BBQ Jambalaya and a Contest

Ellen Byron, author of the Cajun Country Mysteries, is here today to tell us about a fabulous contest and give us a fabulous recipe for BBQ jambalaya. The contest is hosted by Henery Press and you can win a Kindle Fire with 32 ebooks on it. Hop on over and enter. 

And now for the Jambalaya...

BBQ JAMBALAYA

With summer coming, I like any recipe that includes my three favorite letters - B, B, and Q! This delicious-looking recipe came to me via one of my favorite New Orleans' websites, My New Orleans. I bring it to you directly from their website.

A Meaty Masterpiece

Neil McClure, of the newly relocated McClure’s Barbecue, shares his Barbecue Jambalaya

photos by jeffery johnston

Ingredients

3 ½    quarts Chicken stock
6    cups Rice
²⁄³    cup Oil or bacon grease
1    cup Celery
2    cups Green peppers, smoked and chopped
1    cup Onions, smoked and chopped
1    cup Mushrooms, smoked and chopped
1    ounces Garlic, smoked and chopped
2    ounces Rub (McClure’s is more similar to a Creole seasoning than a traditional barbecue rub; it doesn’t contain sugar and has much less salt than most name brands, but is very similar to Zatarain’s)
2    ounces  Kosher salt
2    ounces Black pepper
2    ounces Hot sauce
4    ounces Kansas City-style barbecue sauce
2    Bay leaves
2    cups Brisket, chopped
2    cups Pork, chopped
2    cups Chicken, chopped
2    cups Sausage, sliced
Note: Meat is adjustable to taste, just use a lot

Directions
Heat water to boiling in a separate pot. Heat up grease in a large pot. Add vegetables to grease and stir until heated. Add spices, hot sauce and barbecue sauce. Stir thoroughly. Add meat and heat. Stir frequently. Add boiling water to mixture and return to boil. Add rice. Stir. Return to boil. Cook for 20 minutes with occasional, light stirring to keep rice from sticking. Let sit in pot for additional 20 minutes off heat without stirring. Top with chopped green onions after plating.
Serves 20+

You can sign up to get Ellen's newsletter with other New Orleans inspired recipes and info about her books at her website. 

Back Space Bar in New Orleans

The 2016 Bouchercon Mystery Convention was held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kerry Hammond is here to tell us about a great literary-themed restaurant she found in the Big Easy.

While attending Bouchercon 2016, there were plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from, but one day I wandered down a side street right near the conference hotel and found a hidden gem. Back Space Bar is a literary-themed restaurant located at 139 Chartres St. and I was drawn to it by the typewriter key that is their sign.

The French Quarter bar has a literary theme, a casual and comfortable vibe, and a 1930s feel. The decorations inside consisted of several antique typewriters and books on bookshelves—a perfect find for a getaway during a mystery readers conference.

Lest you think that the bar is all personality and no substance, I can attest that the menu was great and the food tasty (I can recommend the Grown Up Grilled Cheese). The “Prologue” of the menu contains several other sandwiches to choose from, and the “Epilogue” provides Cookies and Milk for dessert.

And then there were drinks, this is New Orleans after all. The menu consists of great choices and literary legends, Death in the Afternoon is a shout out to Hemingway and the Vesper Martini the drink of Fleming’s James Bond.  

Check out their website for a full list of food and drinks plus a cute video. When you hover over the typewriter keys at the top to change the menu of items, you hear typewriter keys clicking. Very cool!

Hurricanes & Body on the Bayou

We still haven't recovered from Bouchercon in New Orleans last week, but it's OK, we don't have to let go of NOLA just yet. Ellen Byron is here today matching her new book, set in the bayous of New Orleans with the perfect drink - Pat O'Brien's Hurricanes. Ellen was here last week making Creole jambalaya and she has been a frequent Crafty Thursdays guest. Her first book, Plantation Shudders,made the USA Today Bestsellers list and was nominated for Agatha, Lefty, and Daphne awards. 

Ellen’s TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and many network pilots; she’s written over 200 national magazine articles; her published plays include the award-winning Graceland. 

When you attend Tulane University, a rite of passage is to round up a group of merrymakers, head down to Pat O’Brien’s, and order a GIGANTIC three-gallon Hurricane – ignoring the sanitary ramifications of half-a-dozen or more revelers drinking from the same glass with a bunch of straws that inevitably get mixed up with each other.

