Fancy's Chunky Gumbo Stew

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Fancy's Chunky Gumbo Stew

INGREDIENTS:

2 fresh chorizo sausages

4 cloves of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

three red potatoes cubed medium skin on (scrubbed)

half a big yellow onion cubed medium

4 peppers, i used a variety - 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 orange, 1 large poblano (medium size pieces)

10 okras cut into thick circles, seeds included - ends not

4 jalepenios cut into thick circles, seeds included - ends not

1 can of white beans rinsed

1 little can of tomato paste

most of a beer (corona)

tobasco

basil

fresh cracked black pepper

1 big portabello mushroom cubed medium

1 lb fresh shrimp peeled deveined and tail off

half a bunch of cilantro, mostly leaves barely chopped

Ok Soooo:

put a shot of olive oil in the bottom of a big soup pan

put in the 2 chorizo sausages

brown them thoroughly in a very hot pan, take them off before they're cooked put them in a side dish and then chop up the veggies, when the sausage is less hot slice it into circles

toss in the garlic heat the pan, throw in sausage slices, onions, potatos, and peppers. fry them up a bit.

add the beans and the jalepenios and half a beer, plus 5 shakes of tabasco, lower heat and slap on the lid (try to keep the lid on from now til serving)

put in the tomato paste, pepper, basil, the rest of the beer and stir it up real good - simmer

add the okra and mushrooms, stir

rinse out the shrimp real good toss in, stir in well , and add the cilantro (save about a quarter of the cilantro for a garnish) the shrimp cooks quick so as soon as its in you are about ready to serve. turn off heat and make a side quesidilla :)

for a side i made a pepperjack quesidilla, just 2 big flour tortillas with pepperjack melted in between (frying pan and flip)- cut like a pizza n drop a dollup of sour cream on top :)

And that's about it :) Spoon into a big bowl and top with a little pepperjack cheese and a dollup of sour cream and some fresh cilantro on top

yummy :)

serves 5-6

Mom's Bday Shrimp BBQ Recipe

So me and my family had a yummy dinner the other night and i thought I might write down the recipe

Sorry no photo, it went gone too fast to document :)

feeds 5 grown ups and 2 tiny tots :)

So super simple,

you need a bbq and two alumininum pans that fit in there,

in one tray put peppers, i used about 4 or 5 cut up in medium sized pieces, I used a variety, two light green ones, two green bells and a red, but yknow whatever ya got, ad a few swigs of olive oil and some parsley and black pepper, and a dash of oregano

in the other tray do the shrimp, grab a two pound bag of frozen uncooked, take off their shells and tails and devein them, rinse well. toss them in the tray with 6 cloves garlic all cut up, a few swigs of olive oil, a stick of butter, parsley, pepper, some montreal steak seasoning, and the juice of two fresh lemons.

put them on the bbq, the pepper tray take about 10 minutes and the shrimp about five so stagger putting them in. Don't overcool the shrimp, when they are pink they are done so look out. Make a whole box of bow tie pasta and when everythings done combine it all in one big yummy bowl, and serve :)

follow it up with a salad

Good Times!!

Happy 70th MOM!!

BBQ Bourbon Tilapia on rice

Ok here's another fun recipe, super simple super summery

serves 2

boil some water and make some plain white rice on the stovetop, drop in a dollop of oil and make about 2 cups (directions on bag)

Get 5 or 6 pieces of tilapia, grease up a bbq friendly tray with some canola oil spray and put the fish in. In a saucepan make some bbq sauce.

BBQ sauce goes like this: cut up 6 cloves garlic and sautee in olive oil, throw in about a third of a cup of bbq sauce ( I used hunts honey hickory bbq sauce), add about 5 tablespoons of honey and some seasoned salt and pepper, the juice from about a quarter of a lemon, and 5 or 6 shakes of tobasco, stir it up and throw in two shots of bourbon, let that bubble a minute and set on fire to burn off the rest of the booze. Taste and make sure its a potent flavorful yummy thing, then cover the fish in it.

