Creole Seasoning

I use this Creole seasoning for Jambalaya, sprinkled on eggs, roasted vegetables, roasted chickpeas, seafood, potatoes, and meats. It's perfect for stews and soups also. You can rub it onto steaks and chicken before roasting.

I make this salt free so I can control the amount of salt in each dish. If you would like a seasoning salt for the table or cooking, add salt to this to taste.  This Creole Seasoning would also make a great gift for your favorite cook.

Jambalaya

Seafood Jambalaya.

 I have been making this same Jambalaya recipe for a couple years now. I got it from a friend online. It's fairly easy to make. I never posted the recipe because there is a bit of eyeballing and tweaking when doing this on the stove top for me. Sometimes I need more water, sometimes less. It's got a lot to do with how tight fitting your lid is on the pot, how much evaporation happens each time, stuff like that. It's not that it's a hard dish to make, it's that it's a hard dish to give concrete measurements for. You'll find that the more you make this the easier it is to tell just by looking in the pot how much stock or water is needed for  rice that isn't too wet. You also don't want it to be crunchy. The plate above I made on the stove top with a medium grain rice. The plate below I made in my electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot. Both methods take about the same amount of time, maybe a bit less time in the Instant Pot.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

It's almost here! Fall! I'm so excited. I love fall weather, gorgeous fall leaves, boots, and pumpkin, pumpkin, PUMPKIN! I'm finally getting around to sharing how I make my Pumpkin Pie Spice with you! I love mixing my own spice seasonings, I can tweak them to our liking.
This pie spice is fragrant and flavorful. I used some whole spices, but pre ground works great. Sometimes I add powdered vanilla to this mix also.

Fajita's and Refried Black Beans

I love making my own seasonings at home, Taco, dry Ranch, curry powders, Fajita seasonings and more. I'm able to adjust the spices to our liking without fillers and things we don't want to eat! I love fajitas with lots of veggies. I prefer steak, as do most of the girls, and DH likes chicken. Shrimp is always yummy. 

I use this fajita seasoning on chicken before I grill it, on fish before I put it under the broiler, in a soup or stew, roasted potatoes are good also. I like fajitas served in lettuce, flour and corn tortillas are yummy also. I just don't miss them as much as I thought I would with fajitas. I still like them other times though! YUM. 

DH and the girls like beans, mostly black beans. I am not a bean fan. I leave it out of most foods, and serve some on the side when I cook. Like this Frito Pie here this works well for everyone. I do like refried beans though, I'm certain it's because I refry them with bacon fat. Who doesn't like that? These beans are a great side dish, perfect with rice, and on a Tostada that I'll share next week. Until then let's make beans.

Below are links to both Fajita and Taco seasoning.

Fajita Seasoning

Taco Seasoning

IF you have a pressure cooker here's a method to cook dry beans in a fraction of the time.

These black beans are wonderful topped with a fried egg and leftover fajitas for breakfast.

Give Peas A Chance Refried Black Beans

3 (ish) cups of black beans, cooked (if canned, drained and rinsed)

1 cup chicken stock, veggie stock or water are ok also

1 1/2 tablespoons bacon grease, ghee, or olive oil

1 small garlic clove minced, or grated with a microplane

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cumin

salt

pepper

In a pot heat the bacon grease until melted, add the garlic clove. Let this cook until fragrant. Add the black beans and stock. Stir. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer the beans uncovered until half the water is absorbed. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, mash the beans on the side of the pot until you get the consistency you like. Some people don't like them mashed at all, other people like them really smooth. I like them in between.  Season to taste with cumin, salt, pepper.

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Greek Chicken Kabobs With Greek Seasoning Blend

These were a hit with the whole family. I thought I had made too much but there wasn't any leftover! The Greek Seasoning blend is easy to make, I had everything on hand. If you don't have fried lemon zest/peel, just omit and when you're marinating add fresh lemon zest. 

Serve this with some Tzatziki sauce if you like, and pita bread.

The seasoning is versatile. Use it for other meats, or in a cucumber, yogurt salad dressing, in

Manic Monday- GPAC Curry Powder

I love toasting and grinding my own spices. I love that they are more fragrant, and are made the way I like them! This is curry powder. I love playing with spices, adding more of what I like, less of something I don't like or omitting it all together. I love putting together seasonings.
This is what I put in my curry powder, I toast and cool the whole spices first.

Give Peas A Chance Curry Powder
coriander seeds

cumin seeds

cardamom seeds (the green ones)

white and black peppercorns

fenugreek seeds

red pepper flakes

cinnamon

 turmeric

ginger

Wordless/Repeat Wednesday's are now posting on Monday's under the tag Manic Monday*
Find more "ManIc MoNdaY" posts here.

I hope you'll try this recipe, and let me know how it goes!

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GPAC Smokey Ancho Chile Seasoning

This seasoning can be used for so many things.

Soups

Stews

Grilling shrimp, fish, chicken, pork, beef, vegetables

Roasting meats, vegetables

With meats in the crock pot- sprinkle it on pork or chicken. Once cooked shred it and serve as pictured above, over a salad, in lettuce wraps and more.

Use it to season tortilla, sweet potato, plantain chips, or potato chips

It has a smokey flavor, a little sweet. The Ancho Chilie powder is where the smokey flavor comes from, if you want less smokey use 1 tablespoon of the Ancho and 3 tablespoons of the chili powder. When used as a rub it caramelizes beautifully! Use as little or as much as you'd like. If you've never used coriander seed it is fragrant and so good. I use my spice grinder to grind it up. It is cilantro seed but does not taste the same.

