I've been a trainwreck in the kitchen lately, and my guys are probably ready to hang a Help Wanted sign on the front door for a new cook.  I'll tell you that broiling instead of baking canned cinnamon rolls doesn't work very well.  Paying attention to that little bake/broil knob on the toaster oven really is important. 

Have you heard of the Crockpot Girls ?  They have become extremely popular overnight with hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook.  After looking at some of the recipes on their blog, I decided to dust off the old crockpot (and I do mean old.  Remember the ones with flowers all around them?  I don't even know where I got it from.) and give it a try again.  I succeeded in making some very dry and bland chicken, but I'm not going to give up!  I LOVE the idea of putting everything in the crockpot before work and having dinner ready when we return home.  If you have some tips or recipes to share with me in using the crockpot, I'd love to hear them.  In the meantime, I'm going to ask Santa for a new one.

After botching a couple of things in the kitchen, we were ready to have a meal that we really enjoy...gumbo.  I have seen my mother spend hours preparing her gumbo recipe, which is our very favorite, but there are some things I just won't attempt.  My gumbo comes from a mix called Zatarain's Gumbo Mix.   I can hear my Cajun relatives gasping all the way from Louisiana! 

I add six cups of water and the gumbo mix to a large pot, and bring ingredients to a boil.  After lowering the heat, I add some beef Eckrich sausage (that has been browned and drained) to the pot

along with a pound and half of peeled/deveined shrimp.  Follow the package directions for the length of cooking time needed, but you'll have a tasty pot of gumbo before you can say "Boudreaux".  One more thing...we like lots of rice in our gumbo, so I always make a pot to go with it.  The gumbo mix doesn't have enough in it for our liking.  This is the perfect warm meal for the cold evenings we've been having in North Texas. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog.  Let me know if you have any questions!