Cowboy Caviar

Cowboy Caviar is a super healthy, super nutritious, and surprisingly tasty dip for chips (I like it with tortilla chips).  There are a hundred recipes for this around the internet, but I like this one.

• 1 can black eyed peas, mostly drained
• 1 can corn
• 1 can black beans, mostly drained
• 1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1.5 t olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced jalepenos
• 2 t lime juice
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t ground cumin
• 1/8 t pepper (or to taste)

Combine all ingredients and serve.  You can play around with adding or removing any of the ingredients or the amount of juices that you drain from the cans - those juices are tasty.

Pineapple Chipotle Salsa

One of a million possible salsa recipes. This one was a little experiment I tried one night that turned out well. Yum. Fruit and heat always makes a nice combo.

• 1 pound oven roasted tomatoes
• 1 oven roasted bell pepper
• 2 oven roasted jalapenos
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 7 oz can chipotles in adobo sauce
• 1/4 fresh pineapple
• 1 sweet onion

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until  the salsa reaches your desired level of chunkiness.

Red Chipotle Salsa

This is a nice smoky chipotle flavored tomato based salsa - much like a salsa you might commonly find in the mexican restaurant down the street.  Its easy to make.

• 2 roasted jalapenos
• 4 cloves of garlic, roasted
• 5-7 roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 T chopped cilantro
• 1 t salt
• 2 T lime juice
• 1/2 7 oz can chipotles in adobo sauce

Roast the jalapenos, garlic, and tomatoes.  Alternatively you can "roast" them in an un-oiled frying pan until they are blackened and softened.  Remove the skin from the tomatoes and jalapenos.  If you don't want to roast the tomatoes, you can substitute 2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes instead.

Add half the tomatoes to a food processor.  Combine with the jalapenos, garlic, and chipotles and process until smooth.  Add remaining tomatoes and pulse until the salsa reaches the level of chunkiness desired.  Add the cilantro, salt.  Add these final ingredients one at a time and carefully, tasting as you go until you find the taste you desire.

White Chicken Chili

Not long after we moved into a new neighborhood, there was a neighborhood gathering and chili cookoff.  I decided to make this white chicken chili, and I spiced it up a good bit (Lauren and I love spicy foods).  As our neighbors tasted my chili, they kept commenting on how spicy it was.  Almost all of them couldn't take the heat.  Oops.  :)  If you like the spice, try this recipe as is.  If not, cut back on the chili ingredients quite a bit, as this is quite the spicy chili!

• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
• 1 18.75 oz can tomatillos, drained and chopped OR a can of salsa verde
• 1 16 oz can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 1 7 oz can diced green chiles
• 1/2 t dried oregano
• 1/2 t ground coriander seed
• 1/4 t ground cumin
• 2 ears fresh corn, slice off the cob (you can substitute frozen corn)
• 1 pound chicken, cooked and diced into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1/2 pound ground chicken
• 1 15 oz can white beans
• 1 pinch salt and black pepper (to taste)
• 2 T cornstarch (to thicken)
• 2 diced jalapenos
• Add more cumin to taste
• Chili powder to taste
• 2-3 T cream

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and cook on low until the chicken is cooked through.

Wonderful Pizza Sauce

The best pizza sauce ever!

This pizza sauce couldn't be simpler, but it can single handedly make your homemade pizza the best homemade pizza you've ever had.

Just grab your food processor and process until smooth:

• 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 t red wine vinegar
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1 t oregano
• 1 t salt (or to taste)
• 1 t crushed red pepper flakes

Mmmmm, mmmm, good!

Hillsborough Highlights

Here are a few of our favorite places in Hillsborough, NC.

Mystery Brewery
Hillsborough BBQ
The Depot - closed down
Antonia's
Pancuito
The Wooden Nickel

Radius

Pork Tamales

Filling

The filling can be whatever you want - beef, pork, chicken, cheese, veggies, a combination of one or more of the preceding, or anything you desire.  I made a tasty pork filling as follows:

• 1 sweet onion
• 1 whole pork loin, boston butt, or picnic shoulder
• 1 t chili powder
• 2 t kosher salt
• 1 t black pepper
• 1/2 t cayenne pepper
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/4 t garlic powder
• 3-4 cups water or stock
• 3 chipotle chiles

Cook 1 sweet onion over medium heat with spices until it softens and starts to caramelize.  Add a pork loin or buston butt (make thin slices across the fat to help it break down and self baste the meat), seasoned with salt and pepper, and add 3-4 cups of water to cover the meat.  Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer and cover.  Cook this for about 1.5 hours or until the pork is cooked and fork tender.  Using two forks, or your fingers, pull the pork into shreds.  If you overcook the pork or it is not fork tender, you can run it through a food processor or slicer instead of pulling it with a fork or fingers.

