Chile Relleno and Berry Picking!

There's nothing quite like waking up early on a Saturday morning to pick your own berries! Yesterday, Jose and I took a trip to Chickamaw Farm, where we picked enough berries to bake the tastiest blueberry pie we've ever eaten. Jose did most of the picking while I played the roll* of the photographer, but I did manage to sneak in a few blueberries and get a taste. Well, I shouldn't say 'sneak'; Bill, the farmer, was nice enough to let us try them.

*(It's Monday morning. I wrote this post Sunday evening. I just realized I typed roll instead of role. I read the entry before publishing it; obviously, I didn't catch the 'mistake' because my brain is now wired in such a way that I subconsciously use food terms in place of other nouns. This is what happens when your hobbies and job revolve around food. No complaints here, though :).)

Guess what the best part about Chickamaw farm is? Well, not only does it have a cool name (it means 'sacred land' in Choctaw, according to Bill) but the owners of the farm only grow organic fruits...and catfish! Catfish?! Yep! Bill and his family have a pond where they've established a mini food chain for their catfish; these fish only eat the finest foods - other fish, not the nasty fake stuff - so they get pretty large...think 11 lbs! HUGE! Sometimes, Bill and his family take a swim with the fish; imagine how fun it would be to ride a monster catfish :D! I got that image in my head as soon as he mentioned the gigantic sizes of these happy and healthy creatures. Jose asked if he could come back and fish some time, Bill said yes! We're not sure if we'll be able to do it before we leave Austin in two months, but since we plan on settling down here in the future, we'll definitely go back to fish and pick more berries!

Ok, so the berries were also huge. As soon as I popped one of these tasty berries into my mouth, I was shocked! I took a bite of half a blueberry and then a double-take at the remaining blueberry...is this really a blueberry?, I thought. It was juicy, full of more flavor than any store-bought blueberry, and it was rich - rich in blueberry goodness. It was a blueberry. In fact, it was more Blueberry than any other blueberry I'd ever tasted (note the capital 'B'). If you're ever in Texas, be sure to check out Chickamaw Farm, especially if you're craving fresh blueberries!

After a fun filled day of picking our own blueberries, grocery shopping at our favorite market, and dining at a tasty cafe here in town, we still managed to muster-up enough energy to spend a good portion of our weekend cooking. We prepare about 4 meals on the weekends because we don't have much time to cook during the week; Jose and I enjoy coming home to a nourishing dinner after a long day at work, so we really don't mind all the cooking. One of the meals we put together was my grandma's Chile Relleno. Thankfully, all our hard work paid off...and I mean, it was hard work! To make these, my grandma toasts the chilies (or peppers, I should say) over a direct flame (so that the skin wrinkles and comes off easily); she uses her gas stove to do this. Our apartment is completely electric, so I had to fry the peppers. This was a little dangerous and painful...but fun! I don't have the proper 'frying materials' so I got a little fried, too...oh, but the meal was well-worth it. It certainly wasn't perfect; the peppers could've been fried a little longer, but it was a fun first try. Initially, I was really concerned about the egg white sticking to the peppers, but, thankfully, it did! We also ate this tasty meal with some homemade rice, beans, and nopales!

From the blueberries we devoured, to the tasty peppers we inhaled, this was a very yummy weekend. Hope your week ahead is just as delicious and fun.

easy taquitos!

...and for the last day of chicken left-overs, I made taquitos! I'm gonna have to start using a recipe book because I'm running out of ideas for chicken; my palate is still somewhat narrow but hopefully that'll change soon...back to the topic, this is another recipe that'll work for those days when there isn't much time for anything fancy. This is also fun finger food for parties or snack time. I made this a meal by serving it with the traditional side of beans and rice...and the not so traditional organic mixed veggies :D... When I can't have veggies in the actual meal, I always make sure to serve them as a side so that I feel like I'm getting meeting some of the food pyramid requirements :P.

