Restaurant Salsa

As I've mentioned before, I am normally not a fan of spicy food. And I have a deep-seated hatred of tomatoes. So salsa is not my thing. But if Husband could eat one thing for the rest of his life, this would be it. We always have a tub of Rojo's Restaurant Style salsa (medium) in the fridge, and we are constantly buying more. My pocket book is going to thank me now that I found something I can make on my own. Since I refused to taste-test this salsa, I was more than a little nervous that it would be a complete and utter failure, but when I took it to my good friend Molly's Christmas party, everyone raved about it.

This salsa got the stamp of approval from Husband (which is very rare, trust me), many friends and even a cute 7-year old. It is a very well blended salsa, but if you like it chunkier, then don't blend it as much! The great thing about this recipe is you can alter it easily to fit your tastes, and it saves very, very well. Maybe someday I will warm up to it, but for now, I will trust my critics.


Restaurant Style Salsa
Adapted from Pioneer Woman

Prep: 10 minutes / "cook" time: 1 hour / Serves: Approx. 12, unless you're my husband, then 4

ingredients:
1 can (28 oz.) whole tomatoes with juice
2 cans (10 oz. each) Rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilies)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 whole jalapeno, quartered and sliced thin (seeded if you like a milder salsa)
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 cup cilantro (or more if you're into that sort of thing)
2 heaping teaspoons menudo mix (found with the mexican spices in your grocery store)
juice of half of a lime

directions:
put all ingredients in a large blender or food processor and pulse until it reaches the desired consistency (about 10 pulses). season to taste. cover and refridgerate for 45 minutes to an hour. this allows the flavors to mingle, get to know each other, and have delicious babies. (we noticed a substantial difference after letting it sit, so don't be hasty! the longer it sits, the better it will taste.)


* please note: this recipe yields a little more than 1.5 quarts. use a large blender or 12-cup food processor, or blend it in batches and mix together in a large bowl.

Soft Pretzels

Yeast. Yikes.

There is a tiny town in Alaska called Cooper Landing. It is gorgeous, and the people are the greatest - my grandma is one of them; my Nonna. I have been visiting Cooper Landing every summer of my childhood, from age five to eighteen. Now that I am an "adult" (I use this term loosely), I realize how much I took advantage of such a great opportunity. Every summer, Nonna would be volunteering, sewing, gardening, baking, and all the things grandmas do, and every summer she would ask me to help her bake bread. Let me put this into perspective: she gives her loaves of bread as gifts. And they love it.

Nonna is old school. And by old school, I mean she uses active dry yeast. This means she measures the yeast out of the jar, puts it in a glass of water that is just the right temperature, puts that glass into another glass - okay, I don't know exactly how she does it, but five year old me - okay, and let's face it, eighteen year old me - found it way too intimidating to follow. This is the only reason I have refused to learn how to make my Nonna's famous bread. But my yeast fears have now been conquered. As of Saturday, November 19th, I baked something that required yeast. Everyone, I would like to introduce you to my new best friend: instant yeast.

The difference between instant yeast and active dry yeast is that if you are incredibly lazy, scared, short on time, impatient, or all of the above, this beautiful little package is the answer to your bread-baking prayers. Last weekend, I went to my good friend Sophie's house, and she helped me conquer my yeasty fears! (Trust me, it's not as disgusting as it sounds.) We made these soft pretzels that were perfectly soft and doughy on the inside, with just the right texture on the outside. I found this recipe on Pinterest from the blog Homemade by Holman, which was originally found in Baking Illustrated. (I like to make other bloggers search for good recipes for me. I like to learn from their trials and tribulations.) In this case, I found that Mrs. Holman was correct in saying that the key to a good soft pretzel is the boiling step. It was very quick and easy to do, so don't try to be crafty and try to save time! Well... you can try, I suppose. Let me know how it turns out.

Two things I would like to point out. One - I have heard time and time again that using bread flour versus all purpose flour is worth it every time. So I bought some. Yeah! Two - as noted in the title, I was not a fan of the cheese sauce listed in the original recipe. It might look lovely (and it tasted pretty dang good), but once it started to cool, the cheese lumped up a bit and started looking funny. I would have preferred a creamier, nacho-cheese style dip. I will perfect it, because you can bet I will be making these again!

soft pretzels (with a jalepeno cheese sauce that i wasn't a fan of, so i'm not blogging about. just ignore it. it doesn't matter.)

dough:
1 package rapid-rise yeast
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour (16 1/2 ounces)
1 cup water, at approximately 110 degrees
Approximately 1 T olive oil

baking soda solution:
Approximately 6 cups water
3 T baking soda
Salt for sprinkling on pretzels

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine all ingredients for the dough (again, make sure you are using instant yeast!).  Mix on low speed until combined and then continue to knead in your mixer for about 5-7 minutes on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Prepare a separate bowl by coating it with olive oil. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat evenly.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for about one hour or until doubled in size. (Sophie taught me how to create a warm place during the icy fall evenings when your apartment is never warm enough: boil water in your microwave. When it has boiled, make room for your bowl of dough. Close both the bowl of water and dough in the microwave together - they will become great friends.)  Punch dough down, recover and let rise approximately 30 minutes more.

In a large low pan (a 12" skillet with deep sides or a small dutch oven will work perfectly) bring water and baking soda to a boil over medium high heat.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (P.S. Wax paper is not the same as parchment paper. I'm learning. The hard way. Learn from my mistakes, no matter how silly they are.)

Separate dough into 12 approximately 2 ounce pieces.  Roll each piece into a long string, about 20 inches in length.  Fold pretzels into shape, twisting the ends over each other and pressing lightly to seal dough into shape. (And then don't worry too much if they aren't perfectly pretzel shaped. They still taste wonderful!) Transfer pretzels, a few at a time to boiling water, cook 30 seconds on each side, turning with a slotted spoon, drain and transfer to prepared baking pan.  Sprinkle with coarse salt and repeat until all the pretzels have been boiled.  They don't need much room on the baking sheet as they won't spread much in the oven.  Bake approximately 12-14 minutes until dark golden brown.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool and serve. Now marvel at the fact that you just made some professional tasting soft pretzels. Yeah!

Triple-Chocolate Cookies

Some nights, my idea of a classy meal is Velveeta macaroni and cheese with McCormick's cajun seasoning and Siracha. You all shouldn't go without my riveting expertise just because I am in the mood for easy comfort food and hibernation. So I put some sweatpants on (the wonderful elastic band sort), cuddled up with my spicy mac and warm puppy, and cracked open The Book.
I went directly to my favorite section (Cookies and Bars, naturally), and immediately saw a deliciously decadent chocolate cookie that I made for my wedding favors. Although I was initially intimidated by the chocolate drizzle, this cookie was only slightly more difficult than a traditional chocolate chip. This is a cookie you have to chase with a large, icy glass of milk. Just looking at the photo makes me want to warm up the oven.

Triple-Chocolate Cookies
Prep: 40 mins / Stand: 20 mins / Bake: 9 mins per batch / Cool: 10 mins
Makes about 60 cookies
Ingredients:
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted (either toast them yourself, or take the easy way out like I did and buy them that way)
1 recipe Chocolate Drizzle
Directions:
In a 2-quart saucepan combine chocolates and butter. Heat and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. (Remember that chocolate often keeps its shape while melting, so stir frequently to avoid burning.) Remove from heat. Let cool for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine sugars and eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until color lightens slightly. Beat in melted chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture; beat until combined. Stir in pecans. Cover surface of cookie dough with plastic wrap. (Dough will be the consistency of cake batter now, but will thicken to a scoopable dough upon standing.) Let stand for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake about 9 minutes or just until tops are set. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Spoon Chocolate Drizzle over cookies.
Chocolate Drizzle
In a small saucepan heat and stir 1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces with 4 teaspoons shortening over low heat until melted and smooth. (For easy clean up, place the cooling rack over parchment or waxed paper. To drizzle, dip a spoon into the melted chocolate and move it over the cookies as it streams off the spoon.)

Making whoopee...

...pies. What else would I blog about? Fall hit me full in the mouth with my first sip of a Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte two weeks ago. Ever since that glorious moment, I have been itching to get into the kitchen and start baking.


I have always been a big fan of baking. It is simple chemistry - two plus two equals four, and if you follow the recipe, you get chocolate chip cookies. I find it easier to bake than cook, probably because I am not fond of going off script. So when I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Whoopee Pies (which is something I have never done before), I was apprehensive to try it, but confident it would turn out just fine. 


