ASG Executive Mid-Semester Retreat

For our ASG Mid-Year Executive Retreat last Wednesday and Thursday, we all pitched in and did potluck in order to keep down the budget. I was in charge of Wednesday's dinner. We were supposed to go to a cabin at Devil's Den (despite the unlikely common belief of Andrew and Erica that we were staying in tents... haha), but the weather prohibited our travel and we holed up in Mattie's apartment instead. Anyhow, we had a fun time, and really great food. Our dinner menu: leftovers from Tuesday's dinner party, as well as jambalaya, cornbread, and red velvet cupcakes (I know, you might be thinking - again? But our group just really liked red velvet cake, haha).

Jambalaya:

To make jambalaya, I use the Zatarain's box mix. It's REALLY easy. You just boil water, add the rice and spices, the meat, and any extra stuff. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. I usually use chicken and sausage (I'd prefer Andouille, but I usually can't find it at Wal-Mart, so I just use smoked beef sausage), so it usually winds up to be a little more than a pound of meat as indicated by the box - I like to have some protein in each bite. It is important that you use pre-cooked meats to add to the rice. Also, I add some freshly chopped green and/or a red bell peppers as well as some onion to make the jambalya even better. Voila. This is one of my favorite meals - and like I said, VERY EASY.

Cornbread:

I just use the mix in the package. I prefer to make cornbread muffins, but we didn't have a muffin pan where we were cooking, so a baking dish works just as well - it takes a little longer to cook though. I also usually add a tablespoon of sugar to the mix before baking as listed as an option on the package. It makes a great addition to the jambalaya.

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

See my earlier post about Red Velvet Cakes for my recipes. I did indeed roll the chocolate chips in the dry cake mix beforehand, and they didn't sink this time! I also made sure to save extra chocolate chips to top with - and the festive ASG design was courtesy of Mattie's creativity!