So what did I do for the taquitos? I used some shredded chicken, fried it with cubed potatoes, chopped garlic and onion. Of course, a pinch of salt and pepper were thrown in, along with a hearty sprinkle of cilantro and parsley. I put the chicken in corn tortillas, which I warmed up in the micro for about 20 seconds so they'd be soft enough to roll into taquitos without breaking. I also added some colby/jack cheese before rolling everything up and piercing the taquitos with a toothpick (so they would hold when frying). I then fried the taquitos in a covered pan with canola oil for about 1 minute on each side, or until they were slightly crispy/golden all around. That's basically it! This was a very fast meal to whip up; minus the cooking time for the chicken, I was able to finish this in 15 minutes!

fast tacos: college friendly food!

Every once in awhile, either out of pure tiredness, lack of time, or hunger, I need to make something fast. Putting this together reminded me of my college days, when I could eat a bag of Pepperidge Farm Snickerdoodles for dinner, (this was before I had my gallbladder removed) and when eating healthy wasn't a major concern, obviously! But now that those days are over, I'm realizing that even though college kids don't necessarily have much time to cook on a day to day basis, there should still be more recipes available to them that are healthy while also fast and easy to make. The almost-ideal meal would be one that could be prepared in 20 minutes or less while still including more flavor and nutrients than the average college student's boiled water and ramen noodle "specialty" :). (I tended to lean more toward peanut butter and honey sandwiches, but even that wasn't "healthy" since that alone was my dinner when I got tired of dorm food!)

I think these "fast tacos" are both easy to make and healthy to eat. Though a kitchen is required, and sadly they aren't always available in dorms, it's still a generally low-key dish as far as preparations are concerned. I basically used:

about 1 1/2 cup shredded pre-crock-pot-made chicken
1 organic potato, diced
1 roma tomato, diced into squares
1/2 a small green bell pepper
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp epazote
1/4-1/2 tsp cilantro
1/4-1/2 tsp oregano

I cooked the potato cubes first, then added the rest of the ingredients; cooking them all together for about 10 minutes over a medium flame. I also added beans, and even though I usually make my own beans, I didn't have 3 hours to do that today so I used a great organic alternative. Then I just added about 2 TBSP PACE (this stuff is good, I never mind using it :), a pinch of pepper, and a few shakes of mesquite McCormick seasoning. After that, I heated the beans up in the micro and rolled them up with the cooked chicken/spices/potatoes and cheese in a warm whole wheat tortilla! This meal came together fast and it was pretty good; this is my kind of fast food :).

fresh tostadas and salsa

I bought a $4 whole chicken at the grocery store on Sunday, cooked it in the crock-pot and I'm still finishing it up! What a bargain! I've been able to make so many meals with it, including last night's tostada dish.

I had to add a few more spices to the chicken, since it seems only the skin absorbed the flavor of the spices I added when I cooked it in the crock-pot. So I just chopped up about 1 1/2 cups of chicken, threw it into a pan with a little bit of olive oil, then seasoned it with cilantro, salt, pepper, and parsley. I added about 1/2 tsp of parsley, 1/4-1/2 tsp of cilantro, then a few shakes of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. I also cut up a small garlic clove and 1/8 cup of onion--added that to the chicken while it was spiced over a medium flame for about 5-7 minutes--or until it was slighty golden (I like toasting chicken sometimes because it adds good flavor, especially in Mexican dishes...I notice that pork chops also taste better when they're on the crispier side, not burned, though!)

As for the tortillas that I used for the tostadas, I purchased a bag of locally made tortillas that are completely preservative free (I am horrible at making tortillas, I tried a few times and all that results is a horrible mess and blocks of flour!), then I fried them in olive oil over a medium flame until they were crispy. If you don't want to fry them (I actually didn't fry the ones I ate) you can toast them on a grittle pan until they get crunchy--this is what my grandma does.

The garnish I used for the tostadas included the following ingredients: romaine lettuce (chopped), a chopped roma tomato, some grated cheese, and of course the salsa.

My grandma taught me how to make salsa a few months ago, but I wanted to add a few more things to it. I added chopped red bell pepper because it has a sweetness to it that balances out the spiciness of the chili piquin I used.
Here's what went into the salsa (this makes about 1/2 cup of salsa):
2 boiled roma tomatoes, with the skin removed
1 chili piquin
1/8 cup sweet onion
1 small chopped garlic
2 TBSP finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 tsp cilantro
1/4 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
I threw the roma tomatoes into the blender with 2 1/2 tsp of warm water and the little piquin. While this was blending into a liquid, I chopped up the garlic, onion and red bell pepper, then lightly sauteed these ingredients in olive oil with the cilantro and pepper. I then added the sauteed veggies to the plain roma tomato/piquin chili "sauce", added about 1/4 tsp of salt, then I turned the blender back on for a few seconds on the "grate" setting; I didn't want a complete puree, there should still be some small pieces of bell pepper in there.

