Jambalaya!

Tonight's meal (prepared in the new kitchen, and thankfully, not by toaster oven) was Jambalaya! We've gone on a couple of occasions to the Salt Creek Grille for their Sunday Jazz Brunch and they have a tasty jambalaya. I hadn't made jambalaya since law school so I thought why not bring it back in to the repertoire! I used spicy italian sausage (in link form, which I then cut up) and chicken tender strips from Whole Foods. I browned the sausage and chicken together with sliced onions, green peppers and diced jalepenos in a bit of olive oil and garlic as a start. Once the meat and the veggies started to brown I added in a bit of white wine to deglaze. Once browned, I moved the meat, veggies and juices from my large skillet into a stock pot. Then I rough cut a red pepper, yellow pepper and orange pepper and sauteed those in olive oil. Once the peppers were soft I added them to the stock pot, together with a can of diced tomatoes. I also added into the mix some cumin and cayenne pepper. I put the stock pot on to medium heat and added Zatarain's Jambalaya mix (which includes seasoning and rice). I also added about a half a box of chicken stock and some uncooked Texmati rice. I kept the goodies on low-medium heat for about 25 minutes (or until the rice is plump). At the end I added a bit more white wine and a touch of chicken stock. The jambalaya was super easy and got rave reviews from the Husband! Overall I was happy with the general tastiness of the meal and was reminded of our old fave PBS chef Justin Wilson!

In other fronts... yesterday Miss B. and I did see Ernie and Neal. They were, well... a bit too heavy metal for our tastes let's just say. We preferred Melody and Presley (from the last B&N Kid's show we went to see). Melody & Presley were the type where you think to yourself "Gee, I wonder if they're available for birthday parties!" Ernie and Neal? They seemed more like they might be available for gigs at your local Hell's Angels hang out. But, who are we to judge? We like to listen to the Metropolitan Opera on the radio on Saturdays!