There are a variety of entertaining stories about how the Hurricane came to be, but all the tales have one thing in common: Pat O’Brien. In 1933, he converted his speakeasy at 600 St. Peter Street into a legitimate bar. It became so popular that he moved it to a larger location on the same street, where it’s lodged ever since.

In the mid-1940's, there was a short supply of quality liquors like whiskey, bourbon, and scotch. There was, however, a ton of rum available. Bar owners were forced to buy large quantities of the rum, fifty cases or more, in order to purchase the other liquors. An effort to unload the unwanted booze led to the invention of new, rum-based drinks. Pat O'Brien poured one into a glass shaped like a Hurricane lamp and voila – a legendary cocktail was born.

The Hurricane is a fruity concoction that goes down easy, but trust me, it packs a Category 5 punch. Here are two recipes from one of my favorite websites, www.neworleansonline.com

Traditional Hurricane Recipe:

• 2 oz light rum

• 2 oz dark rum

• 2 oz passion fruit juice

• 1 oz orange juice

• ½ oz fresh lime juice

• 1 Tablespoon simple syrup

• 1 Tablespoon grenadine

• Garnish: orange slice and cherry

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a Hurricane glass filled with ice. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice. 

Pat O' Brien's Hurricane Recipe:

• Mix 4 oz. of Pat O'Brien's Rum, or any good dark rum with 4 oz. Pat O'Brien's Hurricane Mix 

• Fill 26 oz. glass with crushed ice 

• Garnish with a slice of orange and a cherry 

Mix can be purchased at Pat O'Brien's (800) 597-4823 or by visiting: www.patobriens.com.

Final Day of Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans - Blood on the Bayou

It's the last day of Bouchercon New Orleans and everyone is wrapping it up and packing their books into their suitcases, hoping that each bag weighs less than 50 pounds. We will post more Bouchercon highlights later, but here are a few fun photos of the conference.

Mystery Playground's Deborah Lacy's short story is in the Blood on the Bayou Anthology alongside David Morrell.

David Morrell received the Lifetime Achievement Award and was interviewed by Lee Child.

The parade to the Anthony Awards was rained on but not rained out. Fans and authors turned up for the festivities.

Stay tuned for more recaps from Bouchercon 2016.

Bouchercon 2017 - Highlights From New Orleans at Blood on the Bayou

Greetings from the Big Easy and Bouchercon 2017, the World Mystery Convention. Here are some highlights of the conference so far.

The opening ceremonies included mini floats that transported all of our guests of honor to the stage.

Our American Guest of Honor, Harlan Coben, was interviewed by Michael Connelly and both were entertaining and funny. There was a book signing afterwards and Harlan posed for photos.

The panels have been fun, including one where authors participated in a competition and elimination game. 

We attended a tea with writing duo Charles Todd and Caroline Todd, along with Deborah Crombie, to hear about their latest books.

Lee Child is here, and he interviewed David Morrell, who is receiving the Lifetime Achievement award.

Creole Jambalaya with Ellen Byron

As we continue our countdown to the world's largest mystery convention (which starts tomorrow in New Orleans) our guest today is author Ellen Byron. She's going to tell us how to make Jambalaya and about her new book, Blood on the Bayou, the second book in her Cajun Country Mystery Series. Ellen will be at the convention, called Bouchercon, launching this novel. 

Ellen's debut novel, Plantation Shudders, made the USA Today Bestsellers list and was nominated for Agatha, Lefty, and Daphne awards. 

Ellen’s TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and many network pilots; she’s written over 200 national magazine articles; her published plays include the award-winning Graceland. 

Jambalaya is probably my favorite Louisiana dish. I’m partial to the Cajun version of the dish, and include a detailed recipe for it in Body in the Bayou, the latest in my Cajun Country Mystery series. In the book, my protagonist Maggie Crozat agrees to be frenemy Vanessa Fleer’s Maid of Honor, but when Vanessa tops the list of murder suspects, meeting this Bridezilla’s wedding demands takes a backseat to keeping her out of jail. I think of Jambalaya as Cajun comfort food, and Maggie needs a lot of comfort as she deals with both Vanessa and a couple of murders.

But alas, my daughter’s a fan of Creole jambalaya. (My husband is happy to devour either.) How does one deal with a jambalaya house-divided? I solved the problem by creating an alternate recipe.

