Turkey Jambalaya (with Scallops too)

I had some scallops in the freezer that had been there for a really long time, so I came up with a way to use a lot of them: jambalaya! I made two separate kinds: non-seafood for me, and scallop for Cookie Monster. Here is how I started things out: some chicken andouille sausage, zucchini, onions, garlic, carrots, bell peppers and a bunch of spices. I think I used oregano, basil, sage and some Texas Heat. I think I might've used some chili powder, cayenne and crushed red pepper flakes, too. This is the peril of cooking the way I do--I can't remember what I put in stuff and sometimes I can't replicate it exactly!

Then I dumped in some chicken stock and tomato sauce to make a soup.

Then I dumped in some sushi rice (the only white rice we have) and leftover turkey from the holidays (a great use for it!) and let it cook up in the soup. It thickened quite a bit, so I added a bit of chicken stock now and again to keep it from getting too thick.

As soon as Cookie Monster got home from work (I usually have dinner almost ready or done when he gets home. How '50s housewife am I?) I dumped in the rest of the packaged of defrosted baby scallops to make it more jambalaya-like (since we didn't have any shrimp). I just cooked the scallops through, which took about 5 minutes, and it was good to go!


To go with the soup, I made Cookie Monster a turkey, cream cheese and cherry preserves sandwich. It was really good! Just like Thanksgiving leftovers, except the cherry made it just a touch sweeter.

Lobster Ravioli al Fresco

Here we have some lobster ravioli I cooked up for Cookie Monster. I had some leftover pumpkin ravioli in the freezer, so that's what I made for me. I can't take credit for the lobster ravioli. Trader Joe can.


I made a simple sauce for the pasta--just browned up some butter and sauteed garlic 'til it was browned (but not burned!) and tossed the pasta lightly in that. I served the pasta with some steamed broccoli (not shown since Cookie Monster had already eaten it!). I grated some parmesan cheese over the top and voila! A delectable, delicious and delightful dinner.


It was actually nice outside for a change, so we dined al fresco! Note the fallen tree in the background. That fell over when it was decidedly not nice outside. Granted, it was rotting, but the wind gave it that final push.

We got a bottle of this wine from a friend. It's Red Diamond cabernet sauvignon. Frankly, I didn't much like it. And this says a lot coming from me. If it's fermented grapes, I'll drink it. I'll drink Chuck Shaw. I'll drink discount store wine. Hell, I drank wine in Italy that came in a 1 qt. box for 86 cents! It tasted a lot like turpentine.

I will draw the line, however, at white zinfandel. At that point, you might as well be drinking Boone's. And if you're gonna drink Boone's, drink Boone's!




So anyway, I didn't much like this wine. It tasted kinda musty and metallic to me. But then what the hell do I know about wine? I drank turpenwine! All I know is: I didn't like it.


Dinner: Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Crab Melt

This one was solely for Cookie Monster. I had some whole wheat English muffins in the fridge and wanted to use them up, so I came up with this idea. It was just crab from a can (from Trader Joe's. I love that store. I can spend hours there, just perusing the aisles and looking at all the interesting ingredients. I can also spend a lot of money there, so I usually go with list in-hand. And then I usually deviate from the list by at least a few items. If the product they are sampling that day is not of the meat variety, it will usually end up in my cart. Those marketing people are genius.).

But I digress.



First I toasted the English muffin just a bit in our toaster oven (no need to turn on the big oven just for this) so it wouldn't get soggy. After all, there's nothing worse than a soggy English muffin. Actually, yes there is. There are a lot of things worse than a soggy English muffin. Things like, oh, I don't know... AIDS, human trafficking, genocide. You get the idea. So, really, if your English muffin gets soggy, it'll still be ok.

But I digress. Are you detecting a theme here at Chez VCK?

Feeling decadent, I want edto make a cheese sauce to go on top. After all, it is a crab melt. (Ok, so I don't actually know what goes on a crab melt. I have never eaten one. If I was with someone who ordered one at a restaurant I would be really curious to find out what's actually in a crab melt. But this is my imagination, my house and my blog, so this is what my crab melt is. So there!).

I combined butter (real butter this time!) and flour in a pot to make a roux. Since we had some half n' half leftover from making ganache (made to go on top of a homemade cheesecake. Sadly, I do not have any pictures of this glorious event, which I am very upset about. It was divine), and I didn't have any regular milk (always non-fat at Chez VCK, unless it's soy milk), I decided to be really naughty and use that in the cheese sauce. I dumped a few healthy glugs into the roux and stirred 'til combined, then added 2-3 good handfuls of white cheddar cheese. Whoo-boy! Calories be damned! I'm makin' cheese sauce! I added a small grate of nutmeg, then just let the cheese melt and the sauce thicken.

Once the sauce came together, I put the crab meat on the (not soggy! Hooray!) English muffin, the covered liberally with sinfully delicious cheese sauce. Then I popped it under the broiler again for just a minute or two, until it looked like this:

See how bubbly and goldenly delicious it looks? I served it alongside Trader Joe's frozen hericort verts mix, which is one of my favorite frozen vegetables. I usually saute some onions and garlic in EVOO before adding the frozen vegetables, just to make it more interesting. And since Cookie Monster is a freak and doesn't like a lot of cooked vegetables, I always end up with a pile of only sauteed onions and carrots--oh, well. More vegetables for me!

I didn't partake in the crab, but I crisped up some extra-firm tofu and poured some of the cheese sauce over that. It rocked.