Restaurant Style Salsa

Salsa..... I love it.

I remember watching my uncle and cousin make a similar salsa when I was a kid. I had seen my cousin throw a Nilla wafer in the blender and my jaw dropped. What? A Nilla wafer doesn't belong in salsa. The next time I saw it made, I had to ask what happened to the wafer and sure enough it was done again. I later realized that it was just something to trip me up, but that was typical of them. :) My salsa does not include a wafer.

Also, my love of salsa grew while I was pregnant with my daughter and then again with my son. My biggest craving was a good restaurant style salsa and I was at the point of drinking it, but my husband would give me the look of "don't you dare, especially while we are out eating." I still have those cravings at times, but not near as bad.

This salsa recipe has been modified to my taste based off of a recipe that I found somewhere online. Obviously this is a very versatile recipe for changing based on your own tastes. Experiment and enjoy.

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Salsa

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can crushed tomatoes

1 small can whole stewed tomatoes

3 tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 medium white onion, chopped

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

½ medium red onion, chopped

1 jalapeno with seeds, chopped

2 jalapenos without seeds, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. cumin

1 ½ Tbsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. dried cilantro

1 ½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. black pepper

Juice of ½ lemon

3 Tbsps. fresh parsley, chopped

Add all ingredients to a large pot but the lemon juice and parsley. Cook for 30 minutes. Use and immersion blender to blend to the consistency desired. Add lemon juice and parsley and chill.

Key Lime Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love a good cupcake? Be honest, we all do. I tend to look for the strange ones and they have all been pretty darn good. Ask my coworkers; I use them as my guinea pigs for new sweets. Here is one of them…. Key Lime Cupcakes. If you love key lime pie, you will love these. Tangy and sweet, refreshing, and unexpected.

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Key Lime Cupcakes

1 ¾ c. flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cool unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 ¼ c. sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 ½ Tbsps. key lime juice
1 Tbsps. key lime zest
1 drop green food coloring paste
¾ cup buttermilk (room temperature)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt three times, set aside.

Using a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on low until it’s softened a bit. Add the sugar and increase the speed to medium. Beat until fluffy, about four minutes. Add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the lime juice, zest, and food coloring and beat until mixed. (The mixture will look curdled.) Add the flour in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix on low until just combined. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool completely and frost with cream cheese icing.

1 stick cool unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature), cut into 8 pieces
2 ¼ c. powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbsp key lime zest

Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on low until it’s softened a bit. Increase speed to medium and add the cream cheese one piece at a time. Reduce speed to low and slowly add powdered sugar until combined. Beat in zest.

Hamburger Potato Hash and Skillet Cornbread

Here lately I’ve been trying to think of things different to cook for dinner. I can only do so much with chicken and so much with ground meat. So I started thinking back to things that my Momma’ made while growing up….. Well, I thought of what my family calls mixture, which to most people is a breakfast hash; this led to the thought of what my family calls hash, which is like a hamburger potato soup. But wait, in all of my cookbooks and online recipe sites that I go to I have never seen anything like it. It is so simple that you would think that it has no flavor, but it does and it’s great if you are living on a budget. Now, when I think of this recipe I immediately think of some good skillet cornbread sans sugar. (Sugar ruins cornbread, ack!!!)

There are several ways that this meal can be eaten.

1)    Just put it on a plate and use the cornbread to sop up the juices.

2)    Mash the potatoes with a fork kind of like mashed potatoes with onion and hamburger meat in it and just eat the cornbread. This is how I eat mine.

3)    Or lastly, mash the potatoes as previously stated, but crumble your cornbread in with it. This is how my Dad always ate it.

For your veggie, if you must have one, do a small side salad, but I think it’s just fine to have the hash and cornbread.

Hamburger Potato Hash

1lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

6 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 clove garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

4 c. water

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over med-high heat, brown the meat until done; remove, drain grease, set aside. Add onion, potatoes, garlic, bay leaves, just enough water to cover with 1 inch or about 4 cups, and salt and pepper to taste. Boil until the potatoes are tender. Add the browned meat to reheat. Remove the bay leaves and serve on a plate.

Skillet Cornbread

1 ½ c. cornmeal

½ c. flour

½ tsp. baking soda

2 Tsps. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 egg

1 ¾ c. buttermilk

¼ c. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425F. Place an 8-inch cast iron skillet in the oven while it is preheating with the vegetable oil in it. Mix dry ingredients. Add the egg and buttermilk. Pour the batter into the skillet with the oil. Bake for 30 minutes.

Crawfish Chowder and Louisiana

As you will be able to tell thru out my blog, I am going to be posting lots of Cajun/Creole recipies. I love Louisiana and I am hoping that one day I will be able to live there (maybe my husband's job will make that possible). Some of my fondest memories occured there and I love the culture. Being from Arkansas, I get a little bit of the Cajun "Southern" culture. One of which, food is the center of everything.... weddings mean food, baby showers mean food, funerals mean food, tailgating means food (Geaux Tigers!). We look for any excuse to cook and eat. I myself love a good family reunion or potluck.
There is a resturant in downtown Little Rock by the name of the Flying Fish. The first time that I ate there I ordered the Crawfish Chowder. Yum Yum! Creamy, crawfishy, hardy, extremly filling. I fell in love. So I came home and started searching. I found something super close to theirs. This recipe uses corn like Flying Fish uses but when I make it I ommit the corn. It's amazing.

