Garden Salsa

Well it's that time of year when our little raised rock garden is cranking out quite a bit of produce.  I was looking at our bowl of red tomatoes on the counter and thought, we should make salsa!  Fortunately we had also planted a few different pepper plants, such as jalapeno, and the pale yellow Santa Fe peppers.  One quick Google led us to an endless array of salsa recipes, but luckily the only three basic ingredients you need are: Tomatoes, peppers, and onions.  We ended up trying a hybrid of a few recipes while also using the ingredients on the label of our favorite store bought salsa (Costco Kirkland Signature Organic Salsa) as a base for our inspiration. Here's what we came up with:

Homemade salsa, right from the garden!!

Okay, so first gather your ingredients.  Tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, onion...

that pale yellow pepper is called a Santa Fe.  The id tag on it claimed "great for salsa" when we planted it last spring, testing it now!

also key players can be minced garlic, tomato paste, salt, water, vinegar, sugar.

Salsa ingredients - waiting to be salsa-fied

There is also the obvious choice of fresh cilantro here, but I abhor that herb with a passion.  Seriously.  To me cilantro tastes like dust, like death, like mummies!  So if you love that death herb as much as my sister-in-law (and/or half the known world) does, then by all means, chop it and throw it in!  Other people have been known to add green or red peppers finely chopped in their salsa as well.  It's up to YOU!

First you want 4-5 medium tomatoes.  We were not making a ton, just for us to enjoy tonight.  Maybe 2 cups worth total. We had four medium tomatoes plus a bunch of tiny cherry tomatoes, which our girls deemed "CUTE".  We de-stemmed and chopped the cherry tomatoes with a pampered chef chopper.  That brought out a lot of seeds, so we decided for the big tomatoes to slice and removed the seeds (just ran my thumb through the seed sections under water in the sink and they popped right out).  Then finely diced them into preferred bite size pieces.

We finely chopped up 1/2 an onion (about 1/2 cup).  I also threw in a spoonful of minced garlic for kicks.

Next we chopped up some peppers.  Salsa is sort of a blank canvas.  You can start with a base of basic ingredients, then use them as a spring board for your family's tastes.  If you like it hot, then leave the jalapeno seeds in, or just chop up a bunch.  If you like it milder then take the seeds and the center white membrane out.  You'll get a back ground hint of heat without blowing your head off.

It's still so excited to see vegetables you grew yourself go into your food!

If you like to chow down on big chunks in your salsa, then coarsely chop your veggies.  If you like them a little smaller, then do a finer dice on them.  Some people will put this into a food processor, we went the old fashioned route.  I told hubby these were too big, so we did a much finer dice after that.

I'm a pepper, you're a pepper, she's a pepper, he's a pepper, wouldn't you want  to be a pepper too?

Also do NOT rub your eyes, your face, or pick your nose before washing your hands.  Oh the burning!!  (Also be it noted: if you are picking your nose while you are cooking, you should really stay out of the kitchen).  Hubby washed his hands 3x and two hours later rubbed his eye and it started to burn so be CAREFUL with your peppers.

Here's our little peppers.  We just did one jalapeno, one Santa Fe, and one little red jalapeno.

Next dump everything in the mixing bowl!

Love all the colors of red, green and white

Mix everything together.  This is where you become part mad scientist.  Add salt, add a few spoonfuls of vinegar.  We added 2 spoonfuls of tomato paste to help thicken it up, if it becomes too tart, add a bit of sugar to balance it out.  You can also squeeze lemon or lime juice.  We added just a dash of water and stirred.  Keep tasting and adjusting.  

You are just a few stirs away from dipping your chips in salsa!!

Continue to adjust the seasoning, add more salt, etc., until you are satisfied with the taste.  Ours had a very fresh flavor with a background of heat, probably under the "medium" category.  The longer the salsa sits, the more the flavors will meld.  We were not that patient and got out our big ol' bag of chips right away.

