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The New Orleans Saints went home last year as losers of their wildcard playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. The Green Bay Packers are making sure they go home as losers in the 2011 NFL season opener.  New Orleans is famous for jambalaya, gumbo and Po-boys.  The Packers are planning on stuffing the Saints much like those overstuffed po-boy sandwiches.

No time for fussing and fancy cooking when the game starts on the West Coast at 5:30 PM.  Grilling and chilling is about the most complicated it gets.  Traditionally po-boys are made with breaded and deep fried shrimp or oysters.  But not everybody likes seafood and fried foods are high in fats. Offer a choice of grilled chicken po-boys and fried shrimp.

Start the menu with a kickoff of gumbo, a rich intensively flavored soup that’s more like a stew.  At half time, lay out a spread of goodies for fan to make their own po-boys. Finish with smothered beignets.

Gumbo can be time consuming with a long list of ingredients but not if you do it this way.  Purchase a commercially-made soup such as Campbell’s Grilled Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.  Add additional andouille sausage slices.  Heat and serve.  Throw away the cans and no one will be the wiser.

Grill the chicken ahead of time.  When the game is on, the grill meister occasionally forgets to keep an eye on the food, especially during tense moments.  Charcoaled chicken does not a good sandwich make. An alternative is to buy a whole roasted chicken.  Remove the skin and bones.  Shred the meat.

Use prepackaged heat-and-serve breaded shrimp.  No sense making a mess in the kitchen while the game’s on. Deep frying takes concentration like grilling does.  Plan on eight shrimp per sandwich, po-boys are overstuffed remember.

Lay out the shredded chicken, shrimps, chopped lettuce, tomatoes, pickles both sour and sweet, and toasted crusty rolls sliced in half but still hinged together.  Offer a selection of spicy mustard, plain mayonnaise and chipotle mayonnaise — add 1/2 tsp of chipolte powder to 1 cup of plain mayonnaise. Chipotle mayonnaise is similar to remoulade sauce and easier to make. Fans build their own sandwiches and enjoy until the game resumes.

Add a few salads such as hoppin john, which is simply cooked black-eyed peas with bacon, celery and onions.  To each can of peas, add two slices of cooked crumbled bacon and their grease, 1/2 cup of celery and 1/4 cup of onions. Mix well.  Purchased potato salad rounds out the offering.  Add a raw veggie platter and you’re done. And so are the New Orleans Saints.

Read Brian Blog about the <a href=”http://www.packers.sportsblog.com”>Green Bay Games</a>

Memorial Day Weekend is when the peaches are ripening faster than we can eat them. There is nothing like a warm, juicy, fragrant peach plucked from the tree, rinsed off and eaten while you’re standing in the sunshine. However, when there are 50 lbs. of peaches waiting to be plucked you have to find some way to deal with them.

From now on Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial Peach Festival in our backyard and kitchen. Brian tried his hand at making peach jam, which turned out yummy. He also made peach chutney with dried cranberries instead of raisins, since we didn’t have any raisins. Don’t know how that turned out because it has to mellow for a few weeks. I think it will be fabulous with the turkey breast he smoked on Sunday.

We made heavenly peach ice cream with a simple recipe:

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups half and half
4 cups smashed peaches
1 1/2 cups sugar

That’s it. Combine the sugar with the cream and half and half. Stir to dissolve. Put everything in an ice cream maker. This makes about a three quarts of ice cream.

I’m not finished yet. Also on the peach menu are peach pickles, peach barbecue sauce made with mustard, canned sweet peaches in sugar syrup, peach cobbler and, because by this time we really needed it, peach sangria.

Smash 6 or 7 ripe peaches.
Add to 1.5 liters Rhine wine
Pour over ice.

Oh, if you want this to be a cooler, fill a glass with ice and then halfway with club soda and to the top with the peach sangria. The drunken peaches at the bottom of the glass when you finish the cooler are wonderful served over the peach ice cream. You know I bet you could add a scoop of peach ice cream for an adult ice cream soda.

