Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Crawfish boils are a fun, festive way to celebrate Mardi Gras! "Laissez les bons temps rouler" means "Let the good times roll!"   So that's what we did...we had a great time this past weekend celebrating one of Justin's friends 31st birthdays with a crawfish boil!!  Several of our friends came in from out of town to join in on the celebrating...then we had several other friends that we've made here in Marshall show up too.  We ended up with quite a turn-out!  The crawfish turned out delicious and everyone had a great time eating, drinking, playing washers, shooting guns, dancing, playing drinking games, and just being merry!!

My husband, Justin, on the left and the birthday boy on the right getting ready for the crawfish boil.

My brother-in-law designed and built this crawfish pot!! Pretty cool, huh?!

 This was either before or after the target shooting and I just captured the moment, lol!

 Digging in to dem mudbugs!!

 Beautiful mudbugs!!!

 Cheese!!

Smitty's Crawfish Etouffee

My husband's maternal side of the family has French heritage and I feel VERY fortunate because I have always enjoyed Cajun faire!  Justin's Dad learned to cook from his mother-in-law...so he's actually the one that does all the Cajun cooking around their home even though Justin's Mom is the one that has the French blood pumpin'!!  Justin's family enjoys embracing their French heritage through cooking, decroating for Mardi Gras, attending Mardi Gras functions, hosting crawfish boils etc.  So, for our rehersal dinner, we planned a Mardi Gras themed dinner and party.  We chose to have it at Delacroix's in Nacogdoches and it was fun and delicious...I've become a fan of the Cajun traditions and have enjoyed embracing that part of my new family :)
For our second Valentine's Day together, Justin invited me over to his house...he had cooked a wonderful meal of Crawfish Etouffee!!  I was blown away at how absolutely mouth-watering this dish was.  If I wasn't already head-over-heels with this boy, I was after that meal!!  So enough with the background, here's the scoop on the dish:

• 3 lbs crawfish tails (I buy these in the seafood section at Wal-Mart or if you've just had a crawfish boil and you have leftover crawfish, you can peel them and use those!)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 stick butter
• 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
• 6 oz. heavy whipping cream
• 3 cups prepared Minute Rice
• water, as needed
• Tony's to taste

Saute all vegetables in butter until clear and soft.  Add tomato paste, whipping cream, and Tony's.  Add water if needed for consistency. Simmer 15 minutes.  Add crawfish.  Simmer 5 minutes. Turn off burner, cover, and allow to sit for 15 minutes.  Serve over prepared white rice (I cheat and use Minute Rice...the ancestors are probably rolling over in their graves!)

(Ok, if you're wondering....for these pictures, we used shrimp because Wal-Mart was out of crawfish and it turned out really good....so you can always use shrimp if you're not a crawfish fan....or you can use crawfish AND shrimp...Justin also added crab leg meat this time, but NEVER use imitation crab for this dish)

BEEF...it's what's for dinner!!!

I know I've been M.I.A. for a while, but work, life, and work have been getting in the way...did I mention work?  Anyway, it hasn't stopped me from cooking for my honey, just kept me from staying glued to the computer so much!!

If my husband and I could survive solely on protein, I think we would...oh, and potatoes....meat and taters kind of people, that's us!!  We thought we knew good meat and we thought we were eating good, UNTIL, I ran across a recipe for a beef tenderloin.  Ohhh myyyy...we didn't know what we had been missing all these years!!  This is a Pioneer Woman recipe.  She is the best, and I have come to completely admire her and just plain want to be her!  So, on with the recipe...

