Cajun Corn Maque Choux

Yay for this week's Kelly's Korner Show Us Your Life -Thanksgiving recipes and traditions!

I love the holidays and I love to cook, so I'm one happy Little Mama these days.

We have a few recipes that only make it to the table for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  That way, they're extra special. 

And, one of our favorites is Maque Choux (pronounced "mock shoe").  It's a Cajun/Creole corn dish that is so yummy!

It's pretty tough for new holiday recipes to make it to our table.  We're pretty traditional, i.e. Southern, around here. We always have sweet potato casserole and cornbread dressing.  (One year my Mama didn't make cornbread dressing for both Thanksgiving and Christmas & it almost sent us all to therapy.  Ha! )

But, a few years ago, Maque Choux appeared and now we say every year, "Okay, who's bringing the Maque Choux?"  Love this stuff and it's so easy to make!

So, here's the recipe

Cajun Corn Maque Choux

Serves 6

1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups frozen shoepeg corn, thawed
2 plum tomatoes, diced
1/4 pound andouille sausage, cooked and diced (if you can't find andouille, you can sub smoked sausage)
1/4 cup chopped green onion tops
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preparation

Measure 3 cups of frozen corn and set aside on counter to thaw. 

Meanwhile, chop onion and bell pepper.

Sauté onion and bell pepper in hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat 8 minutes or until tender.

While onion and bell pepper are cooking, chop sausage and tomato.

Add corn, tomato, and sausage

 

Cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes.

Chop green onions using only the green parts.

Stir in green onions, salt, and pepper; cook 5 minutes.

 

And that's it!

Big Daddy is going to be extra happy because I broke tradition and made Maque Choux before Thanksgiving.  Sister even had some for her afternoon snack - it's that good, y'all! 

Thanks for letting me share one of our family favorites! Looking forward to checking out everyone's recipes!

Parks and Paparazzi

We had an absolutely beautiful fall day today.  So, we decided to head to the park with my friend and cousin-in-law J and her peeps. 

The kids had a blast.  They loved getting outside and running free!  The swings were a big hit ...

Sister loved climbing on a big spider web.  She made it all the way to the top ... a little scary for Little Mama.

While I was setting out lunch, I looked over and saw Bitty Baby "hanging out."   She had fun looking at all of the acorns from a birdseye view.

Some of the best news around here is that Bitty Baby is walking everywhere these days.  In fact, she's almost running.  God is so good! 

She is having so much fun showing us what a big girl she is now.  There was an open grassy area and Bitty Baby had so much fun checking it out.

She got a little too far away from me, so I called her back ...

She thought about it for a second, and then did this :)

After a couple of hours of chasing her, I thought it might be a good idea to put her in her stroller.  She loved watching the big girls, but I'm sure she wanted out!

The craziest thing was going on at the playground.  A couple of movies are filming in town right now and the park was a hub for one of the sets.  There were trailers everywhere.  So, I thought I would get a couple of pictures - you know, like a crazy local!

We thought this was "craft service" or catering - are you impressed by my Hollywood lingo?  Yes, I'm a nerd :)

J checked out the other side of the park and saw a bunch of trailers that we thought might be "star" trailers.  She yelled out, "Come over here, these are the pics you should really get!"  (Um, I don't think we were very sneaky!) So, off I go and right away a security guard appears and is watching me and my camera. 

I love my camera and I love the card that is in my camera.  And, I didn't want him to take it away.  So, I looked for the first thing I could snap to make it look like I really wasn't trying to take pics of the "star" trailers. 

Do you like my decoy pics? (Imagine me talking to myself like a big nerd to get the full effect - you know, like "what a pretty tree" Ha! ).

Well, I definitely don't have a future as a paparazzi photographer.  But, as we were leaving, I did manage to get a really awesome picture of one of my very favorite stars!

Frugalista Finds - Grocery Game Update

The last few weeks have been pretty busy around here, so I had fallen off of the wagon with the Grocery Game.  But, I'm back on board!  I hit Winn Dixie this week and scored big.

