Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Baking cookies is one of my favorite, and most relaxing, activities. Ever since I was little, I've loved it! Fortunately, I've surrounded myself with people who like to eat cookies. I like normal cookies; I'm not really into the fancy ones with lots of fancy ingredients, crazy steps, rolling, refrigerating, etc.

The recipe I made this weekend is from the More With Less cookbook. It's not complicated, uses normal ingredients, and is really, really tasty!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream together:

• 1 cup shortening (recipe says you may use half margarine & half lard, but I'll be honest, I've never cooked with lard. It seems scary & potentially high in cholesterol.)
• 1/4 c peanut butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla

Add:

• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1 t soda
• 1/2 t salt (I left it out since I used butter flavored shortening)
• 2 c rolled oats
• 1-2 c chocolate chips

Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet (I didn't grease mine. They turned out fine.) Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.

Makes 6-8 dozen. I halved the recipe since I am not baking for a large family, Canadian lumberjacks, or Kenyan runners.

Crockpot Beer Chicken

It all started several weeks ago when my boyfriend Nolan & I went grocery shopping and noticed packages of sweet rub chicken drums & thighs for $.99 a pound. Since that's a pretty good price for chicken, we bought three pounds. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it, but eventually decided to toss it in my crockpot with a random can of American Light beer I had in my fridge.

That's the recipe. Put some chicken in a crockpot with beer & cook it on low for 10-12 hours. It's delicious. Straight out of the crockpot, it's like butter. It falls off the bone, it's all drippy & tender, yeah...

And when chicken is on sale, you can't beat cooking $3 worth of chicken with a 50 cent can of beer for multiple chicken servings. Yep, when chicken is cheap, you can't beat the price.

Speaking cheap chicken, over the next week, Nolan decided this was an excellent price for chicken and bought nine more 3 lbs packs. 10 packs X 3 lbs each = 30 lbs of chicken. We've had a lot of crockpot beer chicken lately. This is okay, because it's seriously good and very versatile. We've had wraps, enchiladas, tortilla soup, and chicken & bean soup just to name a few.

It lends well to theme and variations.

Theme- a tortilla, chicken, some lettuce/spinach/sprouts/green stuff

Variation #1- mix together some ranch dressing & hot sauce like Frank's, add to the wrap, and BOOM you have a buffalo chicken wrap

Variation #2- add Asian peanut sauce and BOOM you have an Asian chicken wrap

Variation #3- add bacon & ranch and BOOM you have a bacon-ranch chicken wrap

Variation #4- put some salsa on it and BOOM you have a Mexi-chicken wrap

Variation #5- add saurkraut & swiss cheese and BOOM you have something that might resemble a Reuben wrap (I had this for dinner tonight & it was great)

Variation #6- add hummus and BOOM you have a Mediterranean wrap. If you're super fancy, add some kalamata olives.

Variation #7- soak with ketchup and BOOM you have a Mrs. Pig's Bulk Buy wrap

Variation #8- substitute bread for the tortilla, bacon for the chicken, and use lettuce & tomato and BOOM you have a BLT. Except that's not crockpot beer chicken.

Variation #9- add mozzarella cheese & marinara sauce, make it all melty in the microwave and BOOM you have an Italian chicken wrap

Variation #10- put some other kind of amazing salad dressing on it and BOOM you have something more interesting than chicken in a tortilla

Other random tip- I've been using crockpot liners lately for easy cleanup. Once the chicken is cooked, I separate the chicken from the bones, strain the liquid left in the liner, put the bones/skin back in the bag & pitch the whole thing. Very easy.

Any other variation ideas?

Frickin Good Chicken

We already had a family recipe called “Mmm Good Chicken” so I had to name this something else.  The primary flavor contributor is hot sauce, so caution: it’s spicy.

Ingredients (measurements left up to your own inspiration)

Chicken breasts (I cut mine into strips)
Sriracha Hot Sauce
Olive Oil
Ginger (powdered or for real)

Mix the Sriracha, oil, & ginger in a glass container or a plastic bag.  Add chicken and stir to completely coat.  Marinate for 30+ minutes.  Fire up the grill (George Foreman!!!!)  and cook until done.  The original recipe suggests serving on hummus but I used refried black beans & it was quite good.  

