The dorm favorite: Jumbalaya!

This recipe is dedicated to my #1 Jumbalaya fan, Michelle Knopf. But more importantly to my new fans Nicaela & Steve, who are going to start trying to cook. Bravo kids! Try this one first!!! (And don't worry Nicaela, no seasoning necessary. I know you only have salt & pepper!)


Let me give everyone a quick background on this recipe. I first started cooking this in the dorms at UH. I loved it so much (and so did Michelle), that we would cook it just about every week. It's probably not the most nutritious recipe, so over the years it evolved to include the mushrooms and broccoli. I can't take all of the credit, it's mostly the boxed rice that is oh so tasty. When I put this in the cookbook, I guess I'm going to have to make the rice from scratch. For now though, I'll give you the easy, dorm style version!

INGREDIENTS:

1 Box Zatari's Jumbalaya
1 package hot italian sausage
1 boneless/skinless chicken breast
1 head brocolli- chopped into bite sizes
4-5 mushrooms- Finely chopped
salt & pepper


Cooking:


First fill a large pot and a large skillet 3/4ths of the way up with water, bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, through the whole package of rice and chopped mushrooms & broccoli into the large pot. Stir around, cover and bring the heat back down to low. Set the timer for 26 minutes.

The quickest & easiest way to cook the chicken for this recipe would be on a Foreman Grill. If you have one, spray it with cooking spray and then cook the chicken about 10 minutes & season with seasoned salt and pepper. If you don't have one, no worries, just bake the chicken on 325 degrees for 26 minutes.

Take out your sausage and poke holes with a fork, three times on each side of all of the sausages. When done, throw the sausage into the large skillet once the water has began to boil and turn the heat down to medium high- still allowing the water to keep it's boil. Cook 20 minutes.


The chicken, rice and sausage should all be done around the same time. When they are, dump the water out from the sausage skillet and then return to medium heat and brown the sausage for a few minutes.

Chop up the sausage and chicken into bite sized pieces, throw it in the rice pot, and serve! Nicaela, Steve: cook it!!

And then there were two..

I was watching the Food Network yesterday, and Barefoot Contessa was on. She had a special guest on the show. This special guest, Phoebe, has her own blog called, "Big girls small kitchen." And of course, she has the same idea I do, a blog about cooking in your 20's.

The moral of this story is, I don't care. And also, she got a book deal. Which means, good news, I could get a book deal. I'm still going to write a book about cooking in your 20's, and it's going to be better than hers. Really.

Oh yeah, I also realized that she blogs like 3 times a week... so I think I should get on it. Get excited!


P.S. I love you. -Frank