A Recipe & A Blast From The Past

Hey all you happy stampers! How's your weekend? I was planning on posting something for you today but then we woke up to the most beautiful snow! We've had so much playing all day!

I wanted to share the gumbo recipe with you guys....if I don't do it now I will completely forget! And let me share that with recipes I am not a follower if I am not baking. I will try to get as close as possible but some of it is just to taste. So here goes.....

Chicken Gumbo...but for Thanksgiving it's Turkey Gumbo!

You will need:
Chicken/Turkey I have no clue how much...I usually will pick up a roasted whole chicken from the grocery and use this. With turkey leftovers it's just whatever we have left.
Sausage about a lb
flour
oil
2 bell peppers
onion
2 celery stalks....the veggies are a guestimate as well....chop all veggies
salt
cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
Chicken stock...probably about 8 to 10 cups....if your gumbo gets dry you can always add water. If you don't have chicken stock you can start with water.


Directions:
Cut the sausage up. I cut mine down the length of the sausage and then again in half...brown in a saute pan, remove and drain. Saute the veggies in this pan.

While those are cooking, in a dutch oven put about 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup flour. You want to brown the flour until it's dark...I like dark roux...
***easy trick...you can buy roux at the grocery store. I've never used it so I can't say how it tastes but I do realize that making a roux is a bit of a pain! ;)

Once your roux is ready, add the veggies and meats, the chicken stock, the bay leaves and salt and cayenne to taste. Bring this to a boil and then reduce the temp and cook the heck out of it all day! ;)

Ok...you really only need to cook it for an hour or so, but it will taste better the longer you cook it.

Serve over rice and top with Gumbo Filet powder...that is optional but I LOVE filet on my gumbo! :)

This is really an easy one. The hardest part is the roux...again, you can buy it at the store which will cut down on the cooking time.

Ok...and on to a blast from the past. I pulled this one out to share because I thought it would make a nice stocking stuffer for a little girl.....

....You would need to change the sentiment, but how fun to create this and then stuff it in a stocking! The tin is a paper doll holder. You could put anything in it. This is one of the little Altoid tins that I picked up at Gina K. The stamp set is also from Gina K...it's one from Melanie Muenchinger 'What's In Your Tin'.
Inside, there are paper dolls, chocolate, a paper ring, pinwheel. So many fun things.
I created mine for a get well, this is the poem inside.

By switching a few things you would be ready to go. The little tins themselves are only a couple of bucks and the little nuggets fit perfectly in them. Even to fill them with chocolate they make a perfect little something for a teacher or child....anyone that you might want to give a little something more than a card.

Hope you enjoy the gumbo! ....and that you have a wonderful day! :)

I will post you in a bit...Sharon's celebration begins soon!


Altoid Tin Gina K
What's In Your Tin Stamp Set Gina K
DSP from Papertrey Ink
Misc ribbon...papertrey, SU...
Heidi Swapp charms