As a kid we routinely made “whoopie pies” around the holidays. We would make them in big batches and freeze the remainder to be eaten at a later time (usually they only lasted a couple of days though). I had all but forgotten about these until recently and decided to make them this year for Christmas. We had family and friends over for Christmas Day Dinner and these were meant to be the dessert course but with all the other food prep I had going on they were not made till the day after Christmas. I guess in the back of my mind I didn’t want to share 
This recipe is based on the one found HERE.
For the past 6 months or so I have been working the Louisiana Seafood Board (via a 3rd Party) to develop and photograph different seafood recipes for there FB page as well as their own recipe database. Ever since the BP oil spill there has been a certain “stigma” attached to seafood products from the Gulf and it has been extremely detrimental to Gulf Coast fisherman and the local economies that count on this industry. The Louisiana Seafood Board was tasked with restoring faith in Louisiana’s seafood industry as well as for lack of a better phrase “Promote the hell out of it.” They hired Chef Brian Landry, formerly of Galatoire’s, to use his knowledge and experience with Gulf Seafood to help spread the Gospel of Louisiana Seafood.
In late July in conjunction with one of my local favorite restaurants, Wine Country Bistro, Chef Landry ,along with Chef Anthony Felan of WCB & Chef Michael Brady of Fresh, did two dinners celebrating the bounty of the Gulf. Through my friendship with the owners of Wine Country Bistro I was invited to hang out in the kitchen and document the first night of the Seafood dinner.
I ended up taking over 300 pictures and tasting some really great seafood dishes. Here is to Louisiana Seafood……enjoy.
At first I wasn’t going to write about this but after posting that I was making it on Facebook, the outcry* of recipe requests was overwhelming. This was just a typical weeknight meal that I decided to change up with the addition of Poblano Chili Peppers. The recipe is pretty easy and straight forward and feel free to add or take away certain ingredients if it is not to your liking.
Poblano Ranch Dressing :
- 1 small bottle of Ranch dressing
- 1-2 Fresh Poblanos
- 3 tablespoons Lime Juice
- 1 clove of Garlic
- Handful of Fresh Cilantro
- 1 tablespoon Honey
- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- salt and pepper
- 2-3 Boneless Skinless Breasts of Chicken
- Chicken Marinade
- Romaine Lettuce
- 1 avocado diced
- Monterey Jack Cheese
- Baked Tortilla Shell (OPTIONAL)
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2-3 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2-3 tablespoons dried Basil
Remove chicken from marinade and season with salt and pepper. Grill over med high heat until done. Remove and place in a shallow pan and cover with foil. Let this rest for about 5 minutes. I also top each breast with a pat of unsalted butter and a squeeze of lemon. Slice chicken and make your salad.
Here is a before & after. It is much easier to eat this way
*by Outcry I mean like 3 people
Last year around this same time I transferred this blog from Typepad to WordPress. I started this site on Typepad way back in 2006 and since have had a lot of issues with their platform and lack of support. Through a lot of time and (free) help from friends I was able to transfer the bulk of my site over to WordPress with little loss of quality and just having to re-size photos from old posts. I was extremely happy with the design we came up for the CFG 2.0 and although I have tweaked it twice in the last 12 months there is no way I would ever go back to Typepad.
With that being said, ever since the move my comments have fallen off the map in regards to new posts. Granted every once in a while a post will drum up interest but usually no more than 2 or 3 comments but the bulk of new posts have ZERO comments. I updated my RSS feed, Google re-indexed the old posts to redirect to new site and in the chance you do land on the Typepad site it points you to here so my question is what happened to my readers?
Are there just too many food blogs out there now that CFG fell by the wayside or is it something I said??
There are quite a few old posts from years back that I am quite proud of. I think every so often I will pick one and put it back up here to give readers a chance to re-discover or new readers a chance to discover some of my older stuff. This post was from July of 2008. Hope you enjoy
Sometimes I like to cook the same things over and over and routinely change up one of the ingredients either by presentation, preparation or texture. I had wanted to do something with chicken and grits and thought I had the idea perfected. Instead of just making a pile of cheesy grits I would turn them into Grit Waffles. Crazy you say? Yes but the idea sounded really tasty, crispy on the outside but with cheesy gooey grits inside.
