I made up a new recipe last night

Chris wanted Red Beans and Rice for dinner with Polish Sausage. I usually use Zatarain’s mix

because it’s easy and SO good. Didn’t have a box in the cabinet, but I did have home canned red beans and all the other ingredients on hand to try my hand at home made. OMG mine is 100 times better. At least *I* thought so, could have been that I was starving by 7:45 when it was finally ready! lol

Anyway, here’s what I did:

Tricia’s Polish Sausage, Red beans and Rice

1 lb Polish Kielbasa sausage – sliced into 1 inch rounds
1 large onion finely chopped
garlic cloves finely chopped – do this to taste – I use a couple of dollops of pre-chopped garlic
1 or 2 Tbsp Smoked Paprika – get it at Walmart – this is what makes this dish!!
2 or 3 Tbsp Creole Seasoning –
2 small cans Red Beans – I used 2 pint jars that I canned last summer
Water
1 – 2 Cups Brown Minute rice – could use white, but I prefer the texture of brown

Saute onion and garlic in about 1 Tbsp of oil over Medium heat – I used Safflower – but canola/corn/etc would be ok. When translucent, add spices. Stir for a minute or so and add sausage. Keep stirring until sausage begins to slightly brown. May need to add a bit more oil, depending on how much fat your sausage releases.
Add Beans and stir. Add about 3-4 cups of water – depending on how much rice you use. Pour in Rice and stir. Add more water if needed. Cover and let slow simmer until rice is done, checking and stirring every so often and adding water if it looks too dry. We like ours a little ‘saucy’ to pour over cornbread.
I like a little Tabasco sprinkled over mine just before digging in.

Enjoy!

Please excuse my lack of exact measurements. I NEVER measure anything when I’m cooking (except when following a recipe for the first time). I cook by taste, a spoonful now and then and adjust seasoning accordingly. That’s just the way Mama taught me to cook.

And sorry no photos, I didn’t think of taking any. I’ll shoot some next time. Just make some this weekend and see in person how yummy this is!

Smoked Paprika is my new favorite spice!

When it rains – Country girls need something to do…

Can’t ride or do much outside right now because it’s storming – pouring rain.   So I made salsa this morning.  My father in law is a flea market fanatic and brought two large boxes of tomatoes for me earlier this week.  I found cilantro on sale at the grocery for 50 cents a bunch and had jalapeno, garlic and onions on hand already.   I love salsa and chips, it must have been sent down from the hand of an Angel because it’s good for you too!  Here’s a couple of pics of my version:

 

 

 

I also found an interesting critter out in the driveway this morning.  At first I thought it was a tiny snake, then thought it was a worm.  Upon closer inspection saw that it was leaving a slime trail so then I thought it was a slug.  I googled and found that it’s called a Hammerhead Worm.   Brought it up on the porch to shoot some pics to share here:

 

Nasty looking – huh?

Here is a link to a story : 

http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/2009/07/17/unusual-worms-alarm-some-in-north-alabama.html

I also have baby squash and baby cucumbers growing on my plants.  More pickles to be made soon!  Yum!

 

I’ll probably play around with some pics this afternoon since it’s raining.  I’ll banish myself to my bedroom soon because Alabama football will be on the big screen and watching my husband watch is literally a circus.

Kudzu Jelly

By popular demand, I’m copying and pasting this post from another site where I posted it late last week.    Enjoy ….

My aunt made some a couple of weeks ago and I LOVE it. It has sort of a grapey flavor, but also reminds me of a muscadine flavor. Anyhow, she sent some blooms over and I made some earlier in the week. My brother wanted some too so I made an expedition out into the woods to get more blooms today – here’s our adventure.

 

First step in making Kudzu Jelly is to get yourself a trusty Steed. John the Mule suits this purpose perfectly. If you can’t find a good Steed, you’ll just have to walk yourself into the woods.

I Almost forgot, you also need a good trail dog. Chester is my best boy on the trail. He runs all the snakes and monsters off for me and John. Here he’s telling us to COME ON!

John the Mule was thoroughly convinced that because the water was so high – there MUST  be alligators lurking at the edge waiting for an unwary Mule to step too close…

 

Here’s the Kudzu! This spot didn’t have any blooms, we’re almost too late for this, but I know another place.

So we go on up the trail a way and there’s a huge field of Kudzu. It stretches far beyond those trees in the background. We hit paydirt here!

 

On the way back home, can’t resist snapping some more pics. It’s so pretty and it’s been quite a while since I’ve riddenI’m starting to wonder what the heck I’ve been thinking – why haven’t I been riding??  Oh yeah – forgot about the almost NON STOP RAIN we’ve had for going on 3 weeks now…..

 

Back at home – Look what I found in the blooms

Another interesting bug in the blooms! Gotta wash-wash-wash those blooms.

Ok, so here we go – here are the ingredients -

4 cups Kudzu blooms

4 1/2 cups water

1 pkg Sure Jel

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

5 cups (yes that’s correct!) Sugar

Clean blooms.  Pour water over blooms in medium pot.  Cover and boil 10-12 minutes or until the blooms change color.  (I went the full 12 min although the blooms had long since changed to ugly).

Strain juice and put into medium pot.

Add Lemon Juice and Sure Jel – watch the magic happen – juice turns a very pretty color when you add the lemon.

 

Bring to a full rolling boil.  Add Sugar, stirring constantly until it returns to a boil.

Boil for 1 minute.  Pour into jars and seal.  

Recipe should yeild 4 to 6 half pints.  Gather blooms in late August – into September.

So now, some of you may be wondering  just what the heck Kudzu might be.

Following pics are not mine – from Wikipedia

Kudzu was introduced from Japan into the United States in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where it was promoted as a forage crop and an ornamental plant. From 1935 to the early 1950s, the Soil Conservation Service encouraged farmers in the Southeastern United States to plant kudzu to reduce soil erosion as above. The Civilian Conservation Corps planted it widely for many years.

So another thing we can thank our Government for!! Whoopee!!  LOL  Actually it is truly out of control in some areas – just punch it into google and check out the pictures where it is slowly taking over ANYthing in it’s path.  It is virtually indestructible.