Sweet Salsa

I love salsa and this is another one of "Mark's" areas of making super yummy greatness. If he was home I would have never attempted to make my own.  I have found a "special" ingredient to add a sweetness to this salsa that will keep your friends guessing.  Keep it a secret or share it ...that is up to you.   I found it by chance when I ran out of apple cider vinegar.  Are you curious yet?

Before I get into the recipe I have to say one of my new favorite toppings on a hamburger is salsa.  There is this awesome burger joint called Beuno Burger in Scottsdale and I think everytime there something going on at the LAB, Beuno Burger is there grilling up burgers with great condiments for everyone. There is a salsa like sauce that to me is pretty close to a hotter salsa.  This is part of the reason I like to puree my salsa! If you are ever in the Phoenix area this place is worth the drive for one of the best burgers ever!  Check them out!  Ok, here's the recipe for my puree salsa.

4 plum tomatoes,quartered
2 beef tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, diced up
3 serrono peppers, diced keep seeds in
1 habanero, diced (not pictured)
2 Tablespoons cilantro
1 Tablespoon garlic
1 lime, juiced
1/4 Cup rice vinegar
1 Cup frozen corn kernals, defrosted

I cut up the tomatoes into quarters so it is easier to puree them.  In a blender put everything but the corn.  Blend until smooth.  IF you like it chunky chop in blender.  I prefer almost like a sauce.  Pour in a container mix in the corn and let chill in fridge. 

The rice vinegar gives the salsa a sweet flavor.  You can use apple cider vinegar too but you should at least try it once with the rice vinegar.  If you prefer hotter salsa add more peppers or mix of peppers.  Sometimes I add black beans too.  Hope you enjoy! ~A

Strawberry Soup

I started making this sweet treat about a year ago.  It is something my youngest absolutely love.  I changed it up a little from the recipe that a lady shared with me way back then.  Not sure where she originally found it from.  I know when you make this recipe you may say this should be a smoothie, but I think it is just how you decide to make it and serve it.  This recipe is fun to also have your children help you make. 

3 lbs of strawberries  split in 2 lbs and 1 lb portions
1 cup of Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt)
1 half and half
1/3 to 3/4 heavy cream
4 mint leaves (optional)
lemon juice ( a few squeeze about 1 tsp)
1/4 Cup sugar (optional)

Where your children can help is wash and pat dry the strawberries. You can also have them pick out any over riped ones too.  Older children can help by cutting off the tops of all the strawberries and then cutting 2 pounds of strawberries into quarters.  The last pound sliced thinly but held to the end. 
Either in a blender or large deep bowl,  place 2 pounds of  strawberries, yogurt ( I used strawberry Greek yogurt), heavy cream, half and half (you can use whole milk if you don't have half and half), lemon juice, mint leaves and either puree together or use electric blender to mix until it is smooth.  It takes a couple of minutes with the blender.  Taste to see if sweet enough if not then add some sugar to reach desired sweetness and blend/mix again.  Once done add the thinly sliced strawberries to mixture.  Use a big spoon to mix in strawberries.  Put in container and let chill in fridge for at least 30  to 60 minutes and serve.  I sometimes garnish with a few slices of straberries slices or mint leaves.


Sometimes I prefer this thicker so I may add a little more yogurt or heavy cream.  Other times I like thinner so I add more half and half or 2% milk to normal ingredients.  It is really up to you how thick you decide to make it.  No right or wrong. If you are anti dairy you could also leave all diary out and add another pound of strawberries 1 tsp more lemon juice and may need to adjust sugar to taste.  It will be a deeper red but it is just as yummy!  I hope you enjoy!

Grilled Skirt Steak with Habanero & Orange Juice marinade

This is more my husband's area, but since he is on a remote right now, if I want this particular yumminess, I have to make it.  It's really simple and this is more his recipe.  We were on skype last night while I was making it.  He "eyeballs" the amounts but I tried write down the amounts so I could share it with everyone.  I like to eyeball things many times too, but it hard to share those recipes so this is my effort to be a better friend so I can share what I make.

