What's the harm in suggestion?

I know I haven't been on much, but my poor 7 yr old son, Dom, apparently needs surgery on Monday, so I won't be on here much. Anyways, I decided to post a list of suggestions: Items I cherish in the kitchen. So here it is!

Seasonings and sauces:
 Crystal Hot Sauce

Tobasco GREEN CHILI sauce.

BBQ- Sweet Baby Ray's or Jack Daniels.

Lea Perrin's Worcestershire sauce.

McCormick Steak seasoning! I USE IT ON EVERYTHING! I mix the regular with the spicy one.

GOYA: The yellow bottle with red letters.

Tony Chachere's and Slap Yo Mamma! (Yes, both are necessary!)

You should always have:  Sea Salt & fresh cracked Pepper, FRESH cilantro, italian seasonings, crushed red peppers, parsley, Cayenne, white pepper, cinnamon, bay Leaves, bouillon cubes (Beef, Chicken, & Vegetable), liquid and dry crab boil, Italian bread crumbs, and the above listed.


Cookware:
CROCKPOT! Everyone should own one!! It should be big enough to fix a whole roast with carrots, and potatoes covered in water!

Get yourself a fondue pot!!!!

Pots and Pans. Ok, so I got a knock on my door one day, with a nice lady asking if she could cook me a free dinner and showcase her services, and she'll also do all the cleanup, no purchases necessary. I agreed and figured she was a private chef or something. Anyways, she happened to be a SALADMASTER consultant. May I say, It has changed my life!!! Your nutrients stay in your food, the flavors are unreal WITHOUT seasoning, the HEALTH benefits are unreal, your food doesn't shrink, and it doesn't make the house hot while cooking! You should check them out! They even do dinner shows like Pampered Chef. I wouldn't suggest ANY OTHER cookware. Our set has almost paid itself off in less than 6 mos, from how much we're saving at the grocery! Our bill is almost cut in half at the store!!! This is the HONEST-TO-GOD-TRUTH!!!

SALADMASTER makes an oil-less skillet. You can fry up chicken, without grease, or breading, and it tastes as though you did! It's really is amazing.
  

Spaghetti & AMAZEBALLS!!!

So my plan for dinner tonight was Hubby's fav... Cream of crab soup, but my back started hurting and so I asked Hubby to just make tacos. Then of course, we noticed we had no tortillas or shells. So, I whipped together spaghetti with the defrosted ground turkey. Hope you like my meatballs as much as I do...

Bit of extra info...
1) I use McCormicks Spicy Steak seasoning  and worcestershire sauce for almost EVERYTHING!

2) I LOVE Muir Glen's organic spaghetti sauce. It's delicious and reasonably priced for organic. It usually costs me about $3.25 at Market Street. Before I started switching out to organic, I LOVED Del Monte's Traditional flavor and it only costs about .97. I ALWAYS add more crushed red peppers, fresh minced garlic, and Italian seasoning no matter what though.

For noodles, I use Ronzoni whole grain thin noodles.
and my new love is "Food Club" garlic dinner rolls!!! Sooo good when you dip them in the spaghetti sauce. Just Saying!

3) I like to serve my spaghetti with fried eggplant and fried bowties or fried raviolis.

I peel an eggplant, slice it into 1/2 inch slices, dip into an egg & milk mixture (2 eggs, splash of milk) and roll into Italian bread crumbs, and dip into the deep fryer. Serve topped with jalapeno slices, spaghetti sauce, and parmesan cheese. 

* For the bowties or raviolis, just boil the bowties or raviolis until cooked. dip in egg/milk mixture and dip into your bread crumbs. I find they're better if you redip them into the egg/milk mixture and breadcrumbs before frying!

Cajun Cowgirl Spaghetti & Amazeballs!!!

 Get to cookin':
1 lb ground turkey (extra lean)
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp ketchup
1/2 tbsp McCormick's steak seasoning
1 tbsp Italian bread crumbs

 In a mixing bowl, combine ground turkey, bread crumbs, worcestershire, crushed red pepper, steak seasoning, & minced garlic. After the mixture seems evenly distributed, roll into round balls.

Heat up your pan, then drizzle oil and ketchup into pan. (I never cook anything on high. I like cooking things at lower heat for longer.) Then, place in your meatballs, add another sprinkle of worcestershire, then more steak seasoning, and cover. I like mine medium/well done and roll them around in the sauce created! ENJOY!

Nanny's Crockpot Roast

Sorry, I was gone all weekend, so I had no recipe to post. My amazing, hard working, deserving, Hubby was given an award at the annual Gulf States Toyota awards. They give you a free hotel room, at the Renaissance Worthington in Fort Worth, for the night and make a delicious fancy dinner followed by free breakfast in the morning. The dinner, though very much appreciated, was okay. I am a big food critic, one point of this blog. Anyways, It was a salad wedge with vinegarette dressing, beef medallion with (bland) chicken with some sauce, asparagus, carrots, followed by a chocolate trio mousse. The dessert was amazing, but I wasn't impressed with dinner like I usually am. Also, It obviously had something I am allergic to in it, because since dinner Saturday, I have had unbearable hives! Oh well, It was a nice break from the kids and quality time with my Hubby, and a good excuse to get all dressed up! Breakfast was good. It was in their restaurant called Vadallion, but it was a buffet, which I am not big on. I don't like the idea of my food sitting out, being passed over by a bunch of people. They gave us these AMAZING smoothies, and I finally got a real coca cola! The night of the awards, they had open bar and all Pepsi products so I was DYING for a coke (If you know me, you know I am a Coca Cola addict.) We went out around the square afterwards and I got one, but apparently they're having water problems down there and it just tasted like soap?! YUCK, so I was thrilled that morning!
 
