Roumalade Slaw

I am always looking to expand my celebratory repertoire of things to make and do for any given holiday (season). Even if I've found a great go-to, I'm always game to change things up or try something new within the holiday realm.

Carnival & Mardi Gras time is absolutely NO different!

My main go-to is Dirty Rice. I mainly just dress up a Zatarain's mix by adding my own veggies (chopped bell pepper in all the colors, celery, onion) along with the called for ground beef, as well as adding diced andouille sausage & bacon crumbs. My hubby & daughter LOVE it when I make up the Dirty Rice! My boys? Not so much...

My hubby & I are the only ones who will eat Red Beans & Rice. The kiddos? Beans aren't their thing.

We've even done the shrimp boil thing, too. But only my hubby & I will eat seafood. *sigh*

Not only Joey Tribbiani, but my family loves sandwich night! It's a regular in the dinner rotation during the spring & summer months. We get some good rolls, find deli meats, get some decent toppings, then everyone can make their own. VOILA!

Quite some time back, we had some leftover wheat rolls that we used for sandwiches. I remember coming across something about Po' Boys, and since we had some leftover andouille sausages, my hubby fried them up, and I put mine on a roll. I topped it with a few dressings we had on hand & made a make-shift po' boy. I was so excited about it, I've been looking forward to making it again.

Well, with it being Carnival season, I figured I'd pull out sandwich night early & fix up some po' boys!

I have Pillsbury French bread to fix up & slice for the sandwiches, some andouille sausage for hubby & me (of course), but then I got some deli meats of roast beef & turkey for the kiddos to play with, then got lettuce/greens, onion, tomato, and then some sauces.

No, I didn't make gravy for the beef - sorry! However, I did see a roumalade sauce. I also found that a sweeter cole slaw is a good topper, too. I have some shredded cabbage slaw mix! So...I figured that maybe I could make a slaw with a roumalade sauce!

Here's what I did:

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ROUMALADE SLAW

(for Po' Boys)

Ingredients:

* 1/4 C mayo or Miracle Whip with Olive Oil
* 1/4 C mayo or Miracle Whip with horseradish
* 2 T ketchup
* 2 T honey mustard
* 2 T honey dijon mustard
* 2 T brown mustard with horseradish
* 3 T Worcestershire sauce
* 1 T pickle relish
* 2 t garlic powder
* 2 T dried minced onion
* 1/4 t celery seed
* 1 T paprika
* black pepper - to taste
* 1 t chili powder
* 1-2 T creole or cajun seasoning
* 2 T lemon juice
* salt - to taste
* 1 1/2 T sugar
* 1 T dried parsley
* 1 t hot sauce OR 2-3 pinches ground cayenne pepper
* 8 oz shredded cabbage cole slaw mix (about half a bag)


Directions:

~ Mix all ingredients, minus the slaw mix, in a large bowl

~ Reserve about half the sauce to be used as just a dressing

~ To the remaining sauce, add in the cabbage slaw mix & make sure it is coated well

~ Refrigerate the sauce AND slaw until ready to use

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Now that you have sauce AND slaw, you can use these to top your po' boy with! Use the remaining 8 oz. of slaw mix as a topper with or instead of, or with, your lettuce, too. Or you could serve this cajun-flavored slaw as a side. If you wanted to, you could even use all of the sauce AND the whole bag of shredded slaw mix so it might last a bit longer - depends on how many you're feeding.

Just to let you know, I'm not a spicy food eater...but I was SO happy with this! It went incredibly well with the sandwiches. My hubby thought so, too.

I also had fries to serve with or ON the po' boys. I made some quick red beans & rice for a side, also.

Po' Boy includes: andouille sausage, roast beef (deli meat), tomato, baby kale & spinach greens,
Roumalade Slaw, and French fries on French bread

Plus, I found some Zapp's Potato Chips when I was at World Market. I got them in the VooDoo flavor, Cajun Dill Craw-Tator flavor, and the Spicy Cajun Craw-Tator flavor. I thought they might be a great addition to the po' boy meal! My excitement for the pairing was confirmed when I came across Zapp's Facebook photo of the Spicy Cajun Craw-Tators with a comment from Visit New Orleans:

Of course, I had to serve my King Cake, too! (recipe HERE)

And the family loved all of it! I see it being added to future dinner rotations! Might even be this year's go-to for Mardi Gras. YAY!

ENJOY!

Irish Bread & Butter Pudding

When I say I love getting in touch with the Irish side of my heritage, I'm not kidding! (find some of my other Irish [based] recipes HERE)

I finally got around to trying an Irish dessert I've been wanting to try...since...like...late February or early March. Now that it's September, there's no better time than now! Amm-i-rite?

With fall being right around the corner, I want to attempt to increase the overall foodie repertoire for the cooler months.

