Breakfast again . . . actually it’s pancake night at the Cook house. It’s been a long week and I needed quick go to meal that was easy but filling. What’s not to like about a big stack of buttermilk pancakes with some warm blueberry sauce drizzled over the top. I have Kat to thank for the buttermilk pancake recipe, it’s the best! And the blueberry sauce is lightly sweetened with a hint of lemon in the background.
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Breakfast burritos are my favorite thing for lunch believe it or not. Since I don’t do breakfast when normal people do, I sometimes treat Joe and myself to a breakfast burrito on the weekends. We sometimes add bacon or ham, but today we had our traditional burrito with country potatoes, creamy scrambled eggs with cheddar and my homemade salsa. Come hungry, these burritos will leave you feeling full and satisfied no matter the time of day.
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Have you ever had the Swedish Crepes at IHOP? I was hooked from the first bite of those delicate crepes topped with a lingonberry butter and lingonberry sauce. I learned they are a tart berry grown on low evergreen shrubs throughout Scandinavia’s forests. The only time I’ve ever come across Lingonberry Sauce was at World Market aka Cost Plus and I had to pick up a jar. They are dark red in color and tart like a cranberry but smaller. I would have to say these belong on a dessert menu and unlike IHOP, I chose to fill the crepes with a lemony cream cheese filling.
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Mac and Cheese will always be the ultimate comfort food. My Mom had a simple recipe using Velveeta cheese because it melts so creamy and tastes so good. I recently found the new Queso Blanco Velveeta and wondered how it would taste if I made it into a cheese sauce for Mac and Cheese. Since it was a Queso cheese I added some green chile. It’s the perfect side dish to a to a big juicy burger or barbecue sandwich.
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The other night Joe took me out to dinner at a place called Frida’s (named for one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo). It’s an authentic Mexican restaurant that we found via a Groupon, in our area but had not been to. The menu was filled with wonderful food descriptions that were new to my taste buds. They used cactus, huitlacoche (a corn fungus which grows naturally on corn), achiote paste, wrapped chicken in Hoja Santa leaves, stuffed poblano peppers with apples, plantains and castillian nuts. They prepared dishes in a different way than my traditional New Mexican cuisine. We were treated with appetizers, 4 entree samples and a dessert. They started by bringing us Caldo Tlalpeno soup. Upon the first taste we were both impressed by all the flavors and that heat of chipotle that sneaked up on us. I started taking mental notes on what I was tasting and when we returned home I immediately started looking up this soup. I found that a lot of recipes included carrots, zucchini, and garbanzo beans. Frida’s didn’t include them and we loved it so much that I didn’t include them in my version either. Besides, Joe wouldn’t touch it if I included squash or beans. They placed the shredded chicken and Mexican cheese on the bottom of the bowl, ladled a broth with garlic, onions, peppers, slices of avocado and chipotle and topped with the tiniest tortilla strips and cilantro. I added some chopped fresh tomato and a lime wedge. It was perfect!
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There must have been an abundance of berries this year because I have been able to get the most amazing fresh berries at an affordable price. I think of berries as a summer treat but when I saw the fresh blueberries I thought of coffee cake. I haven’t had a blueberry coffee cake in years but it sure sounded good. I started looking up recipes and found a recipe called “Blueberry Buckle” that was printed in O Magazine. It looked great and I thought instead of making them in ramekins I would make muffins using these pretty paper liners . These muffins were amazing with the bursting berry center topped with a cinnamon streusel.
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Spinach Artichoke Pizza is one of my favorites. Instead of layering pizza toppings, I make what I call “The Mix” which is a blend of spinach, artichokes, cheese, garlic, green onion and a dry Italian herb blend. From there you can add additional toppings but the mix makes this pizza easy and flavorful. And there’s no sauce for this pizza, instead I like to add fresh, roasted, or sun dried tomatoes. Tonight we made several different pizza’s but the favorite was topped with cream cheese and grilled chicken which tasted like spinach artichoke dip. I’m sure you will agree!
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This is Josh’s birthday cheesecake. He discovered Reese’s Cheesecake several years ago in a cave (I’ll explain later) and had to have it for his birthday ever since. When Josh was a teenager, we started spending our spring break in NM. For 3 or 4 years straight we would take a couple of those days to go to Carlsbad Caverns. It takes the normal visitor a couple hours to go through the self guided tour but Josh would take hours looking at every formation and taking pictures. At the end of the tour sits the famous lunchroom 750 feet underground which serves sandwiches, snacks and souvenirs. When we went through the line Josh saw these packaged single slices of Reese’s Cheesecake that he wanted to try. Since we were on vacation I said Okay. He thought that was the best thing he ever ate and asked me to find a way to make that cheesecake. So this is my attempt at the Reese’s Cheesecake.
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The holiday traditions I remember from growing up in New Mexico are Luminarias which are small paper sacks filled with sand with a small candle inside. Throughout New Mexico luminarias are a special attraction all over the state and have become so popular that people travel great distances to see the displays. Another tradition is having a steaming bowl of Posole Stew on Christmas Eve. Posole comes from the cultures of Native Americans, Mexicans and Europeans and is known as a dish for celebrating life’s blessings. Posole corn is the hard dry corn kernels otherwise known as hominy. I still feel connected to New Mexico even though I no longer live there and count my blessings for all the traditions I grew up with.
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Everywhere I turn I see recipes combining dark chocolate and sea salt. My hubby Joe loves dark chocolate and pretzels so I decided to bake up some of these trendy cookies and see what all the fuss was about. It’s hard to describe but you get a bite of sweet and then a bite of crunchy saltiness chasing behind. I kept thinking it was that it was like the first time I sipped a sweet margarita in a salty rimmed glass. If you like sweet and salty things, this is the cookie for you.
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An Inspired Cook 