T is for....Tabasco

I'm a tea person.  I don't drink coffee and my tea cupboard overflows.  I own a dozen teapots, I bought a hutch just to hold them.  Today's post was going to be tea.....but then, for some reason, yesterday, tabasco popped into my head and it settled in to stay.

I personally have never really been much of a tabasco person, but it was always a staple at our house growing up.  Last summer, when I was planning an epic road trip to the south, I realized that the Tabasco plant was in Louisiana and I made sure it was on our itinerary.  Now, after being to the plant and learning its history and how it is made, tabasco is one of those things I just really want to like, I have a bottle in my fridge and every once in a while pull out and use it.  It is still a staple at my parents home, both the original little red hot sauce bottle and now also a slightly larger bottle of the green sauce.

A tabasco pepper plant growing outside the factory.

What stuck in my head though, was tabasco ice cream.  You are probably now thinking, "WHAT?!? Who eats TABASCO ICE CREAM?!?  That doesn't even go together."  Well, you're wrong.  When we visited the country store on Avery Island (that is where the Tabasco plant is located), they gave out free samples of ice cream - a raspberry chipotle flavor and a sweet and spicy flavor.  I bought a bottle of the Sweet and Spicy Sauce to bring home for the Colonel Mustard to make ice cream, but he liked it so much it was gone before we ever tried making the ice cream.  I looked at the store for a bottle last evening but they didn't carry it, so I am going to have to look around a little to see if I can get my hand on a bottle, but lucky me the recipe I found asked for the original brand.

Fire and Ice Cream.  It was quite tasty. Initially dad said it needed the tabasco doubled, but that didn't stop him from eating a second bowl, basically licking it dry.  And to go with the ice cream, I made a large pot of jambalaya, which also had tabasco in the recipe.

Pork, sausage, celery, onions, green pepper, and garlic cooking up in the pot.

Add some tomatoes, tabasco, thyme, oregano, allspice, salt, chicken broth,
and browned chicken pieces.

Add some uncooked rice and simmer.  Now it is ready to eat.

Dad enjoying his Fire and Ice.

If you want to try out some tabasco in a recipe and Fire and Ice Cream and Jambalaya aren't to your interest, Tabasco's website has no shortage of recipe's to try.  And if you ever make it to southern Louisiana definitely take time to visit Avery Island, there is a bird sanctuary there also. We had a full itinerary and didn't take time, but I think it would be worth the stop if you take the time.

Relaxing on the porch of Tabasco's Country Store on Avery Island.