A Happy Cinco de Mayo Too Good Not to Repeat.

Today is not Independence Day for Mexico; that actually occurred on September 15, 1810 when Mexico told Spain to go "stick it"; just like the United States told England.

France decided it wanted to invade Mexico and were told, "I don't think so!"; and that is what today is about. I'm putting things in a plain and simple prespective, since so many other blogs and websites will be posting about this celebration.

This is my little tribute to Mexican culture, so Happy Cinco de Mayo, and don't forget to whoop it up!

Tamale Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

4 bell peppers (red, yellow, orange or green) – tall and wide

1 ½ lbs lean ground beef
1 (8 oz) package cornbread mix
½ cup whole kernel corn
½ cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 cup salsa
½ cup milk
1 Tbsp salt
1 cup water

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400F. Cut tops off of peppers; remove stems; remove pith and seeds from inside peppers. Either keep tops to place on top of stuffed peppers, or dice up and add to filling.

In a large mixing bowl; combine ground beef, cornbread mix, corn, beans, chili powder, cumin, salsa and milk. Stuff each pepper, leaving ¼” space from top.

Place the stuffed peppers inside a round baking dish; they should be able to stand, and hold each other, upright. Combine salt with water and pour into bottom of dish, but not over the tops of the peppers; cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes; uncover and bake additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Note: This is a repeat of a post from May 5, 2011, but it's such an easy, festive recipe for this day, so I felt the need to give it again.  Enjoy!

DiGiorno Still Can't Beat Out a Real Pizzeria.

 DiGiorno Pizzeria Style Pizza  

DiGiorno once again is trying to convince the consumer that making a frozen pizza is better than getting one made fresh at a pizzeria, or by your own hand. Their new Pizzeria style crust is preservative free; score two points!   The sauce is plentiful and flavorful, but someone had a heavy hand with the oregano, so zesty should be added onto the front panel description.  It certainly made my tongue sing and dance.  The four cheese style is cheesy; it melts well and is spread out fairly evenly, so you get a nice mouthful with each bite.

..  The new style of crust is supposed to be the major selling point of this pizza; "Crispy outside, soft and airy inside".  The baking temperature is 375F and that made me wonder why, since most varieties of frozen pizza use temperatures between 400F to 450F.  Looking at the pizza you can see why, the crust has been prebaked before the addition of sauce and cheese; then frozen for packaging and resale.  Once baked, the crust looks slightly browner and you can see the airiness when you cut the slices.  However, with a truly authentic crispy crust, each bite should come off easily in the mouth, but the DiGiorno is chewy and you have to pull a bit with your teeth to get each individual bite.  It's not a good mouth feel.

Perhaps the Nestle company located in Illinois, which owns the DiGiorno name, should spend some time in real New York City pizzerias and learn what the word "authentic" really means.  Until then....practice, practice, practice DiGiorno, you're not there yet.

Mary Cokenour

This Thai Restaurant is a Boon to New Mexico.

Boon's Family Thai BBQ                                             

321 West Main Street
Farmington, New Mexico, 87401



 
   (505) 325-5556

   Website: www.boonsthai.com

    If you are a fan of Thai cuisine, then you must try Boon's Family Thai 
   BBQ  whenever you visit Farmington, New Mexico.  While the storefront
   may not look exotic, it is what is inside that is exciting.  We were cheerfully
   greeted upon entering; our waiter was very attentive and friendly; we had
   fun while enjoying our meal.



The interior of the restaurant is small with booths lining the front and one side.  However, tables are spaced so that diners are not elbow to elbow; giving a sense of intimacy and privacy.  Even though there were other diners there, my husband and I felt like we had the place to ourselves.

The menu is five pages of appetizers, soups, salads, noodle dishes, curry, specialties, house favorites, seafood, desserts and drinks.  All the descriptions were enticing and we wanted to try almost everything.  There are five types of curry, and they sometimes offer a specialty curry such as mango. 

 
 The eggrolls are crispy, yet delicate with easily eaten shredded vegetables inside.  The sauce is sweet and light; and that will be the key word for sauces at Boon's - Light.

 The Moon Cakes are a total surprise with a strong scent of shrimp, but large taste of chicken.  Again the sauce was sweet and light, but this time with crushed peanuts floating on top; it certainly enhanced the flavor of the Moon Cakes.  This is the type of appetizer that would make a wonderful snack while watching a late night movie.

 
 Normally I would order a Pad Thai, but the Rad Na caught my eye; the noodles are similar to those used in Mandarin style Chow Fun and were smooth and luscious.  The shrimp had that scrunch that shows it was cooked well; the vegetables had a slight crunch to them; the brown sauce was light and lended just enough flavor to enhance, not mask the other ingredients.  If you don't like shrimp, you can order it with chicken, beef or pork.

