate. We also put this on our waffles, with a little peanut butter…yum! Anyway, then scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

4) Whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, and flour. Or do what I actually do and just put them on top of the wet ingredients and stir it all together.

5) Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.

6) The directions for the pan say to spoon the batter into the pan, smoothing the tops. The first time, I found this difficult to do neatly. Now I spoon the batter into a Ziploc, close it, and cut off a corner. Then I can just pipe the batter into the wells easily.

7) Bake the doughnuts for 10 to 12 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into one comes out clean.

8) Remove them from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool. Put a piece of wax paper under your wire rack, to catch the glaze drips later.

9) Mix glaze ingredients in a flat-bottomed bowl, then dip the doughnut tops into it. Set back on wire rack to cool. Sprinkle them with whatever you’d like, if your Sunday is in need of excitement.

These doughnuts are very tasty, but don’t taste like old-fashioned, fried doughnuts. We actually like them better…they’re a bit like a muffin, but more moist and dense. And, by the way, I made fruit salad and Egg Beaters with cheese to round out our breakfast.

Soon after eating, the hooligans were ready to tackle the outdoors. The temps dropped into the teens Saturday night, so it was quite chilly out.

They sledded for awhile, then somehow they were persuaded to haul wood in using their sleds. That GI Joe of mine is pretty clever sometimes!

Then the big one and the little one decided sledding down the stairs would be a good idea. I think they got this idea from their Papa Colorado, who told them he used to ride his bike down the building stairs in New York. They don’t remember anything else he tells them, but he mentioned this once and they’ll never forget. I stopped them right here, so no one actually traveled down the stairs.

We do still have three hooligans, but the middle (and smartest) one was back inside, having warm peppermint milk and leftover doughnuts. He had been kicked in the head by a sibling while sledding and needed a little comfort.

Everyone ventured back outside after lunch, and I managed to come up with a couple of ideas to entertain them. First I filled some old spray bottles with food-coloring tinted water for them to paint on the snow. That worked for about 20 minutes, then of course they started painting each other.

In the meantime, I boiled pure maple syrup for about 6 minutes, to hard crack stage, in a saucepan over medium high heat. It really boils up, so use a much bigger pan than you think you need. I boiled about a cup. When it reached hard-crack, I took it outside and quickly poured it in a thin stream on a patch of clean snow. It hardens almost immediately, then the kids can pick it up and eat it! It’s like maple hard candy. I’m pretty sure I saw some squirrels out this morning acting even more hyper than usual, so I think the kids didn’t get all the sugar out of the snow!

I read both these ideas years ago, but after we left Ft. Drum, NY. We haven’t lived anywhere snowy and/or cold enough since, so I’m glad we got a chance to try them out!

They sledded a bit more, then came inside as I was starting to make dinner. I fed them Miso Soup to warm them up this time, instead of hot chocolate or anything sweet. They love miso soup, so didn’t even complain…except that I only made them one bowl each!

Cherries and Chocolate…and Digi-Scrapping

So I made this amazing chocolate cherry pound cake to share with you today. Then I sent it off to the office with the hubs. Without checking the photos I took last night. This photo doesn’t do it justice, but you’ll get the idea. It turned out to be a dense, moist, rich, dark chocolate bundt cake that really needed no frosting, so I just dusted powdered sugar on it. If you felt like it, a chocolate ganache glaze would be excellent, I’m sure.

Chocolate Cherry Pound Cake

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 Tbsp instant espresso powder

3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

1 Tbsp cherry juice concentrate

5 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (this is a really important step!).

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating well after each addition, then add the cherry concentrate. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.

When well-blended, fold in chopped dried cherries. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and bake for an hour and twenty minutes, until wooden skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes before turning out onto cake plate.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving. If you have fresh cherries, they make a pretty garnish alongside on each plate. I don’t have fresh cherries here in the upper Midwest this time of year, so a maraschino cherry had to stand in for the photo.

If you’re looking for cherry concentrate, I love the one King Arthur Flour sells. I was thrilled to discover in our local grocery store,with the large selection of cherry products. Really. Although it seems a little pricey, one bottle goes a long way. I use it for sodas, cakes, frostings, salad dressings…every chance I get! Find it here.

I’ve also been scrapbooking a bit this week. Here’s a scrapbook page of our family on a winter walk. I’m not sure of the correlation to chocolate pound cake, it’s just a reminder to scrap the moments, not just the events…to myself!

I’ve just thought of yet another benefit of digital scrapbooking…you can eat chocolate cake without fear of getting it on your pages. Keyboards can always be cleaned, after all.

Enjoy your weekend…we’re getting snow today. so perhaps we can go sledding. And by that, I mean the kids can sled while I watch from inside by the fire while reading. Or surfing Pinterest.

One last note...I added a search box up on the right sidebar, so you can "Search the Chaos" for certain recipes, crafts, etc. Sorry I didn't do that sooner!