June 10, 2009

Do you remember that episode of Seinfeld when George and Jerry were sitting at the diner, talking about how salsa had replaced ketchup as the #1 condiment, and they mentioned how fun it is to say “salsaaahhh”?  So funny.  I think about that every time I say salsa.  And here in Texas, I say salsa a lot!  My favorite salsa has always been Joe T Garcia's, from the cult-favorite restaurant in Fort Worth.  I was at Central Market today, and it occurred to me that maybe…just maybe…there is a better salsa out there?  I'm so fickle!  I decided to conduct a little informal research to see if my favorite is indeed the best of the best, or if I'm just stuck in a closed-minded salsa rut.

First up is our challenger, Central Market's All Natural Hatch Green Chile Salsa Roja.

• Ingredients:  Tomatoes, green chiles, diced onions, tomato paste, lime juice, fresh garlic, fresh serrano peppers, vinegar, cumin, salt, black pepper, cilantro.
• Appearance:  Brownish brick red.  I see some dark flecks that indicate some of the ingredients were fire-roasted.  Nice!  The consistency is pretty thick, but not quite a puree.  You can still see some bits of onion throughout.
• Flavor:  Delicious and slightly complex.  The top note I get is cumin.  The salsa is smoky and spicy, but I was expecting it to be hotter with the two chiles.  I could have used a little more heat.
• Overall impression:  I love that there are no preservatives, chemicals or ingredients other than those I could find in my own kitchen.  It tastes fresh, and I do like it.  But would I buy it again?  Mmmm, probably not.  I think I'd like to try the green verde version of this salsa to see if  it has less cumin flavor since I'm not a huge cumin fan.  To me cumin is like cilantro or goat cheese.  Either you love it or you hate it; not many people are ambivalent about it.

And now the defender: Joe T Garcia's Salsa Picante in Mild (there are Medium and Hot varieties, but I know they're too hot for me).

• Ingredients:  Tomatoes, onions, green sweet peppers, green chile peppers, salt, vinegar, jalapeno peppers, garlic, cilantro and spices.
• Appearance:  Bright red, and very chunky with visible pieces of tomato, onion and peppers.  When you open the jar, the salsa needs to be stirred to get the juice married back with the chunks.
• Flavor:  Wow!  A burst of fresh tomato, garlic and peppers with a tangy background from the vinegar.  Even the mild has a fair amount of pepper heat.  I love it.
• Overall Impression:  Somebody get this jar away from me!  I can't stop eating it!

The Verdict:

Get in your car right now and drive to a store that carries this salsa!  If you can't do that, direct your fingers over to Joe T's web site and order yourself a case of his Salsa Picante.  You can get 12 jars for $30 plus $15 shipping, which is a bargain in my book, folks!  That' s less than $4 per jar, shipped!  You WILL thank me!  This stuff is awesome in queso instead of Rotel, or poured over a soft brick of cream cheese, or just gobbled up with chips.

Hey, LilSis, you're a fan of Joe T's Salsa, right?  Can you get any good salsa out there in Califor-knee-yah?  I know SirHoney doesn't like too much heat, so I'm wondering if you're still buying Pace brand? Now you can order from Joe T himself!  Viva la Salsa!

~BigSis

June 9, 2009

(Warning: If you are a vegetarian, you may not want to scroll down. You might find the photo a little disturbing. I'm not promoting these so please don't send me a mean email.)

I make beer can chicken quite a bit at our house. All I do is put a dry rub all over the outside and sprinkle a little inside the chicken and inside the beer. Sometimes, I'll add fresh herbs for something a little different. But, it's extremely easy and I've found that it turns out even better than an oven roasted chicken.  (I used to make a pretty awesome roasted chicken, but it was a lot more work.)

I was making a beer can chicken for us almost every week and HayHay finally got burnt out on it and requested that I not make one for a while.  So, I haven't made one in two or three weeks.

