Mildly Wild Salsa, The Best Homemade Salsa

I recently made what is now my favorite homemade salsa and I’ll most likely make it this way from now on.  I couldn’t think of a fun, clever name to call it and asked my mom for ideas.  So I credit her with what is now called Mildly Wild Salsa.  It’s got a great, spicy kick to it, but is not-too-hot to enjoy.  That is one thing I don’t like about some hot salsas—they are just too much to actually eat and like.  I don’t like chunky salsa, mostly because I strongly dislike onions, especially in any recognizable form. ;)  This has the perfect hit of flavor you need from onions (though I used shallot), but the real flavor punch is from the jalapeno and cilantro.  Can’t forget about the garlic and fresh lime juice either. 

There are a couple of Mexican restaurants where I love the salsa, I always say I could almost drink it.  I also like to say I love the smell of April Fresh Downy so much that I could drink it, too, but that’s a totally different story (and no, I haven’t and won’t drink Downy). ;)  Sometimes when we’ve tried making it at home, it has seemed a bit acidy.  We’ve tried putting a little sugar in it and that helps a bit, but this time when I made it, it was just too hot, even when I removed most of the seeds and ribs from the inside of the jalapeno.  We have also found over time that we like using canned tomatoes rather than fresh ones.  Many like a fresh, chunky salsa with lots of cut up veggies, but that brings up the whole raw chunks of onions that I can’t handle again.  After making this as I most often do and deciding it was much too spicy, I decided to add a can of tomato sauce—and it is so good!  It added just the right amount of sweetness that helps cut the acid and made it so it was perfectly spicy but definitely not too spicy.  Try it!

Mildly Wild Salsa, The Best Homemade Salsa, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 jalapeno, ribs and most of the seeds removed (but leave some!) and cut into 4 pieces

1 shallot (or about 1/4 cup onion), roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

juice of half a lime (or more to taste)

14 ounce can of diced or whole tomatoes (not drained)

8 ounce can of tomato sauce

In the bowl of a food processor put the cut up jalapeno, the shallot, garlic and cilantro.  Pulse a few times.  Add the sugar, cumin, salt and lime juice.  Pulse until all is finely chopped.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Pulse again.  Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce and pulse until  tomatoes are well chopped and almost smooth.  Serve with chips.

Perfect for snacking, lunch, dinner, snacking…….heck, it would work great for huevo rancheros for breakfast, too, or any other type of Mexican breakfast!

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Bites

These are perfect little bites of energy and deliciousness that are great when you don’t want to turn on the oven (or like me, have a broken oven)!  Never fear, a new one is on the way.  I love that these are healthy with mostly all natural ingredients (except the chocolate, though it is dark chocolate so is definitely on the healthier side anyway).

Super easy to make!  I formed them into to little one and a half inch disks, but they would be easy to just for into to balls.  I found these on Maggie’s blog, Smashed Peas and Carrots.  I made a few little changes to how I made them, besides forming them in to disks instead of balls.  The recipe used ground flaxseed and I only had half of what was needed for that, so I also used some wheat germ.  Her recipe also doesn’t say more than “coconut flakes”, I used the unsweetened ones and instead of mini chocolate chips, I used some chopped dark chocolate.  You could actually make these with all kinds of flavors, using different nut butters and putting dried fruit in them. 

No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Energy Bites, by Katrina and Baking and Boys! adapted from Smashed Peas and Carrots

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/4 cup ground flaxseed

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup (3 oz.) chopped dark chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes or so, which helps make the mixture easier to form into bite sized pieces.  Scoop out tablespoonsful with a small cookie scoop and put them into a 1  1/2 inch round cookie cutter (these would even be fun to use different cookie cutter shapes!), Pack the mixture down into the cutter.  You can also form them into balls, packing the mixture before you roll it.  Place them on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Refrigerate again.  (Although you may find them getting eaten before the make it back to the refrigerator.)  Store in an airtight container.  Makes 24-28 cookies, depending on size.

These really are fun, easy, delicious bites of energy!  Try not to eat too much before you even get them shaped.  I dare ya!

I have some almond butter.  I think I’ll try that next with some chopped almonds and maybe some dried cranberries. 

