Cowgirl chicken casserole and Shrimp Etouffee.....

One day last year I was surfing through the zillions of foodblogs and found a recipe for a chocolate peanut butter pie. The recipe came from Emeril's book called PotLuck kicked up comfort food with attitude. The book was less than 1.00 used so I bought it. We were invited to a bday party potluck on Friday so I pulled out the book and found these two recipes. I REALLY wanted to make the shrimp etouffee because shrimp was on sale ( 31-40) for a really low price of 3.99 a bag. Robin nixed that idea saying a lot of people don't really like shellfish so I made it for us instead. It was super easy to make and really tasty. Etouffee means smothered and thats basically what it was. You start by making a light roux and then you add the famous cajun trinity. Bell peppers, onions and celery. Shrimp stock is added next( I used Better than Boullion lobster stock and it worked fine) and this mixture simmers for awhile. Shrimp is added in last and its served over rice. I had some white rice leftover from a Chinese food meal we had so it was a snap to reheat.

We decided on this cowboy( I renamed it cowgirl) chicken casserole for the Friday Potluck. I did a lot of the prep on Thursday night so it came together fast. Emerils recipes include a lot of steps, but the flavor really comes thru. This dish consists of diced or shredded chicken( you poach it in a flavorful broth) over crushed crunchy tortilla chips. Next you make a mushroom bechamel( no canned soup here!!) and pour that over. Diced onions, peppers, cheese and spices round out the next layer. Oh and lots of shredded cheese. Canned chopped tomatoes and green chilies finish it off. It bakes for 40 min and voila!! It was very tasty and as you can see, it make a huge dish.

ps: The blogger upload picture thing wasnt working so I had to use a cut and paste from snapfish. The pics are big, sorry for that.

Tortilla soup with Chipoltle shrimp( cuisine at home)...

When I lived in Cali, I never ate much soup. I'd make a big pot of matza ball when I was sick, but other than that soup didnt make it on my menu too often. To me, it has to be cold outside for soup. I saw this Cuisine at Home Soups and Splendid sides magazine( 9.99) at Barnes and Noble in Port Huron. I paged through it and every soup looked so good( I have another one on the menu this week). I love tortilla soup so this was naturally my first choice. It came together in 15 minutes too. I sauteed some onions and garlic along with a variety of mexican spice( cumin, corriander, oregano). Added some chicken stock( I had it frozen, but low sodium canned would work too). I then added a can of diced tomatoes, frozen corn, a can of black beans and a few torn corn tortillas. The recipe calls for charred poblano peppers but I subbed a can of green chilies. I also added some salsa verde and some chili powder. On sauteed some jumbo shrimp and added that as a garnish. Sour cream, shredded cheese and tortilla strips make a tasty garnish.