It was also seriously good on some leafy greens with ranch dressing.

Sweeto Fritos

If you want to cut to the chase, here's the original recipe I made from New Nostalgia for my book club tonight. Amy calls them Salty Sweet Peanut Butter Caramel Funky Fritos, but that was too many syllables for me, hence Sweeto Fritos. The recipe has four ingredients (yay), is simple (awesome), and is seriously delicious (WIN)! My book club enjoyed them very much.

Sweeto Fritos

Spread 1 bag Fritos around a cookie sheet or 9 x 13 pan or something. Combine 1 cup white sugar & 1 cup corn syrup in a sauce pan or microwave safe bowl. Heat with your preferred method until boiling. Add 1 cup peanut butter. Pour mixture over Fritos. Sprinkle with M&M's or candy corn if you want. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Note- the saucy stuff tastes better after it's been refrigerated, so don't attempt to adjust it by taste right after making it.

And here's the rambling backstory.

I have 3 roommates. There's a lot of randomness that happens. Mostly, the randomness is really fun & good (spur of the moment croquet, meeting lots of new people, etc.), but occasionally it forces flexibility.

Our fridge door was cracked open for the better part of yesterday. If you've never left a fridge door slightly cracked before, here's what happens. The fridge works itself into a frenzy trying to keep the fridge cold but can never keep up. To make this worse, the light bulb in the fridge stays on & ends up heating up the fridge. Yes, the heat from the bulb was so intense, it melted a stick of butter. Thus today, I had to throw out all my food in the fridge.

I hate throwing away food. My consolation was that I got to keep the nectarines, beer, & Sriracha hot sauce. Not a great set-up for concocting a potluck dish for book club though.

However, a similar fridge situation happened last fall, and I learned my lesson! Only stockpile non-perishables. Thus with non-perishables on-hand, Sweeto Fritos were perfect!

Cooking for 1: Mexi Mash

Most of the time, I eat rather unglamorous food. I don't like spending a lot of time cooking if I'm the only eater, so if it's just me, I tend to just throw together stuff in my fridge. Mexi Mash is one of my favorites since it's basically embracing the concept, "Here, let me just fancy up some basic food with SALSA!!!"

Random tangent: I come from a long line of salsa users. My great-grandmother used to pack a jar of Pace in the crocheted basket on her walker whenever she went down to meals at her retirement home. She passed down her love of the zesty.

Back to Mexi Mash.

Combine several of the following ingredients in a bowl. Top with cheese or salsa or whatever (here's a recipe for homemade salsa). Heat & eat.

Rice (my fav: microwaveable brown rice)
Beans (my fav: refried black beans)
Ground meat (for fancier, make it with taco seasoning)
Scrambled Eggs
Potatoes
Leftover veggies

Thai Shrimp Noodles

So I never quite got around to finishing up the amazing cuisine of my DFW trip a few weekends ago. On our last night together, my sister cooked Thai Shrimp Noodles. As some delicious recipes go, there was indeed no "recipe" so here's her approximations.


Flex the quantities as necessary-

Shrimp marinade:

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. chili/garlic sauce

Sauce:

3 Tbs. peanut butter

Juice of 1 lime

1 Tbs chili/garlic sauce (spicy!)

1/3 c. soy sauce

Other Ingredients:
1 pkg Thai rice noodles
enough peeled shrimp to feed your group
1 pkg broccoli slaw
1/2 or 1 sliced onion (depending on taste)

-boil Thai rice noodles

-saute shrimp until pink, remove to another dish

-saute 1/2 pkg. broccoli slaw and sliced onion in 2 Tbs. vegetable oil until tender

-add cooked noodles to skillet

-pour sauce over noodles and vegetables and stir until evenly coated

-taste and adjust as desired

-put shrimp on a serving of noodles, garnish with chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice

It's quite delicious!

Spring Green Risotto & Herbed Flatbread

Last night, my brother cooked. He normally does some kind of grilled meat amazingness, but yesterday, he surprised us by going with the vegetarian amazingness that is Spring Green Risotto. He used a bit more leek than the recipe called for and made the risotto how he normally does (?), but otherwise followed the recipe. Here it is in process (and my brother's DSLR camera takes WAY better food pics than my point-&-shoot at home)-


It's a lovely dish, both to look at and to eat!