Crawfish Chowder 
                                                                                    
1/3 c. vegetable oil                                                             
1 1/3 c. red potatoes (Peeled and Cubed 1”)                                     
1/2 c. bell peppers, diced
2/3 c. yellow onion, diced                                                           
2/3 c. celery, diced
2 tsp.salt                                                                                                 
1/2 tsp. pepper                                                                 
1/2 Tbsp. dry basil
2 tsps. Garlic, minced                                                           
1 c. chicken broth                                                                               
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. Cajun seasoning                                                                           
1 q. half and half                                                                                   
2/3 c whole kernel corn                                                                         
1/2 lb. pre-cooked crawfish tails  (110/150)                                 

Pour oil into cooking pot, add potatoes and cook on medium heat. Stir potatoes until half cooked. Add bell peppers, onions and celery to potatoes and continue to cook on medium heat. Stir potatoes and veggies continuously until ¾ cooked. Add salt, pepper, basil and garlic and mix completely.  Add chicken broth, flour and Cajun seasoning and mix thoroughly until product thickens. ***Be sure to stir continuously to prevent sticking or burning. *** Add half and half and mix with a whisk over high heat for 10 minutes. Lower to medium heat and add crawfish meat and stir continuously.  As product continues to thicken, add corn and continue to mix. ***To test for proper thickness, tap the whisk on the side of the pot. If the product runs slowly down the side of the pot, you are ready to go. *** Remove from the burner and continue to stir for 5-10 more minutes.

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting

My husband, Nate, loves this stuff. I remember the first time I made it, I was up all night because I had 1, yes 1, round pan. So I would bake one until it cooled enough for me to remove it and then add the batter for the next. Needless to say once he found out how long I had been up to make it for him, he loved it that much more. So moral of this story is..... have 3 round pans. When I ice this I add some between the layers and then just pour the rest of the icing over the top so that it runs down the sides and looks irregular and beautiful. I have also made cupcake before from this and it made way too many so I suggest cutting the recipe in half and baking until a toothpick comes out clean (start checking about 15 minutes) Yummy!!!

German Chocolate Cake and Coconut Pecan Frosting

Cake

½ c. boiling water

4 oz. baking German chocolate

2 c. sugar

1 c. butter, softened

4 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. almond extract

2 ½ c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. buttermilk

4 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 8-inch round pans and line the bottom of pans with parchment paper. Pour boiling water on chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted; set aside and cool. Mix sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Beat in chocolate, vanilla, and almond on low speed. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in stiff egg whites. Divide the batter between the 3 greased and lined pans. Bake 35-40 minutes. Cool and top with Coconut Pecan Frosting

Coconut Pecan Frosting

1 c. sugar

½ c. butter

1 c evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 egg yolks

1 1/3 c. flaked coconut

1 c. chopped pecans

Mix sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, and egg yolks in medium pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until thick, about 12 minutes. Stir in coconut and pecans. Beat until spreading consistency.

Layer with frosting between layers and pour the rest over the top.

Creamed Spinach

Tonight I am posting my Creamed Spinach recipe. The other day, I was looking for it out there on the internet and I couldn’t find it. Thankfully, I was able to find this one that I had and have used many times in my old burned cookbook. This is very similar to Boston Market’s Creamed Spinach, which I love, but there are not any Boston Markets here in Arkansas. L So here you go, enjoy!

Creamed Spinach

Sauce

3 Tbsps. butter

4 Tbsps. flour

1 ¼ tsp. salt

1 c. whole milk

Spinach

2 Tbsps. butter

2 Tbsps. minced  onion

¼ c. white wine

20 oz. frozen spinach, chopped

½ c. sour cream

¼ c. parmesan cheese

Over med-low heat, melt butter in a small sauce pan. Stir in flour and salt until creamed together. Stir in milk a little at a time. Increase heat to medium and stir constantly until mixture becomes thick and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place butter in a 2 quart saucepan and melt over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they are transparent. Add the spinach and wine to the pan; lower heat and cover. Cook spinach until it is almost done; add the white sauce, sour cream, and parmesan. Stir well and simmer until completely blended.

The burned cookbook and Étouffée

My first attempt at blogging and my first recipe. Yeaaaa me.

For Christmas this year, I asked my 10 year old daughter, Skylar, to get me the “stuff” (3” 3 ring binder, separation tabs, and clear document covers) to put my cookbook back together.  I got it! Now the story of my cookbook…. I had a binder that housed all my recipes but during one of my cooking experiences I laid it on the stove and turned the wrong burner on. Eck! The back of the binder and a few of my recipes melted and burned. I was able to save the recipes and patch up the binder, but cosmetically it did not look good.  Now I’m retyping all my recipes and sharing them with you.

My first recipe for you…… Étouffée. I had my husband tell me what I should do first and he said by far it should be this.

 Étouffée

4 Tbsps. Butter

2 Tbsps. Creole Seasoning

1/2 c. chopped yellow onion

1/4 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper

1/4 c. flour

3/4 c. chopped tomato

2 Tbsps. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. thyme

2 tsps. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. hot sauce

1/2 c. chopped green onion

1 c. water

1 beef bouillon

1 can tiny shrimp (reserve juice)

1 can crab meat (reserve juice)

cooked rice

Melt butter in a large pot. Sauté onions and celery until crisp-tender. Add flour and cook about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add creole seasoning, juice from shrimp and crab meat, water, and beef bouillon. Stir in tomatoes, bell pepper, and garlic. Add thyme, Worcestershire sauce, and cook about 20 minutes. Add shrimp, crab meat, and green onions. Cook for 5 minutes. Serve over cooked rice.