First you make a roux...

Around here we have a golden rule: "No gumbo will be prepared in Mom's Kitchen until the daytime temperatures are mostly in the 40s." But today we are making an exception... It's Brian's birthday, and he requested chicken & sausage gumbo as his birthday dinner. So, on this very mild November day, a pot of gumbo is bubbling on the stove.

Most of you who read this blog, know what it takes to make a gumbo, and you've heard your Mawmaw tell you over and over again, "First you make a roux!" Here, folks have some strange ideas about what gumbo is, and they just don't understand how difficult it is to make when you are mommy to little ones. To get my gumbo started, I have to tether myself to the stove while I make the roux, and for chicken & sausage gumbo, I go for a seriously dark roux. This means I'm at the stove for about an hour before I can get the roux made and the gumbo back down to a slow simmer. So, a few weeks ago I invested in a "Gumbo Gate" to keep the kids out of the kitchen and away from the hot stove.

Thankfully today we timed it so that they were napping during that initial hour of cooking... and oh, the smell is so good. I almost don't feel like I'm in Ohio right now... And later tonight when Brian gets home, we will celebrate with our Louisiana gumbo chocked full of Manda Sausage, a chocolate cake from a local bakery, and some Texas Blue Bell Ice Cream... and we'll probably end our dinner with a little Community Coffee.

Why are all our favorite foods imported??

Apple Crisp...

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wed to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns."

~ George Eliot

Apples... apples... apples... Once the air gets a bit chilly and it's time to pullout the turtle necks and sweaters, then it must also be time to crank up the warm oven and bake a nice, hot apple crisp!

Andrew, or Unca Drew as the children refer to him, is in town this weekend, and we're lazily catching up and enjoying the brisk autumn weather. So, last night we heated up the stove and popped an apple crisp in to enjoy after dinner. Comfort food... at its very best!

Apple Crisp

8 apples (I used a combination of Granny Smith and Gala Apples), peeled, cored, and sliced
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup regular oats
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup butter, cut into small cubes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Toss sliced apples gently with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Place in prepared baking dish.

In another bowl, mix together flour, sugar, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Add to this mixture the melted butter. Stir until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the apples, and dot with cubed butter.

Bake for 50 minutes until crisp is lightly browned and apples are tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Last night, the only thing our apple crisp was lacking was a side of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream!

Buckeye Candy...

On weekends when the Buckeyes are playing, I am sure that peanut butter and chocolate sales across Central Ohio must hit an all-time peak. These candies are truly wonderful, and there's not a football watching party in this part of the country that doesn't feature a plate full of them, either homemade or bought at the local candy shop.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Seattle to visit my dear friend, Bobbi, so the kids and I decided to make a batch of Buckeyes to take to her and her family. These little candies are the simplest thing to make, but they are a little bit time-consuming.

We mixed up our batch and started rolling them out into balls. Dylan decided that his should be a log rather than a ball, and then told me that he wanted to call his "Tiger Bait." I made a blob and said it was "Dawg Chow."

Brooklyn didn't care what shape hers was in as long as she could eat it as soon as possible.

Our friends in Ohio already know that our true loyalty lies elsewhere, so y'all don't fuss at me again for talking about the Buckeyes on this blog! If you want to make your own Buckeyes (or more appropriately called Tiger Bait for the majority of y'all reading this), here's the recipe we use:

Buckeye Candy

3 cups creamy peanut butter
2 sticks butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
about 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar (adjust to desired consistency)
2 (12 oz) packages semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ bar of paraffin wax

Mix together peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. Mixing it by hand seems to work the best. Form into 3/4-inch balls. For better results, refrigerate for 30-45 minutes before dipping.


Over a double boiler, melt chocolate along with paraffin wax. Using a toothpick, dip peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate until almost covered, leaving some of the peanut mixture exposed on top. (Just drop the whole thing in if you're making Tiger Bait and don't even worry about a neatly shaped ball if you're making Dawg Chow!) Cool on waxed paper. Refrigerate.

Makes about 10 dozen.

Potato Soup...

Another cold day... This afternoon I'm taking dinner over to a friend who just had a baby. I usually bring over a Roasted Chicken Dinner because when my neighbor brought one to us after our daughter was born, I thought it was just the perfect dinner for a nursing mom. However, today with temperatures in the single digits and piles and piles of snow all over the ground, the sound of soup simmering all day long sounded even better. So, on today's menu is Potato Chowder with Bacon. You can find the original recipe at Mrs. Wilt's site, The Sparrow's Nest, or read below for her recipe with a few changes that I made.

Potato Chowder

1 box scalloped potatoes
1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled (the original recipe called for ham, but I didn't have any on hand)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
4 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
Salt & Pepper or House Seasoning, to taste
Additional milk for thinning

Add scalloped potatoes, sauce packet, chicken broth, bacon or ham, onion, celery, salt & pepper to crock pot. Mix together milk and flour, and add to crock pot. Stir well. Cook on Low for 6 hours. Add additional milk throughout the cooking process to thin the soup to your liking. Garnish with green onions, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, diced ham, or whatever you like.

My Notes:

• This is a crock pot recipe, and it couldn't be any easier to make.
• The first time I made this recipe I subsituted "Manda" sausage for the ham... I rarely have ham on hand, but I have a freezer full of Manda sausage "imported" from Louisiana (thank you, Mama). The sausage was okay, but I think the flavor of the sausage was a little too overbearing for the soup. Plus, my husband was shocked that I had not saved the sausage for Gumbo or Red Beans --- his favorites. This time I am using bacon in lieu of the ham... it's very good, more traditional. One of these days I'll actually have ham ready to use in this recipe.
• Even though this is a crock pot recipe, I don't like to leave it alone for the day. I find myself stirring it pretty frequently and adding milk to thin it out as it cooks. Neglecting it just seems to create a crusty top that should not be stirred into the soup and will have to be removed later.
• I also prefer to cook this on Low rather than on High. I prefer the texture after a long, slow cook.

Oh, the smell is wonderful. I think I'll add a baguette from the french bakery in town, a salad, some homemade cookies and call that a meal!