Do you find yourself bringing fast food home because you don’t have time to cook a good home-cooked meal?  Are you in a rut with your meal plan and keep eating the same thing over and over again?  Here’s a quick-and-easy complete meal that goes from freezer to table in a very short amount of time.  Oh yeah, and it’s delicious!

Stop by your local grocery store and pick up the following items on your way home:

• Four chicken breasts (frozen or fresh)
• Four medium Russet Potatoes
• One can of whole kernel corn
• One can of sliced carrots
• Butter or margarine
• Barbecue sauce
• Sour cream
• Montreal or Cajun seasoning
• Cinnamon

   

Follow these steps in order and your meal will appear before your eyes in no time:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Line a glass casserole dish with aluminum foil.
2. Place chicken breasts in dish in a single layer.  Pour barbecue sauce over each piece of chicken and coat using a pastry brush.  Sprinkle with seasoning of your choice.  Place in oven and set kitchen timer for 25-30 minutes.  Be careful not to overcook as chicken will be dry.
3. Take potatoes and poke multiple holes in each using a fork.  Place on microwave safe plate and place in microwave.  Microwave on high for 12 minutes.  Note that  times will vary from microwave-to-microwave so consult your manual.
4. While chicken and potatoes are cooking, open the can of corn and the can of carrots.  Drain about half the water from each can.  Place contents of each can in separate microwave safe bowls.  Place one tablespoon of butter or margarine in each bowl.  Sprinkle carrots with cinnamon.
5. Set the table while waiting for the potatoes to finish.  Once potatoes are done, remove them from microwave.  Put corn in microwave and heat for 1:30 minutes.  When corn is done, remove and place carrots in microwave and heat for 1:30 minutes.  Cut potatoes in half and add generous amounts of butter and sour cream to each half.  Season with salt and black pepper.
6. At this point, the chicken should be almost cooked so pour the drinks and call your family to the table.  Remove the chicken from the oven when the timer expires.  Check to make sure the chicken is fully cooked.

In about thirty minutes you should have a complete delicious and nutritious meal that you and your family can enjoy.  What a fantastic way to break out of the old routine!  Happy eating!

When I was a kid I knew I was luckier than the other kids. I knew that everyday my mom would have something good to eat for dinner. One of my absolute favorites was her meatball stew. I’ve made a few modifications to make it a bit easier and quicker to prepare. Give it a try, your family and your taste buds will thank you!

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped coarsely
1 medium green pepper, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup dry roux *
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 cups water

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, add beef, 1/4 of the onion, salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper. Mix well.
2. Add vegetable oil to skillet and heat over medium heat.
3. Form beef mixture into meatballs. You should be able to make about 8-10 meatballs. Add meatballs to skillet and brown. Stir meatballs often to keep them from sticking. Cook time should be around 3-5 minutes.
4. Remove meatballs from skillet and set aside in a clean bowl.
5. Add bell pepper and remaining onion to skillet. Reduce heat to low and saute until onions become transparent. Move vegetables to one side of the skillet and add the dry roux. Add water to skillet and mix well with dry roux to remove clumps. Mix roux in with vegetables and increase heat to high and allow to boil for one minute.
6. Reduce heat to low and put meatballs back into skillet. Cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
7. Remove cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes if gravy is too thin.
8. Serve over steamed white rice with whole corn as a side dish.

* Note that you can make your own roux or use ‘wet’ roux if you have that on hand. I prefer using the dry roux as it is extremely quick to go from powder to ready to use.

For a printable version of this recipe click here

–Charlie

Alright, I have to admit that this is deviating a bit from our core subject, but hey, we use plenty of oil in Cajun cooking and there’s usually a ton of fat drippings as well so I guess we’re not too far off topic!

Everyone has felt the pain at the pump and many are looking for cheaper alternatives. A few pioneers discovered that they could use discarded cooking oil from restaurants to power their modified vehicles. Imagine the possibilities! Take something that is virtually free and turn it into fuel. Sounds like a grand idea. Many news stories were written and taped and the practice became more and more main stream. An episode of MTV’s Rob and Big even had an episode dedicated to how they had converted their old beat up car to run on used grease from a fast-food restaurant.

Sadly, like everything all good things must come to an end. Fast forward to last weeks news story on ABC World News Tonight newscast. The report stated that restaurants were being plagued by thieves. The shocking part of the story was not that restaurants were being robbed. No, the shocking part was what the thieves were stealing. It seems that the old cooking oil is just too tempting and too accessible for these dishonest drivers to pass up. What once was trash is now gold and the restaurants are now taking measures to secure the discarded oil and for good reason.