Now all you have to do is go out to the backyard and enjoy your salsa while gazing at your garden.  Ooo, you know what would be good with this?  Mojitos.  I'll have to post about that very soon.  Until then... adios!

Easy Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

There's a family favorite I haven't made in a while.  Maybe because it still feels like summer around here and a creamy, cook all day comfort food like beef stroganoff really hits the spot more on a crisp fall day.  I had some extra stew meat in the freezer and thought lets take my relatively still new roasting oven/crock pot out for a spin and see how it does on a family classic.  This recipe is great because it is simple, it cooks all day so you can do other things, it smells fabulous, and it tastes so delicious you wouldn't think twice about serving it to company.

Cook all day beef stroganoff over egg noodles - an easy family favorite!

The best thing about this recipe is that it only has 4 ingredients:

2 lbs of stew meat
1 large can of cream of mushroom soup (26oz)
1 package Lipton onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups of sour cream

I have made it with just these 4 ingredients and it always turns out fabulous
.
You can also add some extra bonus options if you wish such as:

*dashes of Worcestershire sauce 
*fresh or canned mushrooms (I'd do this but would be shunned by the small fry)
*Kitchen Bouquet Browning sauce (see it here) which is a carefully guarded little secret if you don't know about it. In our family it goes back to my mom's kitchen and even further back into my grandma's kitchen.  You find it near the A-1 sauces at the grocery store and put a few dashes into the mix. It helps turn gravies, sauces, and things that are on the gray side, into a nice rich brown color. We use it all the time for the gravy during the holidays to give it a little kick in taste and color. 

Put the 2 lbs of defrosted stew meat in the bottom of the crock pot

Next, in a medium bowl, combine the mushroom soup, the sour cream, and the dry package of Lipton onion soup mix.

Stir until combined and dump mixture over the stew meat in the crock pot

After that set it on low and let it cook for 6- 8 hours.  Now if you have one of those new-fangled too hot crock pots that boil the living snarf out of everything, even on the "warm" setting then this recipe will cook in less time.  If you have a temperature controlled roasting oven like me that doubles as a crock pot, then turn it to around 200º - 210º (below boiling)and cook on low all day.  If you have an older crock pot just set it to low and carry on.

The next time you walk in the door you will smell the most heavenly aroma.  It tells family and even lucky downwind neighbors alike that someone has been slaving away all day to make dinner.  Ha.  Little do they know...  All you need to do now is to cook up some wide egg noodles and serve.  This also works great over rice!  The meat should be falling apart tender and the gravy or sauce is creamy and flavorful.  Test the flavor before serving if it needs any salt or pepper and serve over noodles to a happy and appreciative crowd.

Beef Stroganoff - comfort food at it's finest.

It had been so long since we had made this, that my littlest doesn't even remember it.  She ate her whole plate and asked for more!  Now that's a good sign.  Funny story, a long time ago I had made this dish for dinner, my picky middle child eyed it with contempt... that was until out of the blue I had the brilliant idea of saying it was "Lightning McQueen" meat. (She was a huge fan of the movie CARS at the time, even had a CARS birthday party that year).  Yup.  I told her Lightning McQueen had called and said this was his favorite all time dish.  She tried it and ate the whole thing. I have to confess I used this same technique a few weeks later, letting her know that peaches and pears were Sally's all time favorite fruits.  You would be surprised at how fast she wolfed those down. 

 

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

When we made those muddy buddies a few weeks ago, that taste of chocolate and peanut butter was still very strong in our minds.  Normally we only make regular chocolate chip cookies when we get the baking bug.  This time around we were about to start making a batch of cookies when my oldest said, can we make chocolate and peanut butter cookies together?  Why yes.  Yes we can.  

Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!

