Black Eyed Salsa

I made this for a church function last night. It turned out so good. Good enough to eat like a salad, but excellent with chips. Tostitos Hint of Lime chips are the bomb with it.

Black Eyed Salsa

3 cans Black Eyed Peas, rinsed and drained
1 can shoepeg corn, drained (white sweet corn)
tomato, chopped (2 or 3)
green onions, chopped (like 3)
avocado (I used two huge ones)
fresh garlic, peeled and sliced
lime
kosher salt

Firmly rub the sliced side of your fresh garlic on the sides of a large mixing bowl, coating it with garlicy goodness. In same bowl, combine black eyed peas, shoepeg corn, tomato, green onions, and *avocado chunks. Season with fresh squeezed lime juice and kosher salt.

* This makes a ton, so I split the batch, and added the avocado, lime and salt to the half we used that night. I reserved the rest in the fridge, and added those three ingredients when we were ready to eat it. Next time I think I'll add some cilantro. YUM.

Beans and Mexican Rice

Beans and rice are kind of a staple at our house. Beans take time, but they are EASY.

Beans

dry pinto beans
water
salt

Sort beans and rinse them well. (I always find rocks in my beans, so don’t forget to sort.) Place in a heavy pot and cover with 3-4 inches of water. Cover and cook over low heat for 5-6 hrs. You can also use a crockpot. Just cook on low for 9 to 10 hours. Salt to taste at end of cooking when beans are soft. Yummy served whole over mexican rice.

If you’re feeling bold, try making homemade refried beans. Oh my goodness…so good!

Run your beans through a food processor (w/a good amount of the water they were cooked in.) Don’t puree completely smooth…refried beans should be a little chunky. Heat a couple Tbsp. of oil in a large fry pan. (I use bacon grease. Better flavor.) Cut one jalapeno in half and seed. Fry in oil to release flavor. Your beans will not be hot. I promise. Add your beans and cook until they reach a thickness you like. You’ll never want to go back to canned.

Mexican Rice

3 roma tomatoes, remove top and slice in half
1/4 cup onion
garlic clove, peeled
2 Tbsp. mexican chicken bouillon
water
2 cups long grain white rice
1/4 cup veggie oil

In a blender, combine tomatoes and about a cup of water. Blend. Add onion, garlic and bouillon. Blend. Add water to mixture so total liquid amount is a just over 4 cups. Set aside.
Heat oil in a large fry pan. Fry rice in oil until it turn a yellow gold color. Add tomato liquid, and bring to a boil. Turn temperature to low and cover with lid. Simmer for 30 minutes or until rice puffs.

The rice is really good with leftover chicken mixed in. Try it with veggies mixed in too. We like to eat it with the whole beans spooned on top. It’s also yummy in burritos, or on it’s own as a side to any mexican dish.

I hope these recipes make sense. I learned all these from my hispanic friend who cooks completely by feel. I should mention you can buy mexican chicken boulion at WinCo or Walmart in the latino section. Regular boulion is fine though.

Grandma Atwood’s Bread Dressing

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Woo HOO!!

Grandma Atwood’s Bread Dressing
Passed along by BJ Quigley

Cube 1 loaf butter-top bread. Set out to dry at least 1 day. (Or use 1 bag of store-bought dry cubed bread.)

Saute’ in about 5 TBs. butter: 2 large onions, chopped and the top off a bunch of celery, sliced and slightly chopped.

Put about 2 tsp. salt and sage on the dry bread crumbs. (I add the spice packet as well that comes in the store-bought package.) Mix.

Heat 1 can cream of chicken soup with 3 cups cream. (I use half and half.)

Toss soup mixture and onion mixture with bread. (Should be kind of soupy.)

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. (I’ve never done just one batch…I think you would use a well-greased 9x13 baking dish.)

Grilled Pineapple

From Jana's Blog:

I made some really tasty grilled pineapple to go with the kabobs I was making the other day and they were so good I thought I would pass my recipe on.

The first trick is to pick a good pineapple. When you go to the store pick up the pineapple and turn it upside down, the ones with a little bit of mold growing on the bottom are usually the sweetest. (I got that tip from Kat, and she lived in Hawaii, so she would know). Also a good indicator of a ripe pineapple is the smell… if it smells pineappley, that is a good sign.

Grilled Pineapple

1/2 a pineapple cored and cut into large chunks

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1-2 tablespoons orange juice

Toss pineapple in the rest of the ingredients to coat. Place on grill and pour the rest of the mixture over pineapple.

Grill over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side.

Great as a dessert or even served with grilled meats (Tucano’s style).

Try it, it’s delicious!