The Lack of Blogging

Hold on tight because I'm coming back starting the new year with a new food blog! Promise!

Green Chili and Carne Guisada

I kept seeing these wonderful tomatillos at the Farmer's Market and I finally decided to get a bag full to make something with them. I had never used them in my cooking, so I had to do some searching for a recipe. Over a year ago, I had come across the website Homesick Texan and I have been wanting to make things from her website. It all looks so good, but I just haven't gotten around to it.


The first recipe that I tried out of hers was the green chili which I got to use different chili peppers from the Farmer's Market in the dish. I started out with the lowest amount of chili peppers (4 each), but added the seeds and this dish was pretty spicy (Chris and I both like spicy too). Usually the Farmer's Market chili peppers are much more potent than the ones in the store because they haven't been sitting there for a long time, so keep that in mind if you usually store bought ones. The mix of peppers made for an amazing blend of flavors and we both really loved this dish. It made for great leftovers and the house smelled wonderful.


Homesick Texan's Green Chili

The next day, I tried out this recipe (I forgot to take a pic) because I had a piece of chuck from my CSA and didn't want to just make a pot roast with it. It's not as spicy as the above recipe, but still has good flavor. We didn't love it as much as the green chili, but it's probably because we liked the spiciness of the first dish. Still definitely worth a try :)

Homesick Texan's Carne Guisada

Smoky Pork & Sweet Potato Tacos

I apologize that there isn't a picture of this dish. This is something that I found months ago, but I had forgotten it until yesterday when I was looking for a dish to make and bring over to our friends' house.

It's super easy because you chop some stuff up, put some things in the blender and throw everything in a Crock pot! I did use fire roasted tomatoes (I keep various organic Muir Glen brand cans in my pantry) which I think really added a great flavor to the sauce.

I also made the avocado crema that goes with the tacos. Super easy to make and very tasty. The only thing is that I would have halved the recipe because 7 people barely made a dent in the sauce, but it will be good for salad dressing this week.

The nice thing about this dish was that my teenage son even liked it (he doesn't usually like things with lots of sauce) and he even ate leftovers for lunch today!

http://www.feelgoodeats.com/2008/05/07/cousin-meags-killer-party-tacos.html

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

I have been AWOL this summer. I have actually spent more time traveling than in my own bed the last three months and I haven't been able to spend much time at the Farmer's Market (which is really sad) this summer. I have also ate quite a bit of food on the road that needs to be posted about on here, but I haven't had a chance to do it! I have one more trip to NYC tomorrow to end this crazy summer of travel, then my travel slows down quite a bit which means back to actually cooking and hopefully blogging again!

I did get to make this delicious buttermilk cake from Gourmet magazine with the fresh blackberries that I bought at the Farmer's Market earlier this summer. This cake isn't too sweet and it's great when it's reheated for a little bit in the microwave. I liked it as a breakfast cake, but you can use it for dessert with some ice cream if that strikes your fancy. It keeps for days (if it will last that long) and you can use all kinds of different berries.

Berry Buttermilk Cake (I used blackberries) from Gourmet Magazine

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz)

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.

Farmer's Market

I have been slacking. I took most of June off from my blog and I have no excuse besides that it was vacation time with the parents. Well, that's not always a vacation either. It's also hard to be away from home for 3 1/2 weeks and even think about doing anything but enjoying perfect Southern California weather and our 13 day road trip to Canada. The road trip was exhausting (future blog post), but it was a good bonding with the parents. Yet I don't be doing it anytime soon with them again unless we rent a huge RV and I can hide in the back the whole ride.

One of the worst things about road trips is that no matter how well I eat, after about a week, is that I am done with eating out. I just can't stand the sight of another menu and don't get me started about fast food. We rarely eat it when at home, so when you are forced to on road trips (so that you can make good time)--blah. I never want to see Wendy's again.

So I was thrilled to get back to the Farmer's Market today and see LOTS of new things on the tables. Potatoes, onions, peaches, cabbage, tomatoes are starting to ripen, etc. etc. I was like a kid in a candy store!

My bounty today: carrots, radishes, beets, small potatoes, eggs, snap peas, garlic, green cabbage, yellow cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, zucchini, onions and peaches. I am glad that I went early because the peaches were gone by 7:20! No salad mix this weekend due to the extreme heat that we have had in the Midwest, but I was pleased with everything else that I picked up.



When I was uploading my pics to my computer, I noticed that I had an old Farmer's Market pic from May 23 that I never got up on the blog. My husband was gone in Chile for work, so I didn't purchase a lot of things--peonies, salad mix, arugula, radishes and some tomatoes. But I did LOVE my peonies. I wanted to buy a bush this year, but was too late. I need to purchase one before they start to bloom out here because there were no bushes left by the time I decided to buy one.

I'll be cooking a lot more this week, so blogs to follow!

I Am Still Breathing!

I haven't had a chance to post anything since my life has been filled with planning a road trip with my parents, son and brother. I have been the one in charge of figuring out where we are going and making all the hotel reservations, so I have been doing a lot of research since before we left on the 7th. It's been an interesting time. Most of it has been fun since I love to travel and visit new places, but it's also been trying because my (and my brother's) traveling style is completely different than my Dad's. We won't be willing travelers on any family road trips anytime soon!

