Mark's Homemade Salsa

Our favorite local market has fresh salsa available in the deli, but Mark decided to make some of his own. It was delicious, nothing beats the fresh flavor of homemade salsa. Plus it's only a fraction of the cost of the fresh salsa we often by at our local market.

Mark's Homemade Salsa
5 to 6 Roma tomatoes
1/2 small red onion
1 jalepeno
1 serrano
2 garlic cloves
handful of cilantro leaves
salt & pepper to taste

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and remove the seeds. Coarsely chop the onion, jalepeno, and serrano. Place all ingredients in your food processor on the "chop" setting. Quickly chop the ingredients (you can use the "pulse" setting if your processor has one). You only need to chop for a few seconds.

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips or over tacos, chicken, fish, etc. Enjoy!

Restaurant Review – LOCAL in Norman, OK

If you live in the Oklahoma City area, you’ve got to try this restaurant. Mark and I recently went there for dinner and really enjoyed it. We’ll be going back soon. It’s tucked in a strip mall a few blocks off the freeway, but inside it is spacious, trendy, welcoming, and the food is fantastic. LOCAL is the first restaurant in the area that we’ve found using fresh, local ingredients (that’s pretty much the whole idea behind the restaurant). They also have a large selection of gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan dishes (and they are clearly marked on the menu)!  What makes LOCAL so great, is the style with which they prepare and present the local ingredients – simple, creative, fresh, delicious.

We started our meal with truffle chips – homemade potato chips with infused with truffle oil and served with three dipping sauces… sundried tomato basil, blue cheese, and house barbeque. The blue cheese dip was our favorite. (Bonus – this appetizer is free if you have a Keep It Local card --- if you don’t have one, you should! They cost $10 and get you lots of freebies and discounts at participating OKC area restaurants.)

Mark and I both chose salads… the salads are served with a fresh roll. I think there was butter baked in because it wasn’t served with any butter and really didn’t need anything to top it. It was absolutely perfect.

Mark had the Arugula salad with red onion, goat cheese, and orange honey vinaigrette.

I had the Bacon and Egg salad – it was phenomenal – arugula with crisp bacon, a panko crusted poached egg, and truffle sherry vinaigrette.  Just look at that luscious egg yolk spilling into the salad. Heaven.

We didn’t intend to order dessert, but we (actually I) couldn’t resist the creative milk and cookies. LOCAL has a daily milk & cookie option. It changes regularly based on the chef’s choice of fresh ingredients. On this particular day it was red velvet infused milk and a white chocolate pistachio cookie. Scrumptious!!! I am not a milk-lover (unless it’s chocolate), but the red velvet infused milk was sooooo good.

At the entrance to the restaurant, there’s a market where you can buy fresh grab-and-go food along with some great products created by local artists. I got this great little make-up bag. Love it!

I can’t wait to go back soon. 
Check it out for yourself!   eatatlocal.com

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Rice Noodles

It’s back to school time. Everyone is trying to get back into the routine and looking for quick meals. Here’s one that’s quick, delicious, AND healthy. If you chop the vegetables the night before, you can have this yummy meal ready in no time.

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Rice Noodles

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon chile paste (Huy Fong – Sambal Oelek)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
12 ounces shrimp

2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons chopped cashews
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
1 green Thai chile (or 1 serrano chile), seeds removed, finely chopped
10 mini sweet peppers (or 1 to 1 1/2 red/yellow bell peppers), coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks
3/4 cup snow peas
3/4 cup bean sprouts
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces rice noodles, softened in hot water and drained

Mix the first 5 ingredients (vinegar, honey, chile paste, soy sauce, shrimp) together in a medium bowl. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

---- Now you can either use the next 30 minutes while the shrimp is marinating to chop vegetables. Or if you chopped them the night before, you can use this extra time to help kids with homework, throw in a load of laundry, etc (have a glass of wine, put your feet up, etc… you wish). ----

This next part goes very fast. So have all of your ingredients handy and you’ll have dinner on the table in less than 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add cashews, garlic, ginger, and chile. Stir fry for 1 minute. Remove the cashew mixture with a slotted spoon (if you don’t remove, it will burn).

Increase the temperature to high heat. Add the peppers and carrot. Cook for 2 minutes, tossing frequently. Next add the shrimp mixture and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the snow peas and cook for 1 minute. Return the cashew mixture to the wok and add bean sprouts. Toss to coat. Remove from heat.

 

Serve over rice noddles with additional soy sauce on the side.

Enjoy!!

Recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light, August 2012

Strawberries with Honey-Infused Whipped Cream

This is just a great little dessert tid-bit I needed to share.  I almost always make my own whipped cream (I am just not a fan of that stuff that comes in a can).  Typically, I add powdered sugar to sweeten the cream. But this time I used honey…. Oh my gosh! The flavor is just absolutely luscious. I don’t know if I’ll ever use powdered sugar again. You just have to try honey-infused whipped cream (fancy name – simple to make). Serve simply with fresh strawberries – or just eat it with a spoon.

Honey-Infused Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons honey

Using an electric mixer, whip the cream and honey in a medium mixing bowl until soft peaks form. Enjoy!

Mustache Cake Pops

I just had to share this creative idea with you from my friend Brittany. We teamed up recently to create these super cool mustache cake pops for her friend’s birthday. We are tickled by how great they turned out.

I prepared vanilla cake pops, dipped in white chocolate.

Follow the same technique that I describe in the chocolate cake truffle post or the red velvet cake truffle post. But before you dip the cake balls into the white chocolate, add a lollipop stick to each. Dip the tip of each stick in some melted white chocolate, then gently press the dipped end of the stick into the center of a cake ball about half-way through. Allow the chocolate to harden for about 10 minutes, then proceed to dip each ball into melted white chocolate, holding each cake pop by the stick allowing excess chocolate to drip off.