Hawaiian Delight is indeed a delight of a thin cutlet each of pork, beef and chicken; so tender, each could easily be cut with a fork.  The sweet plum sauce did not overpower, and here's that word again, light.

 

After all that, we had enough room left to share a dessert, the Homemade Coconut Ice Cream; light, airy, smooth and simply delicious.

Going to Boon's Thai Family BBQ is like taking a culinary adventure to Thailand; Take the Trip!!!

Mary Cokenour

One-Two-Three-Four and Time for Coffee Too.

One new recipe.
Two families to cook for.
Three complete meals for a week.
Four hours to prep, prepare and clean up.

No, this is not a new nursery rhyme geared towards the kitchen, and it doesn't rhyme in the least anyway.  This was my accomplishment for this morning; can't decide if I'm leaning towards Super Woman status, or Totally Hot Culinary Goddess.  Besides providing meals for myself and my hubby, I also send meals down to my mother-in-law and her other son who live down in Moab...but I'm getting ahead of myself on the 1-2-3-4 scale.

One New Recipe.

                                                     Roasted Potato Wedges

Ingredients:

3 lbs russet or red skinned potatoes, washed and patted dry (leave skin on)
1/2 cup crushed dried parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 olive oil

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375F; use a nonstick jelly roll pan (baking sheet with 1/4 inch lip around edges).

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, angle the knife to cut the first wedge; turn the potato half cut side down and repeat wedge cut with knife; repeat.  Depending on the size of the potatoes, there will be 3-5 wedges with each potato half; place in large bowl.  Add the parsley, salt, black pepper and cheese; toss to coat.  Add the olive oil and toss again making sure to mix in any ingredients that may have settled to the bottom of the bowl.

Spread the wedges on the pan; roast for 25 minutes; turn the wedges over and continue to roast for 20 minutes more.  The outside will be slightly browned and crispy while the inside will be fluffy.

Note:  the olive oil was added last to give the other ingredients a chance to better coat all the potato wedges, not just the top layer which the oil would cover first and make everything stick to it.

Makes 6 servings.

Two Families to Cook for.

As I mentioned earlier, I cook for my husband's family also, so hence the two families.  My mother-in-law enjoys the meals I send down to her, and I enjoy doing it.  Simple as that...and yes, I have a mother-in-law that not only enjoys my cooking, but appreciates it and me as well.  Eat your heart out!

Oh, and don't let the upcoming photos fool you.  There are two trays of each complete meal.

Three Complete Meals for a Week.

Meatloaf with Roasted Potato Wedges

 

Ramen Noodle Beef Stir Fry

 

 

Homemade Italian Dressing Chicken with Vegetables

 

Four Hours to Prep, Prepare and Clean Up.

 

First off, I made sure to get a pot of coffee going; I love my coffee in the morning!

 

After getting the chicken and marinade in a bag and settled into the refrigerator, I began making the stir fry.  What made my time go faster is that I often buy extra vegetables that I use a lot of: bell peppers, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli and cauliflower.  I cut them to the sizes I need, blanch or steam if necessary and portion them out into sealable plastic freezer bags.  When I need them, there they are ready for the using.  The thin round steak was defrosting overnight in the refrigerator, but still slightly frozen when I pulled it out.  This made it so easy to cut thin strips which I mixed with a cup of Hoisin sauce; then I just followed the instructions as listed on my recipe (click  the link over the photo).  While everything was cooking, I had time in between to clean up and start the next meal which was the meatloaf.

 

Again, simply follow the recipe (click the link over the photo); 45 minutes after placing the meatloaves into the oven, I added the tray of potatoes and they finished up at the same time.  I cleaned up and sauteed the vegetables that would go with the chicken.  Fifteen minutes before the meatloaf and potatoes were finished, I began the initial cooking of my chicken which had marinated for the maximum time of four hours.  The chicken was on the baking tray and ready to finish up in the oven as the other items came out.

 

Basically, I began all this at 8am and was completely finished up, including cleanup and packaging up the meals, by 12pm...four hours!

 

During all this, I sipped on Vanilla Nut Creme coffee; dodged cats and dogs milling around my legs, hoping I would drop pieces of chicken or beef; and actually downed a muffin for breakfast.  So, I have decided that not only am I a Super Woman, but definitely a Goddess also.  I'm now going to take a well deserved nap; have a great day everyone!

