The Healing Waters: Summer Slow Cooker: Warm Chicken Pita or Lettuce Wrap

The Healing Waters: Summer Slow Cooker: Warm Chicken Pita or Lettuce Wrap: From Denny:  The beauty of slow food is you can forget about it for awhile after it gets going on the stove.  Then you are free to run a few short errands close to the house, go grocery shopping or clean around the house.

Since I'm no fan of long hours of house cleaning like it's a Saturday marathon I clean in short spurts for 10 to 15 minutes several times a day or week, depending upon how long a project takes.

I've even educated my husband how you can load the dishwasher in the amount of time it takes for commercial TV breaks to scream at you around the corner.  Fortunately, this year Congress passed a law forcing the advertisers to turn down the volume.

Chocolate Heart Nook Sleeve

Eat heart healthy, eat CHOCOLATE!

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Creole Style Avocado Salad

English: Avocados (Persea americana) Français : Avocats (Persea americana) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Denny:  Want an easy dip that is quick to make in this summer heat?  Who wants to spend time working in a hot kitchen when you can be out by the pool munching, right?

Try this refreshing dip with avocado.  The creamy concoction is made with two mashed avocados, some finely chopped pecans or walnuts - your choice - and lime juice, a little mayonnaise, a little sour cream, white wine,  cayenne pepper, salt and dill for seasoning.

Serve slathered on your favorite toasted bread or with white corn tortilla chips or even fruit.

Louisiana Seafood Beach Tote

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

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Jumbo Lump Crab Stuffed Casserole

A Dungeness Crab sits in a bin after being offloaded from a fishing vessel on November 17, 2010 in San Francisco, California. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

From Denny:  Love seafood as much as we do in Louisiana?  We also love easy to make casseroles.  They are easy to make ahead and easy to take to gatherings.  You will be a huge hit with this simple and tasty recipe.

If you want to make a soup, stew, casserole taste good then load it up with seasoning vegetables like celery, onion (a mild one for seafood) and parsley. Of course, what also goes well with seafood is lemon juice and worchestershire sauce with a bit of mustard.

Then it's time for the spice goodies.  I usually combine my own spices to make up a version of Cajun seasoning with a lot less salt and more garlic and paprika, adding cumin.  Just go easy on the Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning as it tends to have a lot of salt, even the lower salt version.  Using a light hand this brand is delightful. 

I also like to clarify my butter to either skim off the milk solids that create clogs in your arteries for a light oil or brown those milk solids for a darker browned butter that tastes toasted.  It is a heavy oil so you may wish to cut it with a lighter oil like canola for about 40 percent canola to 60 percent clarified butter.

Our local newspaper often prints recipes from readers.  We are also not above printing our grandmothers' recipes either as we respect tradition and our culinary foundation and culture.  One of the food writers included her grandmother's crab casserole.  Check it out.

Louisiana Seafood Beach Tote

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

* * *  Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - helping homeless female military veterans come home.  Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  - see what's new!

Gourmet Crawfish Pasta Salad

Louisiana crawfish (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Denny:  Wonderful fresh greens of arugula and parsley combined with black olives, tomatoes, artichokes, green onions and bell pepper start the base for this tasty pasta salad.  If you can't find crawfish tails then substitute shrimp or even a favorite local meaty fish.

Here in Louisiana we like a lot of freshly sliced green onions in our dishes as they pair quite well with sauced seafood.  This pasta salad gets dressed up divine with a prepared remoulade sauce that is thinned with a bit of your favorite oil (canola oil or clarified butter at our house) and an added pinch of sugar.  

Do be aware that many prepared remoulade sauces have large portions of horseradish in the ingredient ratio.  I love horseradish and don't mind the intense mind and sinus-numbing sear but my husband hates it since it burns his mouth.  So, be aware some people can't take a lot of horseradish.  Make sure to taste any prepared remoulade sauce to make sure your family can handle it.

What can you do to replace a heavily horseradish laced remoulade sauce?  Try the idea of making an oil, vinegar and garlic vinaigrette dressing.  You can also make a dressing of half vinaigrette and and half light mayonnaise.

We like balsamic vinegar at our house for vinaigrette dressing but for this recipe be sure to use a light vinegar like a rice vinegar.  A dark vinegar can cause the vegetables to turn purplish in a cold salad.  Do make sure that the vinegar dressing is well emulsified.  If it is not it can make the vegetables turn a bit grayish.  And, hey, if you happen to have some leftover roasted garlic, wow, does that make a stellar vinaigrette too.

Cold pasta salad often requires a bit of a seasoning adjustment to your personal taste.  Once everything is well mixed together see if it could use a touch more salt, cayenne pepper, perhaps some fresh cracked black pepper, maybe even a bit more vinegar or a generous splash of fresh lemon juice.

Just be careful not to be tempted to up the seasoning by pouring on too much dressing that the salad becomes too wet and soupy.  The idea is to keep the salad plump and lightly dressed.  It just isn't fair to drown a salad of such quality ingredients in too much dressing! :)