Foto Friday {16}

Saturday July 16: My favorite shoes 

Sunday July 17: World Cup Treat

Monday July 18: Ice Cream!!

Tuesday July 19: Thunderstorm

Wednesday July 20: Medusa Blesses our Servers

Thursday July 21: Out to Lunch

Friday July 22: Sewing Machine

Grandma's Chicken Okra Gumbo

For Christmas 2008, I helped my grandma create a book of family recipes for each member of our extended family.  (I put it together using tastebook and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to make one.)  The recipe book catalogs a lot of my family's favorite recipes plus photos and stories with each of the recipes.  I love to flip through it and look at the pictures of my grandma from before I was born.  This is one of my favorites:

It and this story accompany the recipe for my grandma's Chicken Okra Gumbo:

"The Bankston family brought this recipe from St. Helena’s Parish, Louisiana, when they moved to McPherson in 1936. Zack Bankston [my grandma's father] grew his own okra. The President of the Globe Oil Refinery showed up when the okra was ripe. Arriving with his chauffeur, he went to the garden and cut his own okra. Arline Bankston [grandma's mother] went to home ec classes once a year at the high school to teach the girls how to make okra gumbo."


I know that many people think of sausage and seafood when they hear gumbo, but this is the one that I grew up with and the one that I love.  So at least once a summer, when the okra comes to the farmer's market, I make it just like grandma does.  I like that it feels lighter and showcases the okra more than most gumbos I've tried.  But if you wanted to add sausage, go right ahead.  Though, I draw the line at filé, filé tastes like dirt.

Grandma's recipe doesn't have amounts, cause she just knows how much is right.  So these are the amounts and directions that I use. By the way, if you get a hankering for gumbo in the winter, frozen okra works surprisingly well (and Grandma approves).

Grandma's Chicken Okra Gumbo
Yields: 6 servings

4 chicken thighs
4 cups okra, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 large onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
6 cloves fresh garlic, minced
4 cups chicken stock
30 oz canned tomatoes, diced
Small can of green chilis
3 bay leaves
Tabasco
Salt and pepper
Old Bay Seasoning, optional


1. Heat approximately a 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of a large pot.

2. Heavily flour, salt and pepper chicken. Brown well and remove.  The flour remaining in the oil will act as a roux to thicken the soup along with the okra.

3. Leave oil in skillet. Add okra, garlic, onions, and peppers.  Stirring frequently, cook until onions are translucent and okra a little bit brown. [Grandma notes: "May be a little bit slimy - don’t fret!"]

In my experience, it is always slimy.  But, seriously, don't fret.

4. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, bay leaves, and a bit of salt and pepper.  Stirring to get any remaining brown bits off the bottom of the pot.

5. Add chicken, simmer 45 minutes.  [Grandma says 4 to 6 hours, but I'm not as good at planning ahead as she is.  We ate this at 9:45pm even only simmering it 45 minutes.]
 
6. Remove chicken and allow to cool about 15 minutes.  Shred and return to pot.

7. Taste for seasoning and serve over hot rice with a dash of tabasco.

It may not win any beauty contests, but it sure is tasty.

July Baking Challenge: World Cup Pretzels

Pretzels are my all-time favorite ball park snack, so what better to make for World Cup Finals snacking?  I ate two of them over the course of the game (which I think shows great restraint) and managed not to inhale any with all the gasping and shrieking I did.  The game was fantastic - both teams played incredibly well and it was so close and exciting.  Teams coming seemingly out of nowhere to win it all is part of what makes international sports worth watching.  Congrats to Japan! 

But back to the pretzels.  I had planned on using a recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice but surprisingly, there was no recipe.  So I turned to Alton Brown instead.  The key to the pretzel-y flavor of pretzels is a quick float in a hot tub laced with more baking powder than you are likely to have on hand (so stock up).

I found the dough to be very soft and a challenge to roll, but once they puffed up in the pot you could hardly tell.  After just a minute in the water, the pretzels are removed and left to dry.  A quick egg-wash for color (and to help the sea salt stick) and into a quite hot oven for 15 minutes. 

The egg wash and hot oven make a deliciously crunchy exterior with soft, doughy goodness hiding within.  They are absolutely as good as they look, but they can be improved upon with this golden bowl of goodness:

To the German originators of pretzels, mustard is the proper accompaniment.  But to a kid at a ballpark, it's cheese sauce all the way.  So to bridge these opposing groups, I present my peace accord in the form of a cheddar-mustard sauce.

Cheddar-Mustard Sauce

Yield: 6 servings

1 tbs. butter

1 tbs. flour

1 c. milk

2 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

4 oz. velveeta, cubed

1 heaping tbs. grainy mustard

3 shakes hot sauce

1/4 tsp. salt

1. First we'll make a loose béchamel.  Melt the butter in a small sauce pan and whisk in the flour until it forms a roux, cook about 90 seconds.  Add milk while stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.  Bring to simmer, stirring occasionally.

2. To your béchamel, add the two cheeses and stir to melt.  Once your sauce is silky-smooth, add in the mustard, salt, and hot sauce.  Adjust all to taste.

Foto Friday {15}

Saturday July 9: Project in the Works

Sunday July 10: The start of a 10 minute long storm

Monday July 11: My owl keys make me smile

Tuesday July 12: Our one watering day a week

Wednesday July 13: Cheering on the US while working 

Thursday July 14: Daily Commute

Friday July 15: Suspicious Geoff

Lamb Vindaloo

There was no time for a better photo - it smelled too good!

The lamb vindaloo I made this week sort of fell into my lap (not literally, thankfully).  I had been thinking for a while about making something with the local lamb available at the farmer's market and when we went to visit this slick talking little seven year old charmed me into trying all of his family's jalapeno sausage and chutneys, then sold me a pound of lamb stew meat.  He concentrated so hard as he counted out my change.

So I had some lamb, but nothing to do with it when I came across this recipe for Chicken Vindaloo at Scarpetta Dolcetto.  The recipe was actually from  Madhur Jaffrey who has written several Indian cookbooks that I have considered buying, but I wanted to try a few recipes first.  The recipe mentioned that it would be more traditionally made with goat or lamb and a lightbulb went on.

This recipe was soooo good.  The lamb really held up to the mustard and other assertive flavors.  I'm sure that chicken would have been fine, but I think that the flavor of the chicken would disappear under the sauce.  The only downside of the lamb is that it required about an hour of simmering to become nice and tender.  But it was completely worth the wait!