Summer Time

I always get stuck on ground beef. The child natives hate meatloaf and I don't like need to eat hamburgers. The kiddos would eat tacos for every meal, but I like variety. This Korean Beef recipe was really easy and tasty. I snuck in some brown rice. I mix it with the sticky white stuff they like. Don't tell. Someone mentioned something about dog food, but I smacked them in the head.

Tropical Storm Debby dumped a lot of much needed rain on central Florida. I love the rain when I don't have to go out. Perfect to stay in to cook or sew. I made this artichoke spinach dip and pico de gallo for the littles.

I asked Inspector Gadget to get me a chicken while he was out and he bought the biggest dang chicken he could find. A la Julia Child, I coated it in a compound butter and roasted it for dinner one night. The next day I made stock from the bones. Then I had to figure out what to do with all the leftover meat and stock. Gumbolaya or Jumbagumbo sounded pretty good. First, you start with a roux.

Chop some veggies while your roux is getting the perfect peanut butter color. You really should use green bell pepper, but the Inspector has issues with them (long story). I substituted a yellow pepper and a jalapeno pepper. Once the roux is the right color, throw the vegetables in and saute them for a bit.

Add your rich chicken stock, a can of diced tomatoes, a splash of tomato juice and creole spices. Cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes.

After the veggies simmer a while, throw in some turkey smoked sausage, cooked chicken meat, frozen okra and simmer some more. Right before you're going to serve, drop in shrimp. They cook quickly.

To serve, ladle the gumbolaya into a bowl and plop some rice in the middle. Garnish with scallions and parsley. Betcha it will be even better today. The sauce is rich and spicy and the roux thickened it nicely.

Not much quilting going on, but I did manage to practice zipper installation with this fun bag tutorial.