The Nifty Foodie

“Hey, uh, Amy? You’ve posted this picture before. You know that, right?” I’m sure you guys are thinking that, but this time I’m going to rave about what’s on the right side of that plate. Oh yes, those potatoes.

These aren’t your ordinary mashed potatoes. They are spicy, flavorful and make you want to start peeling crawfish at a newspaper-lined dinner table. Delicious!

I had a similar tasting dish at a local chain that, as a Louisianian, had me thinking, “Why didn’t I think of doing this?” It’s so simple and such a great idea!

Basically, at a crawfish boil, there is more than crawfish there. You have boiled veggies, like corn, potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. This recipe takes those potatoes to a dinner plate-worthy level, if you get my drift. Oh, and you can easily make these in the kitchen. No need for the 100 gallon pots here, folks!

Crawfish Boiled Mashed Potatoes
Source: an original

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs. small red potatoes
• 1/8 cup crawfish boil seasoning
• 4 tbsp. butter
• Milk (as needed)

Directions:

1. Fill a pot with water and add pre-washed red potatoes and seasoning.
2. Bring to a boil for about 20-25 minutes or until fork tender.
3. Let the potatoes sit in the water for 5-10 minutes to absorb the seasoning. (We did 10 minutes. Husband loved them…I thought WAY too spicy, but I’m a wuss!)
4. Take the potatoes out and put them in a large bowl. Mash them with the butter added in. If you find this too thick, add milk, a little at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Summer officially started last Monday. However, being in Louisiana, we’ve been feeling summer-like weather since May. With the heat index hitting 110 degrees sometimes, we wanted to throw a summer party that was most definitely indoors!

I watch entirely too much Food Network. If it wasn’t for Food Network and reading food blogs, I’m fairly certain my husband and I would be living off of Hamburger Helper and take-out. One of my favorite shows lately has been The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Every show has a theme, and it features the cooks/hosts on Food Network and their favorite eats in that theme. So, when Foodbuzz emailed about this month’s 24×24 proposals, I figured it would be a fun party to feature the best things our families have eaten! Thanks so much to Foodbuzz for sponsoring this party!

To come up with the menu, I sent out an email to our families asking for their favorites in each category.

• On the Grill (recipes that are done on the BBQ)
• Dangerously Cheesy (major cheese in a dish)
• No Utensils (finger foods/apps)
• Keep it Comfy (comfort food)
• Frozen Treats (any dessert from the freezer)
• Mix it Up (a food that requires using a mixer—doesn’t have to be a sweet)
• Louisiana’s Best (Louisiana food)
• Cold and Colorful (like a salad or cold app with lots of veggies or fruit)
• Under the Sea (favorite seafood dish)
• Classic American (with 4th of July approaching, tell me a dish that screams American)

After getting many responses, here is the menu we came up with:

Drinks:
Strawberry Lemonade
Strawberry Daiquiris

Appetizers:
Cheese Fondue with Vegetables/Bread*
Bruschetta*
Boudin Balls

Entrees:
Steak Skewers with Chimichurri, Onion Cheese Sauce and Compound Butter*
Spicy BBQ Shrimp Skewers*

Sides:
Crawfish Fettuccine
Macaroni and Cheese
Vegetable Skewers*
Grilled Corn
Lettuce Greens with Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Desserts:
Strawberry Cake*
Assorted Cupcakes
Cinnamon Crumb Apple Pie
Fresh Berries with Ice Cream

* recipes will be featured in the blog in future posts

I will admit, I’m still getting the hang of entertaining for a large number of people. Despite doing a lot of prep, I felt fairly stressed in the last hour. Since the party was for family, though, I had loads of help at the last minute. Whew!

The fondue was an absolute hit. I was nervous to make this myself, but this recipe came together beautifully! I served the fondue with day old po’boy bread, carrots and broccoli.

We purchased the boudin balls at a local joint, since they are pretty much my husband’s favorite. The bruschetta was a lighter alternative to the other appetizers. I was super excited to use basil from our garden for this dish!

I need to thank the hubs for braving the sweltering disgusting heat to cook up this magic on the grill. The steak, especially was a real winner to family!

We made 3 sauces available for people to dip/cover their skewers in: a chimichurri, onion blue cheese (not pictured) and a worchestershire chive butter. The chimichurri ended up being a huge hit (and I used parsley from the garden for it)!

Here is some lovely grilled corn that survived a few flare-ups on the grill.

Here is a semi-decent picture of the crawfish fettuccine before everyone digged in. The hubs’ parents made this dish and it was delicious. Perfect flavor with a little Louisiana kick!

This is some macaroni and cheese that is my mother-in-law’s favorite. It was definitely pretty tasty (not to mention, cheesy).

After enjoying some serious eats, we waited a good while before putting out desserts and just chatted, watched TV and played some games.

I will say the desserts were absolutely amazing.

Fresh berries (and ice cream, not pictured)

Strawberry Cake (inspired by a local bakery). I would have just purchased one, but I had no idea an 8″ cake was over $30. What the heck?! I guess I’m just used to baking my own cakes to realize how expensive cakes have gotten!

This was a welcomed surprise. A local cupcake bakery occasionally has giveaways on Twitter, and I won some cupcakes! They were seriously delish! Thank you Sweet Wishes Cafe!

Here is the cinnamon crumb apple pie. This is one of those frozen pies you can find in the grocery store, but has quickly become a favorite with my hubs’ family.