English Muffin Bread and Very Little Bother Bread—Secret Recipe Club

I love this bread!  I made this for the Secret Recipe Club from my assigned blog this month.  I seriously don’t eat white bread, like almost never.  I just know that whole wheat bread is much better for me and I most often prefer it, especially over store bought bread.  When I saw this bread on Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert, I remembered seeing it before other places online and wanting to make it, but never had.  Kevin likes English muffins so I figured he’d like it, too.  The loaf of bread was eaten pretty quickly and I have to admit, I ate more slices of it than I thought I would—a couple pieces one day, a couple the next. 

I love the denseness of it and all the little nooks and crannies that perfectly hold melting butter and my other favorite, honey. 

While I certainly think the bread is good freshly sliced (and it slices so nicely), my favorite way to have it is toasted, with the aforementioned butter and honey.

Love the crispy crust and still tender middle.   I adapted Shannon’s recipe ever-so-slightly.  Check out her English Muffin Bread, she added a little cinnamon to it.  I decided this first time to leave it out.  I also needed more flour than she used.

English Muffin Bread, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Searching For Dessert

3  1/3 cups all purpose flour (I used unbleached)

2  1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (which is the same as one packet)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/4 cup water

1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, whisk together one and a half cups of flour, the yeast, and baking soda. Heat in a small saucepan over medium heat the milk, water, sugar and salt just until warm.  Stir to combine the sugar and salt.  Remove from heat before it is hot.  Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and combine well.  Stir in one and a half cups of flour.  If the dough is still quite sticky, add some of the remaining 1/3 cup flour to the countertop and put the dough on top of it and begin working in some of the flour, adding more of the remaining 1/3 cup until it isn’t too sticky.  It only needs to be kneaded just until it all comes together and isn’t too sticky to shape. 

Shape it into a loaf and place it in an 8x4 inch loaf pan that is greased.  Cover the pan with plastic wrap sprayed lightly with cooking spray and let it rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Bake the bread for 25 minutes.  Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack until you just can’t stand it anymore and need to slice in to it. ;)

Ready to bake with no kneading and just 45 minutes rise time.

Perfect in just 25 minutes.

I also made this bread from Shannon’s blog, Searching For Dessert because I love the name of it and the idea of it being easy!  Very Little Bother Bread  The recipe makes enough for two loaves, so I halved it and only made one loaf.  It was good and easy.  The mixer does the short time of kneading.  The dough then goes through two 30 minute rise times, then is shaped and put in the pan for one more 30 minute rising.  Baked, then—with very little bother, you have a great homemade bread.  I used about half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.

Very Little Bother Bread

Other recipes I printed out from Shannon’s blog and plan to try soon are---

Southwest Quinoa Sliders

Crisped Rice Cookies

Banana Brownies with Peanut Butter Drizzle  (Shannon loves creating all kinds of different flavored brownies, so do I!)

There is so much more deliciousness on Shannon’s blog.  Check it out, especially if you are Searching For Dessert. ;)

 

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

This Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream would be perfect for Cinco de Mayo.  That said, why save it for only one day of the year.  This is fabulous ice cream!  Mexican chocolate has a little kick of cinnamon in it.  But to make this ice cream have even more of a kick—I also added some cayenne pepper.  Now we’re talkin’.

Too many months ago, I made mention on Facebook or a blog about how I could never find Mexican chocolate around here.  Out of nowhere a few days later, I received a package in the mail from my dear friend, Suzanne, from Thru the Bugs on My Windshield.   She sent me a bunch of Ibarra Mexican chocolate.  She said it was everywhere in Texas.  So after months and months of seeing it in my baking cupboard, yesterday when I saw it sitting on the shelf, it came to me—ICE CREAM.  I don’t know what took me so long to think of it, but I finally knew what I’d make with the chocolate. 

Mexican chocolate is grainy because it has lots of sugar in it, as well as the cinnamon.  It’s not the easiest thing to chop, but I managed with my new Cutco Santoku knife. ;)

I made up my own recipe, which I’m always proud of myself when I do.  I added the cream and milk to a saucepan.  Once it was beginning to get hot over medium heat, I added the chopped chocolate and the cayenne pepper.  After the chocolate was melted and the mixture was almost to a boil, I removed it from the heat and slowly whisked a little of it in to the waiting egg yolks and salt.  Once the yolks are mixed with some of the hot cream, it can be poured back in to the saucepan.   I returned it to the heat and stirred it until a thermometer read 175 degrees and it was thickened.  It didn’t even take 2 minutes.  Once it was removed from the heat, I added some vanilla then strained the mixture over a fine-mesh strainer into a metal bowl.  That helped remove some of the lingering graininess. 