Take a second aluminum tray and cut up 2 zucchinis like french fry shape. Toss them in with olive oil. Add parsley and salt and pepper.

Cut up a pineapple into big flat centimeter thick slices ( minus ends skin and core of course)

So when the rice is done and everything prepped head out to the grill, put the tin of zuchs on medium and the tin of fish on low and the pineapples on low directly on the grates.It should all take about 10 -15 mins

Serve in glass bowls, a cup of rice on the bottom and the fish, zuchs, and a big slice of grilled pineapple sittin pretty on the rice bed :) YUM!

Arrr Pirates Poised to Plunder EU - Parlay?? or Partay?

here is a manifesto of the 'pirate party' whom i have just heard about due to their winning a seat in some election in europe. here is what they're about, I am so on board 100% with their right to privacy stuff, but their main agenda is freedom of information and reform of copyright laws. I'm a little unsure of how people who create things, like music or software or novels or medicines, would be paid/funded if their creations become public domain. but this group believes pretty strongly that everything would work better that way... or maybe they all agree they like free shit? lemme know if you have any wisdom on this piracy topic. I'm inclined to supporting them since i've 'stolen' music etc, that and i like bottles of rum. But should i be concerned about the credit where credit is due? Will their radical ideas on revamping copyright laws infringe on people's rights to profit from their inventions?

Help strawberry find her way home!

do you consider classic strawberry shortcake as boho chic, a homespun fashion disaster, or a tokyo amiyumi harajuku techno punk poppet ???

hmmmmm

its like a game! what if she got amnesia and we needed to figure out where she belonged based on her alfit!

so check it out i made a lil road map, which way should strawberry go, to the right she can wear her baggy floral print dress with ruffles and pattern mixing and crocheted bag to some posh soho martini party, or she can stay home and watch tv with her grandmother who made her the patchwork smock and poofy hat by hand, or she could rock those hot colors striped socks pompom details and eyelit trimmed lace bloomers out to some hot techno rave in tokyo!

Which do you think our lil miss shortcake was going for when she got dressed this morning??

CrackBook

I have to admit i'm a computer junky, this is an image i found on my italian cousin's fb page, and it pretty much sums up how i'm feeling, absolutely chronically addicted to facbook, and coffee and my big headphones. Its such an interesting social phenomenon, all this virtual life, penpaling made so easy that its trumped actual physical interactions. i har social netwrking sites are actually out scoring porn and are the internets new primary usage - which is Huge.

i kinda miss real life socializing, but then again i can do this from anywhere and its free. I can't wait to hear people talk about this as the decade when facebook happened to the world... should make for some interesting history books, or i guess by then it'll be history blogs... :)

Recipe Interlude II : Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

This is the leftover vege special since you can pretty much use anything you have in your vege drawer, here's how i made it today

take about a pound or two of chicken, like 2 big cutlets, trim off anything ewwy and cube it up, lightly brown it in a pan then remove into a bowl and clean the pan of the fat. (don't worry about it being cooked all the way cause its going in the oven, just brown it

Cut up small and fry up a pile of veggies
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
a hand full of string beans cut up
1 potato cut small
1 big portobello mushroom
1 carrot
1 celery stick
some left over broccoli
pepper, salt, thyme, bay seasoning, parsley
i fried all these in olive oil, then tossed in half a cup of chicken broth and let them steam up a bit
take off the heat
ok now mix in the chicken, the mushrooms, the precooked broccoli and add a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish
wait patiently for people to come home for the last step
make some guac to snack on as an appetizer and open a bottle of wine
20-25 minutes before eating do he last step
top the dish with hungry jack biscuits from a popping canister, and bake til golden brown

:)

Yummy

Recipe Interlude I : Mahi Mahi with Quinoa Tapenade

Mahi Mahi with Quinoa

The Fish:

Lay out four or so pieces of Mahi Mahi in a baking pan
Drizzle olive oil ontop
Open a bottle of white wine, pour one glass on the fish and pour one for yourself
play music
add lemon juice, maybe a quarter of a cup?
Cut up about 15 pitted spanish olives, like 2 hand fulls and toss on top
do the same with 5 cherry tomatoes
Dice up a few sprigs of fresh dill and basil leaves (must be fresh) toss on top
add pepper
Top each fish piece with a lemon slice
Put in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes, or til the fish is done (dont over cook!)

