Fire Roasted Salsa

This could maybe be better described as “Salsa De Gallo” because it’s pretty chunky.  I did it that way on purpose.  You could always blend it up in a food processor.  But we happen to like pico de gallo. 

This is another application of some fresh produce courtesy of Farmer Eric.  (I only call him that because he’s the only person I know that has a good garden this summer during the worst draught in 50 years.)

I sliced tomatoes, yellow onion, and green pepper into large pieces.  I also cut a jalapeno pepper in half and took the seeds out (leave them in if you want it hotter).  We have an olive oil sprayer that we got from Crate & Barrel.  It’s pretty slick and it works great for grilling vegetables.  I sprayed one side of the veggies, hit them with salt & pepper, and then put them on the grill.  Then I sprayed the other side and seasoned that as well.

I let them get a good char and then flipped them over (carefully) using tongs.  Remove them from the grill and let them cool to room temperature.  Then slice into smaller chunks and add to a bowl along with chopped cilantro, minced garlic, and lime juice.  Stir and enjoy!

Chicken Quesadillas with Fresh Jalapeños

This is another relatively easy dish that we make often at our house.  I was a picky eater as a child, but I could always go for a cheese quesadilla.  As my tastes have evolved, so have the ingredients I put into this versatile dish.  This is the third meal we have made from the chicken breasts that were on sale this week.  (I feel a bit like Rachel Ray.)

I chunked the chicken breast and sliced up some fresh jalapeño peppers from “Farmer Eric’s” garden.  Heat a pan to just below medium.  You can use a quesadilla maker, which my mom bought me in spite of my insistence that I don’t need another kitchen appliance (thanks Mom, by the way).  Either will work fine.  But a word of advice, much like the in the pizza blog before, don’t overload your quesadillas.  And even more important:  keep the wet ingredients out of it.  If you like sour cream, salsa, or guacamole, wait to add them until after you have cooked it.  Your quesadilla will get soggy and it will likely seep out all of the edges – especially in a quesadilla maker that presses from both the top and bottom.

Lightly coat your first tortilla with butter or margarine and place it on the pan.  Then add your toppings.  Lately I have preferred to shred my own cheese in lieu of buying the shredded type.  It’s a little cheaper that way.  But the pre-shredded type works fine and I still use it often when I don’t feel like shredding my own.  This week I added chicken breast, sharp cheddar cheese, green onions, jalapeño sliced (de-seeded, sorry Eric), and some cumin.  Then butter your top tortilla and place on top.  Flipping can be a bit of an art form.  Wait until the cheese has melted so it will hold together better.  I have a wide spatula that I get underneath the quesadilla, then hold the pan over the top of it and quickly flip.

Once you’re done lightly browning both sides and melting all the ingredients together, slice and serve with your wet ingredients. 

*This is another time we substitute whole wheat tortillas.  With the butter and all the yummy additions, you can’t notice.   Now if you’re just having soft shell tacos, you will notice the difference.  Sadly, wheat tortillas just aren’t the same as a good old fashioned white flour tortilla.

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella & Caramelized Onions

My wife loves tomatoes …and by association, tomato sauce.  So homemade pizzas is another dish we love to make at our house.  For those of you with kids, this is a great activity for the family.  Plus, everyone loves pizza and this way you can control what goes into it.  I have fond memories of my dad making pizzas when I was younger.

Earlier this summer I convinced my wife to let me make a pizza using BBQ sauce instead of a traditional tomato sauce.  She was not in favor (that is, until she tried it).  Now I have made her a believer.  This is a great idea for the summer.  In fact, I grilled it that first time. We used the conventional oven tonight and it was just as good.

It was her idea to find a way to use all the chicken breasts she cooked the night before.  We chopped that up and put it atop the pizza along with circles of fresh mozzarella and caramelized onion.  It was delicious.

Here is a tip for the crust:  We just use those instant add water types.  But I suggest baking it by itself for 10-12 minutes before putting any toppings on.  You can dust your pan with corn meal if you like, and I suggest poking holes in the crust with a fork to allow the steam to escape so it doesn’t bubble up. 

Now it’s time for the toppings.  You can go wild here – but only in the types of toppings, not the quantity.  Do NOT overload your pizza.  Trust me on this one.  It took me years to realize that my wife’s deft hand was the reason her pizzas always turn out better than mine.  I was overloading them with toppings.  So use them sparingly.

This is also a great way to incorporate fresh vegetables.  You can go for non-traditional toppings too.  I imagine you all have your favorite pizzas in mind already.  So why not give it a shot some night?

A Quick Note on Vegetables

*In the previous post my wife used frozen broccoli.  My friend once said to me in all honesty, "How do you cook vegetables?  I don't know how to."  He was trying to be healthier, but sometimes buying & cooking fresh produce can be a bit daunting.  Frozen vegetables are a very easy, and relatively inexpensive way to achieve this.  They are flash-frozen to lock in the maximum nutrients.  They are almost as good for you as if you had picked them that morning ... MUCH better for you (and tasting) than canned vegetables.