I then set the bowl into a bigger bowl that is filled with ice and water and it takes an ice bath while I stir it every couple minutes.  This cools the mixture really fast.  You could just set the hot creamed mixture in an airtight container in the fridge until it is chilled.  But doing it in an ice bath makes it cold and chillin’ and ready to churn within about 30 minutes!

Just about ready for the ice cream maker.

Here it goes.  I think I’ll go take a siesta.

Ahh!  Ready for a stint in the freezer, although this is how I prefer ice cream—soft serve!

Since I didn’t make this one low fat at all, I only tasted a little bit—but it is GOOD!  Love the little, subtle kick from the cayenne.  You could add more than I did if you want a little more spice!

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

2  1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup 2% milk (or whole)

10 ounces Mexican chocolate (Ibarra brand preferred), chopped

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

3 large egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the cream and milk until hot.  Add the chopped chocolate and cayenne pepper.  Stir to combine.  Whisk until all the chocolate is melted and the milk is almost to a boil.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and salt.  Add some of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks, whisking while you add it.  This helps make sure the egg yolks don’t curdle.  Once you’ve added about 1/3 of the cream mixture, pour the now whisked egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan and return it to a medium heat.  Cook until the mixture thickens and it reaches 175 degrees on a thermometer.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Whisk it all together and pour it into a metal bowl with a fine-mesh strainer over it to remove some of the grainy sugar/chocolate that hasn’t dissolved (there isn’t much there, but it’s good to strain it). 

Put the bowl over an ice bath in a bigger bowl and let it cool, whisking it every few minutes.  Within about half an hour, it will be cold and ready to churn.  Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, about 20-30 minutes.  Remove from ice cream maker and put it in an airtight container in the freezer for a couple hours.

Delicious!  While it is finally just climbing in to the 60’s and looking a little like spring here in Utah (we just had snow two days ago), I hear there is a major heat wave more West of here, like in California and Arizona.  You need ice cream.  It’ll cool you down.  And if you make this Mexican chocolate ice cream, just in time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it’ll heat you right back up with its nice spice kick—it’s so worth it!

Thanks so much for the Mexican chocolate, Suzanne!  So mighty Texan of ya!  (Luv ya!)

Blue Razzleberry Pie for National Blueberry Pie Day

Today is National Blueberry Pie Day!  The wonderful folks at Driscoll's recently sent me $15 worth of coupons for their delicious berries to celebrate the day.  Thanks, Driscoll’s!

A couple issues came up.  I couldn’t find Driscoll’s blueberries around here.  I tried a few places.  I was really bummed.  But I do have blueberries from last year in my freezer so I used those and in honor of Driscoll’s berries, I did (much more easily) find their raspberries and blackberries at my local grocery store.  SO, I decided to make a mostly blueberry pie and threw in some raspberries and blackberries.  Thus the reason I’m calling my pie a Blue Razzleberry Pie.  Clever, I know.  I can’t help it. ;)

Look at all the berry-goodness!  I set out to find just the pie recipe I wanted to make and settled on this one I found at Bon Appetit Magazine website.  I wanted to have a streusel topped pie and this fit the bill.  But friends, can I just tell you how frustrating it is when I make a pie crust and follow directions exactly and STILL have crust that shrinks while it’s baking.  Sigh.  I’m going to figure this out.  Maybe it’s a Utah/higher altitude issue.   Irks me to no end though when I prebake a crust and it’s shrinks.  I think I’m going to not prebake a crust and see if it helps.  I know, some think I’ll then have a soggy crust, but I’ve never had that happen.  If you see all that juice in the bowl of macerating berries, I didn’t put it all in the pie.  I knew since the blueberries had been frozen that it was too much. 

Isn’t that purty?  Not.

