The Homesick Texan gives an excellent lesson in proper nachos.
Archive for January, 2008
Speaking of Nachos…
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008There’s a reason the recipe has been around FOREVER…
Sunday, January 27th, 2008Cause Toll House Cookies are still wonderful. Yes, I am a touch behind on my holiday baking – these are for my buds at the pub who keep me in Guinness. My only variation is that I substituted 1/2 of the chocolate chips with peanut butter chips.
Now, I am by no means a master baker, but here are a few little things I’ve learned over the years while making these.
– If they come out a little overdone on the bottom and not quite as done on the top – what you think is the center rack probably isn’t the center rack on your oven.
– Make sure the cookie sheets have returned to room temp before putting the next batch on them.
– If you splash some vanilla extract on your finger while getting things together, ignore any instinct to lick it off. You will smell and taste nothing else besides vanilla extract for the next 2 hours.
– When you ask your brother to test said cookies and he gets a funny look on his face and says, “These are terrible, you cannot give these to our friends” and then attempts to take 3 dozen of the cookies to his room to “protect the public,” this is actually a good sign. :)
– I do not think it is possible to get through a baking session without burning yourself somewhere.
Ooh, this looks good!
Saturday, January 26th, 2008Nachos!
Saturday, January 26th, 2008The perfect afternoon snack.
Tacoooooooooooooos!!
Friday, January 25th, 2008
Or quesadillas. Or nachos. All of which will be happily consumed in the next 48 hours.
The prefolded version – post folded, all you’d see is tortilla. :)
Super easy taco filling:
The original came from somewhere on allrecipes.com, but I can’t find it for the life of me now. Here’s my version.
1/2 c. chopped onion
2-3 cloves, finely diced
1# lean ground beef
1/4 c. (yes, 1/4 c.) chili powder
1/2 t. oregano
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. salt
1 c. tomato sauce
Saute the onions & garlic in a bit of butter or oil – until onions are soft/translucent. Add the ground beef and brown it. Set aside for a quick drain, return to pan. Add tomato sauce and spices. Let simmer for 10-20 minutes. (It may seem a little “soupy” at first, the excess liquid will drain off.) If you’re concerned about the large amounts of chili powder, start with half as much and halfway through the simmering, taste and add more if you like.
Milk: $125.00
Friday, January 25th, 2008Not going to the grocery store hungry: Priceless.
I love those MasterCard ads because they do describe me WAY too well. Except that I’ll go to the market for milk, get a bunch of other stuff, and then forget the milk.
Today I do have a couple minor gripes with my local grocery store. To me, it would make sense to have all the varieties of onions in the same place in the produce section, preferably right next to the garlic. Nope – the red and white onions are clear across the produce section from the yellow onions and garlic. WHY??
The other thorn in my side is automated checkouts. They’re fantastic if you have just a few things, and I try very hard to avoid them if I have enough to fill a cart vs. a little basket. However, there weren’t enough full service lanes open today, so automated it was. Issues…
– If you end up with “too many items” at the end of the conveyor belt, the system will not let you scan anything new until you bag those items. If you’re lucky, they have a person bagging at the auto checkouts. Not today.
– Age restricted purchases. They don’t immediately alert the keycarrier on duty, but instead hold everything up when you try to pay. C’mon, just start flashing the light the minute my evil cough medicine gets scanned.
– It wouldn’t take my coupon! It was an instant coupon (the kind you peel off the package) for $2, and required a trip to the service desk.
Now, one very good thing about my market is the soup/salad bar. A couple times a week they have a sweet/savory chili – when it’s cold, I simply cannot resist snagging a container for lunch. (But I feel so guilty! I can make my own chili!) But it’s tasty.
Spaghetti Sauce
Monday, January 21st, 2008It’s ridiculously cold here today and I realized this morning that I cannot for the life of me remember the last time I had spaghetti.
For many years, I was under the impression that spaghetti sauce that didn’t come from a jar or packet mix was the sole domain of little Italian grandmothers. Not so! Last Christmas I manned up and just decided I would make my own – no packet, no jar, just me. And it is good. :) (No, I wouldn’t say it’s as good as Rose Reed’s who taught me how to bake wonderful bread when I was a kid, but I think she’d declare it more than acceptable.)
Now, my recipe doesn’t have mushrooms in it, which some would say is heresy, but I just don’t care for mushrooms in my sauce! However, if you like mushrooms, feel free to add them! I’d think maybe a half cup to a cup of crimini’s would work well, added in when you add the sausage.
Recipe after the jump.
You bet it’s good!
Sunday, January 20th, 2008My brother just walked upstairs and said, “Ooh, what did you make?”
“Um, toast?”
“Oh. Well, it smells good!”
Damn skippy I make excellent toast!
Just thought that was funny, and now on to the real post. I wanted to take a moment and point out another food blog that I absolutely LOVE – Tigers and Strawberries. I feel horrid that I haven’t mentioned it before now – I was sure I’d brought it up, but looking through past posts, I apparently hadn’t.
It’s a fantastic blog – food, recipes, education, book reviews, pictures and more. Barbara is an excellent writer, obviously has a great love of food, and has a lovely “mother earth” quality about her. I don’t mean “hippie freak”, I mean someone who you wish had lived across the hall from you when you first got out on your own, because she would have all the answers to everything you needed to know.
Additionally, she has a wonderful feature of Weekend Kat/Cat Blogging. She talks about her cats, her spectacular little girl Kat, or both.
Do take the time to go check it out – she also has an RSS feed for the blog as well.
Chicken Chili Soup
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
The original is over at Allrecipes.com, and below is my version. It’s more of a thick soup consistency to me, and great in the winter. Though I normally eat it “naked”, I’m betting it’s one of those soups that would be good with a dollop of sour cream on top. There is a nice heat to it, but not to the extent that you won’t be able to taste anything else for the rest of the evening. The jalepeno cornbread I snagged at the market worked well with it, but I think plain cornbread would be perfect for the next time.
Also, if chopping onions and garlic while standing next to open containers of crushed red pepper and cumin doesn’t clear your sinuses – you need to see a doctor.
It really hit the spot, and will be making a repeat appearance tomorrow evening. (It’s just as good, if not a touch better the next day!) A small container has been stashed in the freezer for future colds. ;)
Full recipe and another pic after the jump.
There will be soup!
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
My cold came back for revenge, and I decided today that I really need to suck it up and make proper soup. I went through my notebook of tried and true goodies and on tap for this evening is Chicken Chili (which really has more of a soup consistency), so I dragged my sniffly scary looking self up to the market to get the goods.
I do have to say that my pantry is in slightly better shape than it was when I first moved into this house. No longer does every recipe need to have every single solitary ingredient purchased! (I basically have restocked the spice cabinets from nothing.) Today just needed the chicken, beans, a couple white potatoes, an onion and garlic. I’ve got all the spices and stock for a change. :) Perfect world I would have had chicken in the freezer and beans in the cupboard, but this is still an improvement.
The recipe is an easy one, thank goodness. The mice en place will take the longest – gotta chop the onions, garlic, potatoes and chicken. Then it’s just brown the chicken, onion and garlic and basically dump everything else in and let the house smell wonderful for a while. Took the lazy route and picked up some jalepeno cornbread from the bakery to go with it.
When shopping with a cold, I tend to overshop. For me it’s worse than doing the marketing while hungry. But I did stumble upon this:
I am fairly certain this is the same mix my Mom used for potato pancakes. Yes, a good German girl would know how to make them from scratch, but it was a comfort food from my younger years, so I had to pick up a box.
But the important thing is that there will be real, from scratch food tonight and pics and a recipe to go with it!