I do try to keep the authenticity of dishes like this. So I did some serious research into some different variations, and came up with one that worked the best for me to make.

So, here's what I did:

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IRISH BREAD & BUTTER PUDDING

Ingredients:

~ 8-12 slices slightly stale/dry white bread, crusts removed & set aside
~ butter
~ 1 C sultanas (plumped golden raisins) or other dried berries/grapes
~ 2-3 T sugar
~ 2-3 T cinnamon
~ 2-3 pinches nutmeg
~ 1 C heavy whipping cream
~ 1 C milk
~ 3 eggs, lightly beaten
~ 2 T vanilla extract


Directions:

* In a glass or ceramic dish (about an 8x8), spray the bottom & sides with cooking spray; I used a pottery casserole dish (that has family story)...it has a great look & fit with what I wanted to do, but I would recommend a squared off dish

* Place the raisins (or other dried fruit) into a small bowl or large coffee mug & cover with hot water for about 10 minutes; this will help plump up the dried fruit a bit to form the sultanas

* Take your bread slices & remove the crusts (set crusts aside - will use in a little bit), cut each slice down the middle (either into rectangles or triangles...but this step is optional: you may leave whole); I have an old Pampered Chef gadget that can make uncrustable sandwiches, so I used it to make my slices round & pretty to fit into my round dish - again, just make it easy

* Butter one side of 4 slices of the bread & place butter-side-down in the baking dish overlapping slices just a bit

* After the 10 minutes of soaking is up for the raisins (now sultanas), drain & sprinkle a few over the top of the bread layer

* Sprinkle about a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon & a pinch of nutmeg over the fruit layer & covering the top of the entirety of the bread slice layer

* Repeat the bread buttering step

* Sprinkle with more sultanas (plumped raisins or other dried fruit)

* Repeat the sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg step

* If you are doing a 3rd layer (I did), then repeat the last 3 steps one more time, otherwise move on to the next step

* In another bowl, whisk together the heavy whipping cream, milk, lightly beaten eggs & vanilla extract; pour mixture over the bread slice layers

* Set baking dish to the side for at least 1 hour, or place in refrigerator overnight

* When ready to bake the bread pudding, set oven to 350 degrees F

* You will want to place your baking dish in a bain marie (it's like a hot tub for the pudding in a sauna...spa time for the baking dish!)
Place the baking dish into a larger baking dish that will hold the pudding level; pour water into the larger baking dish - enough to go half way up the pudding baking dish. This will keep the cooking even throughout the dish for pudding

Prepping the Bain Marie

* Allow to bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour

* After the hour is up, pull bain marie out of the oven & allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove the baking dish from the bain marie to cool a bit more from there

* Serve warm with a topping of whiskey sauce or whipped cream

* Top with a sprinkling of bread crumbs made from the cut off crusts from the bread slices:

   Bread Crumb Directions:

# Set oven to 400 degrees F
# On a baking sheet, spray liberally with cooking spray
# Lightly cover baking sheet with a dusting of cinnamon & a sprinkling of light brown sugar
# Arrange crusts in a single layer on the baking sheet
# Spray tops of crusts liberally with cooking spray
# Lightly cover the crusts with a dusting of cinnamon & a sprinkling of light brown sugar
# Bake for about 10 minutes
# Crusts should be hard & crispy
# Allow to cool for a moment & then crush the crusts into a near dusting or pulverize them in a food processor to make crumbs for sprinkling

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Irish Bread & Butter Pudding
with Irish Cream not-so-whipped topping "sauce"
and bread crumb topping

I have been wanting to make this dessert for quite some time...and it was so worth the wait! Oh, it's SO good!!

This is also another dish that terrifies my kids, and my hubby automatically said he won't do bread pudding. *sigh* I need to find folks to share this with. I am so happy with how it turned out!

It's certainly a perfect dish to have ready for St. Paddy's Day, but I would also love to make a more Christmas-y version using Craisins, and then maybe topping it with cranberry sauce.

This is also a great way to figure out how to use up some of that day-old bread, or the loaf that's close to it's Best By date. Don't let any of it go to waste!

There was a lot of time put into this dessert...but it really was easy!

I might even try this with our wheat bread. It's supposed to be white bread, but I have been working to try to take a more "make it good for you/make it better for you" type of approach.

Oh...and if you make your own bread, all the power to ya! OK? I just used the good ol' store-bought stuffs.

Let me know if you use this. I hope you love it as much as I do! (a new comfort food for me, I think)

ENJOY!