I have been slightly disappointed in meals on the road trip. Even in Portland, I had taken my parents to a place that I went to back in August without great results. There has been some gems though and I will post them up as soon as possible!

Slacking :(

I have been slacking. I admit it. Life has been crazy since I returned from my honeymoon in Spain. I went from relaxing to having to deal with a crisis to having the in-laws in town to my hubby leaving for a work trip in Chile for a week to having a dear friend in town to leaving for CA this past Saturday to visit my parents! Before I left, I didn't have a lot of chances to make any food with the visitors and my hubby being gone. Now he is left at home to fend for himself (he can't cook unless it comes in a pouch and involves boiling water). But don't feel too bad for him, I did leave him some food and stuff in the freezer that he can defrost.

My crazy travel schedule is not going to end anytime soon. I'll be leaving for a road trip with the parents on Saturday. We'll be driving to Canada from SoCal on a 12 to 14-day road trip. Should be fun and interesting. Hopefully, I'll get a few good meals on the trip that I can blog about. I'll try to get up some of the great meals from Spain on here before I leave, but I'm in charge of planning the entire road trip which means most of my time is spent on figuring out everything. I'll try to catch up soon!

Strawberry Time!

I love strawberries. I had heard the rumor that the Farmer's Market had some while we were gone in Spain, but they sold out quickly (ten minutes) as soon as the market started last weekend. The lady told me that she would have more during the Tues/Thurs markets, so I ended up scoring a couple of baskets during the week. They were tender and juicy, but since they weren't treated with chemicals like some of the berries that you would buy in a grocery store, they got soft quicker than store bought ones. Since they were just soft and not rotten, I could still use them in a cooked recipe with no problem. I was reading my twitter feed list and found this great recipe from Gourmet magazine. It's basically like strawberry shortcake without all the work!

STRAWBERRY DUMPLING recipe from Ruth Cousineau at Gourmet Magazine

The dumpling after cooking.

1 qt strawberries, trimmed and thickly sliced (about 4 cups)
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup whole milk (I used 2% because that's all I had)


Accompaniment:
heavy cream (didn't have any, but I am sure that it would be divine)


Stir together strawberries and sugar in a 4-qt heavy saucepan and let stand, stirring occasionally, until juicy, about 15 minutes. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter using a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Stir in milk until just blended, then add mixture to boiling berries and stir once or twice. Tightly cover saucepan and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until dumpling looks dry on top, 15 to 18 minutes. Let stand off heat, uncovered, 5 minutes before serving.

Healthy Chicken Salad

Sorry for not posting much since I have been back. This week has been crazy, but it will finally calm down on Friday so I hope to get caught back up on everything! I am still in process of getting some posts up about our food in Spain and I am behind on some new recipes posts too. Hopefully soon life will be back to normal and I'll get my posts caught up. Life has been so crazy that I actually forgot that I had a cooking class last night and missed it! I didn't realize it till it was an hour after the class! Bummer!

I found this super easy and delicious (plus healthy) chicken salad recipe. I decided to put it in a croissant since we had some and it was so good that we had it two lunches in a row. There isn't any mayo like typical chicken salad, but it's a little bit like guacamole with chicken. The second day that I made it, I added some cucumbers and used a lemon instead of lime (since I didn't have a lime). I am sure that some red onion would be great and you can mess with the recipe, so that it fits your needs.

Avocado and Chicken Salad from Serious Eats

- serves 4 - Adapted from Cooking Light and Mrs. Micah

Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, filleted

Kosher salt and fresh black pepper

1 Hass avocado, chopped

1 large beefsteak or slicing tomato, seeded and chopped

1/2 bunch scallions, chopped

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 lime

Procedure
1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high. While oil is heating, salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Add chicken to pan and sear 4 or 5 minutes per side, until browned and just cooked through. Remove chicken from pan and let sit for 10 minutes.

2. While chicken is cooling, combine avocado, tomato, scallions, and cilantro in a bowl. Then cut the lime into approximate halves, with one slightly bigger than the other. Squeeze larger half over ingredients in bowl. Stir to combine.

3. Once fairly cooled, chop chicken into 1/2-inch chunks. Squeeze remaining lime over chunks and add to avocado mixture. Stir until combined. (Avocado should cover everything, but shouldn’t itself be annihilated.) Salt and pepper to taste.

Farmer's Market

I am finally back from my Spain trip and I have been CRAVING vegetables since I got back. The Spanish food was amazing, but it's hard to find vegetables at restaurants especially green ones (potatoes are very common). So yesterday's visit to the Co-op grocery store consisted of buying only vegetables and milk. Today's trip to the farmer's market resulted in buying tomatoes, leeks, radishes, green onions, spinach, salad mix, basil, thyme, eggs, shittake mushrooms and a piece of aged goat cheese from Landeria Farmstead (read their story here). The goat cheese cost $8.50 for a 4.5 oz piece, but I figured it wasn't much more than some of the foreign cheeses that I buy. It's not like the goat cheese that you would typically think of, but more like a Gouda. He also had a swiss goat cheese, but I am not a huge fan of swiss cheese.

I'll post some Spain pics soon. I will also be cooking a lot since I haven't done any in almost 2 weeks, so hopefully I'll have some recipes to post. Hope everyone has a great weekend!