This recipe is from Chef David Venable of QVC, who calls it “an easy-to-tackle version, filled with great Louisiana flavor and spice.” Gumbos have a lot of ingredients, but the cooking technique isn’t demanding.

Says David, “When preparing, be sure to chop your veggies in similar sizes to ensure that they cook at the same rate.” In this recipe, okra is used as a thickener, and also gives personality to the gumbo.
 
 
RECIPE: CHICKEN & SAUSAGE GUMBO WITH OKRA

Ingredients

 
Plus

[1] An easy gumbo, with chicken, okra and sausage (photo © QVC).

[2] You can also enjoy andouille sausage in a hot dog roll or hero sandwich (photo © Zatarain’s).

1. SEASON the chicken thighs with creole seasoning. Heat 1/2 tablespoon oil in a 6-quart or larger stockpot over medium-high heat. Brown the sausage and set it aside.

2. ADD the chicken to the pot with the sausage drippings and cook over medium-high heat until brown on both sides. Remove the chicken and set it aside.

3. ADD the remaining 1/2 cup of oil and the flour, over medium heat. Cook the mixture, stirring slowly and constantly, for 10-15 minutes, or until dark brown. Be careful not to burn or scorch.

4. ADD the onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Slowly add the broth and stir until there are no lumps. Add the tomatoes, rice, salt, cayenne, bay leaves, thyme, and okra. Stir and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes.

5. ADD the chicken and cooked sausage to the gumbo. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves, plate, garnish with a sprinkle of parsley and serve with a side of rice.
 
 

Grab store-bought cupcakes or cake and a bag of baking chips, regular or mini.

They’re available in a rainbow of flavors/colors: butterscotch, cappuccino, caramel, cherry, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, mint, peanut butter, peppermint (white chips with bits of candy cane) and vanilla (white chocolate). We found them all on Amazon.

Nestle’s makes a Winter Blend of dark chocolate and mint chips that’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.

In the photo, peanut butter mini chips garnish a Crumbs chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter frosting, topped with peanut butter and chocolate frosting.

Peanut butter-chocolate cupcake with a rim of peanut butter chips. Photo courtesy Crumbs.

 
MORE TO DO WITH BAKING CHIPS (CHOCOLATE CHIPS OR ANY FLAVOR)

March 2nd is National Banana Creme Pie Day. But is it banana creme or banana cream?

Crème, pronounced crehm, is the French word for cream. As recipes evolved in the U.S., the trend was to emulate French spellings to give the recipe a cachet. Doesn’t soupe du jour (typically misspelled as soup du jour) sound better than today’s soup?

Thus, in the name of cachet (or perhaps they weren’t good spellers), some of America’s bakers and restaurants began to offer creme pies. The proper use, however is cream pie.

To compound the error, crème got pronounced as creem—that’s right, the same as cream. So why the incorrect and pretentious spelling?

It would be nice to go back and correct the mistakes of the past, but that just won’t happen. So feel free to use the words interchangeably.

And bake this delicious double banana cream pie recipe. The “double” comes from an American invention: Instead of just banana creme/cream in the pie crust, there is a layer of fresh-sliced bananas. It’s the way to go!

Want a chocolate crust? That’s a black bottom banana cream pie.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF BANANA CREAM PIE

How long have we had banana cream pie?

Pie is an ancient dish, although not the sweet pies and meat pies we know today. For much of pie history, the dough was inedible, used as a casing for meat pies to keep the juices in, before the widespread availability of pie pans.

Cream, custard and pudding pies date back to medieval times.

But while bananas were first domesticated in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea, by at least 5000 B.C.E. and possibly as far back as 8000 B.C.E., they weren’t readily available in the U.S. until the 1880s, due to improved transportation and aggressive marketing.

Busy bakers then refitted the traditional custard pie with a banana cream filling, and banana cream pie found its way into the recipe books. Late 19th and early 20th century cookbooks are full of banana recipes.

The oldest published American recipes for “banana pie” date to the late 19th century. They fill the pie crust with sliced bananas, not a banana cream/custard like today’s pies.

Advises the Woman’s Exchange Cook Book of 1901: “Fill a pie shell, already baked, with sliced bananas and powdered sugar. Put in the oven a few minutes until the fruit softens. Very nice so, but far better to cover the top with whipped cream and serve at once. Flavor with lemon juice.”

In 1906, The Blue Ribbon Cook Book provided a banana and custard filling, but the two were not blended together into today’s familiar, creamy banana filling. Instead, sliced bananas lined the bottom of the crust, and the custard was poured over it.

[1] Double banana cream pie: banana pudding over a layer of ripe bananas. Here’s a recipe (photo © McCormick).

[2] Topped with whipped cream and a few extra slices of banana (photo © Taste Of Home).

[3] National Banana Day is April 417th (photo © Eiliv Sonas Aceron | Unsplash).

In 1971, restaurateurs in England invented the banoffee iie, a combination of banana cream and thick caramel (toffee) sauce. Some versions of the recipe include chocolate, coffee, or both [source].

Many bakers have created their own versions of banana cream pie, from adding a layer of peanut butter or Nutella on the bottom crust, to toppimg the pie with lots of whipped cream and coconut, à la coconut cream pie.

Some make a meringue topping, others drizzle salted caramel, shaved chocolate, whatever.

For a tropical touch, top the whipped cream with a small dice of guava, mango, papaya, and pineapple—banana’s tropical mates.

Emeril tops his banana cream pie with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and chocolate ribbons (the recipe).

For a quickie, make a “deconstructed” banana cream pie: banana pudding topped with shortbread crumbs.

