Red Beans and Rice...in the crokpot!

After the success of my white beans crockpot experiment, I decided to branch out to red beans and rice this weekend. And we had some deer sausage we needed to use up to make room for more deer sausage coming, so it was doubly nice!

Generally, I use Emeril's Red Beans and Rice recipe (just using andouille sausage instead of the tasso and ham). I had pinned this crockpot red beans and rice recipe from Cooking Light to try, but I did notice it only had three stars (out of five) - which was a cause for concern. So I decided to meld the two recipes together.

Here is the Shawn Emeril Cooking Light Crockpot Red Beans and Rice Mashup...

1 lb red beans
1 container chicken stock
1 lb andouille sausage (or spicy deer sausage), sliced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 bunch of celery, chopped
3 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp red pepper (less if you don't like it spicy)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
3 bay leaves
Cooked rice
1/4 cup chopped green onions for garnish, if desired

Put the red beans in the crockpot. You will add the stock to enough water to equal 9 cups of liquid total.

Saute the sausage in a cast iron skillet. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to the crockpot but leave the drippings in the pan. Saute the onion, pepper, celery and garlic until tender, about 5 min. Add to crockpot along with the rest of the seasonings (thyme through bay leaves).

Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Remove bay leaves before serving over cooked rice. Garnish with green onions, if desired.

Turkey Spaghetti for National Spaghetti Day

We unknowingly - until after dinner anyways - celebrated National Spaghetti Day on January 4. We were knowingly celebrating turkey stock - or the turkey aftermath of said stock anyways. After Thanksgiving, my husband decided to master soup stock - and we have discovered that though we like chicken better than turkey we much prefer turkey stock to chicken stock. It's much richer! So when we need more stock, we are on the lookout for great turkey leftover recipes.

I decided to start close to home and begin with the chicken recipes I knew we loved and just substitute turkey. This chicken spaghetti was my first experiment (and I hope the rest are just as successful!)

Turkey Spaghetti

3 cups of shredded turkey
16 oz. spaghetti
4 cans chicken broth
5 sticks celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 stick butter
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 small pkg of Velveeta, cut into small cubes
Paprika

Boil the spaghetti, as directed on the package, in the 4 cans of chicken broth. Reserve the broth when draining the spaghetti.

Saute the celery and onion in the butter until soft, about 5 min. Add the turkey to heat up (if not hot).

In a Dutch oven, combine spaghetti, sauteed vegetables with turkey, the soups, and the Velveeta. Add enough chicken broth to make it all juicy. Sprinkle paprika on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Greenwood's Viking Range to be sold for $380M

Food service equipment maker Middleby Corp. says it will buy Mississippi-based oven and kitchen appliance maker Viking Range Corp. for $380 million. Fred Carl Jr., Viking's founder and chief executive officer, tells the Greenwood Commonwealth that the manufacturer of upscale kitchen appliances will stay in Greenwood. He expects few changes resulting from the new ownership other than future growth in the city of its birth.

Read more from The Clarion Ledger here.

Quentin's Birthday Turtle Cheesecake

Quentin's birthday request is always Turtle Cheesecake. Every year, I have tried a different recipe - and every year the result is a delicious-tasting cheesecake with a layer of caramel that can almost break a tooth it gets so hard in the oven!

No more. This year, I took matters in my own hands and just created my own recipe.

I made it in a 13x9x2 pan because we were having folks over and needed a little more for others to help celebrate too!

Crust:
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar

Melt butter and stir in graham crackers and brown sugar. Pat into bottom of greased 13x9x2-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.

Filling:
3 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
4 eggs
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

For filling, in a large mixing bowl beat cream cheese with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until smooth. Add eggs and beat well. Beat in sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and the vanilla. Pour filling over baked crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes until set. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Glaze: While cheesecake is still warm, pour 17-oz. jar of Mrs. Richardson's Butterscotch Caramel Topping on top and spread evenly with knife. (You can try other caramel toppings, but there is a wide variation of taste and texture in ice cream toppings - and I can only vouch for Mrs. Richardson's!) Add Heath Bar bits and pecan pieces.

Chill cake from two to 24 hours. Enjoy!