It seems that the price of the used oil has skyrocketed in recent months. The story stated that the price per gallon was around $.75 but now sells for nearly $2.60! This looks like the beginning of the end of the fast-food fuel craze. You’re sure to see restaurants start charging folks to haul their old oil away. Looks like another case of demand outweighing supply. The only way that any could possibly continue to save money is if people suddenly stop converting their vehicles to use this fuel source or if the price of the used oil plummets.

So what can you do to save money on your fuel bill? Some have spoke of using hydrogen powered vehicles, but I ask you, have you seen the price of bottled water??!

-Charlie
Cajun Recipes

I’ve done a fair amount of traveling in my day and in doing so the folks that I’ve met have had some intriguing questions once they hear that I’m from Louisiana. Among the more comical is ‘Do you see a lot of alligators on the loose near your home?’ . I guess Hollywood has done it’s job with the wonderful documentary ‘The Waterboy’ in portraying Southern Louisiana as a swampy wasteland.

To answer the question, no, animal control is doing a fine job keeping the alligators out of back yard. While there is the occasional gator on the loose in the much more rural areas, this is quite the exception than the rule. If you want to see a gator you’ll have to go into the swamp or find a bayou. So do we see a lot of alligators on the loose near our homes? No. That is unless you live in the swamp, share a property line with a bayou, live on the campus of The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or have a zoo as a neighbor. Chances are you’ll be safe to walk around without your alligator repellent!

–Charlie
Hot Cajun Recipes

Many people wrongly assume that Creole cooking is synonymous with Cajun cooking.  The truth is that the origin of these styles of cooking took shape in close proximity of each other but have different roots altogether.  It’s important to take a look at the ancestry that has brought both these styles to life.

The early Cajuns were originally evicted citizens of Acadia Canada (present day Nova Scotia).  They settled in southern Louisiana along the Mississippi River and to areas west of New Orleans.  They later moved further west into an area now known as Acadiana.  The Cajuns were a hard working group but always took time to celebrate life despite the hardships they had faced.  They were always ready to share a meal, a story, and “pass a good time”.

Cajun cooking has been misinterpreted as being overly spicy.  While the food is well seasoned, it is definitely palatable  by most.  The meals are usually spiced using cayenne pepper, black pepper Most Cajun recipes call for onions, celery and bell pepper (sometimes referred to as ‘the trinity’) as well as parsley, green onions (onion tops) and garlic.  A thickening agent called a roux is a commonly used ingredient in many Cajun recipes.  Most recipes are more improvisations than precisely measured and are typically ‘one pot’ meals.

The Creoles were European settlers who made their homes in New Orleans and in plantations along the Mississippi River.  They were mostly from Spain, Portugal and France and were known for their wealth.  They were heavily involved in the early shipping, banking and farming industries.  They enjoyed their wealth and they, like the Cajuns, enjoyed their food too!

Creole food takes it’s roots from French and Spanish recipes but also is influenced by Africa, Italy, Germany and West Indies styles.  The slaves of the Creoles brought okra to Louisiana whose African name is ‘gumbo’.  Creole food shares many of the same spices and ingredients as Cajun food but were typically  served in many courses and were presented in a traditional European fashion.

So why is there so much confusion regarding the two different styles?  The reason is that over time, the two styles have made a sort of cooking style gumbo out of themselves.  Both the Cajuns and Creoles loved their foods and borrowed bits of each style and incorporated into their own.  Indeed it is probably easier to compare the similarities between the two styles than it would be to pinpoint the differences.  Both use a variety of the same seafood and wildlife, seasonings and vegetables as well as the roux base.  While it may be difficult to draw the line between both Cajun cooking and Creole cooking, one thing can be said definitively of both:  They’re both delicious and not to be missed if the opportunity to indulge is presented!

It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce our new blog for Hot Cajun Recipes! Our plan is to use this blog to share information about the Cajun Culture as well as sharing local events in Cajun Country. We will also be providing step-by-step instructions on preparing some of our great Cajun recipes in the hopes of getting you to try some great Cajun cooking. In the future, we hope to also bring you some actual videos of our favorite recipes as well.
We hope that you enjoy the blog and that you participate by commenting on the postings. We also hope that you share your favor cajun recipes and creole recipes by visiting our website.

All the best and here’s to the future of Cajun Cooking!
-Charlie