Cami's Salsa

Like Maren I love fresh salsa but haven't ever made it myself. This was really good! I used the recipe in the book and was very happy with it. This makes a ton! I think we'll be eating it all week. I need to buy more chips.

We had baked potatoes for dinner tonight and this is how I always eat my baked potatoes: potato with cheese and salsa on top. Yummy! Sometimes I throw in some sour cream. You should all try it sometime.

Chile's Angels

This week's episode is titled Chile's Angels, found HERE and also on pg. 252 of the book. I made the recipe "Salsa" (the other recipe is titled "Habañero Salsa and Fixins" in the book and "Spicy Pineapple Sauce" on the website). We love salsa in our family so I was eager to try this one. In honesty, I've only made salsa a couple times because I have my favorite store bought brands, but fresh salsa is always a great treat! (Sorry if you're tired of dips! I'm visiting family and we had a big get-together so dips were the perfect thing to put on the menu.)

I was going to double the recipe but when chopping the tomatoes I thought it would be way too much. I decided to use eight or nine tomatoes instead of six and kept most of everything the same. I had never used ancho chiles before so it was fun to try something new. I had also never roasted jalapeños before so that was fun to try, thought it wasn't really easy to peel the skin off.

I'm realizing right now that the book recipe slightly differs from the website in that the book only calls for 1 ancho chile and 2 jalapeños while the website calls for 2 ancho chiles and 4 jalapeños. Without having looked at the website I added an extra ancho chile and jalapeño anyway, so I recommend following the website recipe.

This is a chunky salsa, but if you prefer yours thin I think you could use a blender or food processor to liquify it some and it would be great too. It was a bit on the mild side for my tastes but it could probably easily be spiced up with more jalapeños if desired. My salsa seemed a bit bland at first so I added a couple extra teaspoons salt and extra chili powder, and I thought the flavors increased after it sat for a few hours. This morning I realized I think I forgot the garlic, oops! Overall it was a tasty salsa.

Danielle's Peanut Ginger Chicken

This dish is a winner! Max and I both loved it.

We don't have a BBQ, so I decided to cut the chicken into small strips before I marinated it. After marinating it, I put the chicken on skewers and cooked them under the broiler. That worked out really well, and the chicken cooked really quickly.

The marinade was excellent, and the chicken would have been good without the salsa. But the salsa makes this dish so much better. The chicken together with the salsa was really delicious. We used peaches and strawberries for the fruit, and I added avocado because I had some I needed to use up. Also, I used mainly lime juice instead of vinegar because basically, I just can't make salsa without lime juice. I did add a splash of vinegar and I liked the flavor it added.

I think I will definitely be making this again sometime. Probably sooner than later.

Danielle's Potato and Goat Cheese Quesadillas

I have to say I was skeptical of the ingredients in this recipe... spinach, goat cheese, and potatoes with salsa and pepper jack? But I was pleasantly surprised. They worked together much better than I imagined, and these quesadillas tasted great! I'm really a fan of goat cheese so I was happy to have a new reason to use it.

For the tomatillo salsa, I used this Emeril recipe (although I tweaked it slightly*). I think it worked really well with these quesadillas. If any of you like homemade salsa, you should try this. Yum!




*I roasted the veggies on our bbq, and they smelled so delicious! I tried a similar recipe that called for boiling the veggies, but roasted tastes so much better! I also added an avocado to the salsa to make it thicker. You can't really taste the avocado, but I like the consistency.

Updated Nacho recipe

Hey everyone. LuAnn brought to my attention a mistake in the recipe I posted. I accidentally left cumin out of the ingredients (although it was included in the instructions). Sorry! The recipe calls for 1 tsp. cumin to be added to the chicken mixture. The recipe below has been updated.

Nacho Pictures

So I don't normally take photos of dinner foods, but I do actually have some photos of the nachos that I took awhile back. These were taken before I discovered the mango salsa.

Chicken Chipotle Nachos with Avocado Cream and Mango Salsa

[Sorry, this is an extraordinarily long post!]


This recipe comes from Seasonal Southwest Cooking. I can't recommend this cook book highly enough! It's amazing! Everything I've tried out of it is incredible, and I cook out of it at least a couple of times every week. Buy it! You'll love it! (Unless you don't like chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Because 90% of recipes in the book call for it.)

Anyway, this recipe is my favorite.

Chicken Chipotle Nachos with Avocado Cream and Mango Salsa

Chipotle Chicken:
1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 - 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped (stick with 1 unless you can handle a lot of heat)
3 tsp. finely chopped red onion
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1.5 c. grated Monterey Jack cheese

Avocado Cream:
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Mango Salsa:
1 mango, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 c. diced red bell pepper
1 jalapeno chile
1/4 c. findely chopped red onion
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. grated lime zest
salt and pepper to taste

Tortilla chips (as many as needed)

To prepare mango salsa, combine all salsa ingredients in a non-reactive bowl. Let stand one hour to allow flavors to mellow.

With an electric mixer, cream together the cooked chicken, cream cheese, chipotle, red onion, garlic, cumin, and shredded cheese. Mix well.

Prepare the avocado cream. In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat broiler. Evenly spread each chip with a generous amount of the chicken mixture. Arrange chips on baking sheet and broil about 3 minutes away from the heat until puffed and golden. Transfer nachos to a platter and top each with a teaspoon of avocado cream. Serve warm.