During my short GG vacay, I really came to appreciate just how much we were saving using this plan.  Without it, I was paying way more than I was used to for my everyday grocery items. 

Here are my scores from this week ... my original total was $120, but after using my Winn Dixie card and coupons, I only paid $60 for all of this!  Not bad considering I bought over 10 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, two bags of baby spinach, two bags of romaine, two bags of whole wheat bagels, two bottles of extra virgin olive oil and a bunch more stuff.

The Grocery Game is offering a free 4-week trial right now if you're interested in giving it a try.  You can find out more about how to play Grocery Game here and here.  

If you've tried the Grocery Game, I'd love to hear your tips! I'm always looking for new ideas :)

Kisses From Katie

I had a post planned about our Halloween - how cute it was, how much fun we had, how I ate too many yummy treats, how we are still recovering from the weekend ...

UNTIL ...

I found this blog tonight.  Meet Katie ...

She's a 20 year old girl who loves Jesus and is serving Him in the most amazing ways.  She's serving children in Uganda and has adopted 14, yes 14, little girls. And, yes, you heard right ... she's 20.

You can learn more about Katie, her journey, and her girls here ... you will be blessed ... you will be moved ... and it might just change your perspective - it did mine :)

Halloween Costume Party!

Sister has passed down her Halloween costumes to Bitty Baby for the past two holidays, so it was fun to pull out old pictures and see how much our girls have grown!

In our family, all of the grandchildren have worn the same Halloween costume for their first trick-or-treat - a pea in a pod. 

Here's Bitty Baby last year at only 5 months old ... I don't think she was too sure about Halloween :)

Last year, Sister was a butterfly

 

Sweet sisters ... you can definitely tell their personalities from this picture ... one's a ham, one's shy :)

This year, Bitty Baby is going to be a bee.  Sister wore this costume, too, when she was about the same age.

Here's Bitty Baby last week at our church Fall Fest

With Daddy

And, here's a flash back ... Sister wearing the same costume at Fall Fest, too ... 3 years ago!

And Sister with me on Halloween 2006

This year, Sister's going to be a flower and she is so excited.  She "test ran" her costume at church last weekend and she's all ready for Trick-or-Treat!

We're crossing our fingers for good weather Saturday!  I'm really getting excited and am looking forward to seeing all of the kids in their costumes.  It will be great, too, to see what everyone else has posted ... so fun! 

Happy Halloween!

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Today,  Sister's preschool class went to a pumpkin patch at a local church.  What a cute field trip! 

During the trip, I kept thinking how blessed I am to have such a sweet girl and to be able to share this special time with her.

This is such a fun time of year and Sister is at such a precious age. 

Seeing Fall and the holidays through her eyes is priceless!

Every good and perfect gift is from above

James 1:17

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

The other night, Big Daddy had a work party and we needed to take a dessert. I thought I would have time to drop by the store, but as the world turns with little peeps, I didn't make it.

So, I started flipping through some cookbooks to see what I could make with ingredients I already had on hand.   And, I found Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. Holy cow these are so good!

First, let me introduce you to one of my kitchen heroes - Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa

I have most of her cookbooks and everything I've made from her has been awesome ... Okay, this next part might sound weird and nerdy - so forgive me. Her oven is in sync with mine, so I never have to tweak the recipes. Everything comes out perfectly!

These PB & J bars were quick and easy and really rich. (Thanks to the two sticks of butter and two cups of peanut butter ... yummy!) I wasn't sure how people would like them, but they were a big hit at the party. (BTW, I used grape jelly because it's what I had on hand and it worked well.  Also, I didn't line the pan with parchment paper and these baked just fine.)

Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups creamy peanut butter, such as Skippy (18 ounces)

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cups raspberry jam or other jam (18 ounces)

2/3 cups salted peanuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.


Here's the link to the recipe for more info!