Spicy Blu Cheese, Tomato and Crab soup & Jambalaya Recipes

I have so much work to do. These are our last two official weeks of class before field placement (and then student teaching) and I have some seriously ridiculous levels of stress I'm dealing with.  I'm also sick. LOSE.

To combat my anxiety, I baked, cooked and cleaned all of last week.  Two items that got some recipe requests were the Tomato/Blue Cheese/Crab soup and the Jambalaya - so that's what I'm posting.  If anyone wants the pumpkin cheesecake/white chocolate cheesecake, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing, sugar cookie or oatmeal raisin cookie recipes, let me know.

Here we go:

Spicy Tomato, Blue Cheese and Crap Soup:
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- Kosher salt (to taste)
- 4 cloves (4 tbs) garlic, minced
- 1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 1/2 c. of vegetable stock
- 3/4 c. Heavy Cream
-2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (or any hot sauce, really)
- 1 teaspoon oregano leaves
-1/2 pound of blue cheese
-1/2 - 1 pound crab meat (if desired)


Directions:
In a medium soup pot, saute onions in olive oil for about 2 minutes.  Add garlic & continue to saute for additional 2-4 minutes.  Add tomatoes (and tomato juice in can) and stock - bring to light simmer.  Add cream, sriracha and oregano - simmer for 45 minutes.

Crab: if using, put in a pan over light heat with 1 tsp lemon.  Heat thoroughly.

Pour soup into a food processor or blender, add blue cheese and blend until smooth.  Add crab, stir.

Eat :)


Jambalaya Recipe (Plus Bayou Blast)
disclaimer: I stole this from Emeril Lagasse and then changed pieces.  If you want the original recipe, go to foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:
- 1 pound of peeled and de-veined shrimp
- 1 pound sausage (I used regular sausage, not andouille)
- 1 tsp Bayou Blast (recipe below)
- 1 medium white onion, chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 large jalapeno pepper, chopped
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 1 tsp Worchestshire sauce
- 1 tsp hot sauce (I used Frank's)
- 1 c. uncooked rice
- 2 c. celery, chopped
- 2 tbs garlic
- 4 c. chicken stock
(**Optional: 1 pound of chicken, increase stock to 5 c.**)


Directions:
Cover shrimp (and chicken) with bayou blast, coat well and put in refrigerator. 
In a large pan (medium soup pot) saute all peppers, onions and celery in olive oil on high heat.
Add garlic, tomatoes, Worcestershire saue & hot sauce.
Add rice and slowly add stock.

Reduce heat to medium and cover - cook until rice absorbs liquid (approx 15-20 minutes).
When rice is just tender, add meats and cook until done.  Serve and enjoy :)

Bayou Blast:
2 1/2 tbs paprika
2 tbs kosher salt
2 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs pepper
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs cayenne or red pepper flakes
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs thyme


Mix together, store in cool dry place.




Enjoy everyone :)

BRRR.

I just wanted to state today will be a baking day...


...because I just took the dogs out and it's legitimately 40 degrees or less.


BRR.

I disappear better than Houdini...

..seriously. I do.  Sometimes I feel like a snow globe - like someone just tilted me upside and shook.  Shit goes flying everywhere and then I'm scattered and lost.  The joys of a person with obsessive compulsive disorder who is overwhelmed. 

I know I'm the recipe guru, the girl with the book in her hand and the crazy dogs who drive me nuts. But sometimes, I realize in the scheme of life, how small I am.  And how LOUDLY that makes me talk.  I speak loudly and act assertive to ensure that I'm part of the big picture.  I often feel forgotten in the shuffle...like poor Maukaley Calkin in Home Alone. They legit FORGOT his ass.  And got to Paris (and next, New York) before going...son of a bitch.  That's how I feel. Forgotten. Lost in the shuffle.  I'm the "oh shit" moment.  The loud, assertive me is never lost...just scorned, disliked and attacked.  Ah, well.  That part of me is okay with it.  But the part of me with feelings? I feel lost.

Finally understanding my issues with OCD is freeing, yet terrifying.  For years I just said, "I Like It Clean. I Like It This Way." I was the crazy bitch.  Now I say, "Listen. I HAVE to vacuum each spot twice, twice a day. I HAVE to fold laundry a CERTAIN way.  I HAVE to. If I don't, I lose control."  I feel like my ownership of my problem is like taking responsibility for an action, it's fulfilling, but has surprising consequences...I'm still working on those - and how this issue effects my marriage.

I physically cried in public today. Joy. How lovely and embarrassing.  My professor was discussing suicide - and not being kind.  While I may have not been in the in circle with the people who committed suicide, I was a friend.  And it hurts knowing someone is gone for good.  It's almost 5 years later and it still bugs me that nothing could have been done.  But to stand in front of a classroom and be flippant and rude about it? That destroys me.  The "strong, white female" that all of us (even you guys!) have lurking inside - with the finger snaps, stilettos and attitude - was shattered.  How delightfully repugnant.  October has been a hard month for the past 5 years...the 25 and 26 of this month always LOOM at me - glare over September like, "hah! We're coming!!"  I don't lock myself away and mourn anymore...and I don't drink until I don't remember.  I just...don't. A horrific suicide and a tragic unnecessary, medically preventable death within two days...I don't know how I got through it at 19...I don't know how I continue to not deal with it and get through it at 24.  Probably the same way I continue not to deal with my grandfather dying and feeling abandoned, as well as my father essentially disregarding me my whole life.  I just...don't.

In other news NOT about my boring third world existence in which I feel about thisbig I tried a new recipe for buns (like, hamburger buns).  Basically, go to my archives and use the saaaammme recipe I used for stromboli and pat them into small balls after the bread machine cycle, let them rise for 40 minutes in a warm, damp place and then brush the tops with either egg wash or melted butter. Bake at 350 for 20-35 minutes. YUM!

See you soon?  Probably....Fall break is next week and I'll have lots of time to bake and blog <3

'Til then...