The Payoff - Saturday Gumbo

After a hectic Twilight ticket acquiring afternoon, Nick got the chance to make his gumbo for dinner this afternoon. And - just like Shake and Bake - I helped. We try to help each other out in the kitchen while leaving one person clearly in charge (this tends to stave off the head-strong difference in ingredients or technique fights that we have otherwise. But we - ahem - mostly I - still have trouble keeping our mouths shut sometimes. But we work on things and we grow, right?). Anyway, I prepped the veggies and then headed out back to watch some backlogged The Rachel Zoe Project while Nick took care of the rest. I have some awesome timing, because I returned just in time to put the rice in the rice cooker.

Nick will be posting his thoughts on the gumbo over on the OKGastronaut, but let me just tell you, it's yummy friends. Be careful with the roux, though, because it go from chocolate to burned quickly. Which happened a little with this, but not too badly. Still delicious.

What's Cooking This Weekend

We'll be doing a lot of cooking this weekend. Nick and I had a deal. I wouldn't cook any "major" recipes again until he got to make his favorite gumbo. This is what happens every time the weather changes. When summer hits we're competing over who gets to make the first ice cream, sorbet, pasta salad and the like; with the cool weather that's heading in, it's time for us to start competing for stove time again with hearty soups, stews and gumbos. I snuck in the first dish (red beans and rice), with the agreement that Nick's gumbo would be next. The only problem is, I'm really craving my favorite black bean dish, so in order to keep my promise while also getting my way, he'll be making his gumbo on Saturday and I'll be making my black beans on Sunday. Want to cook along? Here are the recipes:

For Saturday:

Shrimp and Chicken Etouffee originally from Food Network Magazine
Feel free to swap out the shrimp for crawfish, which we often do. Sometimes we leave out the seafood altogether if we know we're going to have leftovers, since it doesn't reheat in the microwave well. You may have noticed in the post that I'm referring to this as a Gumbo but the recipe refers to it as an Etouffee. That's Nick's call. He's pretty emphatic about it. I'll let him explain, but either way, it's delicious.

For Sunday:

Black Beans with Creole Tomato Salsa from The Gumbo Shop Cookbook
Delicious, comforting, and as a bonus, vegetarian. If you're into that kind of thing.