Paired with some Chicken Wine (technically Rex-Goliath Chardonnay), it makes a delightful dish celebrating spring vegetables.

My brother also was inspired by the Potager Cafe to try some herbed flatbread. He found a recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. At a later date, I'll probably try baking it like the recipe I found for homemade wheat thins to try a crispier texture (a recipe I thought I blogged but didn't, it's added to the list).

For dessert, I made my favorite food, chocolate chip cookies. I cheated. They were from a Betty Crocker mix. They are quite tasty.

Tortilla Soup

From "The Ghost & Mr. Chicken"- (picture awkward guy talking to bombshell girl...)

Luther: "I just love good food."
Alma: "So do I."
Luther: "Do you?"
Alma: "Uh huh."
Luther: "You know, you & I are a lot alike."
Alma: "Oh?"
Luther: "My mother liked good food. She always used to say, 'I'd rather eat good food than bad food any ol' day of the week.'"

I like good food too. For the weekend family get-together in the DFW area, my siblings & I are each taking a night to cook dinner. Last night, I decided to make one of my favorite meals, tortilla soup & apple crisp. Over twenty years ago, my grandma started the quest to find the perfect tortilla soup & ever since, my family has tried bowl after bowl & recipe after recipe in our search. I found this recipe last fall & have made it several times. It's really pretty good. I don't know if it's the "perfect" recipe, but it's very easy (if you can wield a can opener, you can make it) & quite tasty.

Check out the link for the recipe. I add at least a teaspoon of cumin & a whole can of both corn & hominy since I don't really have a venue for leftovers of those. Last night, we topped ours with cilantro, avocado, tortilla chips, & cheese.




And my brother made some delicious salsa, using (basically) the same recipe I use.



As for the apple crisp, I forgot grandma's recipe at home (SAD! I'll post that one later), and the replacement recipe I found for the topping just wasn't the best ever. Oh well!

Side conversation on the subject of hominy-

My sister- "So what is hominy?"
Me- "I think it's some kind of corn product? But then they do something to it."
My brother consulting his smart phone- "Kernels of corn that have been soaked in a caustic solution as of lye..."
Me- "Lye??? That's probably all I need to know."
My brother- "I guess they also use it in lutefisk, green olives, and pretzels. And look, it can do this to your skin!" (caution, don't open link unless you really want to see what lye can do to your skin, it's NOT pretty!)

I love brothers. :)

Cooking for 1: Use Your Friends / Relatives

Just because I am only 1, doesn't mean I always have to cook for 1. Last month, Simply Recipes published a recipe for African Chicken Peanut Stew. It looked so good, but it makes 6-8 servings. My family has long joked that 6-8 servings means 6-8 hungry lumberjacks, & I figured that for this recipe, it meant 6-8 African marathon runners.

So I invited myself over to my parent's house for dinner on MLK day & said I'd cook. It worked out quite well, & the stew is quite tasty! However, not only does this recipe make a lot of food, it also takes quite a bit of time for chopping & simmering, not a good combination for living single (unless you're a single with lots and lots of time on your hands). So sometimes, it's better to share. It's also nice to have some company during dinner.

For a picture, check out the link above.

Recipe tweaks-

I don't do raw chicken, so I used the meat from one rotisserie chicken instead of the chicken thighs. I threw a few of the chicken bones into the pot & simmered it for an hour & it turned out beautifully.

Cooking for 1: Curried Red Lentil Soup

Nothing like a ridiculous Midwestern snowstorm to start a soup craving! However, soup for one is a bit difficult. Making a pot from scratch usually has about 8 servings & I don't have enough room in my freezer to hold extras. Canned soup is one serving, but doesn't have enough calories to keep me going through the day.

Then last weekend in the health food aisle at my local grocery store, I found a carton of Pacific Natural Curried Red Lentil soup. Although still light on the calories, I figured it'd be easy enough to add a protein & side items to fill it out. Plus, lentils have fiber!

The first evening, I cooked up a tilapia fillet with olive oil, salt, & pepper, put it in a bowl, & poured my soup over it. Deliciousness in less than 15 minutes! Ok, I actually cooked up two fillets & had the same combo for lunch the next day.

Since I still had some soup leftover, I got some chicken poppers from the local convenience store (baked not fried!) & enjoyed those with my soup for two more lunches. And now it's all gone.

I'm excited to try more flavors of soup this brand has!

Cooking for 1: 20 Tortillas

Cooking for one is neither fun nor economical.

The last few months of food preparation have been difficult since I have very limited refrigerator/freezer space (4 girls, 1 fridge) & don't want to spend lots of time cooking. Typically, I have a few goals for meal planning.

• Have a food variety
• Stay economical
• Don't waste food

In the next few months, I'll be randomly exploring various ways to accomplish ways to successfully cook for one.

About a month ago, I was seriously craving burritos, so I bought a package of tortillas. Without thinking, I picked up a package of 20 tortillas. Heh, not the best idea ever. I have learned many ways to use tortillas. Also, freezing tortillas works well but remember to pre-separate them before putting them in a freezer bag.

Burritos

Tortillas

Optional Fillings
Refried beans, ground meat flavored with taco seasoning, leftover veggies, whatever else might be in the fridge that would taste good in a burrito

As needed, dump ingredients in a tortilla & warm up in the microwave. Top with salsa!

Fake-adillas (cause I don't eat cheese)

Tortillas

Optional Fillings
Refried beans, lunch meat, leftover veggies

Make it like a quesadilla. Top with salsa!

Chicken Wrap

Tortillas
Pre-cooked chicken
Small portion of sprouts, carrots, whatever veggies from the grocery store salad bar
Ranch dressing

Microwave the chicken & tortilla if you want. Add veggies & ranch.

Thai Chicken Wraps

Tortillas
Pre-cooked chicken
Veggies from the salad bar
Peanut sauce
Sriracha!

Peanut sauce- In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons cooking out, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, & ginger if you like it. Heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently. (it's seriously good)

Assemble like a wrap.

Tortilla Dessert

Spread butter/margarine on a tortilla. Sprinkle on white sugar or Dutch chocolate sprinkles, roll up & enjoy.

Any other good ways to use tortillas?

Scottish Shortbread Fans

Last week, my mom and I went to a class at the local health food store called "Fabulous Holiday Cookies." Not only did we get to try eight fabulous holiday cookies, we also got the recipes! Some of the cookies I'm a bit scared of since the Chef warned us, "There's one minute difference between undercooked & burned!" but this recipe I knew I could at least attempt.

I have always liked shortbread. I decided I liked it even more when I found out there are only THREE ingredients. This recipe was originally called 2-4-6 Shortbread since it's an easy way to remember the ingredient measurements.

• 2 oz sugar
• 4 oz butter
• 6 oz flour

In normal-people measurements-

• 1/4 cup plus 1/2 T sugar
• 1 stick butter (if unsalted, add a very small pinch of salt)
• 1 1/2 loose cups flour

Cream butter and sugar just enough to smooth out. Using your hands or the paddle attachment on your mixer, work in the flour (and optional salt) until the dough just holds together when squeezed.


In an ungreased 8-inch cake pan, press the dough into a firm, even layer.


Use the tines of a fork to press 1/2 inch lines radiating like the rays of the sun all around the edge of the dough. Score the dough into 12 or 16 wedges and prick each wedge with a fork, pricking all the way through the dough. (I started getting a little nervous at this stage since my dough started flaking a bit. I kept on packing it back down & that seemed to work. It still turned out ok!)



Bake in a preheated 275F oven until set & beginning to turn a light golden color- about 50-60 minutes. Cool the cookies in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully tap the "cake" out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the wedges along the markings while still warm (that's very important).


Cool completely, store in airtight container. Both the dough & cookies freeze well. Or eat them!

Back to Scratch- French Toast

Last January, I blogged about the Eat From Your Pantry concept. It's amazing how quickly I forgot about that, remembered it about a month before I moved in August, then forgot all about it again.

A few weeks ago, my new house was without electricity for about a day. Yep, just long enough to make me really nervous about anything that had been opened in the fridge. It was quite frustrating to have to go through the fridge & have to throw away food. I LIKE food. But I had also spent the previous few days eating out & it brought to mind the concept, "Eat the food you already own!"

So in an effort to eat up what I already own (and inspired by my nanny experience), I made French toast for dinner tonight. Not just any French toast, this is the seriously good stuff. My mom enlightened me to the secret of seriously good French toast a few years ago. Handing me some leftover crusty bread, she instructed me, "It makes the best French toast. Or freeze it, then make French toast." Yes, crusty bread, baguettes, French bread or Italian bread make the BEST French toast. Wonderbread only makes OK French toast.

Most people know French toast, but just in case, here are the basics-

Heat a frying pan to medium heat and when hot, add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil. In a shallow bottomed bowl, beat up a few eggs with a fork. If you feel very fancy, add a few shakes of cinnamon to the egg mix. Some people also add milk. Drop a slice of bread into the egg mix and completely coat both sides. (I had some baguette slices in my freezer I defrosted)

Once fully coated, put the bread in the pan & cook one side until it's a nice tan/brown color, then flip & cook the other side the same. Repeat until all the bread or all the eggs are used up. Eat with syrup, fruit, whipped topping or all of the above.


PS-It's simple tasks like making French toast that are bringing my mind back to sanity after having a series of stressful months. I guess I chose to incorporate the recent stresses into my life instead of letting them control my decisions. I don't think it's just coincidence that I keep coming back to simplicity for sanity.

Back to Scratch- Taco Seasoning

I was reminiscing the other day about the summer I spent as a nanny. One of the first days on the job, I checked around the fridge & pantry for breakfast options then asked the kids (ages 8 & 10) what they wanted and gave examples such as cereal, toast or french toast. They replied, "We don't have any french toast."

"I saw you had bread and eggs, but you don't have any french toast?"

"Nope, we ran out." They had only tasted french toast that came out of a frozen package. So I made them real french toast. I made a lot of french toast that summer.

And it got me thinking. What do I get pre-packaged that could be made using simple ingredients I already have? First idea- taco seasoning! I knew it could be done since I'd seen my mom do it before, but in college I took the path of El Paso. A simple Google search yielded like 240,000 results but the first one I tried, I liked & have made 4-5 times, so here it is.

The recipe didn't specify the quantity of meat, it seems to work for 1-1.5 lbs of ground meat. It's flavorful & a bit spicy, but to me that's tasty!

Taco Seasoning
1 T chili powder
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1/4 t crushed red pepper
1/4 t dried oregano or Italian mix
1/2 t paprika
1 1/2 t cumin
1 t sea salt (or normal salt)
1 t black pepper

I dump all the ingredients in a small plastic Rubbermaid-esque container then seal & shake to mix. After browning the meat, add the mix & 1/4 to 1/3 cup water. Stir up & simmer 5-10 minutes.

Kuchen Party!

My great-grandma Rose left a legacy of family togetherness, excellent cooking, & fun. Today, fifteen or so of her descendants ages 16-86 celebrated her memory by gathering to learn to make (or just eat) one of her German specialties, kuchen (pronunciation guide: coo'-kin). Although kuchen in German just means "cake," this particular kuchen is like a fruit bierock, fruit filling inside a bread roll.

I will get my FAIL out of the way first. I was planning on including the recipe in this entry (hehe, the BIG BATCH recipe that makes 120 kuchen), however, I am moving in two weeks and boxed up my cookbooks to be temporarily stored in my parent's basement. So, the recipe will come when I rediscover my cookbooks or can borrow another copy. Instead, here are the pictures and a recap of the day.

Getting together with extended family is a blast, especially when food is involved! My great-aunt was in charge of teaching us how to do kuchen the "Rose" way. The morning began with a flurry of activity to get the fruit, dough, and topping ready.

The wet ingredients:
The yeast mix:
One of the fruit offerings, peaches (we also had cherries & blueberries):
The topping:
The only bowl big enough to hold the dough for rising:
The dough has risen indeed:
Getting ready to make the kuchen:
Flatten the dough and place fruit into the center:
Pinch the edges together so all the fruit is enclosed:
Ta-da! A kuchen is born!
Yep, we made 125ish kuchen today:
Put the yummy topping on & then bake:
Done!

And because I left my blog up accidentally, here is the final review as guesstimated by one of my kuchen eaters (and also the writer of this blog):

"I anxiously awaited diving in to my creation as they came out of the oven; however, before we could enjoy our spoils, we had to return home. The entire ride back, all I could think about was the delicious treats sitting in the trunk. I could envision the explosion of flavors bursting out of the dough and tickling my taste buds. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I sat down with my roommates and opened up the container. The smell took me back to the enjoyment I experienced earlier in the day and brought a smile to my face. We tore into the kuchen with reckless abandon. Before I knew it, half the container was crumbs. We had had our fill and enjoyed every flavor of kuchen available. We all walked away, satisfied with this wonderful creation known as kuchen. Another reason to smile (and big WIN- I still have half the container to get me through the remainder of the week.)"

Yeah, it was pretty tasty. :)

Homemade Salsa

I love homemade salsa. It's one of those things that just makes me happy. I'm not sure where this "recipe" came from exactly, but I know both my mom & sister do something similar.

Salsa should taste the way you want it to taste, so this set of ingredient guidelines is intended to be tweaked, retweaked, tasted & adjusted. Some people like to use fresh tomatoes (de-seeded), but for me using canned is easier.

• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/3 to 1/2 onion (1/2 if you like the onion-y flavor of Carlos O'Kelly's salsa)
• 1/4 to 1 jalapeno, de-seeded unless you want a huge kick
• 1-2 gloves garlic
• cilantro to taste (I use about 1/2 a bunch)
  
• lime juice to taste
  
• salt to taste

Easy way: If you're not a huge fan of chopping everything into little bits, put everything together in a food processor & process until everything is chopped up & it looks like salsa.

Hard way or if you want chunky salsa: Chop everything up yourself.

Taste, adjust flavors & enjoy!

Here's my work in progress. Ok, I actually just wanted to show off my red food processor.


And the final product. It's really tasty!

Jicama Salad

Jicama (un-phonetic pronunciation guide: "hick'-ih-muh") - also known as a Mexican potato. It's a root, it has really tough skin & most importantly, it's tasty! For more scientific info, see wikipedia.

My first encounter with jicama was an article in the city newspaper describing the food and some of the uses. Generally, this sort of thing would have been easily forgotten, but a local stripper/blogger commented that she LOVES jicama and that stuck in my memory a bit more. A few weeks ago, I was at the natural food store and saw they had jicama salad, so I decided to give it a try. It was really good! My mom also tried the salad (she knew about jicama before a stripper helped her remember it), then emailed me a recipe she found so I could try making it at home.

This recipe pairs EXTREMELY well with Brazilian Fish Stew since both recipes call for 1/2 of a few peppers & cilantro. Last night when I made this though, I paired it with spicy turkey brats and thorough enjoyed the contrast of the spicy meat with the sweet, tangy & crunchy highlights of the salad.

A few personal notes-

• You can find jicama at a normal grocery store. I found mine by the ginger & peppers. Strangely, it took me less time to find a jicama than to find lime juice. Point to remember after wasting 10 minutes randomly wandering around: lime juice is in the juice aisle. (heh, duh)
• Be sure to have a good knife in hand! A normal peeler may or may not work on a jicama. I cut mine in half, then peeled the skin off with my knife. It's a tough little bugger. I opted to shred the flesh instead of cubing it.
  
• I LOVE all the colors!
  
  
• I decided to splurge & buy an ORGANIC cucumber. I felt really good about myself & saving the earth, until I had to get that stupid "organic" sticker off. After wasting 10 minutes randomly picking at it, I decided to just peel the cucumber.

So here's the recipe-

1 large jicama (about 1 ½ pounds) peeled, then julienned or cubed
½ red bell pepper, finely diced
½ yellow bell pepper, finely diced
½ green bell pepper, finely diced (I used an orange one instead)
½ C chopped red onion
½ a large cucumber – peeled, seeded, chopped (Mom note: or use an English cucumber to avoid peeling and seeding, and to provide some green color)
1 navel orange – peeled, sliced and chopped into chunks
1/2 C fresh cilantro, chopped
1/3 C fresh lime juice
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of paprika
Salt

Toss together the jicama, peppers, onion, cucumber, orange and cilantro in large bowl. Pour lime juice over all. Sprinkle with pinch of cayenne and paprika, and stir. Season with salt (Mom note: under season and taste in 30 minutes). Let sit for 30-60 minutes before serving so flavors will meld.

Supposedly this serves 4. Seems more like 8.