But I carried on and put the berries in the pie and the streusel on top and baked it.  The Bon Appetit recipe said to bake it for one hour and 15 minutes, checking it after 30 minutes to see if the crust is getting too brown and if so to cover it with foil.  I thought the crust looked just right, so I did cover it loosely with foil.  Set the timer for another 30 minutes.  I peeked in on it after about 15 and it looked great.  By the time the second 30 minutes were up, the entire bottom of the crust was swimming in a blue-purple blueberry goo.  SIGH!  I can’t tell you how upset that makes me. 

I found solace in knowing that the pie would still taste great.  It just wasn’t going to win any pie contests for beauty.  ;)  I knew to be careful with how much I filled the crust since it shrunk in a few places in the prebake.  Didn’t help.  What really tanned my hide is that it still had 15 more minutes bake time according to the recipe.  I took it out at one hour and didn’t let it bubble away all over for another fifteen.

I was right.  The pie is very good.  Love the extra hit of raspberry and blackberry, but it’s definitely a blueberry pie.  Thanks again for the berries, Driscoll's (Facebook page).  Check it out and like them on Facebook and find the link to their website above.  They have lots of great recipes posted.  Should have looked there first, duh! Since I wanted a streusel topped pie, I just Googled it and got Bon Appetit.  Sometimes, my brain is not firing on all cylinders.  In my own defense, I did follow the Bon Appetit recipe directions exactly and still had a shrunken prebaked crust.

Bake on!

Snickerdoodle Poppers from Oh, Bite It and a Rant About Stealing From Food Blogs

So, a couple weeks ago I saw these fun, delicious looking Snickerdoodle Poppers on Facebook.  Kevin saw me looking at them and said they looked like something he would like.  But there was a problem—they were on Facebook and not being posted correctly.  You see, people keep tagging and sharing photos and recipes they like from sources that are NOT the ones who created the recipes.  As a food blogger, this is very annoying.  I know that all food bloggers feel this way.  It is just like stealing!  It is wrong.  There are MANY Facebook pages out there that just go around putting photos and recipes on THEIR page and getting people to “like” them and share them.  You see, what that does is gives them the credit and leaves it so the persons who actually created the recipe and took the photos don’t get any credit for them.  Neither do they get people coming to blogs, which more often than not are the sources for the recipes and photos.  People either don’t care or just don’t have a clue that that is stopping bloggers from making money.  MANY food bloggers do this for a living.  It is their income.

PLEASE, please stop liking and sharing recipes that don’t have links to where the recipes come from!  When I saw the Snickerdoodle Poppers and the horrible Facebook page that was stealing it and getting people to like it on their page, I did a quick Google search of the photo and right away found the real source for the recipe and photo.  I actually commented to a few of my friends who I saw “liking” this recipe that they were doing it wrong and not giving credit to the correct source.  Really, photos should not have the actual recipe ON Facebook.  They should just have the link to where you can go find the photo, which are often food blogs.  Help out food bloggers and stop “liking” and sharing anything with whole recipes posted on Facebook.  I don’t know of ANY food bloggers who actually put recipes on their Facebook pages.  So if you see recipes, they are pretty much being stolen and used improperly.

If you do see a recipe on Facebook that you like and want to save, do a quick, easy search for it and you’ll find it—most likely every time!  Please stop giving the wrong people credit and income that don’t deserve it.  It has become quite the epidemic on Facebook lately.  And if you couldn’t tell, I think it’s really annoying.  I haven’t even found something from my own blog stolen yet, but I consider every food blogger out there, whether I know them or not, my friends and colleagues.  We look out for each other.  I know you’d do the same for your family, friends and colleagues.

With my little rant over, I want to share these Snickerdoodle Poppers with you.  The true and real source for these is from Amy at the blog, Oh, Bite It.  Talk about a delicious blog!

You see how I’ve left the link for you for her recipe?  Yeah, that’s how it should be done.  Now, if I would have changed some things in the recipe, I would reprint it with my changes, but still let you know where I got the inspiration for the recipe, giving her proper credit and making sure my readers know that.  Oh, whoops, got back on my little rant there.  Sorry.  All this stealing that has been going on—really irks me.  It doesn’t just happen on Facebook.  It has been running rampant on Pinterest and Instagram AND on blogs.  Too many don’t give credit to their sources.  And many actually steal photos and just copy and paste entire recipes word for word and even worse—entire posts.  Little ol’ me has even had all my posts stolen and copied and pasted right on to another blog.  (Got that all taken care of.)  Just give a little credit where credit is due!