I have to admit, I always feel a little bad after I season the chicken and sit it up on the beer can. It's just a little disturbing to me seeing the chicken all perched up there with it's legs propped up and it's little wings tucked back. It really makes it resemble the once walking, talking little animal that was.  And, when you stick the little ‘thingamajig' in the top to cork it up so it can steam, I feel even worse.

I've considered never cooking one again.  And, if I stuck a ceramic drunk head on top of the poor dead chicken, it would probably put me over the edge.

Could you put a ceramic chicken head on your beer can chicken?

BigSis ran across this “Making Chicken Seem More Lifelike” post on Serious Eats and sent me the link to check it out. Why would I want to make a dead chicken that I'm about to eat seem more lifelike?

They sell these ceramic drunk chicken heads on Amazon! Here are their close-ups.

Bug-eyed

Southwestern

Malibu

I could actually be a vegetarian if I didn't have to cook ‘critters' for anyone else in my house. And, I don't think that idea would be very well received by either SirHoney or HayHay since last night they each put down an entire slab of ribs.  I don't eat ribs. Something about that bothers me, too.  Now, I can definitely eat me some bacon and ham, but I just don't want to chomp on the pig's ribs.

BigSis, I bet BDot might think these are funny.

Does this bother anyone else? Or do you think they're funny?

~LilSis

June 7, 2009

If you're like us, we grill outside almost every single day in the summer. Actually, here in CA, we use our grill year round. If I have the choice of whether to cook inside or do something up outside on the grill, I'm always outside.

I love this idea! I haven't tried it yet, but it makes perfect sense.  You simply thread your veggies on a skewer, brush lightly with oil and cook alongside the meat. While the meat rests, you puree the sauce ingredients in a blender.

Veggies for Creamy Green Chile and Avocado Sauce

These three sauces were the ones shown in the June 2009 Food & Wine issue.

Creamy Green Chile and Avocado Sauce

Creamy Green Chile and Avocado Sauce

1 firm Hass avocado—quartered, pitted and skin left on for grilling; remove skin when blending
1 small onion, quartered
2 tomatillos—husked, cored and halved
4 peeled garlic cloves
1 jalapeño—stemmed, seeded and quartered
1 poblano chile—stemmed, seeded and quartered
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Thread the avocado, onion, tomatillos, garlic, jalapeño and chile onto skewers. Brush the kebabs with oil and grill over high heat, turning occasionally, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 15 minutes; let cool slightly. Remove the ingredients from the skewers and transfer them to a blender.

Add the cilantro, water, and lime juice. Puree until smooth and season with salt.

Recommended to serve with grilled chicken.

Pineapple and Red Chile Salsa

Pineapple and Red Chile Salsa

1/2 pound plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
4 peeled garlic cloves
1/2 pound fresh pineapple, cut into 8 pieces
1 red bell pepper—stemmed, seeded and quartered
1 fresh long red chile, such as a cayenne or Holland chile—stemmed, seeded and quartered
12 mint leaves
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Thread the ingredients onto skewers. Brush the kebabs with oil and grill over high heat, turning occasionally, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 15 minutes; let cool slightly. Remove the ingredients from the skewers and transfer them to a blender.

Add the mint leaves, water, and lime juice and puree until smooth. Season with salt.

Recommended to serve with grilled pork chops.

Smoky Steak Sauce

Smoky Steak Sauce

2 thick slices of bacon, halved crosswise and rolled into cylinders
1 small onion, quartered
1 portobello mushroom, stemmed and cap quartered
2 plum tomatoes, cored and halved lengthwise
4 pitted prunes
4 peeled garlic cloves
1 large supple ancho chile, seeded and quartered
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 cup water

Thread the ingredients onto skewers. Brush the kebabs with oil and grill over high heat, turning occasionally, until the vegetables are charred in spots, about 15 minutes; let cool slightly. Remove the ingredients from the skewers and transfer them to a blender.