Now, how do you go about doing it?  Do you make a chocolate chip cookie dough and add peanut butter?  Do you make a peanut butter cookie recipe and add chocolate chips?  Hmmm, I have no idea.  Or is it a mysterious a hybrid of the two?  We decided to google and find a hybrid recipe. When searching for a new recipe on line, you never know if you are going to get a dud or not.  That is why I always check out the positive feedback, comments and reviews.  I found one from Nikki over at Canarygirl.  What I liked about it was it had almost 140+ reviews that it was a good recipe.  So we decided to try it.

You will need:

Ingredients:
 
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Click for complete directions and a printable recipe here.

Note:  This will only make a very small amount of cookies.  She recommended at least doubling it, and we ended up quadrupling it, because we like to cook little batches at a time and make the dough last all week.  If you have a normal sized kitchen aid mixer a quadruple batch will come right up to the top of the bowl, but it fits!

Creamy delicious peanut butter/chocolate cookie dough.  This had a great flavor for dough by the way!

I must confess.  I am not a dough eater.  I only like to eat the finished cookie all hot and melty.  I almost never eat dough, but I am telling you right now this dough was awesome.  Die hard dough eaters should make this recipe just to sit down with a jug of milk and pound this dough.  I couldn't stop tasting it.  Absolutely delicious.  Drop the cookie dough onto your cookie sheets and bake for 12-13 minutes at 375º.

Still loving my silpat mat.  The cookies practically fly off the cookie sheet

Cool all the cookies on a rack and then get your self a big ol' glass of milk

A stack' o peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, waiting for you.

These cookies turned out pretty good.  They were more of a crispy texture than chewy, although her blog suggests they were a good combo of crispy and chewy. Once they were cooled they were more on the crispy, dunkable side. Part of me wants to try the recipe again and use 1/2 crisco and 1/2 butter and see if that makes a difference.  The flavor of these cookies was very satisfying. Just the right amount of gooey chocolate and the peanut butter taste really came through!  It's best to eat these hot right out of the oven.

I wish you could smell these!

These also traveled pretty well the next day, as we took them on a ferry boat ride to a picnic destination. Everyone gobbled them up.  Make up a batch of these for the peanut butter chocolate loving person in your life today! You will instantly become their new hero.  God speed.

Blueberry Ice Cream

What do you do with seasonal fruit?  Make a cobbler?  Make a pie?  Yes and yes again.  Well if you happen to have an 2-Quart ice cream maker you can also make ice cream with it!  The best most blueberriest, the most purple ice cream you've ever done seen.  Willie Wonka himself would be proud of this ice cream, check it out!

Did I mention my favorite color is purple?  This is the most lovely shade of ice cream I've ever seen

All you will need are your regular ice cream ingredients plus fresh blueberries.

3 cups blueberries (washed, de-stemmed)
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 Tablespoons water
2 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cup whole milk (or 2%)

Printable recipe found here: 

Wash and drain them. Carefully go over them and check for any wayward stems or leaf debris.

Blue berries were very welled named

We are essentially going to cook these berries down into a sauce.  To do that place the 3 cups of washed berries in a medium to large pot on the stove top.  Add the 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 Tbsp of water to the pot.

  
Next turn the heat on medium and keep stirring until the berries start to burst and a sauce starts to form.

It always amazes me how deep purple blueberries get when you cook them.

Keep cooking them as they reduce down into a thicker sauce, at least 10-15 minutes or more.  If you want you can "smash" some of the berries with the back of your spatula.  Once it gets thicker and most of the berries are pulverized and the sugar is dissolved, you can pour it into a bowl to cool.

I used my 2 quart pyrex glass bowl.

There is some mention in other blueberry ice cream recipes to now strain this mixture though a small mesh sieve before putting it in the fridge to cool.  This is entirely up to you.  Straining it will eliminate all skins and seeds.  We decided we wanted chunks of fruit here and there so we left everything in.  Once the berries are completely cooled down, you can add your dairy products.  Pour in 1 1/2 cup whole milk, and 2 3/4 cup heavy cream.

Still loving this color, it's fabulous!

Stir the ingredients gently together until you get everything incorporated.