Quinoa Tapenade:
Is made just like rice, so it soaks up the goodness you put instead of water
1 cup quinoa (dry, rinsed)
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
a dozen snow peas (pea pods) chopped up to bean sized
pepper
a table spoon of olive oil
chopped up roasted peppers (2 big ones)
An 8 oz jar of Artichoke Caper Tapenade (trader joe's sells this as does Braswell's Select)
put all this in a pot, bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes, remove from heat for 5 minutes keep covered then fluff and serve

Serve with Steamed Asparagus aldente, topped with butter and diced fresh dill

(I totally forgot to take a picture- but it was so tasty that i am passing on the recipe but please note - it will look nothing like the above photo lol)

MoistProduction.com

I found these drawings online today and love them, I had never given adequate thought to the anatomy of mickey mouse, gummy bears, balloon animals, and lego men... thank goodness for Jason Freeny of Moist Productions - friggin brilliant.

Vegas Baby Vegas!

I went to vegas for the first time this weekend It was an interesting experience what can i say...

Vegas is pretty cool, its kinda like times square, plus a high end mall, plus Disney world, plus some kindof sculpture museum. People smoke everywhere, and there seems to be two main styles of dress, either overly manicured, like miniskirt straightened hair total hotness on the slutty side, or the exact opposite, some god awful track suit pajama kinda thing that’s I guess popular in the Midwest perhaps? There were far too few people styled in between those two extremes.

i arrived with some stereotypes in my head of what Vegas would be like, it was my first time, so going in cheap was the main image in my head. I thought it’d be all elvis impersonators and chincy crappy places full of yuck, but I was pretty wrong about that. The hotels were beautifull!! Everything was crafted with such skill and such quality materials, every detail was inspiring, mosaics and marble everywhere , reproductions of sculptures from antiquity and new sculptures as well, I was expecting it to look more motel-like but however obnoxious you may find the excessive signage and lighting, the vegas strip is pretty gorgeous and anything but cheap. When you go into the casinos there is that element with all the slot machines, like a huge arcade for adults, all blinging and flashing with loud often lame music, but there were cool clubs you could go in to avoid all that. After a while I found the slot machines pretty hypnotizing, I thought it’d be overwhelming and sometimes it was, but the odds are such that there are as many winners running around as people who are down so its hard not to fall into the hope of being one of the lucky folks who make money while they’re there. It’s a little overwhelming sometimes but taking a walk around outside reminded me of times square sortof, which made me feel at home in a way. I found also that the art all over makes the overall effect tolerable by counter acting the casino bred anxiety.

I showed up expecting amazing buffets, the stuff of legends, everyone raves about food in vegas as never ending piles of amazingness, I found them to be very good but not all that, they were a bit better than penn state commons buffets, but I was not nearly as blown away as everyone claimed I’d be, I’d rather just have one plate of food off a menu than all you can eat, generally speaking, but in the case of piles of lobster etc I thought I ‘d feel differently, but the buffets I saw were kinda regular, and buffet just isn’t my thing.
Since it’s a desert I was expecting it to be hot and dry, but it was chilly and even rained one day. I totally didn’t pack enough warm clothes, so was unprepared. Luckily I have simon’s good luck hoody with me or I would have just frozen.

There’s a rollercoaster! Its ontop of the new york newyork casino. I’ve always thought they should build a rollercoaster in manhattan, whenever there’s a crane up over a bldg I always tell people that’s what they’re making but sadly its always a joke, How cool would it be to actually have a rollercoaster high above in the tops of the skyscrapers of manhattn – brilliant! It was awesome.