 

Mary Cokenour

 

 

 

 



Homemade Italian Dressing Chicken

You have probably seen the commercials that use bottled Italian salad dressing as a marinade; even seen it on recipe sites posted by many a home cook. You might even have that shaker bottle that you add oil, water, vinegar and a packet of dressing mix to; I still have mine and it comes in handy. First, lets that a look at what is in a typical brand name Italian salad dressing: VINEGAR, WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, CANOLA OIL, SUGAR, SALT, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF GARLIC*, GARLIC, RED BELL PEPPERS*, ONIONS*, XANTHAN GUM, SPICE, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA, POTASSIUM SORBATE AND CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (TO PROTECT FRESHNESS). *DRIED.   Doesn't that look simply yummy...Not!

See the shaker bottle in the photo, told you it comes in handy, especially when creating your own homemade dressing.  Lets compare, the bottled brand uses vinegar, but what type?  I use balsamic which has a deep, rich flavor and scent.  Soybean and canola oils?  It's Italian dressing, so use extra virgin olive oil.  Dried garlic?  Nope, I used minced garlic that has been preserved in, what else, olive oil.  Where are the herbs?  While I use crushed rosemary, basil, oregano and parsley; the bottled brand uses...none?   While the manufacturer is using paprika to make the dressing "zesty", I use crushed red pepper flakes.  The onions and peppers, oh mine are coming later on darlings, and you will so love it.  Notice the manufacturer uses water; even when using that dressing packet mix, it asks for water...well how else are you going to rehydrate all those dried ingredients?

Lets get on to today's recipe and you'll certainly be able to see with all your senses why homemade is better than bottled.  Think about it, if you have the time to make that packet dressing, you most certainly can make it fresh from scratch.

 

Italian Dressing Chicken

 

Ingredients:

 

4 (1/2 lb each) boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves; or 8 (1/4 lb each chicken cutlets)

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cups olive oil

2 Tbsp dried, crushed Italian herb mixture

2 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 each medium sized yellow, red and orange bell peppers; seeded and julienned

1 large red onion; peeled and julienned

 

Preparation:

 

 

If you are purchasing the chicken breasts halves, make sure they are partially frozen before slicing them.  Place your hand on top of the chicken and carefully draw your knife lengthwise throughout the piece to form two 1/4 lb cutlets.  Practice makes perfect, but your local butcher can do it for you if your hands are just too shaky.  Place the chicken cutlets into a large plastic, sealable bag.

 

To make the dressing, simply pour the vinegar, oil, herbs, garlic and red pepper flakes into your shaker bottle, or a small bowl; shake the bottle to mix or whisk in the bowl.  Set 1/4 cup of the mixture aside and pour the remainder into the plastic bag.  Work the dressing throughout the chicken, seal the bag and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours, but no more than four hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F; have a nonstick jellyroll pan ready (baking sheet with a 1/4 inch lip on all sides).   Heat a nonstick large skillet on medium-high heat; place 4 pieces of chicken into the skillet and sear for two minutes on each side; transfer the chicken to the pan.  Repeat with the next 4 pieces; wipe any residue out of the skillet.  Place the pan into the oven and finish cooking the chicken off for seven minutes.

 

Take the reserved 1/4 cup of marinade, place it in the skillet, medium-high heat again; and toss to coat the julienned bell peppers and onions.  This will continue to cook in the skillet during the seven minutes the chicken is finishing up in the oven.  Occasionally move the vegetables around as you're using minced garlic and you do not want to allow it to brown or burn.

 

 

 

Here comes the real fun, first choice is a piece of chicken with a side of the peppers and onions.  Second choice, slice up the chicken into strips, place on a sub roll with peppers and onions for a new take on the old favorite of sausage with peppers and onions.  This is a great substitute for people who do not eat pork or red meat, but do eat poultry.  The marinated chicken can be made completely on a grill, instead of partially in the skillet, then finished in an oven.  The chicken itself is so full of flavor from the marinade, fork tender and dripping with juiciness.  The balsamic vinegar truly brings out the sweetness of the bell peppers and red onion, so no need to add any sugar as they do in manufactured bottled dressings.

 

This recipe makes 8 servings, but can be easily cut down for lesser portions, but why would you want to?  Enjoy the homemade!

 

Mary Cokenour

 





Marie Callender's Brings Breakfast to a Low.

Convenience food; yes, sometimes I rely on a frozen product because I am in a rush to get somewhere and there's no time to cook up something fresh. When it comes to breakfast though, I really, truly should know better by now. I have tried many of the products out on the market: IHOP, Jimmy Dean, Special K, Pillsbury and now Marie Callender joins the ranks of the frozen breakfast sandwich. This new product comes in a three pack and good thing too; it will take three tries before you finally get it to a semi-decent, edible state.

