Don’s Fall Gumbo
Working the rue (roux) Don loves cooking a good gumbo, but has never written it down. So every time it’s a bit different, and maybe that’s the way a good gumbo should be. But for the sake of passing down the tradition, here’s his gumbo recipe, we’ll call it Fall/Halloween Gumbo, because this is (in Florida) usually the first time of the year it’s cool enough to enjoy a gumbo. Gumbo takes time. One person can spend a couple hours on this. It’s worth it. Don’t rush it. Most recipes just line everything up and expect you to cook it. I’m not doing that. It diminishes the rue. So, here’s your rue. Cook it and go on vacation, if you’d like. It’ll wait in the fridge. You get the point, don’t rush...
Football Nachos
We’ve been making these nachos for the past three or four years. The tradition is that on any given Saturday in the fall, we’re eating SOMETHING while watching the Gators most often win the National Championship than any other team over the past several years. We’d like to think that the nacho tradition has aligned perfectly with our string of GATOR victories. It’s either the nachos, wings or chili. Those will follow, but all are included in our fall football recipe mainstay. Our nachos are a simple recipe that really came from the idea that most nachos really suck and we wanted flavor and substance without a lot of bother. And we also wanted to keep it a bit healthy…other than the chips and cheese. Gotta have those. Ingredients 1...
Don’s pasta salad
A family favorite, serve chilled. Ingredients Box of Goncci (or Rotini) Pasta. Don’t overcook. 1 Diced red bell pepper Big handfull (or two) Shredded carrots (we buy a bag of matchstick carrots) 1 medium can of sliced black olives 1 handful of fresh parsley (we use flat parsley from the garden) Minced up pepperoni to taste, half a small bag is good Italian dressing to taste…about half a bottle 1 cup parmesan cheese (or more to taste, we use shreeded parm, not the dry stuff) 1 small to medium sweet onion, diced 1 can of artichoke hearts (2 if you really like them) Directions Dice and slice ingredients as needed. Wash everything well, only the pasta will be cooked. Cook the pasta following the directions on the box, rinse well until pasta is cool. Toss...
Pollo Asado
While we don’t cook this a lot recently, there was a time when we cooked this at least once a week. Those were our ‘desert’ days in the southwest. We worked up the recipe again for old time sakes and really enjoyed it. Without a doubt, it’ll be a regular again. Ingredients: 1 whole cut up chicken 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 Fork fulls of minced garlic or the equivelt 1 tbsp of fresh ground pepper 1 tbsp ground cumin 1/4 cup lime juice 1/4 cup orange juce 1 obsp dried oregano 1/2 cup minced onion Directions: In a large mixing bowl, put in the garlic, onion, cumin, olive oil, oregano lime and orange juice. Mix it well. Put in the chicken and let it marinade for an hour…or even overnight in the fridge. Grill the chicken over a low heat till...
Goat Cheese roll-ups
A family favorite. Serve as is, or on a bed of brown rice. This recipe was inspired by a Rachel Ray recipe Ingredients 3 whole chicken breasts, cut CAREFULLY in half, so you get six THIN breasts. In other words, cut each horizontal. 1 10oz box of chopped frozen spinach, defrosted 1 block of herb/garlic goat cheese (1/2 cup?) 1 Lemon Toothpicks Olive Oil 2 tsp minced garlic 1/2 diced onion (we like valdia) 1 tsp ground thyme 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper 2 Cups chicken broth 1/4 cup flat-leat (italian) parsley 3 TBS diced roasted red peppers (we buy them in jars, but you could use fresh) Corn starch Directions Preheat your oven to 350°. De-thaw spinach. Microwave for a few minutes and spend some time getting all the moisture out. We don’t use the whole block....