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What’s new with you? Oh, with me? Well, I changed my hair.

I wrote a whole post about this and how it feels / felt / will feel and then realized I’d written myself into a corner: there was absolutely zero way to transition it into a recipe. So that will be a post of its own, some other time.

What else is new? Well…I finished graduate school! Several late nights, one slightly neglected husband, and one ragged-but-worthy group presentation later, I have an A- in my final graduate class. I take the stage next week!

What does that mean for Bear & Bug? I’m exploring a few things, but this blog will certainly be one of them. I plan to put a good chunk of my newly freed time towards making it better, prettier, deeper. Slowly working the constant under-lit tones out of my photos. Posting only recipes that rate a 9 or 10 on my personal scale.

If you’ve come this far, I appreciate you deeply (and if you’ve come this far AND are not related to me, you’re my favorite).

Homemade Blackening Seasoning

This recipe is a classic answer to the question, Why cook? Because I can make what I want, the way I want.

I almost feel like this can’t be called a recipe because there’s nothing to it but measuring and a quick stir. It doesn’t stand alone either (you can’t exactly eat it with a spoon). But what it does is give you a jar of go-to seasoning that makes dinner quick, easy, and just how you like it.

I developed this recipe after I finally realized that Tony Chachere’s, which delicious, is really really full of salt. I don’t mind salt–our blood pressure is good and soy sauce is my comfort flavor–but I found that if I used enough to give chicken or fish the appropriate amount of heat, it was like licking a chili-flavored salt block. I think we drank a gallon of water between us the night I cooked that.

So I did some googling and pulled this together. This version has no salt. That way, your protein can be correctly salted and THEN you can blacken the **** out of it. If that’s your thing. In the case of the chicken pictured here, I salted the chicken, covered this piece in blackening, and then lightly seasoned the one that’s not in the picture for me because I’m a wimp.

Along the way, I caught myself just before I fell into the rabbit hole of Creole vs. Cajun (tl;dr: there’s too much nuance and culture to summarize). But it’s good. And when you’ve tweaked it to your perfection, it will be even better.

This makes just over a quarter cup of seasoning, or a few good meals’ worth. Easy delicious dinner? Yes. Just right for Cinco de Mayo? Especially when eaten with the mango salsa, the recipe for which will be up next week? YES PLZ.

Adapted from here and here.