The original pie, with sliced bananas on the bottom, survives today as “Double Banana Cream Pie: sliced bananas topped with banana cream pudding. Here’s a recipe.

> Also check out the history of bananas!
 
 

Most people will concur that “carbohydrates are bad for you.” But just as there are good oils and bad oils, there are healthful and bad carbs.

COMPLEX CARBS = GOOD CARBS

“Good carbs,” more scientifically called complex carbohydrates, are important in your diet. Their chemical structure and density of fiber require the body to work harder to digest them, so energy is released over a longer time (this is the definition of “low glycemic”). They are:

 
For the most part, good carbs are consumed in their “natural” state or close to it. They include:

It’s easy to add good carbs to every meal—even in dishes more humble than lobster on quinoa. Photo courtesy David Burke Kitchen.

Consume three to five portions of them daily.
 

SIMPLE CARBS = BAD CARBS

Now for the bad news. Many of the foods that are staples of the American diet are bad carbs. They are calorie-dense, not nutrient-dense. They include:

 
Why are these carbs bad? They’re:

WHOLE GRAINS: CHECK THE LIST

Here’s an exercise for National Nutrition Month. The list below contains whole grains, some of which may not be familiar names. But they are available in natural foods stores and they are all delicious.

1. PRINT out the list below and put a check at the left side of each whole grain that’s part of your weekly diet. Use one check mark for each time you consume the grain during an average week.

2. REVIEW all the others, and select five whole grains you’d like to try. Check those grains on the left side of the list.

3. BUY those new whole grains and plan to try at least one over the next five weeks.

4. WORK more of the whole grains you already use into your meal plans. Replace potatoes and white rice.

 
*Grits are refined and are not whole grains.
†Salba is a trademarked name for chia. Kamut® is a trademarked name for khorasan wheat.
‡Chia and flaxseed are best used sprinkled onto foods or mixed into recipes for extra nutrition.

HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED?

Eat three or more servings of whole grain daily.

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2011, recommends that all adults eat at least half their grains as whole grains. That’s at least 3 to 5 servings of whole grains; children need a minimum of 2 to 3 servings.

Yet, the average American eats less than one daily serving of whole grains; some studies show that more than 40% of Americans never eat whole grains at all.

But you, an educated, concerned consumer/parent/whatever, can do the right thing!

For more information, visit WholeGrainsCouncil.org.

While meat and seafood have been served at the same meal since since the dawn of plenty, and Diamond Jim Brady (1856-1917) consumed platters heaped with steaks and lobsters, the pairing known as surf and turf originated in 1960s America.

It became the darling of American steakhouse menus, combining the two most expensive items on the menu: lobster (surf) and filet mignon (turf). It has its own food holiday, February 29th, National Surf & Turf Day.

But we can’t wait until the next leap year, 2016, to share this treat: surf and turf sushi.
 
 
SURF & TURF HISTORY

The earliest earliest print reference found by FoodTimeline.org, our favorite reference source on the history of all things food, was published in the Eureka [California] Humboldt Standard of August 14, 1964:

“An entrée in restaurants in Portland [Oregon] is called surf and turf—a combination of lobster and steak.”

Some sources claim that the concept originated on the East Coast, based on a 1966 print citation newspaper article in the Miami News.

The columnist says that the restaurant La Hasta has created the best thing since lox and bagels—surf and turf; and that on some weekends the management had to take the dish off the menu, since demand exceeded supply.

Sorry, East Coasters: 1964 beats 1966.

Yet a third claim from a food writer couple, without printed proof, that the same dish by the same name was served at the Sky City restaurant in the Seattle Space Needle, at the 1962 World’s Fair.

That may be, but documentation is required. If anybody remembers it from the World’s Fair: Please raise your hand. There’s a bonus if you have the menu.

Fun fact: The beef-seafood combo is called “Reef and Beef” in Australia.

[1] Luxury sushi: a lobster-avocado maki topped with torched tenderloin, sweet eel sauce and a garnish of togarishi and rice crisps (photo © Ten Prime Steak And Sushi | Providence).

[2] Salmon sushi topped with pork tenderloin at Sushi Seki in New York City (photo © Sushi Seki).

The original may have been lobster and filet mignon; but as long as there’s something from the surf and something from the turf, you’ve got surf and turf! We “invent” a different combination for our monthly surf and turf dinner. The past year’s pairings have included:

 
And now, we’ve discovered surf and turf sushi from Ten Prime Steak And Sushi in Providence.

Our maki-rolling skills are rusty, but we’ll try it right after we master our March recipe, surf and turf meat loaf. (So far, ground chicken and whole baby scallops are the mix of choice.)

[3] Surf & Turf Eggs Benedict: lobster and filet mignon (photo © Bonefish Grill).

[4] A steak and lobster sandwich (photo © Sutter Home).

MIX & MATCH

You could fill every day of the year with a different option and not run out (and if anyone decides to start a restaurant based on that concept, send a hefty ideation fee here).
Pick your favorite seafood and meats: crab cake, crab legs, scallops or shrimp with lamb chops or pork chops, for example.

 
And props to Allen Brothers, purveyor of prime meats to restaurants and the public, for the idea of creating the surf-topped filet mignon.

The company topped filet mignon with a crown of lobster “stuffing” (chopped lobster, fresh herbs (try tarragon or thyme), scallions, cream, butter, sweet onions, bread crumbs and a touch of garlic), as well as a lump crab meat version with mozzarella, chopped spinach, garlic and rosemary.

(You’ll have to make your own, though; the company has updated the product with new, non-surf, toppings.)

Try your own hand at the new surf and turf and let us know your favorites.

 
 
WANT MORE?

Check out these Surf & Turf ideas.