Crawfish Boiled

The Teahouse in Houston, TX

Everytime I come to Houston I have to stop by my favorite place and grab a few of their drinks... I LOVE THIS PLACE. I always get the same.. Iced Blend Passion fruit with fruit jelly...and my hubby gets the coffee ice blend with tapioca
Delish!!

Bambu... Dessert and drinks

After dinner we went get down dessert.. I heard about this new place called Bambu where they sell Che, tapioca drinks and smoothie.

I got the number 1 and number 10.
Number 1 has coconut juice and coconut meat, logan and some jelly.. It's more of a refreshing drink.
Number 10 has coconut milk, jelly, beans, jello etc. it's more of a dessert drink. Yummy though

And I got 2 "Passion in love" ... Smoothie

FuFu in Houston, TX

Vietnamese food
General Tao Chicken
Salty squid
Salty tofu
Salty shrimp
Clay pot fish
Stir fry veggies with noodles
Snow peas

Pretzel Hugs

Easy peasy treats for any holiday

Pretzels
Hershey's kisses Hugs -- do plain milk chocolate is the best
M&M


Place the pretzel on a baking pan then place the 1 kisses on top of each pretzels then place the baking pan in the oven
Bake @250 until chocolate (Hershey's kisses) slightly melts (5 minutes) then take the pretzels out and place 1 M&M candy on top of the pretzels

So addictive.. Something about the sweet and salty

Stir fry udon

Vegetables 

Blanch udon lightly over boiling water and drain. Set aside.

Shrimp stir fry with a little cornstarch/sugar/salt 

stir fry it with a onion and minced garlic 

Ingredients:
4 packs of udon --I used the package udon because that was all I had on hand..but it taste alot better if you used frozen udon 
1/2 lb medium sized prawns--shrimp
 snow beans (sliced)
1 can of  baby sweet corns (cut into 4 long pieces)
2 small carrots (julienned)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/2 cup of shredded cabbage
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 stalk of green onion --cut into 2 inches long
4 cloves of garlic
cilantro
(you can also add broccoli...cauliflower or any veggies that you like)

Seasonings:
1 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp sugar
1/2 t  black pepper
 3 T water
1/2 t garlic powder

Seasonings for shrimp :
1/2 t  salt, 1 t sugar and 1 t cornflour


For shrimp, peel, devein and rinse under a running water. Pat dry. 

Put into a small bowl. Marinate with salt, sugar and cornflour. mix well ...set aside 

Blanch udon lightly over boiling water and drain. Set aside.

Blanch snow peas and drain. Set aside.

Heat up some oil under high heat. Layout all the shrimp  and let them fry untouched until they turn pink. Flip over the other side and continue frying until they turn pink and curl up. But remember not to overcook the shrimp. Take out and set aside.

Heat up some oil again. Stir-fry carrots with onion, garlic cook for about 5 minutes then throw in your snow peas, baby corn and cabbage cook for about 1 minute then add in all your seasoning and water...then add back in your noodles and  add  shrimp.  Mix well and dish up. 

Garnish with green onion  and cilantro 

** I like mines spicy so I serve it with some chili (srirache) and squeeze some lemon or lime juice on top ;)

Grill Cheese

Today was one of those days that I could of had cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner ;)
It was a crazy busy day today so I went to my trusted grill ham and cheese sandwich
The kids love it with the left over red beans and rice that we had last night

8 sliced of white bread
1 stick of soften butter
8 sliced of cheese (any kind that you like) we only had provolone and cheddar
Thinly sliced ham or turkey

Place a nonstick frying pan on medium to low heat
Lightly butter one side of the bread n place buttered side down on pan then layers with 1 sliced of cheese then ham and turkey then another slice of cheese and another slice of bread .. then butter that bread and flip
Probably take about 45-1 minute on each side
Repeat with the other sandwich
*** I sometime add tomato or avocado to my sandwich ****
Sliced in triangle ...
Serve with a soup ... YUMMO!!
Enjoy

Red Beans and Rice

1 small bag of beans (kidney)
1 small onion-diced
4 stalk of celery-cut into small pieces
1 bell pepper--cut into small pieces
3 small pig feet or ham hock
1 package of salted pork (found in meat section)
1 package of cooked cubed ham (found in the refrigerator section of the meat section)
1 package of sausage.. I used the Hillshire Farm Pork (I wanted to use spicy but the kids won't be able to eat it)
1 stick of butter
2 T Tony Chachere's
1/2 T pepper
1/2 t garlic powder
*** hot sauce (optional)

***u can add 1T of dried parsley (optional)

Soak the beans (enough water to cover the beans) in the crockpot overnight.. The next morning .. Just drain the water out and refill the pot again. I usually try to cover the beans about 1 1/2 inches above the beans with water.
Put your pig feet, 3 bay leaf, 2 T of Tony Chachere's (or creole seasoning) ..1/2 T of pepper..1/2 t of garlic powder. Your chopped veggies (onion/bell pepper/celery) salted pork into the crockpot. Low for 8 hours. Right before you serve.. Put in the stick of butter *** secret recipe** ;)

About 30 minutes before serving. Cut the sausage into 1 inch thick and put in a frying pan on medium heat.. Cook in frying pan until you get a little brown n crusted on the ends. Serve on top of red beans and rice.