The directions begin with "Open carton.  Position open sandwich to match image on left."  Since it is a frozen product, I have to wonder why this first direction?  While in transit from the distribution center to store, could it have been tampered with?  Were the eggs and bacon doing the rumba when no one was watching?  After checking to see it matched the photo, I closed up the carton and microwaved it for 90 seconds, then let it rest for 1 minute as instructed.

As you can see in the above photo, it looks almost exactly like it does on the box; but is it the same?  I needed a knife to pry the sides of the biscuit off the silvery lining it sat upon while microwaving; that's a negative.  The bacon was crisp; that's a plus.  The cheese was not totally melted and oozing all over the place like with other brands of breakfast sandwiches, but it was still on the cold side; that's a neutral.  The eggs were not frozen, but still too cold to eat and liquid oozed out when bitten into; that's a negative.

The second sandwich was microwaved an additional 15 seconds; eggs were warmer, but the biscuit was totally stuck to the silvery lining and hard as a rock.

Third sandwich was microwaved for the recommended 90 seconds; however I removed the eggs and microwaved them separately on a separate dish; so a two step cooking process.  Third time was the charm!!!

The package information states the product was tested in an 1100 watt microwave; mine is a bit more powerful, so you would have thought that it would have been just about perfect on the first try.  Nope!

Until I can find a breakfast product that cooks up perfectly and tastes great on the first try; I guess I'll be getting up earlier to cook up my own.  Sorry Marie Callender, but I'm considering this new product a fail.

Mary Cokenour

Chicken Salad Should NOT Come Out of a Can.

Canned tuna, canned salmon, canned shrimp, canned clams, canned crab and canned chicken; has convenience just gone too far?  Or you go into the deli area of your market and see a "salad" in a plastic container; but where are the edible ingredients?  Usually there is so much mayonnaise, you wonder if that is exactly what is in the container and nothing else.  Mayonnaise for any type of "salad" should be a coating, a simple binder for ingredients, NOT the main ingredient.

Chicken salad - do you like it with shredded chicken or chunky?  I prefer chunky myself; I like to bite into a piece of chicken and know how it tastes combined with all the added ingredients.  The best way to prepare chicken for salad making is either Rotisserie or Boiled; yes I said boiled. Boiling the chicken does not diminish its flavor; it simply is a quicker way of removing any excess fat while ensuring the chicken is thoroughly cooked. You want to use either boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenderloins; nice and meaty! For a serving of two, use four tenderloins or one large breast half (chickens have two breasts, so you only need one); place in a small saucepan and add enough water to cover the chicken. Using high heat, boil the chicken until a thick layer of scum forms on the top; skim it off; then place the chicken under running water to rinse off any residue still hanging on. Put the chicken on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and let it cool down in the refrigerator; this will also help draw out any excess water the chicken may have absorbed.  Why get rid of the water?  To keep your mayonnaise from getting runny; nothing so unappetizing as scooping up salad and seeing watery residue at the bottom of the bowl.  Yuck!

When making your salad, don't get over complicated with ingredients as you want to taste that chicken. You're looking at my photo and saying, "Where's the salt?"; most mayonnaise brands have salt already as an ingredient. After making your salad, taste it and then decide if you'd like extra salt; remember, you can always add, but not take away. Diced red onion is sweeter than the regular white onion, less harsh on the taste buds. Diced celery will give you some color and added crunch, as will the red onion; two tablespoons of each will be just right. Ground black pepper is a flavor enhancer, but use it sparingly (a half teaspoon for two servings) as it can make your salad on the "hot" side of spicy. When cutting the chicken, first cut strips with the grain, then cut your chunks; otherwise the chicken meat will shred apart, unless you want shredded chicken that is.

 
Place the chicken, onion, celery and black pepper into a medium mixing bowl; add four tablespoons of mayonnaise and gently fold together. This is when you can now decide if you would like more mayonnaise or is it just right as it is. If you want more, only add one tablespoon at a time; you want to coat and bind, not overwhelm.

When it comes to making a sandwich with your freshly made chicken salad, well that's really up to personal preferences. Depending on my mood, and what I have in stock, it could be a sesame seed kaiser roll (as in the photo), a sub roll or two nice thick slices of whole wheat bread. Fresh, crispy lettuce is the bedding between the bottom piece of bread and the salad; I prefer a mild, thin slice of cheese like baby Swiss or Provolone.  Maybe you'd like Cheddar or American;  tomato or pickles; if that is what you'd like, but personally I don't want to add so many extras that I lose the essence of the chicken salad itself.

Basically, when it comes to buying canned chicken or premade chicken salad at the deli counter, consider buying fresh chicken and creating your own salad.  You'll thank yourself later on.  Enjoy!

Mary Cokenour