Heat the oven to 475.  Start with a whole beef tenderloin (about 4-5 lbs).  I get mine at Sam's.  Trim the fat and the "silvery" cartilage that is sometimes between the fat and the meat.  Season the meat with plenty of seasoned salt (Lawry's, Tony's, or TexJoy...whatever your favorite may be) and lemon pepper.  Remember, be liberal with the seasoning.  Heat just enough oil (canola, vegetable, or olive) to cover the bottom of the skillet until it is at its smoking point and sear the meat in the oil on both sides.  Place about 1/3 cup of whole peppercorns in a ziploc bag.  On a cutting board, beat the peppercorns with a mallet or hammer until they are crushed.  Once the meat is seared on both sides (this only takes about 45 seconds per side), remove from oil and press crushed peppercorns on both sides of meat. Top meat with 4-5 tablespoons of butter. Place tenderloin on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes,  internal temperature should reach just under 140 degrees.  Slice and enjoy!!!  Tastes delicious with any kind of potato, of course :)

Christmas Party for the G~i~R~l~S

I have been labeled as the person who always initiates girls nights for a particular group of friends in Nacogdoches...you always need that person in every group, right?  When I lived there, I was usually the one inviting all the girls over for dinner/wine, or getting the group together at our favorite sushi restaurant, etc.  I love themes though....and Christmas has to be my favorite.  This year, I have looked forward to Christmas for so many reasons...we are in our new house, we will have my step-son, Noah, this year, and it's our first Christmas as a married couple.  I can remember my first Christmas with Justin as a couple...we had been together for a long while before that Christmas, but it was the first time we actually spent it together.  We were opening gifts with his family and I got a little bitty box....my heart was racing.  I thought, "This is WAY too soon to be getting engaged!!"  But we girls know that feeling when you get the little bitty box!!!! Anyway, he obviously thought it was WAY too soon too because it was a beautiful, sparkly pair of diamond studs...which I still wear everyday.  Finally, several YEARS later, he surprised me on a random Wednesday in October with those 4 little words and a bling, bling diamond RING!!! I was overjoyed!!  We married in May and I have been looking so forward to the holidays in our home and with our traditions.
Just because I moved away from my Nac-girls, I still wanted to host a Christmas party for them and invite them to our home.  As much as I love to cook and entertain, I decided to cheat a little and I ordered a couple of items  from restaurants....I'm glad I did though because I ended up spending the entire day on cooking, cleaning, and last minute details.  In Marshall, we have an awesome little deli called Central Perks that has the BEST chicken salad EVER!!!  If you are ever in the area, look it up and order the chicken salad....you won't be disappointed!  I also ordered spinach artichoke dip from Chilis....it's just a favorite of mine, so I thought, "why screw it up?"  I did make my mom's famous truffles:

These are simple in a tedious kind of way...I only say a handful of cuss words while making these.  All you do is bake a box cake (any flavor you want...I used chocolate).  While the cake is still hot, you stir in a can of icing (any flavor you want...I used chocolate again). Stir until the icing is mixed all througout the cake.  Then, you ball up the cake/icing mixture and put in the refrigerator to cool.  Once cooled, you melt a package of almond bark....again, i used chocolate and use a toothpick to dip the balls into the melted almond bark.  Let those stand long enough to harden, then take out the toothpicks.  Then melt the white almond bark and put into a ziploc baggie and cut a small corner of the baggie to drizzle the white almond bark over the balls.  Of course, you can do the white on bottom and the chocolate on top...and you could always add food coloring to the white bark, but that takes even more patience and these little suckers already make me cuss!

I saw peppermint almond bark in the Williams Sonoma magazine the other day and I thought it looked so beautiful....and of course, I thought, "I can make that!" So I just melted chocolate almond bark first and spread it over a cookie sheet and let it cool in the fridge, then did the same with the white.  Then I sprinkled crushed peppermints over the hot, white almond bark so it would stick.  Cooled in fridge.  The hard part was breaking this stuff up!!!

Here's the famous chicken salad!!

My friends, Karen and her baby Harper, Chelsey, me, and Melody.

