Gluten-Free, Veggie Etouffee

This is my most precious recipe.

There once was this amazing restaurant in Parkland, WA called From the Bayou. They had amazing, spicy dishes. My favorite was their crawfish etouffee (back when I was a carnivore). It was creamy, flavorful, and just perfect. It was served over rice and with their jalapeno cornbread.

Then one day, something happened. From the Bayou was gone. The owners fled from debtors, at least that is what I heard. But...they left a special treat. On their website, they posted the recipes for some of their best dishes. It almost seemed like they were trying to "shove it" to people who wanted to buy the place or something. This was about 8 years ago. Luckily, I was smart enough to print them off (and the new restaurant did fail after it was sold). I still I have the recipes and I don't really want to give them out without making you pay. They are that good!

However, I have changed the etouffee recipe a bit to make it vegetarian and gluten-free so I feel that it is worth sharing. It still is creamy and mouth watering. Otherwise, I wouldn't even bother, I would just cry that it is gone forever!

INGREDIENTS
5T butter
3 chopped onions
2 chopped green peppers
1 1/2t chopped garlic
3-4c slice mushrooms
1 1/2t arrowroot powder (flour for you glutens)
3/4T cayenne pepper
4 dashes hot sauce
1T garlic powder
1c whipping cream
1 1/2c milk
1/2c half and half
1 3/4c (or one 16oz can) tomato sauce

METHOD
1. Melt the butter in a large heavy pot.
2. Add onions, peppers, garlic, and all seasonings and saute, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent. About 15 minutes.

3. Add mushrooms and saute for about 5 min.
4. Mix arrowroot powder in a small bowl with 1T water and mix well until incorporated. Add mix to pot and stir for 1 minute.

5. Add whipping cream, milk, and half and half.
6. Cook until liquid thickens, but not boiling, stirring often.
7. Add tomato sauce and cook for 15 minutes.
8. Continue to stir and cook. The longer you cook the etouffee, the better it tastes! I like to cook mine for at least 30 minutes.

Serve over rice!

29.

I have been a really bad blogger lately. I know. I feel like I am just not in the mood for writing down my thoughts. Maybe it is because I have my thoughts towards other things such as: food, weeding, running, facilitating meetings, my to-do list, something I forgot, laundry, and so on and so forth.  Some of those things I think about and then do. Some of those things I think about and then feel bad about not doing. My life isn't going badly, I just think about other things I suppose and I don't really feel that they are worthy literature for a post.

However, while I have been contemplating life and all it's activities, I turned 29. Last week was my birthday. I went on a Ikea shopping spree with Mah and Mr Pepperworth. It was very nice and I even got through the whole store without dragging my feet and asking someone to carry me (I have a short shopping span.) Fil and Mil took us to dinner and then I went on a 3 day xcountry skiing excursion with my parents and the hubs. Getting to ski, lounge, snowshoe, and sit in a pool-sized hot tub was the best. I thoroughly enjoyed being active during the day and feeling tired and sore in the evening.

So yes, I am almost out of my twenties. Honestly, I feel like I already should be there. I don't know, maybe owning a home makes me feel older. Or maybe it is the fact that my face finally looks older to me, I don't have that girlish sweet-faced charm anymore. (Or at least the charm that I am pretty sure I had.) But, then, on the other hand, I can't drag myself out of bed earlier than 7:30am and that makes me feel like a lazy 13 year old. No one wants to be 13 again though. I've never done well is odd numbers (fun/odd/embarrassing fact: I don't get out of bed when the clock ends in an odd number. Some sort of intelligent superstition).

What will 29 bring me? I don't know right now but it better be good! Maybe I should start running again, I think I have been saying that for a month now. Come on 29, inspire me.