A New Year and a search for Blogger Spice Recipes

Happy New Year! I hope you had wonderful Christmas and New Year celebrations. I know I did. We cooked, we ate and we laughed a bunch.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve with Chicken Andouille Gumbo and Potato Salad. This year I did make my own stock by boiling two chickens with celery, onion, bay leaves and pepper corns. I brought the pot to a boil and simmered for one hour. I removed the chickens, removed the skin, de-boning them and returning the bones to the pot simmering for another hour. I placed the chicken meat in the refrigerator for the gumbo. Then I strained the stock through a fine mesh strainer and used it in the gumbo instead of water. It was delicious! I just have to get the roux to liquid ratio right before I post the final recipe. Something to look forward to in 2014.

For Christmas, we had Beef Filets, Artichoke Casserole and Scalloped Potatoes. We tried a new scalloped potato recipe but decided to reject it. The recipe had too much garlic flavor. We will stick with our old Scalloped Potatoes recipe. We also had a bunch of Christmas Goodies to choose from, the hands down favorite was the Dark Chocolate Almond Fudge. I see it becoming a new tradition.

For New Years, I hit the road to central Texas to visit my favorite person in the world. We went into Austin to try and visit a food truck we saw on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but we missed them. They had closed and wouldn’t open until the dinner service. We went to Threadgill’s instead and got some great home cooking. We also made a trip to Trader Joe's. A first for both of us. So much to try there! We did a lot more laughing and cooking as usual. We made his family recipe for Peasant Soup. It is an amazing potato and leek soup that I hope to share with you before winter is over. We also made some great Shrimp and Pork Dumplings. The recipe made a ton, and the dipping sauce was amazing!!!! We actually had a lot of dumplings for the freezer. I would like to compare this recipe with the Pork and Shrimp Dumplings I made last year. I think I like last year’s recipe better.  But this dipping sauce is the stand out winner! I would recommend this Sesame Soy Dipping Sauce without reservations. You must try it.

Sesame Soy Dipping Sauce

Source: Food Network

Ingredients

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup seasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon honey

2 green onions, minced

Directions

Whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, oil, honey and green onions, and set aside until ready to serve.

***Attention Blogging Friends***

I have started a Pinterest Board just for all of us to share blog posts about Spices.

*Blogger Spices, Rubs and Seasonings*

This board is for Spices, Rubs and Seasonings recipes from some great bloggers! Feel free to pin any recipe from your blog or other food blogs that uses spices! If you are a blogger, and would like to be a contributor, please comment on one of my pins and FOLLOW THIS BOARD so I can send you the invitation. 
Thanks! Denise@Soup Spice Everything Nice

Follow Denise's board *Blogger Spices, Rubs and Seasonings* on Pinterest.