I didn’t change her recipe.  And it is awesome.  She uses Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layers Biscuits for her poppers.  They make terrific donut holes!  After turning the biscuits in to rounds like donut holes, they are fried.

Fried food doesn’t happen very often at our house, but the boys love donuts and the like.

The only thing I did do different with the recipe is the cream filling.  Amy just uses some vanilla pudding.  I kicked it up a bit, because when Kevin saw these, he mentioned that he would like them better if that was just whipped cream or something.  (He doesn’t care for pudding, especially vanilla.) 

I remembered a vanilla cream pudding mixture I made for some Boston Cream Whoopie Pies a while back and decided to make that for these poppers.  It’s a little like making a custard and a little like a vanilla flavored whipped cream.  And it’s SO good.  I actually only injected about 8 of the poppers with the cream and left the majority of them as-is.  I knew the boys would like them better that way.  Though I will admit, I loved the one I ate with the cream inside!  I got the recipe and idea for this vanilla cream from Kristan at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  The recipe is on the link to her blog.

You just mix a package of vanilla pudding mix in with one cup of milk and a cup of whipped cream.  It whips into a nice, thick custardy-cream.  Since I didn’t use very much in the poppers, I have most of it left and will be putting it to use soon!

These were gone in a flash at our house.  Scott, my 14 year old, definitely ate MORE than his fair share of them and said he would have eaten them all if he didn’t have to share.

Thanks, Amy and Kristan!  I hope the Facebook (and other sources of online media) stealing is a passing fad and goes away quickly!  If everyone did their part…….

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Crystallized Ginger—Group B Secret Recipe Club

I couldn’t help it.  When I heard that someone in Group B of the Secret Recipe Club was going to be an orphan, with no one posting something from her blog, I had to do something about it.  Never fear though, because whenever that happens and it is announced on the SRC Facebook page, there are many volunteers in line to jump in and help—every time.  The Secret Recipe Club really is a great group of people.  I’m in Group A and there are four different groups.  Betcha can’t guess what the other groups are named? ;)

I almost had a knock down, drag out fight with Kirstin from Loving Life to get this orphan, then we compromised and both made something!  Nothing wrong with showing double the love for another blogger.  So I got busy and found something to make from Jane’s blog, Jane's Adventures in Dinner and you’ll never guess what I made?  Oh wait, there is a picture of them right there.  Okay, are you surprised, I made cookies?  I have a little secret, since this IS the Secret Recipe Club.  Every time I get an assignment, the first thing I look for on a blog is cookies.  Then, I look at all desserts.  THEN I look at the rest, the savory food.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE “real” food and actually eat lots of healthy food.  I have just found that I enjoy baking more than cooking.  It’s more fun to share baked goods.  I also can’t seem to take decent pictures of savory food to save my life.  AND, when I made something that will be for dinner, the family wants it right then and there.  They hate when I make them wait for photos first. ;) 

After a quick search through the cookies and desserts on Jane’s blog, I settled on some that she actually just posted a few weeks ago.  These Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies were super easy and delicious!  Not only do they have coconut added but a surprise ingredient as well—crystallized ginger.

I only made half a batch of the cookies because I thought my boys would turn up their noses at the ginger and not eat them.  I was wrong.  They are going fast and Taylor in particular loves them.   GREAT cookie!  I made a few minor changes to Jane’s recipe.  I added some salt as I used unsalted butter and she didn’t have salt in her recipe.  I also added more chocolate chips than it called for—because, I’m a rebel, plain and simple.  And I added a little more flour than she did, but that is more because of our high altitude and I didn’t want the cookies to be flat.  They were not at all!

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Crystallized Ginger, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Jane at Jane's Adventures in Dinner

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1  1/2 cups (180 grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces dark chocolate chips (about 2/3 cups)

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped finely

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. (Jane’s recipe baked at 350 degrees.)  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together the butter and sugars in an electric mixer.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the egg and vanilla and cream until light and fluffy.  Scrape sides of bowl again.  Add all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to combine.  Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Stir in the chocolate chips, coconut and ginger.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

These are were great!  Thanks, Jane.  Thanks, Group B.  Thanks Secret Recipe Club!