Jambalaya

So the one *major* thing about taking pictures with my phone camera, is that it doesn't take pretty pictures of food.... especially at night, when there is no natural lighting. Blech. But anywho - I made Jambalaya last week - and it was good!

It was definitely one of those "use up what you have" type of things; we had specific CSA veggies that needed to be used, and also a couple of freezer items that I'd been meaning to get out of the freezer and onto our plates.

Dave had bought frozen crawfish forever ago and then promptly forgot about them. I would say for sure now that I will not be buying these little critters again. I'd simply rather buy shrimp. Same basic creature, except crawfish just taste a little dirty. They're both bottom-feeders that are supposedly unclean anywho, but shrimp are delicious, and crawfish are just too fishy.

In addition, I used Kielbasa, since that's what we had in the freezer, but obviously Andouille sausage would be better suited for this dish.

Here's how it went:Chopped half an onion (all we had - would add more in future), 2 stalks of celery, 2 light green peppers, 1 Anaheim pepper and 1 banana pepper and sautéed in a bit of olive oil. Salt, pepper, Essence of Emeril. Added 28 oz can of diced tomatoes and 4 diced garlic cloves, as well as 2 handfuls of chopped kale. Let that simmer a couple of minutes and then added a 1 pint carton of Thai broth (Wegman's brand). Used this since it was near expiration and I hoped to add a little heat; chicken stock would do. Added 1 cup of rice, stirred it around and put the lid on. Took it off to stir a couple times, otherwise let it simmer for approx 20 minutes or until rice is almost tender. Added the crawfish & sausage (both pre-cooked) and put the lid back on for 10 more minutes for everything to heat up.

We've been eating this all week... probably made 6 servings. I have been stuffing a bunch of fresh spinach in before heating it up to up the veggie content.