Jumbalaya!

Goodbye Joe me gotta go me oh my oh....
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Well, I guess it is obvious that I am going to share probably my most favorite dish of all, Pasta Jumbalaya!!!!

The recipe we make is pure deliciousness!  It is VERY spicy, and I LOVE spicy food as everyone knows!  Greg and I actually got this recipe off of a show on TV.  They were showcasing the Cheesecake Factory's 'Pasta Jumbalaya' and Greg recorded it so we could back it up and see what all they put in it.  We have never been to the Cheesecake Factory to try their recipe to see if ours tastes like theirs, but we like our version pretty darn good.  We make this quite often, and one of the best things about it is that 9 times out of 10, Greg and I cook it together.  It is nice every once in awhile to spend some time together cooking.   Now, mind you, this recipe is NOT written down.  This will be my first attempt to write it down and explain how we do it.  Here are the ingredients:

And below are the ingredients I forgot to picture with the others!

                                     And don't forget the chicken!  This is cut up and dredged in the spices!!

Okay.  First you cut up the chicken (we usually use two chicken breasts or one package of chicken tenderloins)... chopped up and dredged in cayenne pepper, chili mix, creole seasoning, and red pepper flakes.  We don't measure the spices we just put them in a bowl with the majority being the creole seasoning and chili mix then red pepper flakes and last the cayenne pepper.  I mix these spices while Greg cuts up the chicken.  Then he coats the chicken in the spice while I chop up 2 or 3 bell peppers.  I usually use red and yellow, sometimes orange... sometimes green ( but I prefer the other colors).. it just depends on what I found at the store!   I slice them up length wise (the way you would cut them for fajitas).  I put a little olive oil in a skillet and throw in the bell peppers to saute.  This is where Greg takes over cooking the peppers.  You want to cook them to where they are soft, but not TOO soft where they start to fall apart. Greg usually adds a little more of the spices to the peppers. Just a dash of this and a dash of that.  I slice up an onion and we add that in with the peppers.  We add them after the peppers cook for a few minutes because we don't want the onion to cook down to nothing. 

 This is usually where Greg reminds me that I need to start cooking the noodles.  We use linguine and spinach noodles.  We throw them together in a pot and boil them.  I'm not a good judge on how much to cook so I just do how much I think we need.  Sometimes it is too much... Sometimes not enough.... we usually make it work though! Now we add a little garlic to the pepper/onion mix.. (about a teaspoon or more). When the peppers and onions are nice and sauted, we remove them from the skillet and cook the chicken in the olive oil and juices from the peppers and onion.  When the chicken is done (it doesn't take very long!  Just a few minutes... the chicken is going to continue to cook while you are adding the rest of the ingredients)... add the peppers and onions back to the skillet.  Greg now adds chicken broth to the mixture... you can add as much as you like... we like ours pretty juicy so adjust this according to your taste... I mix up a thickner of corn starch and chicken broth and add that after the mixture is brought back to a boil...  I then slice up cherry tomatoes and make sure that either the crawfish or shrimp we are going to add is ready.  The crawfish tails I buy are fully cooked and most of the time the shrimp is too... so if it is crawfish I cut the bag open (1 pound) and if it is shrimp (1 pound) i cut off the tails..... When the mixture is at the right thickness, we add the crawfish or shrimp  ... cook it long enough to heat it through ... then add the tomatoes.  Cook just a couple of minutes and it is ready! Drain your noodles and either mix together or place desired amount of noodles in plate or bowl and spoon jumbalaya on top.  I usually have either garlic bread with cheese to go with this (frozen) .. but I had bought an italian french loaf bread the other day, so I sliced us a few pieces, buttered them and added a little cheese on top.... cooked them in the oven and it was soooo good with the jumbalaya!

Here is the finished product!

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!   I am excited because it is Game 1 of the World Series!!  GO RANGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou....