Amy
Nikita Funny story: A couple of weekends ago, Matt and I were sitting the hot sun watching our son's soccer team lose during a tournament match. The older couple next to us begins to break out a GIGANTIC bowl of homemade salsa and a Sam's-Club-size bag of tortilla chips. That's when the epiphany occurred: We've been soccer parents going to matches every weekend for 9 years and never once thought to make it a watch party with snacks! Today, that all changed. Here is my GIGANTIC bowl of homemade salsa sitting on the sidelines of another soccer match, and all the other parents were j.e.a.l.o.u.s! It smelled so sweet and fresh. The recipe took 5 minutes to puree in the food processor. Depending on the spice of your jalapenos, you may need 2-3 in the recipe. Buy three - just in case. It's not like you can nibble on it in the store to try it out. LOL! Georgia .Who cares if tomatoes are not in season. Hot house tomatoes are just as yummy. For my tomato recipe I chopped up some chicken, green beans, cherry tomatoes and onion. Spread everything on a roasting pan, drizzled in some olive oil, course salt, cracked pepper and rosemary. I baked for about 30 minutes Roasted tomatoes are mmm mmm good! Jen My best creations are usually the ones without a recipe and using random stuff I already have. After coming back from our little spring break getaway, I had a few beefsteak tomatoes that were a bit too ripe to use in a salad or on a sandwich. I also had some mini sweet peppers that needed to be used. I decided to make…rice. First I boiled a large pot of water in preparation for the rice (2 bags of boil-in-a-bag type), but before adding the rice, I dropped the tomatoes in the water for a minute so they’d be easy to peel. Efficient. While the rice was cooking, I peeled and pureed the tomatoes. In a separate pot over medium-high heat, I cooked the tomato puree along with some minced garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. I chopped up the mini sweet peppers and threw them in toward the end. Once the rice was done, I mixed everything together, and added a bit of dried parsley also. Everyone in a my family really enjoyed it. It tasted great on its own, and excellent in a burrito with black beans and shredded jack cheese. And it’s great reheated too – pretty sure I can thank the tomatoes for that. 😊 If tomatoes are this yummy in the off season, just imagine how good they will be in season.
Until next week, Amy, Nikita, Georgia and Jen
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Jen
AmyLet's be honest. It has been a LONG ASS Winter. A smoothie sounded damn good to me. Not that sugary premade crap either. I wanted fresh ingredients chock full of vitamins and minerals. Who better to than our Doggfather Snoop D-O- Double G! Without further ado I give you.... Tha Smoovie Adapted from: From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes from Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen by Snoop Dogg Nikita OMyGosh, ya'll!!!!! I just found a DELICIOUS cherry smoothie recipe and easy to make with few ingredients. Do you have 5 mins to make this? We had this for dinner one evening because "the boys" weren't hungry. I ended up eating a box of mac n' cheese (YES the whole box) and one of these smoothies. The next morning, I couldn't wait to make myself another one. We drank these 3-4 times this week. Tip: I froze my 1/2 banana to make the smoothie thicker the second time. Frozen or not frozen, it's still delicious. GeorgiaI like smoothies so this was a fun challenge. I especially like it because smoothies are healthy (for the most part) and filling. My smoothie was so easy it doesn't require a button to click for the recipe. Greek yogurt (I put mine in the freezer for a few minutes to make sure it was COLD) Blueberries (fresh or frozen) Pineapple (fresh) Milk. Throw in a blender, whiz until smooth (wink wink, hence the name) I used frozen blueberries. Had I not I probably would've thrown in some ice. Add straw.. Call it good I had this one evening instead of dessert. Kicking off spring with some fresh, healthy smoothies.
Jen, Amy, Nikita and Georgia Georgia The joke behind grits is it stands for Girls Raised in the South Which would describe myself, Amy and Nikita. Food has a way of transporting us to another place and time. Bringing back memories of days gone by. Interestingly grits is one of those foods for me. Like mashed potatoes they are my comfort food. Grateful for the journey. Where I've been, where I am and where I will soon be. I made this casserole for our church breakfast. Substituted turkey sausage for the pork sausage. Jen Amy
NikitaI found a recipe for slow cooker short ribs over cheesy grits. COMFORT FOOD! The best part was the ease of this dish. It worked out well for a weekday meal where it seems to be difficult to find time in the evening to cook dinner and eat before 8pm. I prepped the short ribs by searing them in the morning and they cooked all day. The polenta came together in a matter of minutes and I through in mild cheddar cheese. Now you may say, "Nikita! The challenge was grits." Well yeah, yeah. It was grits, but polenta is just corn grits. Same idea and I already had a bag of it in my pantry. This recipe was a slam dunk in the Hays House! Like Amy, I also like a nice bowl of grits with butter, fresh cracked pepper and grated cheese. But grits are much more than that.
Sweet, savory or polenta ;) Until next week, Georgia, Jen, Amy and Nikita NikitaShoofly Pie started out as a cake (1876) in Philadelphia to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence but was transformed into a pie (1880s), so you can.....*get this* hold it with one hand and eat it alongside your coffee! No forks. No plates. Just like eating a piece of pizza pie! I also tend to eat my leftover pumpkin pie in the same fashion for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving. It allows me to still be mobile yet get all my sugar calories in at the start of my day. LOL! Now, my observations from this experience of making a dish from the 1800s are: 1. Boy, were they missing out on processed sugar! (It's not very sweet.) 2. Mixing the baking soda into the molasses/water mix took me back to grade school science class. (It fizzes.) 3. If you like gingerbread cookies, you'll like this pie. (I don't care for gingerbread cookies.) The real win from this experience was I made my first *EVER* pie crust from scratch and crimped the edges. The back story here is that store-bought pie crust is too easy to not use each time I make a pie, and I've failed miserably in times past when trying to create my own. The crust was always crumbly and would not roll out. So frustration got the best of me, and I have relied on the good ol' Pillsbury dough boy. BUT NOT TODAY! I. AM. SPARTACUS!!! Enjoy the pics and recipe! Georgia
JenJen's taking a pass this week. She's a busy wife and mother and that role always comes first. AmySo this was a fun challenge. Looking up and researching recipes tends to be a learning experience. Not just about the food but about history and culture etc. The recipe I chose is kind of cool. Well the dish itself isn't necessarily cool but the source, to me, was cool. Emily Dickinson, it turns was not only a poet but quite the baker. A good chunk of her papers are archived ( and digitized) at Amherst College. This includes several handwritten recipes ( https://lithub.com/now-you-too-can-bake-like-emily-dickinson-this-holiday-season/). The problem that I ran into was the lack of instructions. But it's mainly common sense tried and true methods. There are several food blogs that have made her recipes so a quick search will do the trick. We had a wintery few days here in Oklahoma (temps below zero- total bullshit) so that makes baking weather. I went with Emily's coconut cake. I altered it to be more diabetic friendly. This cake is a 1/2 mix so it's to be baked in a loaf pan. I chose to use my bubba cake pan so that I could use my wee cake stand. Cold weather, cake and coffee or tea. Emily Dickinson's Coconut Cake Emily was born on December 10, 1830 and died on May 15, 1886 in Amherst, Massachusetts. I find it interesting that Miss Dickinson made what is traditionally a southern cake. While attempts were made on my part to pin down the history of coconut cake I found these two articles that may pique your interest: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/11/07/501032393/make-america-bake-again-a-history-of-cake-in-the-u-s https://civilwartalk.com/threads/coconut-cake-pies.80559/ I chose Emily Dickinson's recipe for several reasons. I like coconut cakes, the recipe was from the 1800's and I like poetry. March is Women's History month And April is National Poetry Month Emily Dickinson was a magnificent poet and an all around rad woman who (apparently) was a hell of a baker. What a fun challenge this week. Exploring food from a different time.
Until next week, Nikita, Georgia, Jen and Amy Amy
Nikita Georgia I think we were challenged with pudding once before, however I had just moved to CA and was living in an extended stay so I made boxed pudding. A train wreck all the way around. This time, I'm settled back in NM and decided to make pudding. I found this somewhat easy recipe for peanut butter pudding. The flavor was delish.. The texture was creamy. The only negative was it was too thick. I think if I had mixed the whipped topping in it and served it more like a mousse it would've been better. I reckon I need to make it again and give that a try. Of course I watched a few episodes of Mary Berry Everyday (can be found on YouTube) and she served sweet and savory puddings at virtually every meal.. I have much to learn from her JenThis week I combined challenges from a bunch of different weeks…pudding, lemons, minis, and meringue. 😊 I made mini lemon meringue pies. The filling for lemon meringue pie is technically a pudding! So good!!
I used the same recipe I did before, but I cut the pie crust into flower shapes and put it in a muffin pan. 2 crusts = 24 pies. Filling and meringue from this recipe will fill all 24. |
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