Jambalaya and Cherry Pie!

Hello friends. Calypso is always yelling at me, "Steve you never post on the blog! I'm going to change the name of the blog and divorce you!" And we're not even married. But look at me now, writing a post. Recently, I made something like jambalaya based on a recipe for shrimp jambalaya in How to Cook Everything. But where is the shrimp in the picture? Nowhere, but rather little slices of andouille sausage. I don't have exact measurements for anything in it, but here's what to do.

Dice up onion, bell pepper (I wish we could afford fun color bell pepper but we used boring green), and fry it in some oil with half a pound of chopped up andouille, then add garlic and paprika and whatever herbs you have on hand that will work. When you feel it's ready, then some tomatoes, then some rice (2 cups), and then top with twice as much stock or water as the amount of rice you put in. Then just let it simmer uncovered until the rice is done and the liquid is at the consistency you want, adding more liquid if it evaporates too quickly. If you have nicer rice than we do the rice will be a nicer consistency.

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Thanks Steve for finally writing a blurb on a blog that shares half its name with you!  Anywhoo...this was a fun night because while Steve sat at the table dicing up veggies for our yummy Jambalaya, I sat there with him and pitted a bunch of cherries for a delicious cherry pie.

 It was fun just spending the evening around the table making good food and then of course eating it after.

Last weekend at the farmers market one of the stands had an awesome deal on cherries and I couldn't resist.  The basket was huge and although they looked like they wouldn't last long, I knew they'd last long enough for a cherry pie.

When it comes to baking I always start with good old Betty Crocker, her recipes always come out good and solid.  I also managed to make a decent crust this time by really following the directions about how to mix the shortening.  All too often I forget and just throw all the shortening into the flour at once and get a big glob of unrollable dough.  So it's key to cut the shortening in correctly.

I'm also super proud of my lattice work!  It could have probably been tighter, and the strips thinner, but this is the first time I've actually gotten it to look like a real lattice topped pie and not some big mess.  The only thing I need to do next time which you can see clearly in the photos is wrap the outside of the crust in foil so it doesn't get so dark.  It wasn't the end of the world, the pie still tasted great, but it would be nice to not have burnt edges.

Steve wouldn't let me go buy any ice cream for the pie ( :(  ), but lucky for me I had some cream in the fridge so I whipped it up and it made an excellent topping.

Everything ended up be delicious, filling, and fun to make (even pitting the cherries wasn't as bad as I thought it would be). 

Enjoy
:)

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