Shrimp Gumbo Casserole

(Picture stolen from Kelly's Korner's Recipe blog...
only because I didn't take a picture of it last night! )

Yesterday was a cold, icy day here in North Texas....you know, the kind of day when you just want to sit by the fire. And if you are like me, on this kind of day there is nothing better than some type of warm soup or something really tasty to eat. So I tried something new - Paula Deen's Shrimp Gumbo Casserole - Kelly's Korner Style. Kelly's Korner Style just means that I added rice like she did.

This was soooo delicious! If you like gumbo, this is a great dish and can easily been changed or altered to add your favorite ingredients or seafood (or chicken if you don't like seafood).

Ingredients

Gumbo:

• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
• 1 1/2 teaspoons House Seasoning (just salt, garlic and black pepper)
  
• 1 cup chicken or fish stock (about 1 1/2 cups if you add rice - see note below)
  
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 10-ounce package frozen cut okra
• 2 cups shrimp, cleaned, peeled, and deveined
• (This wasn't in the recipe but I added 1 1/2 cups of rice to thicken it up some and it was good that way!) NOTE: You might need to add a little more chicken stock to your mixture if you add the rice. I (Ashley) added about 1/2 a cup more.
  

Topping:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 12-ounce package corn muffin mix

Directions

In an iron skillet, saute onion and celery in oil. Add bay leaves, thyme, lemon-pepper seasoning and House Seasoning. Pour in stock and add tomatoes and okra. Cover pot and gently simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in shrimp.

To prepare the topping, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together egg and milk, add to muffin mix, and combine until just well-blended. Drop by tablespoonfuls on top of hot shrimp mixture, leaving the center uncovered. Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

Ashley's notes: As I said, I added a little more chicken stock because of the rice. It worked great. I also added about 1 tsp of Cayenne pepper to give it a little spice - Brant and I love some good, spicy gumbo. You could easily add crawfish or crab meat to this dish to add more meat. This was really, really good! Brant and I loved it.

If you make it, let me know what you think, and let me know if you changed your's up a bit!!!