Of course, our puppy was very excited to get all of the attention she got at the party, and thanks to my mom, she tried a piece of steak for the first time. I think she enjoyed it.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a party without family! Here are some pictures of our family.

It was a great time to be had by everyone, especially in the milder indoors. Thank you so much to Foodbuzz again for the party! Everyone had a blast!

Wow! I’m so excited that there were 71 entries in this contest! You all definitely made me hungry with your comments about Louisiana food, and because of all of the positive responses to this giveaway, I’m definitely going to do one again in the near future! Stay tuned!

So, without further ado, random.org picked the winner and it is…

Congrats Katie!! Please email me at niftyfoodie @ gmail . com to claim your prize so I can send it out to you!!

By the way, Katie entered the maximum of 5 times, so that proves it really does help your chances to get extra entries! Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Ahh New Orleans. I used to not appreciate the city at all. All I would relate to New Orleans were the potholes, the murders, and the questionable people walking around everywhere. I saw all of the negatives and it made me thankful to live in the suburbs.

2005 came, and the unimaginable happened. Katrina hit. I used to want to be a meteorologist in school, and would WISH for a hurricane to come near us so I could experience it like the Weather Channel people do (and also, take off of school). Well, Katrina devastated New Orleans. A lot of my family and friends had to rebuild and lost priceless items. My immediate family lucked out, since they live slightly West of New Orleans. (If you’re just west of a hurricane, you seemingly get less of a punch than if you were dead center or just east of it.)

After Katrina hit, all I longed for was New Orleans. The happy New Orleans that I was so blind to originally see. I remember tearing up listening to the 12 Yats of Christmas that December. That February, I went to my first Mardi Gras parade in 2006 since the storm. The city had a mildew-y odor, but I didn’t care. It was New Orleans, and things were coming back. Things still aren’t completely back, 5 years later, but the spirit is stronger than ever!

When I first read about Disney making an animated movie, called The Princess and the Frog, set in New Orleans, I was excited. When the movie came out on DVD (I haven’t gone to a movie at a theater in ages…$10 for one ticket…hecks to the no!), I watched like a giddy 6 year old. ::disneyfreak::

I would smile when I saw St. Louis Cathedral, drool when I saw Tiana serving beignets, tear up when her family shared gumbo with the neighborhood, and giggle when Tiana helped the VooDoo lady make her gumbo “the bee’s knees” with a little Tabasco sauce.

So, to kind of give a shout-out to this movie, which I highly recommend, I’m doing a giveaway. I know most of these items aren’t nationally available in stores, so I want to share some of the featured foods from the movie (with a little bit of lagniappe/something extra) to one lucky reader!

Included in this package:

• Cafe Du Monde’s beignet mix (heaven on a plate, basically)
• Cajun Gumbo Mix
• Tabasco Sauce
• Tony Chachere’s Seasoning (good in just about EVERYTHING)
• Jambalaya Mix (This is the best mix I’ve found. Zatarain’s can’t touch this!)
• Dirty Rice Mix

Want to know how to win? Leave a comment about what your favorite NOLA dish is or what NOLA dish you’re interested in trying.

You have until Monday, May 17th to enter. This giveaway is only valid to readers in the continental U.S.

More ways to win (and please comment each time you do one of these)

• Follow me on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Mention/Retweet this giveaway on Twitter (leave the link of the tweet)
• Subscribe to this blog

That means you have 5 chances to win this Louisiana Feast!! Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

**Products from this giveaway are provided by The Nifty Foodie.**

I absolutely love crawfish pie. Usually for a meal, it’s served as a regular pie in slices, but since the main course for the party was the actual boil, I decided to make mini hand pies. I made the filling the night before, allowing the flavors to meld in the fridge overnight. I definitely recommend doing this because the filling was firm to work with for making these pies, and also, the flavor was definitely awesome!

The only problem I have with this original recipe is that it calls for 1 cup of oil. This was WAY too much oil, in my opinion. I ended up spooning the oil/fat off of it and after measuring it, that was almost 1/2 cup of oil! My husband also pointed out that a roux is usually 1:1, which is essentially what you are making in the end to thicken the filling. So, next time, I’m using 1/2 cup of oil in the recipe!

Crawfish Pies
Adapted from John Folse

Ingredients:

• 1 pound crawfish tails
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup onions, diced
• 1/2 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup tasso ham, diced
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• salt and cracked pepper to taste
• Tabasco sauce to taste
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 packs of refrigerated pie dough sheets

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a 10-inch saute pan, heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and tasso ham. Saute 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are wilted.
3. Add crawfish and saute an additional 5 minutes. Sprinkle in flour and using a wire whisk, stir constantly until white roux is achieved. Add tomato sauce and slowly add broth, a little at a time, until sauce consistency is achieved. (NOTE: You may not use all of the broth.)
4. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to simmer and cook 30 minutes. Season to taste using salt, pepper and Tabasco. Remove from heat and allow to cool, preferably overnight.
5. In a small mixing bowl, combine egg, milk and water. Using a wire whisk, stir until all ingredients are well blended.
6. Using the rim of a cup, cut the pie dough into circles. Place about 1 tsp. of filling center of each circle.
7. Brush the edges of pastry with eggwash and fold over in a crescent shape. Crimp the edges closed with a fork and pierce the top of the pie to create vents for steam to escape during cooking. Brush eggwash over pies and bake until golden brown, approximately 20 minutes.