Sweet, Juicy, Spicy: Shrimp & Chicken Sausage Jambalaya

 Allright, everybody - show some love for Poppa Trix. He's been wanting to do another post here ever since he ate his way across Manhattan, his home town.  I could go on, but I don't want to be accused of Bogarting a post, so, without further ado ... give it up for Poppa Trix!!

About halfway through a recent spate of 100-degree days Trix declared that she was through with cooking. Hard to believe, but between the sweltering kitchen at home and the even hotter one at the cafe where she works she'd had enough. So it was decided that I would make our next blog-worthy meal and turn in one of my annual guest posts. But by the time I was ready to mise my place, Trix was back in business. It seems that even though she couldn't stand the heat you couldn't keep her out of the kitchen! So the following pile of Creole/Cajun goodness was truly a joint effort.

A Good Luck Mini-Feast for the Lunar New Year and What To Do with Stale Bread

 

 Chinese almond cookies, with a Valentine's Day twist

Delicately scented tea eggs, for prosperity

 

 

Rice noodles and shrimp, for long life and happiness

My childhood,  from a culinary standpoint, was a vast wasteland of pot roasts, pork chops, pizza, and casseroles, with the occasional Pillsbury cinnamon roll or piece of peanut butter toast thrown in for variety. Vegetables were boiled or steamed, bread was white, and cakes came from a box mix. Let's face it: Like many American kids, I grew up with exactly zero food-related traditions.  A deep and enduring love for Utz potato chips is as close as I come to a cultural identity.

So if I want any food-related culture at all,  I need to look elsewhere, which I frequently do.  Enter the Year of the Tiger and my very scaled-down version of a Chinese New Year's feast. One thing that I love about this holiday is the symbolism of the food - dishes represent things like prosperity, luck, long life, happiness or good fortune. By the same token, the wrong dish may bring you bad luck or worse, so I  fervently hope that my research didn't lead me astray!

Homemade Dim Sum A Go-Go!

 

When Poppa Trix and I lived in New York, we loved to go to Chinatown for dim sum on the weekends. Sometimes we'd satisfy our bun and dumpling cravings at Vegetarian Dim Sum House, which was nice because there was zero chance of biting into a piece of pork or beef based on a linguistic misunderstanding.  This was a  calm spot for dim sum; here, you ordered off of the menu and ate in relative peace and quiet.

Simple, Succulent, Spicy: Shrimp in a Chipotle, Lime, & Cilantro "Remoulade"

Look at me, getting all fancy with my plating! But who am I kidding? Dinner actually looked more like this:

Now that's more like it. 

That baked corn tortilla in the above photo notwithstanding, I am going pretty light on the carbs for the next couple of weeks.  Don't worry, I haven't gone all Atkins on you! Shudder. It's just a temporary  post-holiday measure - I could never live without my beautiful breads, savory pies, or pillow-y pastas for too terribly long.

That said, I didn't miss a thing with this meal. The shrimp were tangy, spicy, and juicy mouthfuls, and the guac - just mashed up avocado with a bit of lime juice, salt and pepper - was a fresh, filling, and satisfying companion to my zesty little camarones.

Shrimp and Red Snapper a la Veracuzana de la Trix, with Crispy Grilled Polenta Cakes

When friend and fellow blogger Drick dedicated a post to me recently, "A Tasty Treat for Tasty Trix, " naturally I was thrilled. Not only has no one ever done that before, but I couldn't wait to make the dish, Red Snapper a la Varacruzana. After, all, the recipe has so many of my favorite things in it: capers, chipotle, jalapenos, olives, garlic, tomatoes, wine (!)  ... just reading it, I could already taste the smoky, tangy heat of the sauce and how it would work with the mild, buttery fish. 

Shrimp Remoulade and Mexican Street-Style Corn

Whenever my husband and I get back from a trip to New Orleans, we're always  inspired to try to recreate some of the many amazing  flavors we've experienced.  (Of course, we're also desperately trying to take our minds off of the fact that we're back in dreary, deadly  Baltimore ...but  that blog has already been done: baltimorecrime.blogspot.com) 

We had a hankering for shrimp remoulade, which neither one of us had ever made before. Don't let the complex taste of this rich, tangy sauce fool you - this is one easy dish to make.  If you can mix a bunch of ingredients together until everything tastes right, you can make this. And holy crap! Is it good. Eye rolling, tummy-rubbing, fight-over-the-last-bite good.