There are so many ways to cook a gumbo. Some are regional. Some are familial. Mine is practical. After traveling through Louisiana and our Great Gumbo Excursion last year in New Orleans, it is time to make some gumbo ourselves.
Some recipes seem to go so wrong but they turn out so right. Here is a tale of frustrated ambitions that resulted in a superior breakfast bread. I call it: "Camper's Berry French Toast Loaf." You can call it "delicious."
Sangria relies on some base of citrus and some other fruit mixed with a dry red wine and some liquor like brandy. This makes for a relatively simple formula that is easy to tweak for any occasion. Traditionally, the fruit is apple and orange, which I brought. I also brought raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries.
Crescent rolls are intentionally designed to be easy to make. Fortunately, their design also makes it easy to add items to the dough before rolling it up and baking the roll. Stack a slice of chicken, cheese, and a basil leaf on the triangle of dough. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Roll it all into a crescent roll. Do this with all the crescent dough and then bake in the dutch oven until the pastry is golden brown. Enjoy!
I had already seen some pie iron recipes for stuffed french toast. One in particular involved blueberries and cream cheese. I thought about it: there is another dairy product that I love to mix with blueberries for a healthy breakfast. In particular, I like to mix blueberries, sliced almonds, and coconut shavings in greek yogurt. Then, I could take this concoction that I already love and stuff it in french toast with the best type of bread: challah. It was messy and delicious.
Sometimes, I look in my cooler and think I have a good idea. "Hey, there's some ham to finish off." "I've got a few eggs." "We didn't finish all the crescent pastry when we made hotdogs." "When did I make this pico de gallo?" That's when I come up with a recipe with the sole aim of consuming as many leftovers as possible. Such an approach is the origin of many a classic recipe over the centuries. So, I thought I would try an experiment which I call the Southwest Baked Egg Breakfast Pastry because it really is just a bunch of stuff I threw together.
Hot dogs have always been our fallback when we want to cook over the campfire but aren't up to a big production. But what if we want to cook over the campfire and have a mini production? This recipe for the Spit Fire Hotdog Wrapped In Pastry can be as simple or as complicated as your heart desires. Add cheese, role in herbs, dip in aloe, it's all good and makes for a great camping activity for both kids and adults. Kids can stick with their boring dogs while you can hunt down the hickory smoked sausage with gourmet catsup.
Shrimp and grits originated as a hearty breakfast for southern fishermen. Over time, there has been many varying interpretations on the dish, but I've started with a pretty common recipe including cheddar cheese and bacon. My own contributions are little tweaks to better accommodate our nomadic limitations.
Traveling on the road, even when it's the two of us, can get kinda lonesome. I have a brilliant, kind, rational, hard-working, funny, and adventurous travel companion. But sometimes, we want to also have friends. Traveling does allow us to visit friends who have scattered all over the place, but there are also long friend gaps, were it's just us. So, when I can convince a friend to join us for a few days, I get really excited. And I express this excitement with cooking. (That and, I want them to have so much fun eating and exploring with us that they will join us again.) So, once I had the confirmation that some friends would be visiting for a long weekend, I started launched into overdrive to come up with some memorable recipes. Of course, I made the Campfire Bacon And Eggs Hash. But for this special occasion, I also concocted the Dutch Oven Breakfast Ring.
We are curious omnivorous. We are ready to try new and odd meals. If we see some animal on the menu that we have not tried, that will be our order. Even so, we are not above a mammal free meal. If it is tasty, we will eat it, and that includes vegetarian fair. One of my favorite examples of such a meal is the Grilled Sweet Potato, Kale, & Goat Cheese Baguette.