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Creamy Chicken and Andouille Fettuccine

It all started with chicken and andouille sausage. That dynamic duo that saves many a day in this hectic household. Then there were the unused portions of a couple of sweet peppers, an already-opened carton of heavy cream and an obnoxious amount of late-blooming jalapeños. With a limited amount of time on my hands and just enough determination to pull together a reasonable meal, Creamy Chicken and Andouille Fettuccine was created. It’s a satisfyingly simple and slightly spicy pasta dish that appeals to all the Hogan palates. It’s also a prime example of how the [ ... ]
Category: Chicken, Main Dishes, Pasta, Pork  Comments off

Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

When I’m in the mood for pork, I usually run to the grocery store, buy whatever’s on sale and build a recipe and a meal around that particular cut. The best buys are most often extra large pork loins and broad shoulders. Two cuts I can do plenty with. Occasionally, the plain, petite tenderloins hit the sale rack and when they do I grab a few of those. Until about three years ago, though, I never bothered with the tenderloins. I found them a challenge to cook to the recommended internal temperature without having them [ ... ]
Category: Main Dishes, Pork  Tags:  2 Comments

Finger Food Friday: Crescent City Sin

If you live in the south or have ever done any SEC tailgating, you’re probably familiar with Mississippi Sin or, as it’s called by some, Mississippi State Sin. It’s a devilishly delicious dip dotted with specs of ham and chopped green chiles that apparently originated in the kitchen of some big MS Bulldog fan. Up until a few months ago, I had only heard of this Southern college game-day tradition. Then, while flipping through a community cookbook my mom recently gave me (The 2nd Annual South Area Diversity Cookbook of the USPS), I came across the recipe [ ... ]

Mom’s Holiday Ham

This is my mom’s holiday ham recipe. This amazing ham has been an important part of every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner I’ve been fortunate enough to share with my family. So you can imagine my surprise last week when I called my mom with a recipe instruction question only to find out that she no longer prepares her ham this way (unfortunately, I haven’t had a holiday meal at mom’s house in a couple of years so I wasn’t aware of this little fact). She said more recently, she’s been buying the spiral cut hams [ ... ]

Smothered Pork Chops

Pork chops seasoned with the perfect mix of earthy herbs and spices, browned in hot oil then slowly cooked in a roux-based sauce blessed with the Holy Trinity (and fresh mushrooms) to fork-tender perfection. Always served over white rice–my Baked Rice. Those are my Smothered Pork Chops. Smothering the pork in a rich gravy guarantees tender chops every time and cooking the meat on the bone makes them extra tasty and moist. Smothered Pork Chops make frequent appearances at the Hogan dinner table. They’re also popular among many other New Orleans families and are a highly sought-after daily lunch special [ ... ]
Category: Main Dishes, Pork, Roux  Tags: ,  Comments off

Slow Cooked Vietnamese Pork

Looking to break out of your weeknight dinner rut? Then check this out. I’ve come up with a great little pork dish for the crock pot. Now I’m not much of a crock pot user. I bought mine solely to keep my gumbo warm during parties. But I have, on occasion, treated this apparatus like the efficient small cooking appliance it was intended to be. I just never felt like the sum of the parts I put in it were worth writing about. Until now. This slow cooked pork? It’s worth [ ... ]
Category: Main Dishes, Pasta, Pork  Comments off

Finger Food Friday: Blue Cheese and Bacon Chips

Hello Finger Food Friday fans! My apologies to all for my lack of end-of-the-week, happy hour yummies. It’s just that lately there’s been no fun in our Fridays. The hubby and I have been working overtime and chauffeuring the kids here and there in between. Today, however, our plan is to chill. Hoping to hangout on the patio for a few hours and take in our beautiful weather (which is about to turn ugly thanks to that mean girl in the Gulf) and enjoy some much-needed downtime. I haven’t nailed down our menu as [ ... ]

Who Dat Chili

Growing up, chili was never important to me and I don’t recall it ever being the center of attention with any of my family members or friends. I guess that’s because in New Orleans we’d all rather fill a pot with the likes of gumbo, beans or smothered something or other. Over the past few years, however, I’ve had this weird fixation with chili. My preoccupation stems from this fun-filled chili cook-off my girlfriend used to hold at her annual Super Bowl party. All her guests knew I loved to cook and they constantly bugged me [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Andouille French Bread Pizza

When we were young, my mom introduced me, my sister and my brother to a couple of quick and fun ways to make pizza at home. One method involved flattening canned biscuits and topping them with leftover red gravy and whatever else we could find in the fridge. Ham, bacon, black olives, onions and cheese made frequent appearances. We loved the novelty of those pizzas and made them frequently, especially for afterschool snacks. The other style was French bread pizza. As the name suggests, the base of those pizzas was French bread. And again, the toppings [ ... ]

Boudin-Stuffed Turkey Breast

Back in January, I had the pleasure of meeting Amy Evans at the foodblogSouth conference in Birmingham. Amy is an oral historian with the Southern Foodways Alliance, a not-for-profit institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. The organization studies the diverse food cultures of the ever-changing American South and records its findings through oral histories, photographs, documentaries and various publications. It then celebrates the regions cultural “creators and keepers,” as I like to call them, by sharing their stories with anyone and everyone through various festivals, field trips and an annual symposium. [ ... ]