I’d say I’m all peached out but the tree still has another 20 to 30 lbs. of peaches. So we’ll be making more peach jam… and if we get brave we’ll try making peach wine. My grandmother made mulberry and strawberry wine so if she can do it I think we can make peach wine. The good thing is you’re not supposed to peel the peaches before squishing the juice out. We will need 1 gallon of peach juice so that should take care of the peaches that are left.

Sausage, most probably originated as a way to make use of all the bits and pieces of an animal after it was butchered, that weren’t big enough to be preserved on their own. It incorporates organs of the animal and sometimes even the blood, so very little was left to waste. Different kinds of meat may be mixed or the meats can be kept separate. Spices and herbs are usually added to the mixture for extra flavor. Basic sausage making is comprised of a few steps.

Grinding
The meat is ground or chopped into small pieces so it is more easily mixed with spices and seasonings. The small pieces allows the method of preserving the meat to access each small bit of meat more easily. For example, it takes much longer to dry a large piece of meat that a thin slice. Recipes often call for the meat to be put through the grinder three times. Once at a rough cut, once at a smaller cut and a final pass through after the seasonings have been mixed in.

Spices and Herbs
If you’ve ever tasted chorizo, a Mexican sausage, you’ll recognize the flavors of cumin, hot peppers and garlic. Italian sausage is redolent with anise and oregano. Different sausages have different spice and herb mixtures that enhance the meat flavors. The herbs used depend on the region where the sausage originated. If the sausage is to be cured, salt and water — dissolve the salt– is added to the mixture.

Processing
After the herb and meat mixture has been made it is packed into sausage casings. Historically these casing were made from the thoroughly washed and cleaned intestines of the animal. Now collagen casings are used, although pork casings work well for home use. The casings are filled then tied off or twisted between sausages.

Preserving
Some sausages, like the German bratwurst are made to be consumed shortly after being processed. These are fresh meat products which will require cooking before consumption. Other sausages like Italian salami require a long drying time. The salt in the meat mixture helps draw out the liquid in the meat mixture. Others need smoking which dries out the mixture and adds flavor.

Dangers
Ground meat is susceptible to contamination because it has more cut surfaces exposed to air and bacteria. Keep the meat and grinders cold when grinding. Return to the refrigerator between grindings, adding herbs and spices and stuffing the casings. Wash your hands before and after handling the meat. If there is any doubt whatsoever that the sausage has spoiled, throw it out.

Slow moist cooking tenderizes tough cuts of meat in a flavorful broth. Add potatoes, carrots, string beans or other vegetables and you’re through cooking dinner. Crock-pot has become generic name for a slow cooker.

Put the inner stoneware compartment into the heating base unit.

Turn on the cook top to high. Place the meat in a skillet with a few tablespoons of cooking oil. Brown the meat on all sides. Remove from the skillet.

Lower the temperature of the cook top to medium. Add sliced onions and garlic to the skillet. Cook about five minutes until the onions are translucent.

Put vegetables such as carrots and potatoes cut up into 1-inch chunks in the slow cooker. Put the meat and onions on top of the vegetables. Vegetables cook slower than meat. Cover with a liquid such as water, broth, wine or beer.

Add dried herbs and spices at the beginning of cooking and fresh herbs at the end of cooking.

Plug in the slow cooker and turn the knob so it points to low. Cook until meat is tender and vegetables are done, which will probably take from six to eight hours. The high temperature setting will speed cooking time. 60 minutes on high is comparable to 90 minutes on low.

Unplug cooker and allow to cool. Remove the stoneware and wash with hot soapy water or place in the dishwasher.

Wipe off spills from the outside of the heating base unit. Do not immerse base unit in water or other liquid.

One bottle of beer, one chopped onion, two cloves chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Use this marinade on meats overnight for extra flavor and tenderness to the meat.

Champagne, sparkling wine, bubbly whatever you call it drink it in champagne flutes for a touch of elegance while you cook. Use champagne or sparkling wine anytime you would use wine. Pour ice cold champagne over strawberries and raspberries for quick dessert. Substitute champagne for vinegar in salad dressings and add a squeeze of lemon for tartness. Lamb chops marinating in sparkling wine, rosemary and lemon slices is heavenly.