Walt Grace’s Submarine Test, January 1967 is my favorite track off John Mayer’s Born and Raised album. John posted a link to a video, created by Virgilio Viloresi, for this song. The video is stunning and beautifully made. It channels the vibe I get whenever I listen to it. BTW, The video was shot 100% live action with no post production.
I’m always purchasing stuff in bulk from a local food co-op. This time I ordered mangos and 5 lbs each of black beans and lentils. Yes, that is a lot of beans, but I have a ton of good recipes to try out and it’s beans, they keep really well. Plus, I won’t have to buy any of each for the rest of the year probably, so it’s a win win for me.
So I woke up this morning with mangos on my mind, and since they are already ripe, I figured I’d better go ahead and prep them for storage before they go bad. I sliced and diced them all up, and I now have fresh mango on hand for general snacking and cooking purposes. (Mango Salsaanyone?) I’m also going to freeze a good bit of them to use in my morning breakfast smoothies.
But then I thought, “Hey, let’s put these super sweet and ultra delicious mangos to good use” and BAM! Out came the vodka! I decided to try my hand at infusing two small batches of vodka. I did a quick internet search on “Infused Vodka” and all the recipes are basically the same, they differ on the number of mangos to use based on the volume of vodka you are making. So instead of following a recipe, I just played the entire thing by feel. I used one mango per 12 oz Ball quilted jar (left over from last year’s Christmas gift project–homemade hot chocolate mix) They should be ready in about a week or so, give or take a couple of days. Its’s going to be real hard having to taste these every couple of days, but hey somebody’s got to do it.
I have an intensive 4 week workshop coming up which requires me to both produce AND revise a full manuscript. So I took to Pinterest for a recipe I could make that me and the family could eat on for a couple of days. It didn’t take me long to pull up my pin on Gumbolaya.
YES- Gumbolaya! As in a cross between the seafood stewy goodness of Gumbo and the thick, seasoned rice tastiness of jambalaya.
I made it and man is it good.
You can access the original recipe in the link above. However, it wouldn’t be a “Tessa” dish if I didn’t make some sort of alteration to the original recipe. This time, the first time in a looong time, I actually had all the ingredients, so my subs are not to make up for missing something,
Here’s the original ingredient list:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound spicy andouille (or smoked) sausage, sliced
8 chicken tenderloins (or 2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts), cut into bite-size pieces
• Salt
• Pepper
3 celery stalks, finely diced
1 large onion, finely diced
1 large bell pepper, finely diced
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon Creole seasoning
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon, heaping, tomato paste
½ pound okra, sliced into ¼ – ½” thick slices
1 (28 oz) can organic diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups chicken stock, hot
½ pound peeled and cleaned, medium size shrimp (raw)
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
I substituted:
•Spicy Creole seasoning for the regular Creole seasoning
•1 pound of andouille sausages for roughly 1/2 lb of spicy chicken andouille sauasage & 1/2 lb of smoked andouille pork sausage
•I added in the meat of roughly 4 lbs of crawfish
•I added a little more than 2 cups of chicken stock to account for the extra meat (crawfish) I added to the recipe so it didn’t get too thick
Verdict:
This recipe is a WIN!!! I love it. It is very hearty, flavorful, and filling.
I hit up an awesome estate sale with LeLe yesterday (name changed to protect the guilty!) and I TOTALLY scored. For one, I happened upon a 1913 edition of The Grimm’s Fairy Tales! It’s totally falling apart and is in horrific shape, but all of the stories are there and it’s 100% readable. However, due to it’s fragile (and dirty) condition, it goes on display with my other two old and falling apart books I got at auction last year. Personally, I think it’s the perfect way to show off my sea grass basket and shells I picked up in Charleston, so I’m counting it as a win.
I’ve been on the look out for a metal fan since last summer to use on my patio. I figure a steady breeze will help keep the flying insects from bothering me too much as I enjoy my patio this summer. Low and behold, I found this beauty hanging out in an out of the way corner on the bottom shelf. Yes, I know is dirty, but that’s what soap and water is for. The main thing is that this puppy is in full working condition. AND I got it for $10 off the asking price. SCORE!!
And because you can’t visit an estate sale without picking up at least one thing you probably don’t need, I got a crowbar. Why? No clue other than the fact I saw it and wanted it immediately. In fact, you know is bad when LeLe tried to distract me with tools so that I would forget about it. (side note: I have a fascination with tools, especially tools I don’t need. Both her and one of the workers talked me out of getting this super huge wrench. Well, I didn’t really need it considering I could barely lift it. )
You must 
(side note: I have a fascination with tools, especially tools I don’t need. Both her and one of the workers talked me out of getting this super huge wrench. Well, I didn’t really need it considering I could barely lift it. 