Add the wine vinegar, light brown sugar, and water and puree until smooth. Season with salt.

Recommended to serve with grilled steak.

I can't wait to try some of these sauces. When you think about it, the possibilities are endless. Happy grilling!  🙂

~LilSis

June 6, 2009

When I was about 10 years old, a peach almost killed me.  Yep, a sweet, juicy, fuzzy little peach was nearly the end of me!  I was spending part of the summer in West Texas with my grandparents as usual, and had been eating juicy fresh peaches as usual.  My grandmother made awesome peach fried pies and incredible spiced pickled peaches with cloves.  She had peach trees in the backyard and made great use of them.

So, one nice summer day, I went to my cousins' house for a visit.  I can remember sitting on a swing in their backyard, eating a fresh peach.  I can remember getting itchy, then starting to wheeze, and then getting swollen all over.  By the time I got into the house, I passed out, and then drifted in and out of consciousness for what seemed like hours before they took me to the emergency room to be pumped full of benadryl and adrenalin.

Since I grew up to be BigSis, clearly I survived that attack of anaphylactic shock.  My body just had enough of peaches, and said it wished to have no more of them, please.  When I heard that this month's You Want Pies with That event would have a Childhood Memories theme, those peachy memories came back to me.  My whole family has mouth-watering and sentimental memories of Grandmama's fried pies, although I obviously can't make her peach ones.  In her honor, I decided to make cherry fried pies, for my first time ever.

I don't have my own recipe for these little jewels, so I found recipes online for pie pastry and cherry pie filling that both sounded delicious and got 5 star reviews.  And being a bake-from-scratch snob, I was definitely not interested in using flattened biscuits with canned pie filling.  I did have one little complication right off the bat, which was that the filling was surprisingly too juicy for little fried pies, so I revised my plan a bit and made a whole pie.  No biggie, just a little adjustment.

Looks pretty good, right?  I was kind of happy with the golden brownness, and was feeling a little proud of myself since I love to bake, but I'm not a pie maker.  It intimidates me and intrigues me at the same time.  But so far, so good.  I cut into the pie, and still found more juice than I really wanted, but no worries!  It's yummy cherry juice, so it's all good!  And I thought the slice on the plate looked pretty tasty!  What do you think?  Not so bad for a novice pie girl.

The next test…take a bite!  I took a bite, and took another bite, and took another bite.  Guess what?  It was HORRIBLE!!  Not just bad.  Not just “oh, you're so overly critical of your own baking”.  No.  It was DISGUSTING!  It's actually in my sink at this moment, crumpled in bits and pieces, awaiting it's little trip down the garbage disposal.  THAT bad.

What could be so bad, you say?  Well, the pastry was not flaky and light.  It was the polar opposite: heavy and soggy on the top and bottom.  The juice soaked into it and just made yukky mush.  Even though I baked it the recommended amount of time, I don't think the bottom crust was even done.  Bleh.  On top of that, the pastry's flavor was just off and weird.  The tiny bit of almond extract in the filling was grossly overwhelming and the filling was WAY too liquidy.  Altogether, it was so nasty that not even HayHay-the-15-Year-Old-Eating-Machine would touch it.  I would be ashamed to offer it to him or anyone else.

So, why do I bother posting on this disaster?  Cause it's pretty damn funny to me!  It's hilarious, in fact.  I make such a big ding dang deal out of baking from scratch, and then I have a catastrophe of Titanic proportions like this, and it just cracks me up.  One thing I don't do is take myself too seriously, and it's a good thing!  Plus, you can't try anything new if you're too afraid to fail.  Chances are I'll have lots more beautiful disasters on my way to successful pastry baking!

Next time, I'll try to do you proud, Grandmama!  I'm not giving up!  Meanwhile, please visit You Want Pies With That on June 8th to see the work of successful pie bakers!  I'm off to the grocery store for biscuits and canned pie filling.

