Paella (pi-AY-yuh) Ole!

What better way to liven up a summers evening than to make something fun like Paella. It seems every cuisine has a "catch all" meal...I especially love Jambalaya...but this Spanish dish has a true summer feel to me. The great part is you can vary the ingredients as long as you have the basic catagories; meat(pork, chicken or ham), sausage, seafood, vegetables, rice and saffron*. I used some smoked andouille for my sausage, thigh meat for my chicken, shrimp & lobster for seafood and red, yellow pepper, red & green onion, green peas , tomato and garlic for vegetables. The dish is normally made in a traditional two-handled pan, but a cast iron skillet or wok pan can do the trick.

*Best purchased at an Eastern Indian grocery store...freeze what you don't use.

This is great to do on an outdoor grill, but in case of rain indoors works too. Start by heating olive oil and butter in the pan and add the veggies. Stir for a couple of minutes and add the chicken, cover for a few minutes and then add the seafood- cover again. Now add the sausage, saffron and rice (I used Basmati) and stri iin half of the stock (I used vegetable stock,clam juice and seafood stock).

Cover again for about 10 minutes and check it....add the remaining stock and cover for 5-10 minutes more. Ole... you have it! Naturally you can consume adult beverages during the process (please wait until the chopping is over). Sangria would be the traditional choice, but you choose. The aroma is mouth watering and the taste is terrific. A piece of baguette to soak up any juice and summer just got funner. Hope you all will give it a try!