Masa Dough and Tamale Assembly

• 3.5 cups masa flour
• 1.5 T kosher salt (or to taste)
• 2 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/2 cup crisco
• 2-4 cups water or reserved liquid from meat preparation
• 24 corn husks

First soak the corn husks for 1 hour so that they will be flexible enough to wrap the tamales without breaking.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the masa, salt, baking powder.  Add the crisco and combine by hand or with the mixer.  Slowly add the liquid until the mixture is the consistency of play dough (it should be together and moist, but not too wet).

Setup an assembly line of masa, meat, corn husks (patted dry), and steamer setup (I use a large stock pot with a steamer basket in the bottom).  Lay each corn husk pointed end away and spoon out 1-2 T of masa dough and spread in a square about 3.5 x 3.5 inches and about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.  The spread should be closer to the wide (not pointed) end of the husk, and about 1/2 to 1 inch away from any edges.  On top of that, add about 1 T of the filling in the middle of the dough.  Fold the corn husks left and right sides over towards the middle until the two sides of the filling come together.  Wrap the corn husk sides one by one around the dough and over each other.  Pinch the bottom of the dough together and fold the pointed end of the husk up towards the top of the tamale.  Pinch the top of the dough together to seal the tamale.  You can then use a thin strip of corn husk to tie the tamale together so that it doesn't come unfolded during steaming.

Place the tamales  in the steamer basket and steam for about 1.5 hours or until the dough is done and the husks peel off the dough easily.

I like to serve the tamales with some black beans and salsa.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my absolute favorite cookie recipe of all time.  Mmmm, mmmm, good!  Its a variation of the Good Eats chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is itself a variation of the Toll House cookie recipe.

Wet Ingredients

• 2 sticks melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 T milk
• 1.5 t vanilla

Dry Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups bread flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Combine the first three "wet" ingredients (butter and sugar) and mix with the paddle in a mixer.  Add in the remaining wet ingredients and set aside.  In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips.  Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet while beating in the mixer.  Add 2 cups chocolate chips.  Spoon these out onto a greased cookie sheet in about 1 T ball and cook at 350 until golden brown.

Sugo All'Amatriciana

This recipe came to me from my sister through her ex sister-in-law who is Italian.  We called it "Amastriciana" and ate it over penne pasta, but when Lauren and I went to Italy we saw it as "All'amatriciana" and it was served over spaghetti or bucatini.  This wonder is a tangy tomato bacon delight.

• 2 cans 28 oz whole tomatoes
• 2 cans 8 oz tomato sauce
• 5-8 cloves garlic (to your taste), diced.
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound bacon or pork cheek (called pork jowl in North Carolina)
• The reserved grease from the cooked bacon/pork.
• optional: 1 large onion, diced into 1 inch pieces

In a large stock pot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and 1/2 the garlic over low heat.  Cook the bacon, slice it into 1-2 inch lengths and add to the stock pot.  Use the resulting bacon grease in a frying pan to saute the onion and garlic until soft, and add the onion and garlic to the stock pot.  Simmer the sauce for at least 1 hour.  Serve over penne (or other) pasta and top with grated peccorino romano cheese.

Gene's Rib Sauce

Around here, when we eat barbecue (in the south, this only means one thing: pulled pork) we do it with a tangy cider vinegar based sauce.  But in the western part of the state barbecue is done with a milder, thicker, tomato based sauce.  A thicker sauce like that is much better suited to ribs.  Here's my dad's rib sauce recipe.

• 29 oz tomato puree
• 1/3 cup mustard
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T sugar
• 2 T dark brown sugar
• 2 T chili powder
• 3 cups water
• 1.5 cups cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 T dry mustard
• 1 T paprika
• 2 T red pepper flakes
• 2 T onion powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 t pepper
• 1/2 t garlic powder

Bring all these ingredients to a boil in a sauce pan or stock pot.  Stir and lower to a simmer, let simmer for 30 minutes.