NOTES:

1. The recipe in the book doesn't actually include the mango salsa. I got it from another recipe in the book, but I love it on these nachos. You can do without it if you don't have time to make it or don't want to buy the ingredients, but I highly recommend it. You could also do without the avocado cream if you want to just have the salsa on them instead. But you need something to go with the chicken.

2. This makes a TON of nachos! I usually make the full batch and make as many nachos as we want and then keep the rest of the chicken mix in the fridge. It's super easy to throw together once you've got the chicken mix made, so we usually end up eating it for lunch for a few days until it's gone.

3. I never strictly follow the recipe for the avocado cream (in fact, the ingredients for the avocado cream above have already been altered by me). For the avocado cream I usually just mash up an avocado, add a spoonful of sour cream, squeeze half a lime into it, and add as much cilantro, salt, and pepper and I think looks good. You can adjust any of the ingredients to your liking.

4. I also never follow the recipe for the salsa. I just chop up veggies till it looks right in proportion. And I never use more than half of a jalapeno. And I usually forget to add lime zest. It tastes good however you make it!

5. If you have thin tortilla chips, keep an eye on them while they bake. Thin chips can burn before the chicken mix is hot enough.


Do you have any pet peeves?
Too many unfortunately... One thing I hate is when a store or restaurant is either out of or discontinues one of my favorite things. Especially if I'm really craving something. So disappointing.

Any other hobbies besides being an amazing cook?
Running, photography, reading, and wasting time on the internet. :)

What is your favorite summer activity?
As a kid it was swimming but I don't get to do much of that these days. This summer it has been sitting on the porch in the sun reading a good book.

Are you a morning or a night person?
Neither. I'm an eight-hours-of-sleep kind of person. Although I try not to stay up too late so I can get up at a decent time.

Are you a go-go-go sight-seeing kind of vacationer or lie-on-the-beach-all-day kind of vacationer?
I definitely lean towards lying on the beach. Mmmmm... Mexico...

What is your favorite store?
Two favorites -- Anthropologie (clothing) and Wegman's (groceries). Oh how I miss Wegman's!

What is your favorite beverage?
Water, but when I'm letting myself live a little, I like flavored lemonades and limeades.

If you had to go back to school, what would your major be?
Photography

Danielle's Chicken Wraps

Again, no picture. Taking a picture of my food is the last thing on my mind when I'm getting dinner ready. And I can't stand to let my food sit there getting cold while I take pictures of it (I can't just snap one quick one, I just can't do it).

Anyway, kudos to Whitney. This was a great dinner! I love a recipe I don't have to go out and buy any extra ingredients for. I was able to make these with everything I already had on hand. (Luckily Max's mom had buttermilk in the fridge. I think that's something I'm going to start keeping around. Buttermilk is one of my new favorite ingredients!)

In the sauce, I used a chipotle pepper instead of jalapeno because I discovered that my jalapeno had gone bad. I'm sure it would've been good with jalapeno, but I love the flavor added by chipotle. I think I'll make it that way all the time.

We topped ours with cheese, corn salsa, avocado, and tomatoes. Yum!

Whitney's Summer Fresh Chicken Wraps

RECIPE:

4 chicken breasts

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp oil

sauce:

1/2 c buttermilk

1/4 c low-fat mayo

3 T fresh parsley (chopped)

1 juice of a lime

1 large jalapeno pepper (seeded & chopped)

garnish:

2 tomatoes

1 head of romaine lettuce

10 flour tortillas

optional, but delicious with it: 1 avacado, cheese, black beans, sour cream

Cut chicken into strips. Place chicken, chili powder, cumin and oil (I used less than recommended) in plastic bag - shake bag to coat. Stir fry in pan 5 minutes. Combine sauce ingredients well and add to chicken, cook 3 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Dress tortillas with chicken and garnish and wrap.

COMMENTS:

This is such a simple recipe and it's a healthy, summer dish. If you want to get fancy, try to make your own tortillas (I used Costco's uncooked tortillas). I adjusted the recipe for just the 3 of us, but used the same amount of sauce. It had a little kick, but I think my jalapeno was especially hot. ENJOY!

QUESTIONS:

When did you start baking/cooking? Officially in college when I moved out. My mom didn't cook very much growing up. She struggled with her weight and always seemed to be dieting, so she didn't want to cook us something that she couldn't eat. She brought home meals from fastfood or restaurants at least 4 times a week and the other days we cooked up freezer meals in the microwave. It's amazing I didn't end up huge, seriously.

What is your favorite kitchen tool? My cheese graters - we just love cheese.

What is your favorite book? Can't say it's my favorite, but I recently read Confessions of a Shopaholic and thought it was great - an easy, fun read. I couldn't believe how different the movie was.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Europe, please.

If you had to change your name right now, what would you change it to? It's funny, I can't picture myself with any other name, but if I had to, I guess I'd choose "Carden" ... one of my favorites.

Where do you currently live? Orem, Utah just for the summer. We just moved from Chicago and are here while my husband studies for the Arizona bar. We're moving to Phoenix, AZ area in the Fall when my husband's job starts in September.

Where are you from? Orem, Utah

If you could eat one thing for every meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Ice Cream or Candy (if it wouldn't ruin my teeth)

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July! We had a lot of festivities, so I didn't have time to bake any goodies out of Baked, but these mini cupcakes were a hit. It's red velvet cake mix, with cream cheese frosting and blueberries (yay for the red, white and blue). Yum!