Dawn - My BFF

My husband loves to cook outdoors. He will grill, smoke, fry just about anything if given even an inkling of a suggestion. But one thing he's been doing quite a bit these days is frying turkeys. He does a really good job with it too. Always well seasoned, moist and juicy! Every summer he co-hosts a picnic and the first thing people ask him is, “Are you frying a turkey?”

This year he’s been receiving requests from our family and friends asking him to personally fry turkeys for them. And since loves to do it, the answer is always yes. They supply the turkey with some peanut oil and he works his magic. But guess who has to work on the clean up? You are right if you guessed ME. 

Here’s the aftermath:

This is the basket the turkey sits in while it frys

Not a pretty sight! But really it's not as bad as it seems. That's because I have an ally that I just love. It’s my grease fighting BFF, Dawn.

All I do is run a sink full of hot water, add some Dawn dish detergent and let the basket sit in it for about 10-15 minutes, then wash it. I don’t even need a scouring pad. The grime/grease lifts right off just using a dish rag!

And here’s the basket all bright and shiny, ready for the next Turkey Fry!

When it comes to grease and grime, Dawn is this girl’s best friend. So what is your go-to product in the kitchen? Do share!

- Lil Nell

Super Bowl Party Gumbo

Hey All! I wanted to share with you this great gumbo recipe that is so quick and easy you can start it when the Pregame shows begin and it will be ready before the first kick off. The "kicker" is this – it will taste like you slaved all day. Seriously!

It was a recipe I found in an old Ebony magazine from 1990 that has a young Janet Jackson on the cover – she was promoting Rhythm Nation at the time. So while I can't take the credit for the bones of the recipe, I did add a couple things to make it my own. Well are you ready to get started?

Ok, here’s what you will need:

1 can (28 ounces) tomatoes

1/2 cup diced green pepper

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup flour

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon leaf thyme or gumbo file'

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined 

This recipe makes 6 servings but I wanted a larger amount so I tripled the recipe. I also added Parker House  Hot Smoked Sausages to it. I LOVE Parker House sausage in my gumbo! It's optional but if you want to try them I totally recommend it. I just used a third less chicken than the recipe said and made up the difference with sausage. I also used a teensy bit less shrimp too, and made that up with a teensy bit more sausage. See, I told you I love their sausage. = )

I just chop the sausages into bite size pieces, cook them a bit in a skillet (oh about 10 minutes) and then set them aside.

Also, I buy already cooked frozen shrimp. I don't know how to peel and de-vein shrimp and even though I'm pretty sure that you can probably buy raw already peeled and de-veined shrimp...well let me just say this - ain't nobody got time for that! ; )

So, here’s how to put it together:

Drain the liquid from the canned tomatoes but don't throw it out. We will be using it in a little bit. Now  coarsely chop the tomatoes. I didn't know what that meant but the cooking websites say it means to cut not as small as a dice or a chop. So I just cut them in half lengthwise and made 3 cross cuts. It looked coarsely chopped to me. (Sorry I didn't get a closeup pic of that.) 

Next, melt the butter over low heat in the gumbo pot. I would say my pot is about 6.5 quarts. Cause I'm making a boat-load of gumbo. 

Once the butter is melted add the green peppers and onions and cook until they are tender but not turning brown. I would say about 7 to 10 minutes

Then stir in your flour until the peppers and onions are coated but don't let it start turning brown. Add the chopped tomatoes, drained tomato liquid, chicken, salt, gumbo file' (or thyme - I use gumbo file'), and hot pepper sauce.

Well you can kinda get a visual on the size of my coarsely chopped tomatoes

Bring to a low boil for 5 minutes and then add your cooked sausage. If you aren't using sausage then just cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Gotta have my Parker House!

While I'm waiting for the goodness to finish simmering I do two things. (1) Bring my shrimp to room temperature by running them under cool water so that they can thaw quicker (also removing those hard tips on their tails in the process). And (2) I start my rice. I use instant rice but if you use regular rice you may want to reverse 1 and 2.

After 20 minutes then add the shrimp to the gumbo pot and cook another 5 minutes. Some people like to add in some cooked okra at this point. They say it's not gumbo if there's no okra in it. But I don't like okra so I don't put it in there. It's fine, it's still gumbo to me. = ) 

That's it! Use a big ladle and spoon some into a bowl, top it with your rice, and grab a glass of your drink of choice. Mine is Orange Crush with a bit of cola added for color. 

Ummm...so good you'll go back for seconds, "I gar-rone-tee it"!!! (Correctly guess where that quote came from and there's a slice of 7UP cake waiting for you)

So what are you serving on Super Bowl Sunday? Are you catering in a big spread? Will it be a Bring A Dish? Or are you preparing everything in-house? Wonder what the Harbaugh's will be doing...

Have a good one!!!

- Lil Nell

Something Simple

I love simple things. Especially when they are practically free and so easy to do. In my house I have a wall along the stairway that leads to the basement with six little in-set frosted glass block windows.

In the picture the windows are blank but over the years I have experimented with different ways of trying to decorate the space but was never completely satisfied. So eventually I wound up taking everything out and leaving the windows blank. I still wasn't happy with it because I felt it needed something... Something simple. And one day when I was drinking a bottle of Izze it came to me!

So, I took the empty bottle of Izze, a small glass candle holder, some decorative pebbles, and an LED candle...

And created this:

Here is the finished look in daylight:

And at night:

I love the nice simple look of the glass and pebbles. In the evening the soft glow of the candle light bouncing off the glass block windows gives the stairway a cozy glow that I just love!

So, here is my Before & After:

Simple, huh? So what do you think?

Super Easy Monday Dinner

Since I work full-time I don’t have a lot of time to slave away in the kitchen preparing meals. Maybe one day when I grow up I will be able to do that. But for now it’s just not happening. Thank goodness for companies who make convenience products that can help out with dinner planning!

Today I made a super easy yet delicious meal using Zatarain’s Gumbo mix with Rice and a package of Frozen Shrimp. Most of the times when I make this I use chicken and hot smoked sausage along with shrimp. But today I only had shrimp in the house.

The box calls for 6 cups of water but I find that makes the gumbo too watery for my family's tastes so I only use 4 and a half cups. Also, I remove the tails from the shrimp and cut them into bite sized pieces so that we can have some in every spoonful. Follow the directions on the box and in less than 30 minutes you’ll be able to have yourself a bowl of yummy Shrimp Gumbo with Rice!

That’s what’s for dinner at Lil Nell’s, what’s for dinner at your house?

This is My Journal

I love to take care of my home and my family but because I have such a busy life I don't have the time or energy to do as many things as I would like to. I created this blog as an attempt to journal the changes I make to my home and the things that I do to make my family's life more enjoyable. It's going to be a lot of hard work but full of enjoyable learning experiences!