I also must add my more recent kitchen love is Gourmet Garden products!  It is these great tubes of cilantro, garlic, chili paste, basil and many other choices to help you in the kitchen.  I have the worst luck with cilantro going bad before I use it so this organic grown product gives me more bang for my buck.  I love the fact it is one less thing I have to chop up when I am putting a recipe together.  This product varies from the two to under four dollar range.  Depending on what grocery store I go to I have seen the price vary quite a bit.  Well worth the price though!

gallon size  storage bag
1 skirt steak
1-1/2 Cups of Orange juice
2-3 Habanero peppers, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1 Tablespoon garlic
1-1/2 Tablespoons of Cilantro
1 Lime (juiced)

To prevent accidental burning to your eyes use either plastic gloves or hold chili with a paper towel when you are cutting them up.  Even after good hand washings if your hands comes in contact with this chili it could cause some pain if you rub your eyes.  Unfortunately, I have done this one too many times.

In my opinion it is less mess just throwing everything in storage bag to marinate.  I ended up chopping up 3 habanero because I found one more of those little suckers in the fridge, but you can use 2 or 3 or even more if you want it hotter.  Chop up the habanero, and onion and toss in bag.  Add the garlic and cilantro.  I use the Pampered chef citric press to  juice the lime into the bag.  Pour in 1-1/2 cups of orange juice into bag.  Close bag and  mix up.  Then put skirt steak in and reclose and try to make sure the steak is covered.  Let it sit over night until grill the next day.  I flipped it a couple times to make everything marinates equally.  

I will update when I pull it out to grill later.

So after sitting overnight until early afternoon, I was able to grill it. Take the meat out and discard the rest.  I have never cooked a skirt steak before (remember that is my hubby's job) so I ended up cooking well done instead of medium rare like I wanted.  I got side tracked with the other grilling for today.  It does have a nice heat to it and will be great in a salad or  with a little pico de gallo.

Taco cups

I have three children ranging in ages 13, 11 and 4 years old.  This vast range in age and personalities also shows through in who eats whats and who is willing to try what.  I think it is important to not only try to get the kids involved in the kitchen but also in help planning meals.  So tonight the kids collectively decided on tacos for dinners.  After seeing a really cool picture on Pinterest ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/3431227193 ) recently that I repinned, I decided we would add a twist to taco night.  This is a pretty easy recipe that all the ages can help with.  I also added to the idea that was posted. I gave in and used the oven on this recipe.  Trying to keep dinner fun, I left a 3 cups plain(just taco meat and cheese), and then split the rest up with rice and no rice in the taco meat and corn mixture.  We might try this down the road using shredded chicken.

What you will need:
1 lb of ground beef
1 taco packet seasoning
1 pkg 8 oz of  shredded cheese
3/4 cup corn (frozen or can)
1 pkg Spanish Rice (in microwave bag)
1 pkg wonton wrappers
shredded lettuce (optional)
tomatoes (optional)
Other taco condiments (optional)

Preheat oven to 350' F.  Brown ground beef and follow directions when adding taco packet.  While the ground beef is browning, go ahead and heat the Spanish rice in the microwave.  Place taco meat,  Spanish rice and corn in medium bowl and mix well.  Spray muffin tin with Pam or other oil like spray.  Place 1 wonton wrapper in each spot.  Place 2 tablespoon of mixture in each spot.  (If you are like me and use Pampered Chef products use the medium scoop.) Place some cheese on top  and place in oven for 8-10 minutes. Should make between 24-28 cups.  Once done have other taco toppings ready to top on the taco cups. 

* Because my kids don't all like Spanish rice I divided the meat up in half and and made some with meat and corn and the other half  with the rice.  If you are dividing the mixture up, only use 1/2 the bag of rice.

 Feel free to add black beans or even refried beans to the mixture or even to bottom of wonton cup.  This is something fun and easily to build off from to fit your family's taste.  The nice thing is it doesn't take a lot of effort to make everyone happy by adding or deleting items to the mixture or cups.  It might make an extra bowl or two but that isn't really a big deal. 