All jambalaya starts with the “holy trinity” of celery, green pepper, and onions. Creole jambalaya, found in New Orleans and environs, adds tomato to its ingredients, hence its reddish color. There are no tomatoes in Cajun jambalaya; instead, it gets its brown color from the bits of meat that stick to the pot they’re cooked in.

Here’s the Creole recipe I concocted for my daughter. If you’re interested in a recipe for the Cajun version, it's in my book, Body on the Bayou.

Ingredients:

1 cup finely chopped onions

½ cup finely chopped celery

½ cup finely chopped green pepper

1 14-16 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (you can also add or substitute 1 lb. of andouille sausage, cut into pieces, or 1 lb. of peeled and deveined shrimp)

1 cup uncooked long grain converted rice

4 T. cooking oil

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 cups chicken stock, plus liquid from cooking the meats

¼ - ½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground thyme

¼ tsp. oregano

¼ ground red pepper

½ tsp. Cajun seasoning

Instructions:

Heat up two of the four tablespoons of oil in either a cast iron pot or Dutch oven. Saute the chicken (and/or sausage and shrimp) in the oil until cooked. Remove the chicken to a bowl with a slotted spoon and save the liquid in a separate bowl or cup.

Heat up the other two tablespoons of oil, and add the onions, celery, and green peppers. Saute until tender, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. (Add more oil if you need to.) Add the can of tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and Cajun seasoning. Cook for approximately five to ten minutes, continuing to scrape the pot. Add the rice, and stir well. Then add both the chicken stock and reserved liquid, again stirring well. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the chicken (and sausage/shrimp, if you’ve chosen to include them) and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the rice is done (approximately twenty minutes). If you feel like the liquid is evaporating too quickly, add more chicken stock. Feel free to do taste tests to determine whether or not you want to add additional herbs or spices to compensate. I’m not a fan of spicy food, but if you are, you can up the amount of red pepper in the jambalaya, or serve it with a bottle of Tabasco sauce.

Serves 6-8.

Stay tuned for our Bouchercon coverage from New Orleans.

Knights of Babylon Mardi Gras Floats

At Mystery Playground, we love New Orleans and Mardi Gras. Today we have a preview of some of the floats for the Knights of Babylon parade, direct from the Babylon float den. 

The Knights of Babylon Mardi Gras parade rolls this Thursday night (5:30 pm, Feb 4th) in New Orleans. It's so fun to see the floats up close.

You can see the entire Mardi Gras parade schedule here. 

To see Babylon float previews from previous years, click here and here. 

Mardi Gras!

This Tuesday is Mardi Gras, but the season has been going on for weeks. We love Mardi Gras. Here is a recap of our favorite Mystery Mardi Gras posts.

2015 Babylon Floats - our recap of the fabulous Babylon floats for this year. Hail Sargon!

Bourbon French - A delightful perfume store waits for you on Royal Street to help you mix your own special scent and it was a favorite of Walt Disney...

Speaking of Royal Street, we love it.

And if you're looking for a Nola speakeasy, look no further that Jean Lafitte's Old Absinthe.  

And if you've always wondered what the difference between Sidewalk Side and Neutral Ground is, we've got that too. 

And here is a run down of some of our most favorite Mardi Gras Mysteries. 

You can find Mystery Playground on Twitter @MysteryPlaygrnd and on Facebook. 

Mardi Gras: Babylon Rolls Tonight

Mardi Gras season is in full swing even though Fat Tuesday itself doesn't hit for five more days. We have a peek at some of the floats riding in Babylon tonight so we thought we'd share. These were all taken in the den where the floats are stored so you'll notice they are a little close together.

Here's a photo of the bagged up throws - these are the beads and trinkets that the float riders throw into the crowd.

Mardi Gras: Babylon Parade Floats

In New Orleans, Mardi Gras season is roaring. Last night kicked off the start of some of the bigger parades from the krewes of Babylon, Chaos and Muses. These are photos of the floats from the 2014 Knights of Babylon float den before they moved out to the parade site. 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the Knights of Babylon krewe.

These floats can accommodate between 20-40 riders. Just imagine yourself riding on top of one of these floats tossing out beads to the crowd. If you want to read more about the different sides of Mardi Gras, sidewalk side and neutral ground, you can find that here.

Floats from the 2013 Knights of Babylon parade can be found here.