Spicy Mexi-Cocoa Cake with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

Oh man, I have really been enjoying my Spicy Mexi-Mocha lately! (recipe HERE)

Cinco de Mayo was about a month ago, of course. We fixed up quite a Mexican fiesta! It did include the Cliantro Lime Black Bean & Corn Salsa! (salsa recipe HERE)

Now, I wanted to include a dessert, of course! I wasn't sure how a Mexi-Mocha would go over since we had the kiddos, too...so I wanted to do up just the Spicy Mexi-Cocoa. However, I didn't know how long it would take us to eat, how full we'd be, and how long the company we had over was gonna be able to stay. So I was thinking how I could get it to last. So...I BAKED IT! Right along the lines of my Apple Irish Cream Cake. (recipe HERE)

Yes, I turned it into a cake. And since I tend to use cake mixes to play with, I didn't want to add too much sweet stuffs to the mix. So I did something else with the brown & granulated sugar.

So, here's what I did:

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Spicy Mexi-Cocoa Cake with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

Cake Ingredients:
~ 1 box chocolate cake mix
   ~ use milk instead of water
   ~ use butter instead of the oil & double the amount
   ~ add one extra egg than the box directions call for
~ 2 T cinnamon
~ 2 t ground black pepper
~ 1 1/2 t salt
~ 1 t nutmeg
~ 1 t ground cloves
~ 1 t ground cardamom
~ 1 t chili powder
~ 3 pinches ground cayenne pepper
~ 2 T vanilla extract
~ 1 t orange extract
~ 1 t anise extract


Cake Directions:

~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

~ Place all ingredients into a large bowl, and then mix together well

~ Spray or grease cake pan - I used my trusty bundt pan

~ Transfer cake batter evenly into the cake pan

~ Bake for approximately 45 minutes; check at around 40 minutes with knife or toothpick insertion

(while baking, make the whipped cream - recipe below)

~ Once baked thru, pull out of oven & allow to cool in pan for about 5 minutes

~ Carefully turn cake out onto cake plate or platter

~ Allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes & sprinkle with powdered sugar or cocoa powder

~ When slicing & serving, top each slice with a drizzle of honey & a dollop of brown sugar whipped cream:


Brown Sugar Whipped Cream Ingredients:

~ 1 C heavy whipping cream
~ 1/4 C packed brown sugar
~ 1 T granulated sugar


Brown Sugar Whipped Cream Directions:

~ Place ingredients into a medium bowl

~ With a hand-held mixer, whip ingredients together on medium until firm; about 5 minutes (do NOT over-whip)

~ May sprinkle a little cocoa powder or cinnamon on top, if desired ...or some chili powder if you want more spice

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OK...we didn't get to enjoy the cake on Cinco de Mayo. We were so full. But got to try it the next day. And...

Oh...My...Yum.

Just some chocolate, cake, sweet, and a little bite of spice...just so good!

Of course, not just for Cinco de Mayo, but also for Dios de los Muertos (Day of the Dead - November 1st & 2nd) or even September 16 &/or 27th.

For a little mocha variation, you can either do half a cup of strong brewed coffee & half cup milk in the cake batter instead of the 1 cup of milk, or you can make a glaze of powdered sugar, chilled brewed coffee & milk.

That slice you see in the above picture is mine! And it's already gone. I might grab me another...

ENJOY!

Easy Croutons

Oh man! You have that loaf of bread that didn't quite get used! Now what?

WAIT! Don't throw it away! Read what to do with that stale bread here!

Bread is an odd commodity around our house. Either everyone wants sandwiches, so we run out quickly...or...we stock up just to be left we 2 loaves of uneaten bread. Go figure.

I hate wasted food. Hate is a strong word...and that's why I'm using it. Wasted food makes me cringe. So it was very difficult for me to throw out full loaves of bread...or even 5-10 pieces that didn't get used. So what is one to do with a ton of leftover bread?

MAKE CROUTONS!

That's right, I repurpose the bread. So...here's what I do:

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EASY CROUTONS

Ingredients:
~ slightly stale sliced bread - not moldy
~ cooking spray
~ seasonings of choice:
(Italian seasonings; salt & pepper; Scarborough Fair - aka Simon & Garfunkel: parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme; cinnamon & sugar; etc.)

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

* Cut the slightly stale bread slices into 16 cubes, each; you can remove crusts first, if preferred

* liberally spray jelly roll pan/lipped cookie sheet with cooking spray

* place bread cubes in a single layer on the cooking sheet

* take cooking spray & spray the tops of the bread cube layer

* sprinkle with seasoning (blend) of choice evenly over the sprayed bread cubes

* place in oven for about 10 minutes until golden brown

* remove from oven & allow to set for 2-5 minutes, and then turn over all croutons for a couple more minutes before removing from baking sheet

* you store the croutons in an airtight container at this point

OR

* place croutons in a large bowl for 8-14 hours to air dry for crunchier croutons

* be sure to store in an airtight container for about 1-2 weeks

~~ If Italian Butter is the variety of choice, use THIS RECIPE HERE, minus the cheese and substitute the actual olive oil for olive oil cooking spray in the technique listed above.