These also would be great to serve during a get together or when the guys get together to watch sports.  Hope you enjoy! ~A

Blueberry Muffin Bites

We ran out of milk last night after dinner so this morning I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast without having to run to the grocery store first thing. My youngest, Aubs, was up so I decided making muffins would be a good treat for breakfast. She loves to help so this was a great choice. Right now I am on an anti oven kick because it is summer so instead I busted out our babycakes cake pop to cook the blueberry muffins bites. Another reason I like using this is it brings a smile on my kids face to change how muffins are presented.

2 packages of Betty Crocker Muffin Mix (just add water kind)
1 Cup water
small Scoop from Pampered Chef
Babycakes cake pop machine



We used the just add water Betty Crocker Muffin Mix and in a medium bowl mix in both packages of muffin mix and 1 cup of water. Mix well and once the babycakes baker is hot use the small scoop from Pampered chef (about 1 Tbs) to pour in each spot close the lid and bake. I noticed that even after the light turned green it needed to cook a couple more minutes. I used a wooden skewer to check if done in the middle. This makes about 42-28 muffin bites.

My daughter enjoyed pouring and mixing but she is too young to really do the pouring portion because of potential burning hazard of using the Babycakes machine. This I do but after the muffin bites are done cooling she can put on plates to serve or to put in a cute mini cupcake paper to look pretty.

Option: If you have the Babycakes mini donut maker, put the batter into a pastry bag and pipe the mixture into the donut molds and bake. Also try it with other muffin mixes!

These are also great for younger children size wise as well as portion control for all ages.

Hope you enjoy! ~A

Nutella S'mores

This recipe is inspired by my children who love Nutella.  I was involved in a secret sister exchange with some ladies I know and in my box of treats, I received items to make S'mores!  This is a real crowd pleaser in my house.  Well today I was eyeing the Nutella as a substitute for the Hershey chocolate bar.  Can I say heavenly good?  If you love Nutella, this is a must try! 

Graham Crackers
Nutella
Marshmellows

I didn't feel like starting up the grill to toast the marshmellows so I used the microwave to make this  little indulgence quick and easy! 

I broke one graham cracker into two and added 1 marshmellow stacker to each side and a dollop of nutella to one side and made a sandwhich with it.  Put it in the microwave for 12-15 seconds and viola! Yummy Gooey Nutella S'mores. Hope you enjoy! ~A

Italian Sausage Soup

My husband's leave ended and he left at the beginning of the week.  Sometimes I don't know how we survive without him here to cook us dinner.  He is an amazing cook, and I am well just so-so compared to him.  About 1815 I realize I haven't even started dinner so looking around to see what I can make kids.  Tonight we ended up having Italian Sausage Soup.  It was pretty easy to make and something even the kids could help make.  The nice thing about this is you can add other veggies that you like or keep it simple like we did. 

4 links of Italian Sausage of your choice.
garlic cloves or squeeze garlic  (2 - 4 cloves or squeeze some out of tube)
1 medium onion diced
3 cans of beef broth
1 can of diced tomatoes  (28 oz)
3-4 medium to large potatoes diced small
2 small to medium carrots sliced thin
basil
black pepper
and pastina (little stars) optional

Take the casing off the sausage and place in the pot with the diced onions, garlic and brown it.  You want to break it apart as you cook it.  Once it is brown add the cans of beef broth  diced tomatoes, diced potatoes, and sliced carrots.  You want to bring this to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook until the potatoes and carrots soften up.  Add basil and pepper to taste.  You can add salt too but I try to leave that out and let people add it themselves if they really want it.  While this is simmering in cook pastina or orzo  as directions say.  I prefer to keep the pasta in a different container so people can add as little or as much as they prefer.  This is also be a great recipe to put in the crock pot on low and let cook for several hours too if you prefer to not use the stove at all. 

I prefer to use fresh tomatoes but when in a pinch like tonight canned ones have to do.  Hopefully as I continue this blog I will get better taking pictures.  I thought about the pictures after I started so some of the pictures don't show same measurements that I used. 

Great way to have your children get involved is to let children count out the ingredients or help pick out ingredients for the soup.  Older children can help peel and cut up the vegetables or even help brown the sausage.  My four year old also helped by adding the pastina to each bowl of soup.  If you have a picky eater a great way to include your child in the meal is just create a bowl of broth and pasta and leave out the meat and veggies.  ~A