How to Cook a Jambalaya - parts 3 & 4

Steps 1 and 2 are below. This is the third step. After the sausage is brown and juicy, remove it from the pot and brown the chicken. Boneless skinless chicken thighs are the best, so no bones or skin are mixed in with the rice. We couldn't find them this time so we used chicken quarters. Add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of salt and sprinkle with pepper.

After all the chicken is in the pot and browning nicely, add some hot sauce. We like the taste of Louisiana hot sauce. The fire is good an hot at this point, coming around the sides of the pot to heat it thoroughly.

Continue turning and browning the chicken until most of the fat and juices are rendered.

How to Cook a Jambalaya Pts. 1 & 2

My husband and son were contestants in the Jambalaya Festival held in Gonzales last May. They have been cooking whenever they can to practice their technique. They recently cooked for our family to celebrate my grandson Donavan's 8th birthday. I will offer an 10 part tutorial on how to cook an authentic Louisiana jambalaya on a fire outdoors. Here is the 1st part.



Part 2
The next part is browning the sausage. We used Manda's portk sausage. It has a nice flavor.

Meyer Lemons

Our 4 year old Meyer Lemon tree was dripping with lemons this year. We have been harvesting them since late November. We just picked the last of them a few days ago and I have been searching for recipes to use them all. Last year we squeezed all the juice and froze it in ice trays to use during the year. We still have some juice left. I guess I don't use lemon juice as much as I should.


I found a great recipe for Lemon Bread with Lemon Curd. There are only 4 ingredients for the curd and it can make it in the microwave! "really easy" Here is the link to the page http://www.breadmachinemagic.com/bmme12.html
I haven't figured out to put a link in with just a word like "click here"



My granddaughter Catherine and I zested and juiced many lemons yesterday and made this delicious bread and curd. She didn't care much for the curd, but I thought it was scrumptious.


My husband likes the bread, but he hasn't tried the curd. We made enough curd to freeze about 5 mason jars full. The curd would be good for other things also. I thought about sealing the jars in a hot water bath, since I don't have a canner, but everything I read about canning curd indicated that I should use bottled lemon juice because of the standardized acid content. Because I didn't want to take a chance I decided to freeze it.

Evangelization 2009

My daughter, Emily, and my daughter in law, Karen, joined me in a Catholic Conference in Natchez, MS last weekend. It was a very moving experience. Ivan Dragicevic, who has been having visions of the Virgin Mary for 25 years was there. Mary began appearing to him in Medjugorje and he still has an apparition every day. We got to see him talking to Mary, 0f course we couldn't see Mary, but he said afterwards that she extended her hands and blessed all of us.

Immaculee Ilibigazi, the author of the book "Left to Tell" was also there and spoke about her experience in Rwanda and how she was saved from the 1990's genecide there by prayer and faith.

It was a wondrous time. God is Good!

Afternoon walk

I try to take a walk every afternoon for 30 minutes. Some days I walk inside the library between the stacks of books, especially when it's too hot or raining outside. Today I walked around the Louisiana State Capitol. We recently lost some hugh old live oaks to Hurrican Gustav. I think they were about 200 years old.

Here are few sights I recorded from my walk.

-an old live oak tree-

Probably about 50 years old.

Pretty flowers

Louisiana State Capitol
The weather was beautiful, I think the temps are in the low 60's. Lovely winter weather in Louisiana!

Caring for a cast iron pot

My husband and son enjoy cooking in cast iron pots. This morning they made a jambalaya for a friend's wedding. They cooked it in a big old cast iron Jamabalya pot. Since they started cooking very early this morning I couldn't make a video on how to cook a jambalaya because I was still sleeping :) It turned out very tasty.
After all the food was gone, I did get a video on how to clean and store a cast iron pot. Here is my little video.

I would probably use a cloth instead of the wadded paper my husband used.
After you coat with oil then take the pot off the heat, let cool and store.

New Year Dinner

I got a new video camera toy and am trying it out today. I have attempted to make a video on how to cut a cabbage. I couldn't turn the recorder off easily so there is some confusion at the end. Here it is.