~BigSis

June 5, 2009

Summertime Fruit Salad

How can anyone resist the beautiful fresh fruit at the market these days? We are so fortunate to have a Trader Joe's nearby. We always have a great selection of fruit and the icing on the cake is that it's reasonably priced. We don't pay an arm and a leg for a small container of raspberries or blueberries.

I buy my berries at Trader Joe's every week, but most of the time no one helps me eat them, so I'm careful not to buy more than I can eat by myself. Since I'm trying to help SirHoney eat more fruit, I bought more on my last shopping trip so I could make a nice fruit salad.

When I got home, I decided to browse through Cooking Light's website for some ideas for a light fruit salad recipe. I was inspired by this Summertime Fruit Salad recipe, but I omitted so many things, it's really not even the same recipe anymore. If I were to make this fruit salad for a dessert, I would have included the simple syrup and the whipped cream topping which both include Chambord.

On this particular day, I was just making a nice fruit salad for breakfast, so I didn't want the sugar, cream or Chambord.  (It's basically just a big bowl of fruit, so I almost feel bad calling it a recipe.) Here's what I came up with.

Summertime Fruit Salad

1 c. blueberries
1 c. sliced strawberries
1 c. red, purple & green grapes
1 c. diced pineapple
1 c. raspberries
1/4 c. chopped walnuts

Combine first four ingredients in a medium size bowl, then gently toss in the raspberries. Serve in individual bowls and top with the walnuts.

I really wanted to include blackberries in this fruit salad, but for some reason, the guys don't like them, so I left them out.  I did add blackberries to my serving and then poured it all on top of a bowl of nonfat vanilla yogurt and sprinkled with a few chopped walnuts. If serving immediately, I would also add some sliced banana.

I loved this fruit salad, and guess what, so did the guys! What an easy way to get them both to eat more fruit!

~LilSis

June 3, 2009

One of the many things I love about this time of the year is the amazing fresh produce. One of my most favorite salads to serve either as an appetizer or as a side salad is this Insalata ala Caprese.

We had a few friends over for dinner this past Friday night and I had some great tomatoes and loads of fresh basil, so it was a ‘no brainer' when deciding what to serve as an appetizer. This is always a real crowd-pleaser! But, seriously, how can you go wrong with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil?

I just can't get enough of this salad! Unfortunately, this is a little bit of a splurge when you use the full fat fresh mozzarella. (Unless you're disciplined enough to keep it to a slice or two of cheese, which I am NOT.) I've made it using the lower fat mozzarella and it's fine, but not quite as good, so I always use the fresh mozzarella when we have guests.

We had eight people and these were the quantities that I used, but obviously, you can modify easily enough for more or less servings.

Insalata ala Caprese

5 medium size fresh tomatoes, sliced
1 1/2 lbs. fresh mozzarella, drained and sliced
fresh basil leaves
1-2 T olive oil
1-2 T. balsamic vinegar
Dash of sea salt

Layer the tomatoes, basil leaves, and mozzarella on a serving platter. Drizzle with the olive oil and the balsamic vinegar, to taste. I also julienne a few basil leaves to sprinkle on the top and put a sprig in the center. Top off with a grind or two of sea salt, if desired.

I've made several different versions of this recipe. It's excellent if you have a variety of tomatoes. I've made it with a combination of yellow, orange, and red tomatoes and it turns out gorgeous. Also, if you don't care for the balsamic vinegar, just use a little lemon juice instead.

Buon appetito!

~LilSis

June 2, 2009

I'm so excited about my new discovery!  I'm pretty much a condiment queen…I have every condiment in my fridge from Sriracha to spicy brown mustard to real mayo to jalapeno ketchup to tamari to chili garlic sauce to horseradish sauce.  I love condiments, and if they add flavor without adding any fat, I'm even more in love with them.  Enter Vivi's Carnival Mustard!

