Nasty Woman Cocktail Recipe

During the 2016 election, and ever since, I've been naming some of my drinks after the outrageous things the current president says (or the various nicknames we think up for the cheeto-in-chief).  One the first ones I created was the Nasty Woman, and I thought President's Day would be a good day to share it.

Ingredients:

• 2 oz lemon vodka
• 1 1/2 oz grapefruit juice
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz blue curaçao (nasty women vote blue of course)
• 1/4 oz grenadine (for the "blood coming out of her wherever")
• 1 cup crushed ice

Combine the ice, lemon vodka, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and blue curaçao in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.

Pour into a tiki mug (or your glass of choice).  Add the grenadine as a float on top.  Enjoy and get nasty!  All of us nasty women definitely need at least one of these.

Seafood Dirty Rice

For Mardi Gras this year, we made seafood dirty rice for dinner and King Cake for dessert.  It was my first time making the King Cake by myself and I was really happy with how it turned out.  My mom and I made the seafood dirty rice together - we used the recipe from the Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen cookbook.  It was really good!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimp (with shells)
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp. peanut oil
• 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp. very finely chopped onions
• 2 1/2 tbsp. very finely chopped bell pepper
• 2 tbsp. very finely chopped celery
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp stock
• use the shrimp shells to make the stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 3/4 cup very finely chopped green onions
• 1 cup (about 1/2 pound) lump crabmeat

Yield: 4 servings

Peel the shrimp and use the shells to make the shrimp stock.

Melt the butter with the oil in a large skillet.

Add the tomato sauce, onions, bell pepper, celery, garlic, salt, white pepper, thyme, and cayenne.  Sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the stock and continue cooking over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the cream.

Simmer for about 4 minutes.

Add the shrimp and simmer for 3 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the rice, green onions, and crabmeat, keeping the lumps of crabmeat as intact as possible.

Heat through and serve immediately.

This recipe is so good - I highly recommend trying it if you like cajun food.