They sell chicken and waffles so why not make an “upscale” if you will version. I started by making the grits as usual – one part milk to one part chicken stock, add grits, cook ,add cheddar cheese and butter, salt and pepper to taste. For the chicken I chose boneless skinless breasts and marinated them with a mixture of beer, creole mustard, worchestire sauce, garlic, and cayenne pepper. I seared these on a flat top till cooked through.
Sauce wise I went with sweet potato. I juiced about three sweet potatoes and added this to about a cup of milk, crushed garlic and simmered for about 30 minutes. I strained the garlic out before serving. Why juice the sweet potatoes? No particular reason other than I had not done it before and I thought it would give me a lighter cleaner sauce. It did.
I had one sweet potato left over so for a different texture I peeled and cut it into chunks about half the size of a piece of dice. I seared these on the flat top as well with a little salt and pepper.
To cut the richness of the whole dish, I took about a ½ cup of cane syrup and heated it on the stove with about 5 sprigs of rosemary, a shot of worchestire and garlic. I probably heated it too much as when it hit the plate it immediately firmed up like a piece of caramel candy. It still served its purpose though.
Back to the “grit” waffles, they did not work out like I thought they would. Next time I think I will just incorporate a mixture of the finished grits with a waffle batter mixture.
To finish plating the dish I added a “streak” of creole mustard, added a scoop of cheesy grits, the chicken, some sweet potato bits, topped it with sweet potato cream and drizzled the rosemary cane syrup over everything.
For dessert, and please keep an open mind here, I took some french bread slices and toasted them. I then smeared these with Nutella, sprinkled some Maldon Sea Salt and topped with shredded fresh parmesan cheese. It just works……
So we went to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning and picked up a big ol’ mess of Blueberries ( I always wanted to say that). My intention was to make a pie with them but my wife Ann also wanted a blackberry pie. We had already left the market at that point so when we went to the grocery store later that day I picked up a small package of fresh blackberries. There wasn’t enough to make a whole pie but I remember seeing a few people online using jelly jars to cook pies in. As my mother has been making her own jelly for as long as I can remember, we have quite a few empty jelly jars around the house. In this house jelly is like plastic cups, you don’t buy them in a store. We get jelly from my parent’s house and plastic cups from Mardi Gras parades.
These were really easy to make, I just kinda eye balled the measurements based on my recipe for Blueberry Pie. A little flour for thickening, sugar for sweetness, a little lemon zest for zing and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I also add just a touch of maldon sea salt to bring out the blackberry flavor. I lined 3 jars with pie dough and filled each with the blackberry mixture. I topped with just a dab of butter and a round of pie dough cut out with the jar lid. I cut a slit in the top for steam to escape and put them in the freezer till ready to bake. I baked one at 350 for about 40 minutes. Once cool I put it back in the fridge for later.
Ann ate this one last night while I was at the Wine Country Bistro / La Seafood benefit dinner. From what she says and seeing the empty jar on the counter it was a hit. At least I have two more in the freezer.
Got my copy about two weeks a go at a local bookstore. This concept is interesting but I am still going through it. Looking forward to what the other issues cover as well as the soon to be released IPad app.
I made these this past weekend for a small get together we had with friends. This is probably the third time I have made this recipe and I think every time I put a different twist on it
The recipe is based on one I saw in Saveur magazine awhile back. I fried these just once at 350 for about 6-8 minutes. For the sauce I added equal parts chile paste and ketchup(Americanized this),omitted the sesame oil and added a little bit more rice wine vinegar. Since last Thursday I have been battling a summer cold and sinus headaches. After eating a plate full of these, standing outside in the Louisiana heat to fry them and drinking a cold beer or two (okay several) I pretty much cured myself