Husband left us Wednesday evening for Guys Night, so it was just me and Pup home alone. I found this was the perfect time to bake and catch up on girl shows (I couldn't convince him to watch Hart of Dixie with me, surprising as that may seem).

Here is the line up - 

For the pies:

• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup splenda (or white sugar - you bet your britches I don't own Splenda)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 - 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 - 16 oz. package of powdered sugar
• About a capful (which I took to mean about 2 tsp) of vanilla extract
• Cinnamon, to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Beat together brown sugar, white sugar, oil, and pumpkin.


[Boy, was I excited to open this can of pumpkin! I was ready for that spicy fall scent to fill my head with warm thoughts. I hastily pull the lid off, sniff the delicious orange contents and - EW! WHAT THE HECK. This smells AWFUL! It smells like - pumpkin. Oh. After adding my spices, I had my desired effect, but. Pre-spice pumpkin is not delicious.]

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, followed by the vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just combined.

Using a pastry bag with a round tip, or a big ziplock bag with one corner snipped (I used a ziplock - it worked wonderfully and I got to throw it all away afterwards! My favorite kind of clean-up.), squeeze out spiraled circles of batter, starting from the middle and working outward until the circles are about 2 inches in diameter. (The original recipe does not say whether or not the cookie sheets should be greased, but I sprayed a bit of Pam on mine for good measure.)

[They look like spiraled snail shells. I omitted the picture for your sake. It looked like a certain unsavory pile that you don't want to think about while cooking. One tip that I read online that I thought was helpful was that this type of batter, unlike cookies, doesn't spread outwards, it only rises. From the picture, it also looks like I probably mixed my batter too much compared to the Dreamy Desserts blog, but they still turned out great.]

Bake for 11 minutes and cool on a rack. [Pup is so patient!]

Beat together cream cheese and butter for the filling. Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Frost flat side of half of the pies and top with another piece. Enjoy right away, or chill overnight. 




After making the filling, I was a little concerned with how sweet it was. I had never had a whoopee pie before, and I expected a light, whipped sort of filling. I researched some of my favorite food blogs to see if there was a different filling recipe they recommended, but a cream cheese based filling is common. In the end, I stuck with the recipe, but filled the pies sparsely. I piled my pies in a large Tupperware and took them to work the next day. They were a huge hit! With a big glass of milk, they turned out to be a wonderful fall treat. They are decadent, but don't leave you feeling heavy. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Okay, let me be honest with you guys. We're all friends here. I started this blog because I have no patience, and am very hard on myself. If I fail at something, especially in the kitchen, I regress to four-year-old Brigitt... and my mother is the only one who thinks she is cute. I stomp and yell, and demand candy, dang it, I deserve it! This blog is helping me become more responsible. I feel that I have to at least try. For you. My millions of fans.

This is the delicious dinner I made myself and Husband tonight! It was remarkable. And I ate it all. Feel free to judge me - you would have second thoughts if you tried it.


Now let me start by saying this is not a Parisian four star dish. But when you eat nothing but Hot Pockets and spaghetti for a year straight, this is the Holy Grail. The Holy Rib Grail. For some reason, I have been on a spicy kick! These ribs were H-O-T. (But if you ask Husband, he would say they were closer to a two on the Mild to Face Melting Scale. I am a weeny.) I got this recipe from The Book! After much deliberation on what side dish to serve with this barbecued goodness, I decided on a baked potato recipe  from Kristin at Iowa Girl Eats that didn't require an hour of alone time with my oven. The result was a party in my mouth - a delicious sweet and spicy barbecue plate that made me throw all my freezer dinners out the window.


Oven-Barbecued Ribs, Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (15th ed.)
Prep: 25 minutes / Bake: 90 minutes / Makes: 4 servings


Ingredients: 

• 3 to 4 pounds pork lion back ribs
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (The more, the spicier! I used 1/2 tsp.)
• 1 cup finely chopped onion (I found that this was too much onion for my taste. I used about 1/2 cup.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. If desired, cut ribs into serving-size pieces. Place the ribs, bone sides down, in a large shallow roasting pan. Bake, covered, for 60 minutes. Carefully drain off fat in roasting pan.
2. Meanwhile, for sauce, in a medium bowl combine all other ingredients, except onion. Mix well, then stir in onion. Pour sauce over ribs. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes more or until ribs are tender, basting once with sauce. Pass sauce with ribs.