Last night and tonight's supper is from my roast recipe. The difference is on how you serve it! Last night, I served it with the crockpot veggies over a bed of rice with gravy and tonight's will be over fries (Bo fries) and on french bread. (Po-Boy)

My love of Roast come from my Nanny (Who is like a mother to me.).
She made it for me every time I would go visit her. 
I Love you Nanny!

You will need:

1 Roast

Potatoes

Carrots

green onions 

1 beef bouillon cube

Water

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

2-3 brown gravy packets or jars (Or you could just add flour and whip it yourself.)

Seasonings (Crushed red pepper, McCormick's steak seasoning, Sea Salt, black pepper.)

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Get to Cookin':

The night before the day I plan on eating it, is when I place it into my crockpot. I put it on HIGH by itself after supper until it's bedtime, which I then add about 4 cups of water, the bouillon cube,  and then switch it to LOW. In the morning after breakfast. I cut off the fat, flip it over, add my seasonings, and switch it back on to HIGH! 

Around noon, (You can add it all in the morning if you need to leave for work.) I add in my green onion, carrots, and potatoes, cover and let it keep cooking. Around 3-4:00 I then add in my cream of mushroom and gravy mix. By now, you should be able to take a fork and just pull the meat apart. If you need more water to cover the veggies, then add some, you can fix it latter by adding more gravy powder!

Then, at dinner time, serve as you please. These are my ways.

1.) Serve the roast and gravy with veggies over a bed of rice, with a side of corn or green beans and the option of mashed potatoes.

2). Serve on french bread or pistolet bread with mustard

3.) Serve over french fries and top it with fresh italian cheeses (with the gravy).

Friday the 13th...

Well, no cooking tonight! We had family night, which was great. Hubby had to work late and go pick up my car from the body shop to fix it, and then will have to bring it back to the body shop once he's done so they can finish their part. Anyways, so I ordered Papa John's and then we had Blue Raspberry ICEEs (My fav) with popcorn at the movies. We saw Ice Age 4, which I personally think is the best one yet! Wanda Sykes plays "Granny" and she made the movie!!!! Brie fell asleep half way through, but she sure was fighting it, she seemed to be enjoying it. The big boys were were having a blast! Though I do wish they didn't have a character nicknamed "Wiener" in the movie, because all I heard once we left was, "Wiener Wiener!" ughhh. Little boys! Oh well, my Friday the 13th was blessed and enjoyable! I truly love being a Mommy and I am still undeniably in LOVE with the incredible man I get to call my Hubby! Good Night all and God Bless!!!

Drunken Dumplins

Well first, I must start off by saying, when I met my father-in-law for the first time, he raved about how he made the BEST Chicken and Dumplings ever! Well, one time when he stayed with us over the holiday, he made dumpling, but he was so drunk, they came out so disgusting, and NO ONE would eat them, and I had flour EVERYWHERE throughout the house! lol. Well, today was my first attempt at making them myself, and may I just add, they're AMAZEBALLS!!! So, I shall call them...

DRUNKEN DUMPLINS
 (Serves a family of 4-6 very well.) 

(My measurements and instructions are anything but conventional.)

You will need: 
*2 Chicken Breasts
* 1 QT (8 cups) of Water
* 8 Chicken Bouillon cubes
* 1/2 small bag of frozen green beans
* 1/2 small bag frozen corn
* 2 handfuls of baby carrots
* 1/8 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1-1/4 cups unbleached flour
* .5 tablespoon baking powder
* .5 teaspoon each salt & sugar
* dash of Goya
* dash of lemon pepper
* dash of crushed red peppers
* dash of Tony's Chacheres and Slap yo Mamma

Get to cookin':
Chicken:
Grill or bake your chicken. I baked mine in Tony's and Goya, then when finished and cooled, I pulled it apart into shredds.

Soup:
 In your pot, mix 1 qt water with your 8 bouillon cubes. Add in your veggies and get 'er boiling.

Dumplings: 
In a bowl, combine your seasons, milk, flour, baking powder, oil. Mix until it's a good "dough" Roll it flat with something like a rolling pin, then cut into squares with a pizza cutter or even a butter knife.

(I put some chicken in the middle of my squares and then closed it on top with the dough.)

Once your broth is boiling, add in your dumpling, gently, piece by piece. Cover for about 15-20 minutes. DO NOT PEEK! The broth cooks the dumplings, but the steam is what makes them puffs, so if you open the lid, you'll let the steam out!

Serve either soupy or not. I made it soupy and added some biscuits to the mix. To make it healthier. I made biscuits from scratch (I will add that recipe in a bit.) and made them in a mini-cupcake pan to create smaller portion size to minimize the bread intake!

Here We Go...

My name is Bridgette Brunet (Brew-Nay) Owens. I was born and raised in New Orleans, La. My mother’s family is from Port Huron, MI and my father’s side is from South Lafourche (La-Foosh), La. (Cut Off & La Rose.) I am married to the most wonderful man in the world. I truely didn't think men like him existed. He is an auto-technician and wonderful man. I am a stay at home mother of two. I have a 7 yr old son, Dominic and a 2 yr old daughter, Brielle. I am starting this blog to give out some of my many recipes everyone is always asking me for. Also, I am always coming up with fun ideas for the kids, crafting ideas, tips for all sorts of things, and I am the Queen of speaking my mind on new products. I hope you enjoy!

Laisez les bons temps rouler (lay-say lay bawn tawn roulay) “Let the good times roll” the motto of many Louisianans.