A Virtual Tour of Our Psychedelic Bus, Sugaree

First and foremost, I hope you and your families are safe and well!  Although this post is not exactly food related, I thought I'd share this anyway because it certainly does involve family, friends and fun...and a little love too.  Hopefully this little tour of our beloved bus, Sugaree will brighten your day and put a smile on your face.  Love to all!!  xoxo

Desperado - Sausage & Potato Hash Topped with an Egg Over Easy

This breakfast is another family favorite and a recipe I've posted before, but it needed some tweaking and what better time than now.  I recreated this recipe from a restaurant chain in the Dallas area called "Le Peep."  I think there might be one left in Plano and Dylan said there's at least one in Colorado.  Anyway, it's a versatile dish, where you can add some tortilla chips, substitute the pork sausage with chorizo and serve with flour tortillas and you have Migas, similar to what they serve at another Dallas favorite restaurant or our's, Cafe Brazil.  Use whatever spices you have on hand.  Sometimes I will substitute a half an envelope of Lipton's Onion Soup if I have it, it's great for seasoning hash brown potatoes.

This meal is good for a crowd, just double the recipe.  I especially love serving this at our lake house because I can have the sausage and potatoes all cooked and teed up and finish the process after everyone wakes up.  Even the pickiest of eaters will eat this up.


Enjoy!!

Serves 4 - 5 people

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 diced large russet potato

1 - 16 oz pkg Jimmy Dean's Sausage

1/2 cup yellow or red onion diced

4 minced garlic cloves

Tony Cachere's Creole seasoning to taste or Old Bay

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tbsp butter

5 eggs

Cheddar Cheese

Salsa

Tabasco

jalapeno slices (optional)

Flour tortillas (optional)

Microwave potato for 3 minutes or until cooked halfway through. In a frying pan heat oil add potatoes, fry until golden brown. In another frying pan, brown the sausage. After the meat is halfway browned, add the onions and then the garlic. Drain the fat from the sausage. Season the potatoes with Tony Cachere's seasoning and pepper. Season the sausage with Worcestershire. Combine the two mixtures in one pan and keep warm. In another pan heat butter and fry the eggs. While the eggs are cooking prepare each plate with a heaping serving of the potato and sausage mixture. Layer with a little cheddar cheese. Flip the egg for just 30 seconds and serve on top of the cheese. Serve with Salsa, Tabasco for people to add to their liking.

To make Migas:

Substitute Mexican Chorizo for Jimmy Dean's Sausage.  Add fried tortilla strips or chips.

Shrimp Curry Hot Pot with Crispy Rice

...Also known affectionately in our home as the "Gurgling Hot Pot."  This is our newest favorite creation, although David is the one who gets all the praise for perfecting our home version.  This Vietnamese-inspired dish comes from one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants here in Dallas, Mai's on Bryan at Fitzhugh.  On their menu it's 45A and to us, it's comfort food at its finest.  All of us McQuaid's love Asian food of any kind.

Especially now, at this very challenging time in the world with Covid-19 running rampant and with social distancing, we're all trying to come up with creative dishes to serve ourselves and our families.  This is a great recipe to clean the frig out, you can use most any veggie you can get your hands on.  Our favorites are baby bok choy, broccoli, mushrooms (of any variety), shredded carrots, green onions, garlic, ginger.  Really any combination of your favorite veggies that you would put in a stir-fry will work well.  This is also a great dish to get everyone at home involved to help with the stir craziness.  One or two can be in charge of chopping, another can be in charge of the rice and one can be in charge of sautéing all the wonderfulness.  We love nothing more than cooking together as a family and I'm so very grateful for that.

I am really looking forward to getting back to my blog, so come back to check us out again, as I intend to share many more family favorite recipes.  Stay safe and well my friends.  May God Bless you all!  xoxo

Serves 4

2 cups Basmati rice
2 tablespoons butter
1 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 cup milk 
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
Pinch of saffron
32 medium raw, deveined shrimp- we usually do 8 to 12 shrimp per person
Baby bok choy - 3 heads sliced
Broccoli, 1 crown, chopped into bite sized pieces
mushrooms, a few sliced into bite sized pieces
1 - 2 shredded carrots
1 bunch green onion, sliced (or any kind of onion you have on hand)
a few sprigs of fresh basil, chopped or dried
garlic, 6 cloves, diced
ginger, 2 tbsp, shredded
1 jalapeño, diced (optional)
1 habanero pepper diced (optional)
1 - 4 oz jar green curry paste
1 - 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar 
1/8 cup olive oil 
1/4 cup half and half
1 - 14 oz can coconut milk or cream
1 TBSP Fish sauce

Start with preparing the rice:

Rinse rice well in cold water, until the water runs clear. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the washed rice, and cook for five minutes, then drain.

In a large cast-iron pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add reserved rice, salt, milk, and oil. Stir to combine, then spread the mixture evenly in the pan, poking holes into the rice with the bottom of a wooden spoon to let the steam escape. Cover the pan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes without disturbing it.

Submerge saffron in 1/2 cup hot water.  Let steep for a few minutes, then pour the liquid over the rice. Lower the heat a little and continue to cook the rice uncovered for 30-35 minutes, rotating the pot occasionally to ensure the heat source touches the bottom of the pan evenly. Listen to the rice carefully and occasionally prop up a section of the rice with a spatula and peek at the underside to make sure it's not burning--you're looking for a thick golden crust.

Once the rice sounds like softly popping corn and smells nutty, it's done. Let the rice sit for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert it onto a large platter, breaking up the crunchy bits and piling them on top.

After rice is cooked, or at least well on it's way, sauté all of the veggies in a large pot in olive oil.  After a few  minutes add the jar of green curry paste.  Mix well.  Add the half-n-half, coconut milk and fish sauce.  Mix well.  Add the shrimp and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes or until the shrimp turns nice and pink in color.  Serve in a bowl and top with crispy rice.  You can put some rice in the bottom of the bowl also, but we've found that once you add the liquid to the rice on the bottom of the bowl, the rice loses it's crunchiness.  Therefore, we add it to the top and get a glorious bit of crunch in each and every bite. 


**Our rice portion of this recipe was adapted by Bon Appetit's "Crunchy Rice" recipe.