Smokin Hot Crockpot

This week my crockpot is smokin! Sunday evening I came home from visiting my friend Jan in Birmingham for the weekend. Because I hadn't cooked over the weekend, I realized I didn't have anything for my lunch the next day at work. I was going to have to go out into the unbearable heat and find something to eat. Oh, woe was me! Didn't have anything planned for supper Monday night either. Monday morning I put some red beans in the crockpot, sauteed some onions and ham pieces and threw them in too. They cooked all day. On the way home from work, I went to Winn Dixie and bought a whole chicken and some ground meat. The beans turned out great and I had some left over for lunch today. This morning I put the whole chicken in the crockpot and tonight I am going to debone it and make chicken salad for sandwiches the rest of the week. The chicken cost about $5.00 so Dan and Danny and I are having lunch all week on five bucks! Sure beats eating out everyday. Not sure what else I'll use my trusty ole crockpot for next, but I am sure I will be using it more these days.

Frogs & Princesses

The 3 oldest girls caught a big bull frog and had some fun playing with him before they let him go the next day.

We told Emma to give him a kiss and he would turn into a prince. It didn't work, but she was a very brave little girl anyway.

Pillow Talk

My 3 oldest granddaughters Bella 8,Hannah 7 & Caecilia 7, came over last weekend to learn how to sew. We decided to make some pillows. We went to the store and they selected the fabric. They mostly watched me cut it, then they pinned it themselves and stitched it on the machine after I threaded it for them. They turned it and stuffed it. They all threaded their hand needles and Bella sewed her opening closed. She did a wonderful job, probably better than I can do it. I think they learned a little and had fun . The pillows came out beautifully. They enjoyed it so much they each made small bean bags to use as pillows for their stuffed animals.

Veggies are taking over

The vegetables are coming in like crazy now. Tomatoes, cukes, peppers, and green beans. We have too many to eat fresh, so I am going to preserve some peppers by drying and pickling. I will freeze the green beans in meal size portions. We are eating lots of tomatoes and cucumbers and giving away what we can't eat fresh. I guess when the tomatoes start producing all at once, I will can some for later. I am NOT making pickles this year....nobody eats them. I love making them and smelling them, but I don't like eating them and no one else does either. Soooo unless I find a recipe that the family loves, I won't be making them any time soon.

We are still waiting for the cantaloupe to ripen. They are looking good so far. I think we will have a bumper crop in a few weeks.

I planted just a few yellow squash this year, because last year we had way too many at one time. So I am spacing out my plantings and it seems to be working. I have enough for a meal or 2 , but not so many that I waste them.

Crawfish Bisque

My daughter and sister and I got together to make some Crawfish Bisque. It can be very time consuming, especially stuffing the cleaned crawfish heads. I have done it once before and peeled the crawfish tails and cleaned the heads myself. It was a 2 day project. This time we saved time by purchasing the tails already peeled and the heads already cleaned. It still took us all day to make the bisque. It didn’t help that one of my burners on my stove was inoperable. I am going to show some of the steps in pictures and include the recipe that we generally followed. The recipe is found in a local cookbook titled “Delicious Hertiage” by Nippy Carville.
Crawfish Bisque
Cajun cooks should know
· A 40 –pound sack of live crawfish yields 12 to 15 cups peeled tails.
· Two cups of peeled tails equal 1 pound
· From one 40-pound sack, there will also be 1 or more cups of fat, needed for the best flavor of this dish.
For and easier variation of this dish:
It’s possible to make a tasty bisque using peeled tails and cleaned heads. These are readily available at seafood markets throughout South Louisiana.
Preparation of Crawfish
1. Wash crawfish several times by rinsing with the hose. To purge, fill a large tub or pot with water, add 1 ½ boxes salt and crawfish.
2. Let crawfish sit in salty water for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove, drain and rinse.
3. In large seafood boiling pot filled with water, scaled crawfish. Do not boil. Remove from pot and drain.
4. Separate sections, reserving the heads to be used for stuffing, the claws for making stock, and the tails for stuffing and gravy.
5. Discard all parts inside the head, while carefully extracting the fat (yellow-mustard substance) into a separate bowl.
6. The tail is the edible part of the crawfish. Peel and devein by pulling out the dark string down the center of the back. Marinate the tails with a seasoning mix like Tony Chachere's and 1 bunch of chopped green onions.




