Thanksgiving is not that far away!

Are you looking forward to Thanksgiving this year? I know I am! It is a time to come together as a family and eat wonderful and tasty food. Plus it gives me a chance to show off my cooking skills. Lol.

Well Allrecipes.com and Campbells is sponsoring something great this year called "Respect the Bird." A lot of people tend to skip over Thanksgiving and head straight into Christmas, which I personally do not understand. So please join both me and Allrecipes.com in respecting the bird!



Here is also a video that you can watch on it. :)



Anyway, I just wanted to support this great cause.

I respect the bird. :)

Canning... Yay!!

So I got my Ball Home Canning Kit delivered today, and I am sooooo excited to try it. Unfortunately my largest pot is not big enough to use, so it is a trip to Wal-Mart tomorrow to get supplies and a new pot. I cannot wait to try out some new recipes with family and friends! I might try some practice runs before then though. I don't want to poison anyone! Lol. Plus that way I can try out some good recipes to share with everybody.

Boudin! Boudin! Boudin!

I LOVE boudin. It actually is my favorite food. You know the one where if you were stranded on a deserted island with only one thing to eat for the rest of your life? Yup, boudin is mine.

Anyway, last weekend was my brother's college graduation, and we had to make a trip out to Lake Charles to go and see it. Well the last couple of times we went out there I had been wanting to stop by Hackett's Cajun Kitchen for some boudin. (link found here http://www.hackettscajunkitchen.com/ ) They make some of the best (if not the very best) boudin I have ever ate. Growing up I remember being in my Maw Maw's kitchen during a family gathering and having tons of packets of Hackett's boudin all over the place--crawfish, mild, spicy, shrimp, etc.. Ah memories.

With that being said, they close early. How early you ask? 3pm on the dot. I always miss them when I head out there because it seems we are always in a rush. This last trip we finally made it. We had to head into town to get a card at Walmart for my brother after his graduation (procrastinate much?), and sure enough I saw it was open. I made sure to get a big cooler also at Walmart and we rushed our way out of there. We made it with an hour to spare! I got me some crawfish boudin, mild smoked boudin, and some andouille sausage for my gumbo.

Fast forward to today. It is the last day of school and also a half day. The kids will get home hungry so I decided to just pop a frozen pizza in the oven for their lunch. As I head out into the garage and open the freezer door, there was the boudin staring up at me. I had forgotten about it in my tired daze over the last week of school! I grabbed me the crawfish boudin and stuck it in my steamer on the stove.

Wow! I forgot how delicious it was! DELICIOUS!! (just in case I did not make myself clear, lol) I ate about a half a pound by myself, and I now need to go work off the calories. So worth it though. So worth it......

Oh and for those who are not familiar with what boudin is, here is a link that describes it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudin

Although, Cajun boudin is usually just rice dressing stuffed into a sausage case.

Whoot whoot!!

I get to do a canning party! Ok, I know that most of you are not as excited about this as I am, but I LOVE to cook! So this is a wonderful thing for me! I always wanted to learn how to can, and I even begged James to buy me a kit last year for Christmas. He decided to get me a bread maker instead, but I think I just saved him from having to get me one for my birthday. Lol.

Anyway, I am pretty sure I am going to suck it up and start culinary school next Spring. I have to get all of my other affairs in order first. But yes! Oh yeah! Canning baby. That's what I am talking about. Soon I will have my fresh homemade salsa canned and packed for gifting, and maybe soon selling.