Vivi's Carnival Mustard

I heard about this condiment a long time ago, but wasn't sure about ordering something online and paying shipping on it when I didn't even know if I'd like it.  So I never ordered it.  A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a Vivi's display at Central Market and remembered all of the rave reviews I'd read.  Being an impulse shopper, I grabbed a jar of the roasted garlic variety.  OMG!  This stuff is over the moon delicious!  I thought it was yummy on cheese and crackers, but when I put it on a whole wheat hot dog bun with a Tofu Pup, I thought I'd died and gone to vegetarian heaven!

What's so special about Vivi's?  Picture mustard meeting up with pickle relish, garlic, tomato paste, pepper sauce and spices!  Is your mouth watering yet?  I don't think you can quite imagine how good this is, especially if you're a spicy girl like me!  It's vegan and all natural with no fat, no MSG, no preservatives and about the same amount of sodium as regular mustard.  You can choose the garlic variety as I did, or the original or the chipotle flavors.  Besides slathering it all over my Tofu Pup, I used it in my favorite Mock Tuna Chickpea Salad over the weekend, and I can't wait to try it in deviled eggs.   Move over, my darling mayo.  There's a new condiment in town who is tastier than you and who won't add fat to my arse!

~BigSis

May 30, 2009

We talk a lot about potatoes, don't we? We love our potatoes, no matter whether they're white, russet, yellow, purple, or pink!

I don't know about most people, but I've never liked keeping potatoes in the pantry. I've never bought them in such large bulk that I couldn't keep them in the vegetable bin in the frig. This is a great example of why I DON'T keep potatoes in the pantry!

Darn sprout busted right through the bag!

I don't know who put these in my pantry, but I found them today hiding behind some boxes of crackers!  Just nasty!

That's just nasty lookin!

Believe it or not, some people actually think it's okay to cook a potato that has sprouted! (Yes, I googled it.) Ick! I would have thrown up if I had even touched one of these nasty lookin' sprouts. (They look like maggots!)  No way would I consider cleaning them off and eating the potatoes.

I don't know which is worse, the fact that these disgusting ‘things' were in my pantry, or the fact that I took a picture of them to share with all of you! 🙂

But, please don't let this keep you from comin' back!  Within the next couple of days, I'll be sharing a gorgeous Summertime Fruit Salad made with the absolute freshest of fruit!

~LilSis

May 27, 2009

I have to admit it, I have a confession to make.  My name is BigSis, and I'm a baking-from-scratch snob.  If I'm going to go to the trouble to bake something, I think it's better if it's made from scratch.  It's always felt like it's cheating to use a mix.  It's not that I think I'm Miss Pastry Chef 2009, and that everything that emerges from my kitchen has a halo above it's head.  I don't think that at all.  So I don't know why I have this snobbery about baking mixes, I just always have.

However, I recently entered a baking contest that required the use of a cookie mix, and I also used a brownie mix in another contest.  And guess what?  They were pretty darn good!  I was pleasantly surprised!  Now I've had to reevaluate my prejudice toward scratch baking, and admit that some mixes are worth using, and that there is no shame in using them!  Truth is, (gasp) you sometimes can't even tell when a mix has been used.  For example, the Kahlua Bundt Cake I made recently used a mix, and so does this Triple Chocolate Cake I made for a co-worker's birthday last week.

In my opinion, “doing things” to these mixes is the trick.  Add some vanilla, some coffee, some puddin, some licker…you get the idea.  For this cake, I took a tweak from the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor, and jumped off from there with some changes of my own.  One important note is that the original recipe called for baking the cake 58 to 62 minutes.  When I checked mine at 50 minutes, however, it was already done and I think it might have been done a minute or two before that, so keep an eye on this bugger.

