I decided it’s time to post a few tips that I use in my daily cooking. I hope to reference these tips in my future recipes and add other tips as I go along. As many of you know I roast a variety of chiles often and have started roasting other foods as well such as tomatoes and corn. Roasting brings out the sugars in corn and tomatoes that you wouldn’t otherwise find. Find out for yourself how easy it is and how good it tastes!
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Making pies in little canning jars are so much fun. There’s so many ways to decorate a pie when you make eight little pies. I was able to be creative and make each pie different and special. If I were to make these as gifts, I would make sure to decorate inside the jar so that I could place a lid on top but today I’m making them just for fun. A double crust pie crust is all you need to prepare the eight pies and I’m certain you could use just about any pie filling. I chose to make a fresh blackberry pie filling which turned out delicious. Wouldn’t these be great for a holiday dessert, presenting each person with their own individual pie! I may have to make these again soon!
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I’ve been in a mood for muffins so in the spirit of October with pumpkins and ghouls I decided to take a popular recipe for Pumpkin Crunch Cake and turn them into muffins. I would describe it as a pumpkin custard bottom with a crunchy cake and walnut topping. My husbands mother Joan originally made this cake and it was scrumptious. It’s made with a yellow cake mix but I didn’t have a box on hand so I made my own with a little help from Suzanne McMinn’s blog “Chickens in the Road“.
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Steak Fingers and Gravy are one of those comfort foods I grew up with. One of the things I love about food is that it brings back memories or creates new ones. For me, steak fingers always remind me of my Dad. He was a meat and potatoes kind of man and loved his steak fingers. And as with most meals on the farm, we always had potatoes and gravy alongside. Rarely do I cook the way we did back then but once in awhile I crave the old comforts of home.
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The wait is over! My homemade Vanilla Extract and Vanilla sugar that I started in August is finally ready. I waited 8 weeks and it’s finally time to try it out. I found just the recipe, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies. I love white chocolate, which isn’t really chocolate at all, but that’s beside the point. And I have several cans of Macadamia nuts that Joe and I brought back from Hawaii saving for a special occasion. I think unveiling the Vanilla Extract and Vanilla Sugar is pretty special. The cookies turned out pretty good too!
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Do you remember the series of “Beautiful Cookbooks”? I find myself flipping through the pages just to drool over the beautiful pictures, but I also find many recipes that I would love to try. I ran across this recipe in the “Southwest Beautiful Cookbook” and I was intrigued. The picture looked like a margarita in a jar and I wondered if it would taste as good as I imagined. As it turned out it was a sinfully sweet version of a classic margarita that I could spread on a cracker, biscuit or muffin.
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If you are not familiar with a Molcajete and Tejolote, it is a Mexican mortar and pestle made from volcanic rock used to grind ingredients such as garlic, tomatoes and spices. They remind me of the Native American grinding stones found in large rocks. My sister Kat gave me a molcajete on our recent visit to NM and I’ve been anxious to try it out. If you have a new molcajete it should be seasoned just as you would a new cast iron skillet. There are many online sites that give instructions on how to season a molcajete which would be easier and probably more helpful I could explain. I’m looking forward to all the spices I can now grind as well as making guacamole and endless salsa’s. This salsa includes roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onion, green chile, lime, and cilantro. It was very aromatic as I started grinding the garlic and tomatoes. Each added ingredient changed the texture and added another element of flavor.
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There’s nothing more comforting to a New Mexican than a bowl of Green Chile Stew. On our recent visit to Santa Fe, Joe and I sat down at a little sidewalk cafe to share a tamale and a bowl of green chile stew. It was a rainy day with a chill in the air so a bowl of stew sounded wonderful. The pork was tender, the chile was hot with big chunks of potato and a hint of cilantro. It really hit the spot. Joe mentioned again and again how good that stew was that I took it as a hint that I should make up a pot when we got home. I started making this recipe years ago when Joe and I lived in Albuquerque and it always reminds me of home.
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My new favorite book “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day” has changed the way I think about pizza. The master recipe makes a big batch of dough that can be made ahead of time and placed in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Once the dough has been made you can take scissors and snip off just the amount of dough you need for any size pizza. The crust will taste fresh and crisp just like you taste in a pizzeria. I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical about working with cold dough out of the fridge, but honestly it was very easy and the results were amazing. The major differences in this dough is that you don’t knead it ahead of time, just incorporate all the flour into the wet ingredients and let it sit at room temperature to rise. Also the dough takes on that crispy crust by cooking on a pizza stone or a cast iron griddle at very high heat. Already having a stone and cast iron griddle, I invested in a pizza peel in order to transfer the pizza on and off the hot stone. With the master recipe I was able to make 5 pizza crusts although I probably could have squeezed out another one or two if I had made thinner crusts. It’s all in your preference of how thin or thick you like your crust.
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Nothing feels more like Autumn than the aroma of warm apples and spice filling the kitchen. My salted caramel sauce was sitting in the fridge waiting to be used for more than just a topping for ice cream or dipping apples. I had been contemplating a caramel apple pie but in the end I decided on these Salted Apple Caramel Bars. I pulled the pie recipe and used it as my guide for the filling and topped it with a drizzle of salted caramel. These are a treat any time of day but I especially loved them in the morning after drizzling a bit of caramel on my bar I would dip the caramel coated spoon into my coffee . . . Yum!
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An Inspired Cook 