Welcome, Brett!

Oh, dear readers!

Today, I welcome my buddy and former roomie, Brett Chiquet, as a contributor to this glorious blog. Brett and I met in college and briefly shared a small bungalow (that’s Natchitoches speak for hovel).

The house was truly ridiculous. First, the refrigerator it came with didn’t really work. So, we had the landlord remove it, and we replaced it with our 2 dorm fridges. Really, we did that. Also, the only A/C window unit was in my room, but the heating unit was in Brett’s. In the winter, I slept in my sleeping bag under the covers. But rent was $200/month for each of us, and we had our (platonic) love to keep us warm.

It wasn’t all bad. The landlord let us paint our rooms (I went for Kermit green, Brett went for a more subdued hue of beige), and I even painted a sky with clouds on the ceiling in the hallway. There was also a tire swing on the oak tree in the front yard. It was a sweet little shack.

Of all our great times in that house, two of the best involved food.

For my 21st birthday, Brett and I made a Kahlua infused cake. I was mildly disappointed when the cashier at Albertson’s didn’t ask to see my ID when we went to purchase the Kahlua (ah, Louisiana). The cake was ridiculously good, if you like pudding and Kahlua. I don’t remember the recipe except that once it was baked, we poked holes in it and poured the Kahlua into the holes. The flavor was – intense.

For our housewarming party (is that right, Brett?), we threw together a pasta dish that I still make to this day. The following recipe is off the top of my head, and, because this is a simple dish that is made in one pan and one pot, you can add/drop ingredients as you see fit.

Sun-dried tomato Alfredo crawfish pasta Extravaganza!

Ingredients:

• 1 package (1 lb) frozen crawfish tails (of course, you can substitute fresh crawfish). Defrost before beginning. Please buy Louisiana crawfish and support our local economy. Chinese crawfish make baby Moses cry in his etoufee.
• 1 jar of Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo sauce
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced depending on how you like it
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced or in slices
• 1 red bell pepper, diced or in slices
• any other veggies/spices you’d like to add
• extra virgin olive oil (EVOO for those of you too lazy to say 8 syllables)
• 1 package of spaghetti or linguine
• Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning

Supplies:

• Big pot
• Big pan
• Big serving dish/bowl
• Wooden spoon

Before we begin, you should all be aware that I’m not giving precise cooking instructions here. Hopefully, you’re already pretty comfortable in the kitchen.

Instructions:

1. In a big pot of boiling water*, cook the pasta until al dente (which means something like “to the tooth” in Italian, but, for our purposes, means the pasta is still chewy); if the box says ‘cook for 7-8 minutes’, then cook for 7, etc. When the pasta is done, strain the water and toss the pasta in the serving bowl with a little olive oil to keep if from getting sticky.    *Putting olive oil in the water pot is useless according to Marcella Hazan, the Italian goddess of cooking.
2. In a big pan, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on med-high heat (adjust as you see fit) and toss in the onions until transparenty golden, or about 5 minutes. Stir.
3. Add bell peppers to pan and cook until tender. Stir.
4. Now toss in the garlic and defrosted crawfish tails and cook until the crawfish are hot (this means you need to taste while cooking). Stir.
5. Hey! Did you take the pasta off the stove? You didn’t? Gross, give that mess to the dog and start again.
6. Continuing with the recipe – Okay, crack open that jar of sauce and dump it in the pan. Stir until it’s all warm and ready for consumption. Add Tony’s to taste.
7. Pour contents of pan onto pasta in giant bowl. Stir and enjoy!

OR plate plain pasta separately and spoon saucy crawfish-y goodness onto individual servings.

OR add pasta to pan and stir the whole thing all together and then serve.

Bon appetit!

If you make this, please let us know in the comments how it turned out.