Ladle red beans over rice and lay sausage pieces on top...garnish with chopped green onion and parsley

Everything in crockpot

Pan fry sausage ...cut sausage in 1in pieces 

Right before putting the stick of butter in...

Corn Bread Muffin

I needed something quick to make today since the weather was so unexpected .. cold and windy.. and with crazy busy schedule today...so I called in my reliable CROCKPOT...So I made red beans and rice and what's better to go with red bean than corn bread muffin ;)
I used to make cornbread from scratch but ever since I got this easy quick recipe using box mix.. I haven't made it from scratch ever since

Ingredient:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 box of jiffy cornbread mix
Follow the instructions like the box..
The initial recipe calls for mixing each box then combining them together.. I got lazy so I .. Dumb both mix into one bowl and just added:
1 stick of butter
1 C of water
4 eggs
1/3 C of milk
Using my mixer.. I let it rip
@350 in my greased muffin pan .. I used 2 24 medium muffin pan.. Fill only 2/3 of each muffin
I baked it for 20 minutes (in middle shilled of oven)
U can probably bake it for 15 but I like the crusty edge
Serve it with a pat of butter ;)
Enjoy

Banana Nut Bread w/ pineapple

1 stick melted butter
3/4 C sugar ( u can use 1 C if u like it sweet.. I don't like it to sweet so I cut out 1/4 C)
2 large egg
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla extract
Pinch of SALT
4 coarsely mashed banana
2 C all purpose flour
3/4 C walnut
**** Optional*** 2 T of crush pineapple.. Next time I am gonna use more cuz the pineapple taste delicious!!

Take your eggs, sugar, vanilla, butter and cream together
Next cream in your flour, salt and baking soda
Then add in your banana n walnut
(If you are adding crush pineapple... Add it now also)

Grease a loaf pan
Bake @350 for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven
Once the stick comes out clear
Take out and wait about 5 minutes then take out the pan and lay on a cooking rack

Delicious.. I like to serve mines with a pat of butter ;)

Shrimp and Corn Bisque

2 lb of peel and devein shrimp ( I cut mines into 3 small bite sizes)
1 stick of butter
1 C chopped celery
1/2 C chopped onion
5 cloves of garlic minced ( I love garlic)
2 can of cream of potato
2 can cream of corn
2 can of whole corn kernels
1 can of cream of mushroom
2 pints of heavy cream
2 capful of crab boiled
1/2 t of Tony Chachere's
Pepper

Sauté your celery, onion and garlic in the butter. When it's cook and the veggies are translucent pour in your can goods.. Continue to stir it around .. Cook for about 5 minutes then add your shrimp and seasonings
Cook on medium low for about another 5 minutes .. Continue to stir then pour in your heavy cream and turn the heat down to low and cook for another 5-10 minutes
Remember to keep stirring

Garnish with green onions
Enjoy

Cheese platter

I love weekends cause I don't really cook.. What we usually eat around here is very simple meals.. Things that I can just pop in the microwaves or throw in the oven to warm.
Today the kids wanted a snack n they each had their own favorite so I put it all into one platter and let them have at it. They cleaned out the platter ;)

Prepping.. Fruits and Vegetables

What I usually try to do when I get home from my grocery shopping is wash all my fruits and vegetable. I fill a sink full of water and throw in all my fruits.. I wash all my strawberries , apple, plums etc
Then I put them on top of a dish towel to dry next I would drain and fill up the sink again for my vegetables.. After I wash them I usually try to cut what I need for the next few days..
Then I place them in my glass containers or my vegetable savers.

Catfish Poboy

Since we couldn't eat meat today .. I was searching for something easy that the hubby and I can eat... since the kids had taco and eggrolls.
I was getting off of a showing so I stopped by my local grocery store and they make the best fried catfish... So I decided to make a catfish Poboy... I bought a loaf of French bread and some tartar sauce..

I just dress mines with tartar sauce, sliced tomato, lettuce, ketchup, pickle and a little hot sauce
Yummy!!!

Cafe Du Monde

Tonight after our late night run to Target..me and my 4 in tow. I decided to give them a treat... So we drove thru Cafe Du Monde for some yummy beignets and cafe au lait and white/chocolate milk for the kiddies ;)
Delicious!!!