Karen and Harper, Chelsey, me and Melissa.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

If you're from the East Texas area, then you know what Canton is!!  For those of you that aren't from around here, Canton is a trade days, "flea market", type event that takes place the weekend of the first Monday every month in Canton, Texas.  Don't let "flea market" fool you...Canton is acres of many, many, many stores, boutiques, and individuals coming together to sell their goods and creations.  Much of it is homemade. You will walk up and have no idea where to begin, it can be quite overwhelming!!
Now, a little bit more about me....if I see something that I think I can make instead of buy, I will certainly try to.  I always figure that you can make things cheaper than buying it from a store or boutique, right??  Well, when Mom and I went to Canton in October I saw a Christmas tree made completely of Christmas ball ornaments and they wanted $80 for it...and while I debated on buying it, the frugalness came out it me and I decided I could make it myself for so much less!  So to Hobby Lobby I went (I believe I've said that before)!!  I bought a metal topiary for the base, and wire, and bunches of Christmas balls.  When I got home, I figured out that I had bought the wrong kind of wire...it had NO structure to it!  UGH!!  So, my wonderful, smart hubby found some wire in the garage and had to spin the wire using his drill to make it thick enough...it worked great....but that's not all he did.  He also wrapped more wire around the topiary because it didn't have enough surface area to attach the balls to.  So, once we had all that done, I got to attaching the balls.  Of course, I didn't buy enough, so I had to go back to Hob Lob the next week....attached those balls and STILL didn't have enough....went back to Hob Lob another day and finally got the exact amount that I needed!!! So, this "simple" project took about 2 months to finish as I grew tired of it quickly!  However, I am so thrilled with the result....although, the final cost was around $125!!!  I guess I should have stuck with the one at Canton, but now I get to enjoy my own creation....plus Justin even feels a sense of pride when looking at it since he helped.  I didn't guess that he would care so much, but he compliments the tree every time he sees it! :)

Christmas Cards

I have been so excited about Christmas this year since we will be in our new house and newly married...it's time for our family to start our own traditions.  My step-son, Noah, will be with us this year for Christmas and it's finally my turn to play Santa...I do have to admit that I'm going to miss Santa coming to see ME this year...he was still coming even last year!! Maybe he'll slip something in for me :)
Last year our Christmas cards featured our precious Boston Terrier, Molly, who has since been adopted by my parents.  This year, now that we're married,  I'm excited to have Christmas cards with our new family on them. I love the personalization of having your picture on a Christmas card.  Some family and friends live too far to see often, so it's a great way to keep up while wishing your loved ones a Merry Christmas!
Shutterfly is doing an awesome promotion!!! They are giving away 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers that blog about the promotion.  I think this is such a neat idea.  If you want to participate in the Shutterfly promotion, go here.  They have some great holiday cards and Christmas photo cards to choose from!

Mom's Birthday Dinner

My mom's birthday was last week, so she and my dad came over last night for dinner.  It was so good to see them.  Dad hung out with Justin in the garage while Justin was re-painting his duck decoys...this has been a big project for him and he swears it's really gonna fool the ducks into flying straight to him.  I sure hope he's right because I can't wait for some Bacon-wrapped Duck Breasts!!!  I'll share that recipe later when he brings home the goods!  Mom and I hung out in the kitchen and caught up on some cussin' and discussin' (that's a term I stole from Anna's dad, Danny Paul)!  For an appetizer, I made a sausage bread loaf...this is similar to the one I ate at Anna's house last weekend and haven't been able to stop thinking about it!  YUM!!  So, what I did was chop up 1 small onion and 1 green bell pepper and throw it into the pan with 1 pound of hot breakfast sausage and scramble it all up until cooked through.  Next, I rolled out a Pilsbury French Bread loaf from the biscuit section at the grocery store.  Then, i spread cream cheese over the bread dough, sprinkled the sausage/onion/bell pepper mixture over that, then topped with shredded cheddar cheese.  Pull the dough up on all four sides and press together to make a pocket.  Then bake as directed on the bread can.   I think it would also be delicious with some pickled jalapenos inside!  Anyway, I'm still getting used to blogging, so I forgot to take pics of the final product until we only had one piece left!!!

For the main course, we grilled some awesome steaks and I made Homemade Fried Rice because they had not tried it yet.  It was a HIT!!  I used the same recipe as before, but this time I added fresh broccoli and fresh mushrooms...mmm mm mmm!


Although everyone enjoyed the appetizer and main course, the dessert was everyone's FAVORITE!!! This is the link for the recipe for the Great Pumpkin Cake.