Optional ingredients:
½ avocado, chopped
2 T olive oil

Brazilian Fish Stew

I tried this recipe out for my mom last weekend and it's definitely a have-again! I got the recipe here from simplyrecipes.com. You should check out that recipe since they have pictures plus a recipe for rice (which I didn't make). This recipe is a bit more complicated than most of my cooking ventures, but it's quite tasty especially with crusty bread! Here's what I did (basically taken straight from simplyrecipes.com)...

• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs of fillets of firm white fish such as halibut, swordfish, or cod, rinsed in cold water, pin bones removed, cut into large portions (I used about a pound of tilapia & the stew still tasted great!)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 cup chopped spring onion, or 1 medium yellow onion, chopped or sliced
• 1/4 cup green onion greens, chopped
• 1/2 yellow and 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, de-stemmed, chopped (or sliced)
• 2 cups chopped (or sliced) tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp paprika (Hungarian sweet)
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 large bunch of cilantro, chopped with some set aside for garnish ("1 large bunch" is an undefined unit of measurement, so I decided that meant "whatever")
  
• 1 14-ounce can coconut milk (I used the low-fat kind)

Place fish pieces in a bowl, add the minced garlic and lime juice so that the pieces are well coated. Sprinkle generously all over with salt and pepper. Keep chilled while preparing the rest of the soup.

In a large covered pan (such as a Dutch oven), coat the bottom with about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and heat on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook a few minutes until softened. Add the bell pepper, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. (At least a teaspoon of salt.) Cook for a few minutes longer, until the bell pepper begins to soften. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and onion greens. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, uncovered. Stir in the chopped cilantro.

Use a large spoon to remove about half of the vegetables (you'll put them right back in). Spread the remaining vegetables over the bottom of the pan to create a bed for the fish. Arrange the fish pieces on the vegetables. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then add back the previously removed vegetables, covering the fish. Pour coconut milk over the fish and vegetables.

Bring soup to a simmer, reduce the heat, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. You may need to add more salt (likely), lime or lemon juice, paprika, pepper, or chili flakes to get the soup to the desired seasoning for your taste.

Garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice or with crusty bread.

Serves 4.

Make In The Microwave: Baked Potato Soup

I tried this recipe with low expectations, but it turned out quite tasty! Here's the full recipe at kraftfoods.com. (note: I always adjust these recipes since I'm lactose intolerant)

2 baking potatoes cubed
1 can chicken broth (I used some leftovers of chicken broth I made for chicken verde soup)
1 cup milk (I used soy milk. And vanilla soy milk at that!)

And please note the rooster-shaped napkin holder in the background that once belonged to my great-grandmother Mabel. Great woman & great napkin holder!

Stuff for toppings like:
Chives
Bacon bits
Cheese
Sour Cream

Put cubed potatoes in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 5 minutes, stirring after 2 1/2 minutes. Add broth & milk. Microwave for 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes. Try mashing up the potatoes with a potato masher (I tried a spoon since I've never had need of a potato masher before) and if they don't mash well, microwave it for 3-5 more minutes until the potatoes mash like you want them to mash. I ended up with some potatoes mashed and some potato chunks.

I was in great doubt of this soup's flavor capacity so I was ready with my arsenal of appropriate spices (and also having been slightly bored during the extensive microwaving of the soup).


For my taste, the soup ended up only needing some cracked pepper & some bacon bits, only because I went to the trouble of finding bacon bits during my monthly grocery shopping. I really don't like bacon bits much; the soup would have been just as delicious, if not more so, without the bacon bits.

Sorry, there are no pictures of the final product since I couldn't get one that actually looked appetizing, but I assure you, I found it to be a tasty recipe, especially for a rainy Monday night!

Seriously Easy Hearty Veggie Soup

I'm a huge sucker for recipes with less than five ingredients. I found the full recipe for this soup on kraftfoods.com, but then tweaked it a bit when I realized it could be easily simplified and reduced to 5-6 servings instead of 12.

Here's my version:

1 package frozen veggie soup/stew mix
1 potato cubed (probably optional though)
1 box beef broth
3/4 cup pasta sauce (I used some leftover garlic & herb sauce. I didn't have to add any spices to this soup!)

Combine all ingredients and heat to a boil. Simmer 20-30 minutes. It was pretty tasty!