In the kitchen with Elise

Being new to Louisiana, residing in New Orleans. I've come to learn that their food is creatively delicious. Their Creole & Cajun styled food is full of flavor and completely different than the traditional American foods that I am used to. Gumbo is one of the traditional New Orleans food. True soul food at its best. It consists of a pot full of meats. A very heavy meal to keep the family stuffed. Normally there are a variety of meats in the one big pot. The meats for the gumbo vary depending on which types of meats you prefer. Normally there is seafood, chicken and sausage for the best gumbo's. This is served alongside rice. After trying Gumbo a few times, I decided to give it a try. So I made a Crawfish (Very common in Louisiana, similar to lobster and shrimp, in my opinion much tastier than both), Crab, Turkey neck, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. Now this recipe would be more for the advanced cooks, as it takes a LONG TIME to make. Though it isn't complicated to...

Last night my husband and I enjoyed tacos. Something that is very simple to make and very fun to create. Done in mere minutes and an enjoyable light snack. Servings 4 Prep time: 10 min Total time: 12 min Ingredients 4 Hard or Soft Shell Tacos 1 lb Ground beef 1/2 cup Tomato sauce  1/2 Diced onion, tomato, carrot 1/2  lettuce Thinly sliced  Shredded cheese Optional: sour cream Optional: Bbq sauce Seasonings: salt, pepper, onion powder, taco seasoning Directions: Take your ground meat and cook it in a little bit of olive oil, until nicely browned. To make the original hard shell taco bell tacos, you will season the meat with your taco seasoning mix, salt, pepper, onion powder etc. ( if you don't have taco seasoning, substitute it for something like chilli powder, or other seasonings) once your meat is the way you like it, seasoning wize, you can either leave it dry for the original taco bell way or add in your tomato sauce for a more juicy taco and mi...

Like kebabs? Have that outdoor kebab on a grill experience done straight in your oven... Delicious, fun to eat and great to be served in parties or even as a snack, all your meat and vegetables in one stick. On the kebab you have your meal serving of meat and vegetables, all you need to add is your starch. Things like rice, mashed potatoes or pasta go well as a side. When making kebabs, there is no specific right or wrong way to make it, nor is there a right or wrong ingredient to add. What I typically do, is I search for all of my favorite vegetables and I add it to the skewer. I've seen many people add things like onion, pepper, tomato etc. But if you are not the type of person to eat a whole half an onion. Don't add it to your kebab. It will just be taking up space and once roasted you won't eat it. Put things on the skewer that you would actually eat and enjoy. (Makes 12 Kebabs) Ingredients 12 Skewer sticks 4 chicken breasts (seasoned and diced into large ...

Woke up earlier this morning and made a yummy breakfast for me and my sweetheart. Delicious Brioche bread french toast. Its really simple to make, done in minutes and really filling.We ate this huge breakfast and didn't feel like eating until late afternoon. We were stuffed and more importantly, left the breakfast table with a smile. A really delicious breakfast choice. Try it for your Sunday morning Brunch. Ingredients 6 Thick sliced bread (I used Brioche bread) 3 egg 1/2 milk 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract Set your bread aside, In a large bowl mix in all of your ingredients. Turn your fire onto medium low heat, if your frying pan is not teflon and easily sticks spray a little pam. Dip your breads on both sides, into the egg mixture. Then immediately put it in the frying pan and cook for about 2 minutes or until golden brown, then flip over and cook the same way on the other side. That simple, your done French toast goes well with things...

One of the simplest ways to make your chicken, its actually very tasty. For those of you who like chinese food or things like sweet and sour chicken, chicken teriyaki, bbq chicken, sesame chicken, or general tso's chicken. Here is a quick alternative and an amazing taste similar to all of the listed foods above. Goes along great with just plain white rice or even creamy mashed potatoes. Give it a try. Honey glazed sticky chicken. Ingredients 3 chicken breasts 3 tbsp honey 1/4 cup brown sugar 4 tbsp water Dice your chicken breast into nice sized chunks, clean it by washing it in vinegar and water. Once thoroughly washed put your chicken in a big pan with a little bit of oil and cook on medium high heat until nicely browned. Once it is nice and a dark brown color add in your brown sugar and water, mix well until all dissolved and lower the heat to medium low, add in your honey and mix well. It will all begin to look like a light brown color. Lower your heat to low a...

According to the food pyramid, health experts and nutritionists. Daily we need to intake 5 fruits or vegetable and drink our 8 cups of water. But not many people do that. This is important because it helps our body to get all the nutrients and good for us, vitamins that it needs in order to continue having energy to live a productive life. Sometimes we don't intake all of those fruits and vegetables due to not liking them , maybe due to lack of time to stop and pick up at least 5 fruits and vegetable pieces to eat throughout the day, maybe because you are not used to adding vegetables to your lunch and dinner meals etc. Even if you do eat your daily portions worth, you could always eat more, it won't hurt. Drink health, energy and an immune system boost with this fresh fruit and vegetable smoothie made from scratch. You can add in your 5 fruits and vegetables into that one smoothie and have your daily portion all in one big cup. So fresh it needs to be drunk immediately...

Here is how to make the perfect oven roasted chicken drumsticks, nicely golden with a crisp crunch on the outside and a tender center. Almost feels like your cheating and eating fried chicken. But with no guilt at all, no extra calories from all that fatty batter and no frying necessary at all. Its all done in the oven. Quick to make (the oven does all the work) Goes great along with a nice salad or green vegetable and rice. I tripled  up on my starches (Not recommended unless you need to gain weight) as pictured above. But I don't regret it one bit. It was super delicious. Here I have my chicken with white rice, a quinoa and kale sauté and coconut oil covered sweet potato and casava. This was good, I mean REALLY good. Try it for yourself and see. How its done: All you need is this: 8 drumstick A drizzle of canola or vegetable oil Seasoning: salt, lawrys all purpose seasoning, black pepper, onion powder First thing is first, as I posted a few years ago. It is really...