Apricot Glazed Chicken with Toasted Almonds

Mrs. Hawkeye Plate making a special appearance tonight. Chicken breasts were the sale of the week at the grocery store, so chicken is what we'll be eating this week. It was skin-on, bone-in breasts, but it doesn't take much time to turn them into boneless, skinless chicken breasts and usually for way less money. Knowing I needed to make something with chicken I went to my cookbooks. I found my inspiration in my favorite cookbook Gourmet Today. I have about 100 pages marked with dishes I'll make "some day". 

I wanted to find a sort of sweet dish for the ingredient remix you'll see later this week (spoiler alert), so I settled on Almond Apricot Chicken. It was basically just chicken roasted with apricot preserves, stone ground mustard, soy, and a few seasonings. It was topped with toasted almonds which is a small step that makes a huge difference. 

We just finished a week full of indulgence, so I went with an easy side - steamed broccoli that got mixed in with the apricot sauce. And just to bring a touch of reality to the blog, I burnt the rolls. They went from doughy to burnt in a just a minute. Seriously!

Dining Out – Vacation Meals

While it isn’t the premise of this blog, I thought maybe I would share a couple pictures of great meals we had on vacation.  The point of this blog is to document our cooking exploits, but none of our meals last week were photographed … and they weren’t all that fancy either.

We were in Garden City Beach, SC so I had to get a seafood boil.  This was from the Blue Crab in Pawley’s Island.  It had crab, mussels, oysters, clams, shrimp, kielbasa, corn, and red potatoes.  It. Was. Fantastic!  It was everything I had hoped for.  My suggestion when you travel is to take advantage of the local cuisine.  I once made the mistake of getting a beef tenderloin in Jamaica.  I’m from the Midwest!  What was I doing getting beef from the Caribbean?!   After that, I ate seafood the rest of that trip.

We also enjoyed oysters on the half shell from Russell’s in Murells Inlet.  This was our best experience yet.  The wait staff & owners were a hoot!  They really made the experience all that much better.  My wife ordered the soft-shelled crab that was caught that day.  I had the catch of the day (grouper), but grandma’s mahi mahi took the prize for best dish.  Their key lime pie was great too.

On the way home we stopped for lunch in Ascheville, NC.  My wife looked up on Yelp for good restaurants.  There was a BBQ joint that had a 91% approval rating from over 600 reviews.  So we had to check it out.  I got their award winning blueberry chipotle ribs, jalapeno cheese grits, and vinegar coleslaw.  I decided to try the Cheerwine soda too – because, when in Rome…

The Mrs. Got their pulled pork with corn pudding and mashed sweet potatoes.   This allowed us to try their four BBQ sauces:  jalapeno, vinegar, mustard, and sweet tomato.  They were all good.  The restaurant is 12 Bones, and it’s 5 miles off the highway and well worth it!  President Obama had his picture hanging on the wall along with a signed menu.  And as I said to my wife, I don’t think he just happened upon that restaurant.  Someone did their research.  And thankfully so did my wife, because this was possibly the best BBQ I have ever eaten!

Meals For a Crowd

I should apologize to any readers I may have.  We have been on vacation this past week, and I should have notified you all that I wouldn’t be adding any blog posts during that time.

We were staying in a beach house with 16 other relatives.  So the cooking that took place was nothing fancy – just meals for a crowd.  The first night we went to a staple of ours:  taco salads, along with soft & hard taco shells, and Spanish rice.  It was an easy crowd pleaser.

We had biscuits & gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning.  But most others just consisted of cereal, muffins, or donuts.  We also made spaghetti with meat sauce one night, served with side salads, garlic cheese bread, and had fresh baked bread with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and cracked pepper as an appetizer.  This was a fun night.  I was able to teach my 10-year old cousin-in-law how to cook.  He really soaked it up.

We sautéed onions & garlic with olive oil and cracked pepper.  Then we added ground sirloin, and leftover sausage meat from the biscuits & gravy.  We added Italian seasoning, red wine, and a store bought pasta sauce and let it simmer.  He really enjoyed it.  Then we sliced open a loaf of Italian bread and coated it with olive oil, parmesan cheese, cracked pepper, and Italian seasoning and threw that in the oven.

Here’s a quick aside:  I told my wife I was going to sneak whole wheat pasta in on everyone.  This was caught by grandpa, to which he said “you’ve got to be sh*tting me!”  Then Uncle Doug said there was no way his daughter would eat it.  She’s very picky and she would notice right away because she only eats her spaghetti with butter & parmesan cheese.  Well, everyone ate every single strand of pasta.  Not one complaint!  And we got several compliments on how good everything tasted.  So give whole wheat pasta a shot if you have never tried it before.