Could Today be any better?

So, it's Monday, Mrs. K (this is the alias I came up with for the wife)  and I had a great weekend up in the Bluegrass State visiting with friends and family, I got a ton of sleep last night and I was fired up and ready to go to start some more projects today.  My goal today was to start a series of paintings for the nursery and to get some supplies to build some built in shelves as well.

I call Mrs. K and ask if she had any special requests for dinner tonight and what did she come up with?  Red Beans and Rice!  What?  I don't ever think that I've ever made it for her. . . ever.  I was in!  Did I mention that Cajun Cuisine is one of my absolute favorites? So, off to the store I went, I got all my meats and produce and went to grab some sodas, Diet Coke to be more specific when what did I see?

CHEERWINE!  I haven't had this stuff since the last time I was in North Carolina.  And it is now in Tennessee.  If you've never had this stuff, it is to North Carolina as Dr. Pepper is to Texas.  Only, better, in my opinion.  Now, they just need to bring down Ale 8 1's from Kentucky.  Then, will my soda selections be complete in Nashville.

Anyway, so I start soaking my beans as soon as I get home for dinner and head down to the local Art supply store and pick up three canvases and a tube of raw sienna acrylic paing and various other doo dads and head home to start painting.  The shelves are just going to have to wait for tomorrow.  I had too much on my plate for one day.  Let's get the Beans and Rice thing out of the way first. 

The great thing about preparing Cajun food is that it is so simple.  It is like the most backwoods cuisine infused with French, African and I guess Gulf Coast flare.  In other words it is so good because it is the sum of a lot of great culinary influences.  Of course, all Cajun/Creole food starts with the "Trinity":  Celery, onions and peppers with an addition of garlic.

Once cut, I sweat it in some oil, but don't add the garlic just yet.  When you add the garlic with all of this it could burn in the process and burnt garlic has a very unique, unsavory flavor to it.  Once things have had a chance to sweat down I then push things aside to brown the Andouille sausage.  I just split them down the center and then cut them in half again, this way I can fish them out of the pot before I puree a bit of  the beans.  I want to render out the fat to flavor the beans as well as get them browned a bit.  Once the sausage is browned I add the garlic, thyme, bay leaves, Cayenne (BAM! Just kidding,)  smoked ham hocks and the soaked red beans.

Cover the beans in chicken stock, season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer for a few hours.  Once the beans are tender, I pulled the thyme stems, bay leaves, sausage and ham hocks out, and reserved them while I used a stick blender to puree about a quarter of the beans to make the mixture creamy.  Add some chopped parsley and put the sausage back in to warm and serve with rice topped with green onions and a chunk of buttered baguette.

Oops!  Dirty bowl rim.  Thank goodness I don't cook in a restaurant any more.  So, there you have it, red beans and rice.  Really simple and doesn't need much tending to once you get it going.   Look up recipes on the internet, they're all basically the same.  The flavor that is consistent with just about all Cajun food is thyme, the "trinity", garlic, cayenne.  Stick with that and you're off to a good start.

So, while dinner was on the stove, I started my painting project.  I think I'll write about it next time.  But here is what I have so far:

The process is long, boring and tedious so I think it deserves its very own posting.  They're drying for tonight so I can finish up tomorrow, hopefully along with starting those dang shelves.