Half-Hour Chicken Gumbo from MarthaStewart.com

I had a craving for gumbo, which is strange since I rarely eat gumbo and have never made it before. The idea came to me while I was at work. I had a package of kielbasa sausage and I wanted to try something a little different then my norm, spaghetti with sausage bites. I thought about making jambalaya again, but, didn't want to work that hard for dinner. Plus, it has been 3 years since I made it and I have no ideal were the recipe is. So thinking outside the box, I decided to make gumbo.

Gumbo is generally made with either shrimp, sausage, chicken, or a combination of meats. I decided to stick to a sausage and chicken combo since this was my first time making it. With the decision in mind, I turned to my favorite database of everything awesome on the web: Pinterest. There were several versions, but, I found Martha Stewart's Half Hour Chicken Gumbo to be the simplest. You will be able to find the recipe here.

Looks delicious right!

Since the chicken that is used is already prepared it saves a lot of time, plus the flavor adds to the soup. I did change a few things around. I used my kielbasa sausage I had in the fridge which isn't the spicy sausage Martha's recipe calls for, but, it worked. I added some ground red pepper to make up for the lack of spice from the sausage. I also really like the the flavor of tomato in gumbo, so I added 2 cans of chopped tomato. I am not a fan of bell peppers, so I left those out. Other than those minor changes, I keep to the recipe and here is my result. 

Oh, so pretttttyyyyyy

Quick note: I forgot to mention the 2 bay leaves I added. I like what bay leaves do to a stew or soup. 

So the first day I ate the gumbo with rice we had streamed the night before. But, the next I made some corn bread and ate the gumbo with that (which is what the recipe calls for). This was so good, I have to make it again. 

Kassoum's comment: "Its good, but, I don't like okra. My mom use to use it (in Africa) all the time."

His my toughest critic!

Blast From The Past: reusing a post from my other blog to launch the new blog.

This post was originally posted around Christmas 2012. Since then I have tried only one more Pinterest nail design. I did not take a picture of the outcome, but I rocked the design for a few days. Of course for this blog I will be adding pictures of more nail designs from my board the Whimsy Claw. 

Here is the original post with minor changes:
 So, recently I removed the acrylic nails to give my nail-bed some air and a little TLC. This also allowed to save some money for Christmas gifts or gift. The upkeep on acrylic nails is pricey! Anyways, in the spirit of given I decided to use the money on others instead of myself, see I'm nice.

The thing is I still really like to have fun flashy nails, so I decided to reconnect with my inner artist and paint my nails myself. I could have been really creative and make up a design, but that is what I have Pinterest for.  Thankfully, I have been preparing for such an event as this by pinning every amazing nail picture I ran across.

So after searching through the pins on my board is called the Whimsy Claw, you are welcome to go look at the rest of my pins, I decided to try something I had seen on Pinterest before. I was unable to locate the exact pin at the time and decided that I would wing it. I remembered the picture showed a red and white polka-dot combo and that was all I could remember. Here is the pin, I really should have searched a little harder...

Beautiful Pinterest Photo (hand models know how to rock the camera) 

...and here is the final result.

 My lousy attempt

 I guess my memory is a little off. Nevertheless, I rocked this for 2 days before I completely destroyed the paint job when I washed the dishes.

Well there is my first pin, hope everyone enjoyed it. I will have more to come, so stay tuned.