Now ready to serve in soups, salads or whatever you want or need to use them for!

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My youngest is a big fan of croutons and gets super excited when he sees I'm making some! The rest of the family really likes them, too.

ENJOY!

Gingerbread Streusel

Back when I did the EASY FAKE-OUT EGG NOG MOUSSE, I pointed out that I also had created a gingerbread streusel for the perfect topping for it!

Somewhere in my head, I was imagining a great topping that had a holiday flavor to it. I've seen where others have just crushed or crumbled gingersnaps to add, but I thought maybe a streusel would be easier to handle. I say that since I wanted to top a cake I did with a streusel & really liked how it handled. Plus...it was really easy to make!

So I went on a search for a gingerbread streusel...cuz...how hard could that be? Well, apparently pretty difficult! I couldn't find ANY! I decided to research gingerbread recipes & came created a gingerbread streusel!

So...if love gingerbread...this is for you!!!

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GINGERBREAD STREUSEL

Ingredients

1 C flour

1 C brown sugar, packed

¼ C butter, softened

1 ½ T ground ginger

1 ½ T ground cinnamon

1 t ground cloves

¼ t ground nutmeg

1 T water

          Directions

Mix all ingredients together until crumbly

** Store in an air-tight container

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I was so taken with my tiny dessert, I wanted it for breakfast. But how do I pass it off without looking totally insane? (Hey! I hear you laughing at that!) By pretending it's a dish from IHOP & adding it to pancakes (pictured above).

Yep, I totally piled the mousse on top of the pancakes & then topped that with the streusel...and with red, green & white sprinkles. You know, to visually give it that holiday touch...like at IHOP!

You can top cakes, pies or breads with it, too! You will NOT be disappointed!

Oh...and...YUM!!!

ENJOY!

Italian Butter Grilled Cheese [Croutons]

The Ides of March happened just recently. I enjoy doing a "Caesar Feast" that includes Chicken Caesar Salad...so I wanted to make my own croutons. And last year, I came up with this:

It turns out that April 12th is National Grilled Cheese Day. Interesting, right? Well, I heard some trivia on April 12th that the (grilled) cheese sandwich originated in Rome. I thought about just adding grilled cheese to the Caesar Feast...but then a lightbulb went off!

Grilled Cheese Croutons for the Caesar Salad (or just a different kind of grilled cheese)! Oh yes...this would happen...

I wandered around Pinterest to see if I could find a grilled cheese crouton-type recipe. I found out that the croutons being used for soup were simply cubed up pieces of grilled cheese sandwiches. After that, I started coming across a lot of different grilled cheese recipes for the summertime being pinned. 

So, here you go...I was inspired & this is what I came up with:

ITALIAN BUTTER GRILLED CHEESE [CROUTONS]

1. Set oven to 450 degrees F

2. Mix in a small bowl for Italian butter:

1-2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper

2 palmfuls crushed oregano

1 palmful crushed basil

1 palmful crushed parsley flakes

1 1/2 palmful garlic powder

1 palmful grated parmesan cheese

submerge in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

3. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray & then use day-old/slightly-stale bread.

4. Take a short basting brush & "paint" the Italian butter onto one side of the bread.

5. Place the "butter" side down onto the cooking sheet

6. Place 1 slice of either provolone or mozzarella cheese onto the bread. 

(Sargento has a provolone/mozzarella blend, so that's what I used) 

Only use 1 slice since you do not want croutons to be over cheesy. If you are making just a sandwich, feel free to use 2 slices.

7. Repeat step 4

8. Place on top of cheese with "butter" side up

9. Once the baking sheet has been covered (the Italian butter lasted enough for 16 slices/8 sandwiches, which just fit my baking sheet), place in the oven for 6-8 minutes

10. Pull out of the oven when the sandwiches start to appear golden brown (mine ended up a hair darker on the bottom side after 7 1/2 minutes, but they turned out fine)

11. Begin to cube the sandwiches into 16 pieces. I began with a knife, but found a pizza cutter to be much more efficient

After I cubed my 8 sandwiches, I ended up with 128 grilled cheese croutons. I tossed them in with our Caesar salad for dinner.

Isn't it beautiful? And everything was SO yummy!

These can be done on the griddle or in a skillet, too...especially if you just want the Italian Butter Grilled Cheese sandwich without cubing them.

So delicious!

Pretty, huh? I took either a cherub or sunburst tomato, a small piece of mozzarella cheese, wrapped a basil leaf around them, skewered the combo with a toothpick & then brushed each mini salad with the leftover Italian Butter.

So pretty, so cute...so tasty! And one of my faves!

ENJOY!