Triple Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing
(adapted from Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor)

For the cake:

1 pkg Devil's Food or Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
1 3.9 oz pkg Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1/2 cup canola oil
4 extra-large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus extra for garnish if desired (I used the swirled chocolate/white chocolate chips)

For the chocolate icing:

1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brewed coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
Dash salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with flour-added non-stick spray, or grease and flour the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, coffee, oil, eggs and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for about a minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for 2 or 3 minutes.  The batter will be very thick.  Fold in the chocolate chips, mixing well to evenly distribute them.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth out.  Bake in the preheated oven until the cake begins to pull back from the sides of the pan, and a tester comes out clean, about 48 to 52 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.  Carefully run a long thin-bladed knife around the perimeter of the cake to loosen it, and invert it onto the rack to continue cooling.  Meanwhile, make the icing.

In a medium-size saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, and coffee.  Stirring constantly, bring it to a boil over medium heat, 3 or 4 minutes.  Continue stirring for an additional minute to ensure the sugar is dissolved completely.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla and salt, and then the chocolate chips.  Stir to melt the chips.  Icing should be smooth and shiny.

Pour the warm icing over the cake, allowing it to drizzle down the sides.  Sprinkle additional chocolate chips over the top of the cake if desired.

Happy Birthday, Chocolate Lovers!

This cake was rich, and very very chocolaty!  I'd make it again, and start checking it for doneness around 45 minutes.  The icing is really unusual, and good but pretty sweet.  I think the bittersweet chips were a good choice in it; I absolutely wouldn't use milk chocolate chips in it.  They'd be way too sweet.  Oh, and don't worry about a strong coffee flavor in this cake.  I didn't taste coffee at all actually; the coffee just brought out the rich flavor of the chocolate.  I might also add some cinnamon to the batter next time since I love that coffee-cinnamon-vanilla-chocolate combo.

So would I use another cake mix?  Sure, I would.  But would I rather make a cake from scratch if I had the time?  Oh, yeah!  There's something so satisfying and fun in that experience.  But if time is short, I think a doctored-up cake mix still shows someone that you cared enough to fire up your oven, heat up your kitchen and get chocolate batter all over your favorite shorts, rather than drive to a bakery!

~BigSis

May 24, 2009

Anyone who knows us, knows that we take any opportunity we can to get together with friends and family. Unfortunately, our family can't be together this Memorial Day so we'll be getting together with friends. I thought it might be fun to serve up some festive Patriotic Cocktails so here are just a few ideas.

Here's an easy, Red, White, and Blue Cocktail.

Red, White, and Blue Cocktail

Red, White, and Blue Cocktail

1 part grenadine
1 part peach schnapps
1 part blue curacao

Simply pour each part slowly into a shot glass in order:  red, white, and blue.

Here are two more really easy, yet very colorful cocktails.

Yankee Doodle

Yankee Doodle

1 part blue raspberry flavored vodka
2 parts sour mix or lemonade
1 part tonic water

Just pour into a rocks glass, stir and serve over ice.

Patriotic Punch

1 part red cherry flavored vodka
3 parts lemonade

Pour into a rocks glass, stir and serve.

And, I really like this one. I'm sure you could substitute vodka for the gin, if you're not a gin lover.

Blueberry Cobbler

Blueberry Cobbler

1/4 c. fresh blueberries
1 small lime wedge
1 1/2 t. sugar
1 1/2 oz. gin
2 oz. club soda
Ice

In a cocktail shaker, muddle 15 of the blueberries with the lime wedge and sugar. Add the gin and ice and shake well. Strain into a highball glass half-filled with ice, top with the club soda and garnish with the remaining blueberries.

And, how about some red, white, and blue jello shots? Find all three recipes here on recipezaar.

I always like to serve up a festive cocktail, or two, for whatever the occasion may be, so maybe this gives you a couple of ideas.

Of course, this Memorial Day, we will be remembering what our service men and women do for us every day.

And, we will be remembering those who served our country that are no longer with us. SirHoney's brother was a Marine and served our country in Vietnam. We will definitely be thinking of him this Memorial Day, as we do every day.

~LilSis