Crock Pot Spiced Holiday Wassail

A friend of mine (Becky- check out her site!) brought this over to our house when we had the Operation Christmas Child party. OK, not really this glass, but she brought some to the house. She had said there was apple juice, orange juice, and I think a pineapple/orange juice concentrate. Which she said she used part of a can of that. She also said there were spices. I didn't write it down. I don't have the best memory but it wasn't too much to remember. We had some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday so I decided to make some. It's nice because you just throw it all in the crock pot. I added some spices and it was really good!

MYO Vanilla Extract

MMM, vanilla. 

I love using vanilla beans, vanilla paste, vanilla powder, vanilla extract, ground vanilla. I never measure, I just pour or scoop it in. You can't get enough good vanilla.

Recently I ran out of vanilla extract, and I've seen this make your own extract all over Pinterest. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Even if I still have to go buy a bottle of extract until this is ready to use.

I didn't have a dark glass jar or vodka. So I found this little bottle of vodka at the store and decided to use it. Even if it's clear, light glass. I store my vanillas in a cool dark place, so I wasn't too concerned. 

Just about all of the posts I read said any cheap vodka will do. Some said bourbon and some said rum were good also. I picked vodka because I liked this bottle, I know right? I also needed some to make pasta sauce. So that's why some of this is missing out of the bottle.

I think I'll modge podge something on the bottle, a label. But I'm not sure yet.

Other than the waiting 4-6 weeks to use this stuff, it's really easy to make. 

GPAC Apple Rings

First off, I have to tell you something about these Apple rings. They look crispy, I know they do. But they aren't like a potato chip. Diva and I decided that they were more like a fruit leather with a tiny crispy to them. They are very good and very easy to make. I didn't even pull out my mandolin. Because my mandolin... well it leaves much to be desired. I just used a knife. I did put the apples in a bowl of filtered water with some Fruit Fresh to keep them from browning. This is optional, you can use water and some lemon juice also. Just keep in mind that whatever you put on the apples will be concentrated when dehydrated. So they may be a little tart.
I used Cameo apples and Granny Smith. I love the tart Granny Smith apples. So good. With salt and spicy Thai chili powder. MMM. The Cameo's are so sweet and crunchy. I usually buy sweeter apples for the girls because they like that.

Sweet nectar of the gods...

Magical coffee indeed. (Plus variations on ice cubes) I'm not a big coffee drinker, I don't drink a cup a day. I don't even drink a cup a week. We don't own a coffee maker, we do have an espresso maker- but I don't use it. I do love coffee when I'm out and about though. Then I love coffee. I'm a social drinker, LOL.

I do love iced coffee though. Vietnamese iced coffee especially. I think because when I was growing up my mom always ordered it when we went out for a nice big bowl of Pho. So I associate it with that comfort food. She would also make it at home, that and the Limeade I love so much. On hot summer days, I still remember the sound of the spoon hitting the sides of her big tall glasses. She would most likely be working out in the garden. She didn't let us drink coffee though as kids. My cousins and I would make coffee when our parents were gone though! With that one sentence I just threw everybody under the bus.

Pumpkin Spice and Chai Syrup

I saw this on Pinterest. Most of the recipes are standard- one part water, one part sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.  I adapted those recipes to my tastes. I like my pumpkin spices to pop.  I used the same method for the Chai spiced syrup.

Black, White and Spice!

New kid in town. Black, White and Spice! I love this stuff. Four different organic peppercorns toasted, herbs and spices such as oregano, basil, onion, garlic, shallots, celery, bell peppers, flaky course salt and more. This is a wonderful all purpose seasoning salt. It's perfect used during cooking and to finish a dish. Sprinkle it on pasta and, my current favorite, on salads. Full of flavor you won't need dressing.

Herbs/Spices/Seasonings- Share your favorites!

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Not too long ago on a forum I belong to someone posted about herbs and spices we use in cooking. I started my list of what I use and applications off the top of my head. Today I went back and looked at that list and thought (briefly) about going through my spices and such to list everything I use and throw out that one bottle of unopened Mrs. Dash in something like lemon pepper or whatever that has been in our pantry for two moves and 8 years, I just can’t seem to throw it out. It’s just there for pretty I guess. But I don't have time to go through everything.
I know you’re supposed to replace dried herbs every 6 months. I use my herbs and spices so much that I don’t have to worry about that for the most part. If at all possible I prefer fresh herbs to dried but dried is so very convenient. Here is my list (of herbs, spices and seasonings that I use around here and some other stuff that came to mind). I think I now know why I have so little space in my cupboards. I may add to it and edit when I have time.

Your turn!! Post a list on your blog of your favorites or all you use and link it in the comments section or post your list in the comment section I'd love to get some new ideas!

Fajita Seasoning

Fajita Seasoning

I admit the problem with me is sometimes I don't measure things, but hey I try to remember to do so. This is a good substitute for fajita seasoning packets you buy at the store, less sodium and no MSG. It tastes way better, and I suspect it's cheaper too.
Get your kids in the kitchen to help mix and measure if they are old enough!

Are you buying taco seasoning?

Are you buying taco seasoning packets? Stop! You should try this, so much less sodium and you know exactly what's in it! No MSG or fillers! In my opinion it tastes much better too. I have used it for many other things than just tacos. But just add the seasoning to taste, and add a bit of water after your beef is browned. I also like to put chicken breasts in the crock pot and sprinkle this on top, that's it no water or anything, let it cook then shred the chicken for tacos, burritos, enchiladas, whatever.