They have oxygen for sale. You sit at a bar with the nose tube on you’d get in a hospital, only its in public, at a bar… They kinda filter the water bong style through aromatic waters. So the deep breathing smelled like rosemary lavendar eucalyptis etc. And while you sit there they massage you with several nifty gadgets. They were simultaneously trying to sell me lots of stuff but aside from that it felt awesome. There were a bunch of O bars all over town, I picked the one with a view of opera singing gondoliers taking tourists for rides in the indoor canal at the venetian, pretty awesome. My cousins were surprised we don’t have this in manhattan cause apparently its not that uncommon, I said new yorkers are too street smart to pay for air lol. I don’t know if breathing the oxygen did all the awesome things they were saying it would, I didn’t feel dramatically different, but they also pump it into the casinos, and I think I may have felt the effects there??? I was rather perky for the late hours and beer didn’t effect me as strongly as It normally would, may need to investigate more….

As for the whole gambling thing, I was gonna not gamble at all, but I’m apparently way less stubborn/ disciplined than I thought I was cause that plan didn’t last… it was just too tempting and I figure I’m probably not going back there much in my life so I wanted to try stuff. So first day I tried craps and roulet and slots… lost at each and quit immediately vowing to never play again. So the next day I went to the arcade with my little cousins to actually have fun while loosing my money to the flashy machines, in a significantly less expensive way. I finally played that silly dance game, which is way funner than a slot machine. Later that night I lost more inti the slots and opted to no longer let myself carry cash as I clearly can’t be trusted. I was supposed to leave the next day (yesterday) but I missed the bus (which turns out was canceled due to snow in the mountains) So I stayed another night.
I wandered around town and wound up at the “Paris” casino, I had figured out late the night before that buying drinks in vegas is silly. I was paying cash for beers, but if you sit by the gamblers drinks are free, especially if you appear to be participating. So I figured if I played slowly on a penny slot machine I would actually just be paying for my beers in a way that had the slight potential to win me lots of cash, but if I lost all my pennies it’d be just like getting the beer from the bar. I just had to keep aware of passing waitresses and play slowly on cheap machines… I am pretty good at texas hold em poker, but only the kind where you play against people not just against the cards, cause its all about reading people etc, so I met up with my cousins at treasure island and we headed to MGM and I watched poker for a while before I heard the line "No Guts No Glory" and finally caved and bought in at $40, which soon became 100, then i needed more cash but the atms were offline so I got it from the cashier who finger prints people to prove they really wanted more cash since its clearly a regrettable move. I got up to 140 in the hole, and I was down to some small amount like under 30 in chips, but then just as all seemed lost and I was kicking myself for playing at all, luck showed up. I went all in on a hand, and so did two other people, there was rubbish on the table with a king high, each of the two other people had a pocket pair of Aces, and I had a pocket pair of kings, which made three of a kind so I won. I won about $300 on that hand, it was around 6am, what a great feeling, I was so proud and Relieved. I should have run away at that moment, but instead I quickly widdled that back down to 180 and so the last day i was in vegas I broke even, everything I put into poker, plus everything I put into slots that day, came back to me. But I played for about 12 hours and drank about a dozen free beers. It was such a rush. I get it now. I really really like poker, everyone at the table was funny and friendly in a poker way, and there were a lot of laughs, like when the irish guy passed out in his seat and got escorted out by five security guards, but not before falling on his ass a few times and slurring out some hysterical irishy gibberish.. it was an Awesome time.

Driven Green

I have not read this book yet but it is now officially on my must read list, I just watched an interview on Daniel Sperling on Jon Stewart and am impressed that he doesn't believe that corn is a good alternative fuel source, which i agree with, so I'm excited to see what else he has to say about transforming the auto industry to be green.

Art Catalog

Original Artwork by me for you.