Gumbo turned Jambalaya

I apologize sincerely for being so late!

But!! I'll make up for it by some amazing recipes in the southern style, of course.

Since I'm in school at Oberlin Conservatory up in Oberlin, OH, you can imagine that I'm always craving some good down-home food. A little comfort food, if you will.

I guess that's the ultimate point of Winter Term. Avoid the snow, and stock up on some southern comfort.

Originally, I was going to make gumbo. We had some really good tomato soup from Whole Foods left over and I thought we could make gumbo from it.
But... roux takes forever and you just keep stirring and stirring and it was a little time consuming. So, it turned into jambalaya!! Spicy!

In Oberlin, I'm basically a vegetarian, the options are limitless at school and it's so easy to eat healthy. That's why I put as much meat in this jambalaya as possible.
School is great for vegetarianism, home is where the meat is.

So, this jambalaya has sausage, shrimp, zucchini, bell pepper, okra, saffron rice, and some extra spice for kick.

Sautée the veggies, but leave the okra for last! Once the veggies are about halfway done, add in the sausage. Once the sausage is cooked, you can add that in your base. I also put in a bit of chicken stock for some more flavor.

I put the saffron rice in the rice cooker... Never used it before, so this was a good excuse.

I like tomatoes, sooo I put some more in.

 Also,  I put the rice in as well.

After you do the veggies and sausage, you can put the shrimp in the pan and cook it through until pink.

Shrimp doesn't take much time at all and you want to eat it pretty much right after cook it.
Stir it all up, put it on a low simmer, and serve!

And you know me, I put it on a cracker and that jambalaya was Uh-mazin.

Truly.

Mom and Dad loved this one and I know you will too!
Happy Southern Home Cooking!!!!