I actually did the cooking on Saturday and now the post on Tuesday, but…

I thought I would try a weekly post on a recipe that I’ve tried recently. First, just to get me back in the habit of blogging, and second… it’s been an interesting venture into cooking over the past few weeks.

I absolutely adore Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa). I would love to spend a day in her kitchen (or with her soothing voice she could just read me a story), but I think overall her recipes are very easy, great tasting and don’t take a whole lot of time. Cooking in general takes time compared to a microwave reheat, but it really isn’t that bad (and most the time is in the oven anyway).

So this weekend I decided to make Amelia’s Jambalaya. Partly because it looked absolutely delicious, but also because I miss New Orleans (and Memphis) something fierce. Not that I think whatever I cook can compare to some of my favorite places to grab a bite, but I could at least get a similar… flavor.

Luckily enough this recipe calls for wine. And it only needs a cup, so since I’m not a fan of waste… first things first, pour myself a glass.

I tend to drink white most regularlyand I’m a big fan of something sweetsy – like riesling or a moscato. And because I’m cheap, I go with something like Barefoot (because really, who turns down a $5 bottle of wine that tastes like juice?). Other than a couple names/brands, I really don’t know much about wine. So when it called for a dry white like a pinot grigio, I went for a brand I knowand that didn’t cost much. I was pleasantly surprised – tasted pretty good. I’ve gone for unfamiliar, cheap wine in Denmark when my money went for trips to Prague or Paris instead of boring every day things like gas. And health insurance. I digress. Anyway, nothing worse than a cheap wine that tastes like vinegar.

The most time consuming part of this recipe was prepping everything. I feel like I was chopping, slicing, mincing, trying not to cry over the onions for what felt like hours! Of course it was nice to just drop everything in when it was time without pausing to chop or slice something in between cooking, but…

I think that if I were to make it again (and I will), I would leave out a bit of the rice. The recipe says it makes 8 servingsand I think you’d need to be feeding 8 hungry lumberjacks if you were going to serve it all at once. I only did 6 chicken thighs (any moreand the pot would’ve over-flowed). Even with less chicken, we will have had three dinners out of the pot and likely one or two servings left over – so 11/12 servings? It’s a hearty dish.

I don’t actually have a photo of the finished product. Needless to say – it didn’t look like the photo in the book, but that’s okay, it’s rare that anything that I cook would even have a remote chance of looking like something prepped by a food stylist.

I would give this recipe stars – though I’m not too fond of that sort of rating. There  are a few things I’d change (less rice, maybe more red pepper) and things that were delicious (just enough spice for me and I made it with only one instead of two jalapenos). The sausage I used (Open Nature Smoked Andouille – chicken sausage)
added a bit of spice, but was pretty good. If my dad can eat it, than it’s not too spicy for just about anyone. Only downside of the sausage is that they add evaporated cane syrup (WHYYY)and they are a bit high in sodium.

Overall a good choice for a cold winter weekend. //BON APPETIT