A luscious lovely lavender concoction

After this you are going to want to chill this mixture over night.  Boo, right!  It sadly has to be absolutely cold before you put it in the ice cream machine.  This is quite the bummer because right now your whole house smells like warm blueberry sauce and you will be sorely tempted to pour a big glass of this stuff and drink it like a milkshake.  However I promise, you will be much rewarded the next day when you dive into this delectable treat if it gets a chance to chill first. 

This is how we normally do this ice cream, time wise (it takes 24 hours total).

1. Make the blueberry sauce in the evening.  Let it cool and add dairy, chill over night.
2. The next morning, make the ice cream in the machine and chill all day
3. Ice cream will be fully scoopable after dinner time.  :)

Ok so your ice cream mixture has chilled over night (and remember your empty ice cream chamber has also been freezing overnight).  Now all you have to do is pour it into the machine.  No other things to add, no sugar.  Everything for this recipe (including the sugar) is added at the beginning.  Sweet.

Set a timer for 22 minutes and let the machine do its job.

Swirl baby swirl!

I've said it before, but we often will put a kitchen mitt over the top hole to help keep things really cold in there.

Not sexy, but I want to believe this helps keep the ice cream extra cold during the process.

After that, scoop the batch out into a glass bowl (I used that 2-quart pyrex from before), cover and place in the freezer for 6-8 hours.  Then serve in bowls or fun sugar cones.  My kids could not get over the color of this ice cream.  I loved it, no dyes, just the natural blueberry goodness coming through.

A delicious and beautiful blueberry treat!!

The flavor of this ice cream was spectacular.  Rich, creamy and fruity at the same time.  Like blueberry pie a la mode. I bet this would probably work with other fruits as well.  Let me assure you we will try them all and report back to you soon.  Enjoy!

Getting to Know Your Teacher - Male (free printable)

It was pointed out that my printable of 'Getting to know your teacher' I gave out yesterday was aimed at a female teacher.  I went back and retooled it a bit in case you have a male teacher (or wish for a more gender neutral questionnaire). There are no questions of favorite flowers, scented candles or lotions.  To tell them apart, I gave the second version a "star" border instead of apples.  Here is a sneak peek of what it will look like:

Feel free to click the link below and print it out on your home computer.

Getting to Know My Teacher (male) Click here

Thanks for the head up Robb.  

If you want an easy way to share this with your facebook friends click on the link below to go to our facebook page.  Like us and "share" on your wall.

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I hope everyone has a great school year.

Getting to Know Your Teacher (free printable)

I know in some parts of the country, school already started a few weeks ago.  Around here school starts today or tomorrow.  I thought I would give you grade school moms out there a little back to school gift, to start the year off right.  It's a "get to know your teacher" free printable!  I made these for my girls two years ago and have figured out how to make it into a pdf so you can print too! I have my girls take this to school on the first day and give to the teacher.  The teacher (when they have a free second) can fill it out and send it home with your student.  Here's a sneak peek of what it will look like:

  
I thought the cute apple border was a nice touch!  This has really helped us get to know our teachers so much better.  Teachers do so much for our kids all year, and our kids are in their care seven hours a day. This is the perfect way to understand them better as a person.  Soon you will know many secrets, like when their birthday is, what their favorite baked good is, and if they have a favorite scent.  If you know that their favorite kind of candy is a Kit Kat bar, how nice would it be at the end of a long testing week to sneak a king-sized candy bar on their desk.  Do they drink Diet Coke religiously or do they love Wild Cherry Pepsi?  At Christmas time you will know exactly what kind of gift to give them, because you will know they are a huge sports fan, an avid scrapbooker, or that their Scotty dog is the love of their life.  I also learned invaluable things like our Kindergarten teacher does not like candles of any kind (candles are a common present for many teachers) because she owns birds, and apparently birds and scented candles do not mix.