That's about it for the salsa, you can chill it if you want to, or eat it warm on top of the tostadas.

One thing I really like on my tostadas is refried beans. I still had beans left over from the other day (you can get the recipe here), so I just added a couple of tablespoons of oil to a pan (I used olive because it doesn't smell up the house as much as canola/vegetable oil, and it does taste good with the beans), spooned in the beans, raised the flame to a medium-low setting and started mashing them with a spoon once they warmed up. I didn't completely mash them into a big mushy thing, I left a few semi-whole and then let all the beans simmer over a low flame until most of the watery bean "soup" evaporated, so that I was left with the refried beans.

Oh, and before I go, here are a few more pictures of my guineas, I took these a few days ago:
This is Mochi (we refer to him as the mini buffalo, he kinda looks like it)


This is Yoshi! (he's actually really hyper, but you can't tell that here)

it's a feast! enchiladas, beans, and spanish rice.

I spent many hours cooking today, since I had the time. I didn't eat most the stuff I made, though, haha, it's a little too spicy for my weak stomach, but I did eat a little of the harvest bread (it's a recipe I made up today because I had a craving for some sweet, homey bread--this cut the craving and I'll be posting the recipe after this).

I'll start out with the beans, these guys take about 3 hours to cook--so you'll probably want to prepare them in the morning, you can cook them a little slower or faster, depending on how high you put the flame. (I personally feel beans taste best when slow cooked for more than three hours, but I didn't get started on them early enough :D.)

Ok Beans...you'll basically pour all these ingredients into a big pot and cook them together
1 Cup pinto beans (make sure you rinse them first, check for rocks)
5 Cups water
1/3 cup chopped onions (white)
1 whole roma tomato, chopped
1 1/2 tsp cilantro
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp epazote
You'll first want to bring these beans to a boil for about 20-25 minutes, then lower the flame to a low-medium setting for about two hours. In the third hour, you'll want to add 1-1 1/4 cup more of water and 3/4 tsp garlic salt, then raise the flame to a higher setting (closer to medium) and cook the beans a little more, for about 45 minutes, then lower the flame again in the last few minutes so the beans can cool before being served.

Ok...the enchiladas
My grandma showed me how to make enchiladas and the tortillas for the enchiladas the last time I paid her a visit a few months ago (she lives in CA). But I didn't have all the ingredients she used, so the sauce came out darker and a little thicker; it actually taste kinda like a mole sauce, at least Jose seems to think so. It's a tad bit spicy, so it can be served with sour cream, you can also add a few more tomatoes to bring the kick down a few "degrees".

Here's the basic recipe, like I said I had to alter it and I do think my grandma's are way better :):
2/3 cup tomato puree 3 fried pasilla chilis (get them dry, then lightly fry them in olive oil until they are a deep cherry color--you'll be able to smell when they're ready)
1 chili pequin (this can also be fried)
1 garlic
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp oregano
These ingredients can be blended together until they've completely liquefied into a sauce.

And what goes in the enchiladas? (you should preheat the oven to 350 at this point)
I chose to fill them with a chicken/potato mixture. I actually cooked a whole chicken the night before in crock-pot (it was seasoned with salt, pepper, honey, garlic and herb seasoning).
Here's basically what I did for the enchilada filling:
chop up 2 cups cooked chicken, set that aside, then fry about 1 cup of little potato cubes for about 7 minutes on high, till they are slightly golden (I seasoned the potatoes with salt and pepper)
then mix the chicken in with the potatoes, cooking them together over a low flame for about 3 minutes
then add 1/4 cup of cheese (I used colby jack, not exactly traditional :D)

Lastly, for the enchiladas at least, I put the chicken/potato mix into softened, warm tortillas (corn or flour, I chose flour)--placing them each in a 9 by 13 inch oven-safe platter (I fit about 8 enchiladas). Then I poured the enchilada sauce on top of the tortilla roll-ups, threw some shredded cheese on top, and baked them in the 350 degree oven (covered up with aluminum foil or an appropriate cover--otherwise they'll dry up) for about 20 minutes.