Broth
Make a broth using 2 gallons of water and the crawfish claws of about 5 lbs of crawfish.
Add:
3 medium onions, cut into large pieces
Seasoning mix, like Tony Charare
2 bell peppers, quartered
Roots and peelings from onions, celery and garlic well scrubbed
6 ribs celery, cut into large pieces
2 gallons water
1 head garlic, cut in half

Stems from 1 bunch parsley

Allow the onions, peppers, celery, garlic, parsley stems, roots and seasoning to come to a boil. Boil about 45 minutes and add crawfish claws. Simmer about 1 hour. Strain and store in refrigerator of freezer. Yield about 1 ½ gallons.
Roux (pronounced rue)
With 2 cups of oil and 2 cups of flour, make a roux as follows.
1. In a heavy Dutch oven, heat oil over low heat.
2. Stir in flour and continue cooking over low heat.
3. Cook roux slowly, about 45 minutes, stirring only occasionally. This cooking time is a good opportunity to prepare the crawfish heads.
4. When roux reaches a golden brown uniform color, remove from heat immediately and set aside.

Stuffing Mixture
10 cups (or less) chopped crawfish tails
2 bunches green onions, chopped
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 – (8 oz) can bread crumbs
1 head garlic
6 eggs, beaten
Tony’s seasoning, salt and pepper to taste,

1. Combine above ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
2. Rinse heads well and pat dry with paper towels. Stuff heads and lightly tap open end in flour. Brush lightly with oil
3. Bake heads at 350 degrees for about 20 – 30 minutes till the stuffing begins to dry out.
Gravy
2 sticks butter
Broth
4 large onions, chopped
Crawfish fat
2 bell peppers, chopped
Tony’s seasoning, salt & peper to taste
4 ribs celery, chopped
3 cups tails
Roux
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste


1. Sauté, the onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic in butter until soft. Stir these sautéed
2. vegetables into roux.
3. Add tomato paste, broth and fat. Season well to taste.
4. Cook over medium heat for at least 1 hour. Add stuffed heads about 30 minutes before gravy is complete.
5. Add the marinated tails and green onions 20 minutes before serving. When ready to serve, add the parsley. Ladle bisque and stuffed heads over fluffy rice. Yield: 150 -175 stuffed heads or approximately 24 servings.
We freeze the broth in meal size batches and freeze the heads separately. When we serve we are rather stingy with our heads so we ration out 4 per person.

No eggs yet

We have lost several ( a lot) of chickens this past year to a predator or two. We don't know exactly what is getting them, but sometimes they just disappear and sometimes there is evidence left behind. I got 27 little chicks through the mail in March. At that time we still had about 4 grown hens and 2 ducks. We lost all the grown poultry and 10 little chicks to a predator since then. My husband decided it was time to fight back. He put chicken wire over all the top of the chicken yard.

We still have all our little chicks, except one unfortunate chick the dog, June, got when we weren't looking. She thought we were playing catch the chickens when my granddaughters were in the yard chasing them. It has occured to us she may be the predator, but I just can't bring myself to believe that. I need more proof!

The roosters are beginning to practice their crowing, sounding similar to an injured animal. and the hens are not interested one bit. We are waiting anxiously for the 1st egg from this batch of biddies. They probably won't start laying till August. That's when they will be 6 months old. The time is coming to entertain the thought of reducing the rooster population. I got a neat vintage chicken scale that we can use when we are deciding which to turn into dinner.

Garden

We finished up the corn about 2 weeks ago and are trying to get to crops in this year. We planted them almost 2 weeks ago and they are coming up now. We have LOTS of weeds emerging too....meaning LOTS of hoeing.

We also planted some peanuts...they are coming along too. The sweet potatoes are beginning to sprout also.

Lots of activity going on in the cucumber & cantalope patches.