My girls and I always try to make their favorite baked good and bring them a plate of it on their birthday with a kiddie hand made card.  Being thoughtful is the key here!  I think this is a win win for everyone.  You can get the inside track on the things your teacher loves the most (hello, brownie points) and at the same time, the teacher feels extra love and appreciation for the amazing  job they do every day.

So without much further ado, I give you the free printable:

Click HERE for the pdf and print from your computer.  Enjoy!

Please feel free to pass this along to all of you mom friends.  I have a facebook page where you can share this easily on your facebook wall with your friends. Click this icon below to link to my blog's fb page, 
Simply "Like" the page, then repost ("Share") the link there to your facebook wall:

Link to my blog's FACEBOOK page.  :)

Thanks, and have a great school year!

Muddy Buddies - Puppy Chow

We are expert Rice Krispie square makers around these parts.  The girls love to help make them, and we love dying the marshmallows different hues to make a fun and colorful treat.  We were looking for a totally new and different snack to make the other day, when we came across a recipe for Muddy Buddies.  Also known as "Puppy Chow" or "Monkey Munch".  Apparently animals everywhere love this stuff!  We happened to have a whole unopened box of Rice Chex up in the pantry and I thought let's DO this.

Muddy Buddies - The snack crack of the new millennium

You only need a few ingredients to make these yummy treats:

9  cups Chex cereal
1  cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

First, measure 9 cups of Chex cereal into a big bowl (lightly sprayed with cooking spray) and set aside.

Chex totally reminds me of my childhood

In a small (microwave safe) bowl, pour 1 C chocolate chips, 1/4 C of butter, and 1/2 C of peanut butter.

Be sure to make your pile of peanut butter as unattractive and unappetizing as possible....

The girls had fun measuring all these cups, half cup, quarter cups themselves and pouring them into the bowls.  Next you want to put the bowl in the microwave and cook for 1 minute.  Stir and do another :30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until completely melted together.

Mmmm.. melted chocolate and peanut butter

Add the vanilla at this time and stir until combined.  After that you want to immediately pour the chocolate mixture over your bowl of waiting cereal.

Next the recipe says to "pour mixture in a 2-gallon plastic zip lock bag"... Well hello there Chex executives, but my biggest bag is 1-gallon, who has a 2-gallon plastic bag?  Do they even make those?  Instead, I thought let's put it into the container we are going to store it in, and shake it with the lid on!  I'm sure I'll be nominated for some kind of mom genius of the year award for that one.  Once in the container, dump in 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, put on the lid, and shake your money maker (while shaking the muddy buddies).  Hubby wants to add, don't shake it too hard, rather slowly rotate it around till everything was covered in powdered sugar, you don't want broken muddy muddies.

Deliciousness is about to happen... I can feel it.

From this point on, my girls started calling these "Snow Buddies"... because the powered sugar coats everything and makes them white.  Okay, rather a grey/brown/white, but who's keeping track?  Pour your mixture out onto some sheets of wax paper to cool.

You have to sneak one to taste, it's the law

By this time, your whole house smells like you just made peanut butter cookies. It's awesome.  After they were cooled and dried out a bit, we put them right back into the container with matching lid and they were ready to store.  We of course, chowed down on them first.  They have a great flavor of that delectable chocolate peanut butter taste, plus an added bonus of crunch.  Sort of like if Reese's Peanut butter cups and powdered donuts had a baby with a rice krispie treats.  

Muddy Buddies as far as the eye can see...

I must warn you... these are hard to stop eating once you start.  That's why I want to rename them "snack crack".  Another few ideas are: You can package them up in baggies for school treats, preschool snacks, after school snacks, and these would even be great in a cute package for teacher gifts or Christmas gifts for neighbors.  Make a batch for your next movie night.  Enjoy!