Next...the rice...this is what you'll need to put in your blender for the rice:
3 small boiled roma tomatoes (skin removed)
1 finely chopped garlic clove
1/4 cup chopped white or yellow onion
2 cups water
1 chicken bouillon cube (make sure it's disintegrated, you might want to dissolve it in the water, just put the water/bouillon in the micro for about 1 min right before you throw it in the blender as a broth)

After this is blended, you can measure 1 1/4 cup rice and pour it in a large all-purpose pan. Chop up 1 garlic so that you can fry it in a few tablespoons of oil along with the white rice (I use long grain). The rice can be fried with the garlic/oil for about 3 minutes, then the blended ingredients can be added--the pan should then be covered so that the rice can cook over a low setting for about 25 minutes, but it should first be brought to a quick boil.

My goodness...this was a busy cooking day for me...I have yet to post the harvest bread recipe (I'll leave that for tomorrow)! I think tomorrow I'll take a kitchen break...hmm...eh, maybe not :). Cooking makes me happy, I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

Chilaquiles

So here's my first recipe posting...and it's for a Mexican dish! It's not authentic, although Jose claims that it tastes like it is, so I'm gonna take his word for it. Why isn't it authentic? Because I used so many canned items and...premade tortillas! I am ashamed, I truly am, considering I am half Mexican and grew up with a grandma who makes the best Mexican food this side of the border. I usually hate using canned goods, but when I'm too lazy to make the food myself, I purchase it premade. I know how to cook beans, at least, but today, I was too lazy to do even that! It's ok, though, considering I'm still entitled to the "college student" label, and we all know what most college kid's diets consist of: Ramen and Ramen, and maybe white rice or some kind of freezer burned pizza! I like experimenting outside of those three food groups, but like I said, sometimes it's nice to just keep it simple...we all have days like that.

So here it is, it's my quick version of chilaquiles. If you're not familiar with this simple but still pretty good Mexican concoction, it's a mix of meat, chili, cheese, and tortillas (or corn tortilla chips, but I used soft flour tortillas, instead). I changed up the recipe even more by adding black beans, they're full of iron and fiber! yum yum! I also mixed in some ground meat (oh, and I use ground turkey instead of ground beef because it's a lot healthier). The cheese I used was very American: Colby jack...but I don't have any goats around here, and I'm not as fabulous as my grandma, who can make her own cheese! So, Kraft, thank you for saving this culturally ignorant child by coming to her rescue on a lazy day like this!

This recipe makes about 4 servings of chilaquiles

Here are the ingredients:
For the meat:
1 TBSP garlic and herb bread crumbs
1/2 lb ground turkey
2 tsp fine herb spice (I bought this at Central Market*)
1/2 Tbsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper
1 TBSP olive oil

*Central Market is basically a gourmet grocery store here in TX, I know they don't have them over in CA, but Whole Foods probably carries this mix of spices too.

The other stuff:
1/2 15 oz can organic black beans
1/4 bag low fat Kraft colby/jack cheese
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 container mushrooms
2.25 oz can of sliced black olives
1 10 oz can Old El Paso green chile sauce (mild, if you can't take the heat like me!)
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
5 flour tortillas (cut these up into little bite-size squares)

Garnish:
1 tbsp sour cream/serving
1tsp pace picante sauce/serving
1 small handful colby/jack cheese/serving


Instructions:
Mix the meat and all the meat ingredients into one medium sized bowl (except the olive oil), after all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in the meat, cook the meat over a medium-low flame/setting in a pan with the olive oil until the meat is no longer pink. Then, slowly add in "the other stuff". First the mushrooms, mix them in with the cooked meat so they absorb the flavor of the spices, then add in the black olives along with the olive juices from the olive can. Then add in the red pepper and Tabasco sauce, mix in with meat/olives/mushrooms. Finally, add the green chili sauce, followed by the flour tortillas, then sprinkle the cheese on top. Lower the flame so it's on the lowest setting, and cover the pan until the cheese melts and the tortillas are soft. Then serve and eat as is or with the garnishes. See, it's pretty darn simple and it only takes about 30 minutes to cook/prepare and less than 2 minutes to eat!