Jamin' Jambalaya

Hey all! Sorry for the time gap in posts...spring break got the best of me. BUT I did cook for my parents when I went home! Mom blackened some tilapia and I made my Mango Salsa, and good news! She liked it!!


Now that I'm back from my Spring Break travels and not working for a night, I'm back to the great cooking expedition! Tonight's meal was Jambalaya! Here's the recipe:

1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded

1/2 an onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

cooking oil

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 lb kielbasa sausage, cut in half sliced

1 cup uncooked rice

1 teaspoon thyme, crushed

1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Cook the onion, pepper, and garlic in hot oil in a sauce pan until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add in the broth, spices, and rice. Bring to a boil; reducing heat. Let it simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes so the rice cooks through. 

At the same time, cook the kielbasa in hot oil until browned on both sides. Add to the sauce pan.

Toast two, 1 inch thick slices of bread, I used Sourdough, and place on the plate. 

Serve the Jambalaya ON TOP of the bread (it won't get soggy, but will soak up the juices and be delicious!)

So there it is, Jambalaya. Please try out the recipe and let me know what you think!!

Bon Appetit!

"I'd pay for this..."

Yay! My first actual meal post! Ok tonight I made Red Snapper Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa! I know right!?! Russell loves fish and is Catholic, i.e he can't have red meat on Fridays, so thats how I picked the meal.

Having only cooked fish once and mangos never, it was a nice new experience. The recipe was pretty simple, baking the fish with some butter, garlic, and cumin, but the pieces of fish were a bit too thick and weren't getting cooked through, so I had to switch it up a bit and pan sear a few pieces. The salsa was a full mango pealed and chopped, one chopped red pepper, green onions, lime juice, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and I added a little bit of jalapeños and chili powder. Serve them in regular taco shells with lettuce.

Russell told me that if he went to a restaurant, he would expect to pay for something like this! Score! And an upside is that there are leftovers of salsa which we plan to take to the beach tomorrow (which means Mom gets to taste it!!).

Tomorrow we're going to dinner at The Columbia, a delicious Cuban restaurant in Ybor city. Updates to come on how delicious it was :)

Bon Appetit!!

Food. And Me :)

I love food. Every kind of food. Spicy food, sweet food, salty food, fish, veggies, fruit, meat.


Growing up, my mom cooked dinner for the whole family (and then some) pretty much every night. And I'm not talking hamburger helper-although we'll get to that later-I'm talking pasta so good that just the smell makes your mouth water. We always had rounded meals with a meat, a starch, and a vegetable, and we never had the same thing back to back. Mom rarely used a cookbook or recipe, and everything she cooked was diverse and delicious. Now you may be a bit confused as to why the name of my blog is "Not your mothers cooking" when it probably sounds like I'm introducing just that..But just wait! There's more!


To go from filet mignon at home, to filet of God knows what at college was a shock to say the least. Unlike the multi teared complexities of Moms home cooking, my diet that first year of college consisted of two bars- salad and cereal.  THIS year, I have ventured out on a quest to learn to cook. And not just cook to feed myself, but cook to learn the culinary art that is food preparation. 


And what I've found so far is that I'm actually pretty good at it! So that's what this is. A blog about me and my cooking. Unlike sketchy cop shows, names and locations have not been changed, so let me introduce some people and places. Mom, my inspiration and culinary rock. She's taught me almost everything I know about cooking, and is who I turn to with cooking questions. My two sisters, Amanda and Megan. Amanda cooks for her family, husband Mike and worlds CUTEST baby, my niece Reagan. Meg, well...Meg's a newlywed who lets her husband Sonny do all the cooking...Sonny or a chef at a restaurant. And finally Russell, my boyfriend and guinea pig. Russ helps me pick new recipes and sometimes helps with some prep work or the ever difficult task of stirring. Most importantly, Russell eats all the food I cook, and for that he should win an Oscar or Nobel Peace Prize or something. 


So here we go! Not my mothers cooking, but rather, finding my way down a path of my own through the wonderful world of FOOD :) To quote one of my favorite books, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert:

 "The Bhagavada Gita- the ancient Indian Yogic text- says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsly as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly."

Bon Appetit!