Maple/Honey Glazed Salmon

You can't really live in the Northwest without being around delicious seafood all the time.  You can barely walk down the street without being accosted by a rainbow trout or be the victim of a wayward salmon jumping into your car every now and again (okay, kidding, but sometimes it feels like it).  My mom makes the very best salmon in the known universe. It's simple but fabulous: lemons, onions, and some special seasonings.  I will post her recipe on here one day very soon.  I decided to google around yesterday and try and find a marinated or glazed version of salmon, mostly because I was reminiscing about this dreamy teriyaki salmon dish I once had on a cruise ship that was the bomb diggity, and I wanted to try and recreate it at home.  After a bit of searching on the interwebs, this is what I found:

Gorgeous glazed salmon served with teriyaki noodles

This recipe was entitled "The Worlds Best (and easiest) Salmon recipe".  I just love when those two words are used together in any context, "best" and "easiest".  What made me want to try this was the many 5-star reviews. After reading all the great comments as well I knew I wanted to try it too.  Hey, did I mention the marinade is only 3 ingredients?  That's right.  Soy sauce, maple syrup (or honey) and minced garlic.  All you need after that is about 12 oz of salmon, a ziplock bag, and an oven or a BBQ.

Three ingredients for a delicious glazed salmon.  Yum!

First, put your salmon in a zip lock bag.  Add 1/2 cup of maple syrup or honey to the bag.  (Note: they do not mean pancake syrup, but real maple syrup).  I used 1/2 cup of honey and 1/2 cup of soy sauce.  Also throw in 2-3 cloves of finely minced garlic.  I just used a big spoonful of my pre-chopped garlic.
 .

  1/2 cup of honey (or maple syrup)                                                           1/2 cup of soy sauce

Next, squish the mixture around and make sure it covers the salmon on both sides.

The 3-ingredient marinade has already added a nice color to the salmon

After that, you want to lay it on a plate and let it marinate in your refrigerator for an hour.  Set a timer for 30 minutes and flip the whole thing over so both sides sit in the marinade for 30 minutes (for a total of 60 minutes).  I read somewhere that if you marinade it more that 60 minutes, the salt in the soy sauce will start to "cook" the salmon.  So remember, just marinade an hour.  

Next the recipe says to pour the marinade and the salmon in to a 9x13 pan and cook in a 350º for 15 minutes or more covered in foil.  I do not like cooking fish in the house because, let's face it, the smell can linger a bit too long.  Instead, we wanted to use our outside BBQ.  Get a small sheet pan and make a little tin foil "boat" to fit inside the pan.  This will hold in the marinade and make it so there is one less pan to clean later.

The tin foil "boat" doesn't have to be perfect, the pan will help it keep it's shape.

Now pour the marinade and the salmon into the pan

Doesn't this look awesome?

Then I handed this lovely piece of fish over to my hubby for the official BBQ duties.  You can put the foil boat directly on the grill if it is sturdy enough, or my hubby ended up just putting the pan on the grill.  We essentially baked the salmon in the BBQ.  If you tried to grill it the regular way, the sweet glaze would burn.  Hubby turned the BBQ to medium low (he had a thermometer in there that read 350º) and cooked it for a little over 15 minutes, until the thickest part of the fish flakes easily with a fork.  When he brought it back in, it looked like this:

honey soy garlic glazed salmon.  My favorite part is the thin parts that soak up the most glaze

 
And this...

holy buckets yum!

and it smelled like this....

A picture for those of you who like thicker slices of salmon

OH that's right, I have not perfected my blog's "smell-o-vision" button yet, but I sure do wish it worked right now.  We served this with some warm, easy to make teriyaki noodles and some "crud-ites" as my hubby calls them (or crudites, the fancy French term for raw veggies and ranch dip)

This seriously made a great dinner!

Of course the real test to any dinner is... will the KIDS eat it?  Well I can say that my kids (who unfortunately will not even touch my mom's fabulous salmon) gobbled this down.  I was shocked actually.  All three.  Eating the same thing... at once.  Wow. Cleaned their plate.  The oldest asked for more.  If I ever get rich enough to have real maple syrup lying around, I will try this marinade using that, but the honey we used worked out really great.  Try this one out yourself and let me know what you think!