Use a piece of Styrofoam or a large glass filled with uncooked rice or dried beans to hold the cake pops upright after they’ve been dipped. Allow the chocolate to harden (you can refrigerate to speed up the process if you like).

While I was prepping the cake pops, Brittany was busy creating these cute (but very sophisticated) mustaches out of black fondant. Black fondant isn’t really that fun to make (other colors are much easier). So I always buy Duff’s fondant (from Ace of Cakes) available at Michael’s craft stores.

  

When the chocolate coating on the cake pops was hardened, we attached the fondant mustaches using a small dot of royal icing as “glue.”



we persuaded Mark to model one of the mustaches



Brittany then packaged the finished cake pops in a piece of Styrofoam set inside a simple black vase tied with a matching ribbon.  Her vision was beautiful, fun, and sophisticated. Thanks for allowing me to help, Brittany!

Tomato Basil Bruschetta

I'm a huge fan of fresh tomatoes. If you are skilled enough to have a garden (I'm not... just about everything I try to grow dies), this would be absolutely delicious with whatever fresh tomatoes you have. I remember having fresh tomato sandwiches as a kid - just plain white sandwich bread, butter, and lots of salt and pepper. Simple! Yum! This Tomato Basil Bruschetta has become one of my favorite ways to eat fresh tomatoes... balsamic vinegar, olive oil, lots of basil.

Tomato Basil Bruschetta

4 Roma tomatoes
1 bunch fresh basil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
salt & pepper to taste
1 garlic clove

1 baguette, sliced (I used a buckwheat baguette)

Set the oven to BROIL. Place the slices of baguette on a baking sheet. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut side on each slice of bread.  Using 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, drizzle a little oil on each slice of baguette. Place the baking sheet under the broiler for about 3 minutes (or until the baguette is lightly toasted). Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove and discard seeds and “tomato goo,” then dice the tomatoes.

   

Chop the basil by gathering leaves (I used about 15 to 20 leaves) only and arranging them from largest to smallest. Stacking the smaller leaves on top of the larger leaves. Roll the largest leaf around the other small ones. Slice the roll of leaves crosswise into thin strips. At this point, you can use the basil in strips or continue to chop in the opposite direction as I did.

Combine the diced tomatoes in a medium bowl with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the chopped basil and mix gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Top each piece of toasted baguette with a spoonful of the tomato basil mixture. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Using the remaining 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, drizzle each piece of bruschetta with a few drops of the vinegar.

You could also serve the bowl of tomato basil mixture and feta with the baguette toasts on a plate, allowing guests to top their own toasts.

Enjoy!

Queen Elizabeth Cake

Phenominal.  That's the only word I can think of right now because I just tasted a fork full of Queen Elizabeth Cake. It is so much more amazing than I imagined it would be. My husband said, "No wonder Queen Elizabeth is a bit round... eating this cake all the time."  I love his humor. He also thought this cake was delicious. You are going to love it!

I've honestly never even heard of this cake before, so let me tell you the story behind it...

My friend, Sal, knows how much I enjoy cooking and baking. So when his sweet wife, Lori, was asked to edit the journal for the United Federation of Doll Clubs, they were kind enough to send me a copy. I was expecting "magazine style," but what I received was a beautiful hard-cover book full of interesting writings and photographs of dolls, written by collectors and historians of dolls from all over the world. To compliment the doll subject, the journal is full of recipes from members of various doll clubs around the world. They all came together recently in New Orleans for what they called "A Jambalaya Jubilee" (and the journal is named the same). I am very thankful that Sal and Lori shared this book with me. Now I can share some of its recipes with you! First up - Queen Elizabeth Cake... of course I started with dessert.

Queen Elizabeth Cake
for the cake...
1 cup Granny Smith apples, diced*
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

*I used one whole apple diced very small, but the recipe also says you could use raisins or dates if you like

for the icing...
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, butter and flour an 8 or 9 inch cake pan. In a saucepan, cook the apples (raisins or dates) until softened, then let cool. NOTE: I added a little butter to the saucepan when I cooked the apples. I cooked them for about 15 minutes until I was satisfied that they were soft enough for my liking. You could cook them less if you prefer a little crisper apple in the texture.

In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and nuts. In a separate bowl, blend together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Into the butter/egg mixture, add the dry ingredients alternately with the softened and cooled fruit in one-thrid increments. NOTE: This batter has the consistency of a cookie dough, rather than a cake. Pour into the prepared cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes (the recipe said 45 minutes, but I thought that might be too long so when I adjusted).

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Then, remove the cake from the pan and transfer to a plate.

This cake is kind of like a giant thick cookie.

To prepare the icing, combine the butter, cream, brown sugar, and coconut together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for 3 minutes. Cool the icing slightly (about 5 minutes) and then pour over the cake, allowing it to drip over the sides.

After icing the cake, I scraped every last bit of this icing
out of the saucepan and ate it all off of the spatula.

Place the iced cake back in the oven with the setting to BROIL. Broil for 2 minutes and remove from the oven.

Look at that icing bubbling under the broiler.
It is so delicious with a caramel and coconut flavor.  

Allow to cool. Slice and serve.

I'll be sure to share more recipes from "A Jambalaya Jubilee" in the future. It has many that sound delicious - appetizers, salads, drinks, dinners, and more dessert. I can't wait to try another! Thanks Sal and Lori!


recipe from Patricia Poulin in "A Jambalaya Jubilee" 63rd Annual Convention, The United Federation of Doll Clubs