Saturday, June 27, 2009

Dessert Pizza


Sugar cookies + marshmallow fluff and cream cheese + strawberries and chocolate = A good thing!!
sugar cookie dough (packaged, refrigerated or homemade if you have like a zillion years to wait for a delicious dessert!!)
1/2 pkg cream cheese
equal amount marshmallow fluff
approx 15 strawberries sliced in half
1/2 cup milk chocolate, white chocolate or semi sweet chocolate chips....or all three or a combo of 2....whatever floats your boat!!
Now....spread cookie dough out on cookie sheet to form as close to a circle as possible. Or whatever shape you want....heck if you feel like shaping like your dog Spot...go for it!! Bake according to package directions....well kinda....I had to bake mine longer cause it was like a giant cookie. While that is baking, mix marshmallow fluff and cream cheese in a separate bowl. Now cut the green leafy thingy off the strawberry and cut it in half. (After you wash them of course!!) By this time your ginormous master piece of a cookie should be done. Let it cool for a couple of minutes......if you can stand the wait!!
Spread the fluff mixture over the entire surface of the cookie, strategically place strawberries forming a circle, being careful to measure with a ruler........NO WAY....JUST KIDDING....just put the strawberries on the cookie!! If your feeling adventurous form a pattern!! Lastly stick the chocolate chips in a ziploc baggie in the micro for like 30 seconds. Take bag out of micro and massage it to mix chocolate. Snip a small corner off the bag and drizzle chocolate all over cookie and strawberries.
Cut using a pizza knife and serve. Now enjoy the silence while the kids are quietly eating!!


I cant even tell you how good this was!! Big hit with the kids!! They think I'm some sort of super mom.....but it's only cause they don't know how easy it was!! ;o)
















Friday, June 12, 2009

Carne Asada Arroz y Frijoles con Guacamole




Have you ever gone to a Mexican restaurant with the anticipation of having a great, authentic meal and left....hugely disappointed, unsatisfied and barely full cause the food wasn't even good enough to stuff yourself?? Yeah well that happened to me recently and I swore I was gonna come home and duplicate the meal and it was gonna knock my families socks off!!




I still think it's sad though that I had to be the one to do it!! I'm just some mixture of Italian and Portuguese among other things!! ;o) Oh well....I got the job done!!




This dinner came out just divine!!! It was by far the best guacamole and carne asada I have ever made!! I love it when that happens!! And well...beans and rice....I can do in my sleep.


Carne Asada


carne asada meat (they usually sell it sliced like that at the grocery store)

1 lg lemon, zested and juiced

2 limes, zested and juiced

1 Tbls chili powder

3 tsp salt

4 cloves garlic, mashed into paste

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp black pepper

3 Tbls oil, I used canola


Put meat and all ingredients in a large ziploc or large bowl or plastic container and mix until all meat is coated!! Refrigerate at least several hours or preferably overnight. Cook either on the bbq or in a frying pan or on a griddle.


Guacamole


2 avocado's

1 small tomato chopped

1/2 red onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, made into paste

small handful cilantro chopped

salt to taste

1/2 lime juiced

(I also added about 2 Tbls of the green tomatillo salsa that I posted a few days ago. You can do that too, or add chopped jalapeno or leave it out. Whatever you like!)


Mix all ingredients, I don't like to completely mash my avocado's I like it kind of chunky. But you can do what you like!!


Make mexican rice.....I think the key to rice is frying it before you cook it!! Just fry it with oil and tomato for about 7-10 min, then add your liquid and salt.


Boil your pintos with an onion cut in half, 3 cloves of garlic, a jalapeno, and salt until beans are cooked. Approx. 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I usually reserve about a cup of whole beans then throw the rest in the food processor. Then mix them all together. Then in a frying pan I heat some oil and add 1/2 of a very thinly sliced onion. Brown the onion, then add the beans and fry.


I served this meal with corn tortillas....of course!!















Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Fabulous Fish Tacos

I love fish taco's!!! I was bored....and when I'm bored....I cook or bake!! So I whipped up some fish taco's for dinner tonight. Freshly fried corn tortilla's, homemade mango salsa, homemade spicy green salsa, cod with garlic and butter, lettuce and sour cream lime sauce! How much better does it get?

Fish
1 lb cod or any white fish (or shrimp....mmmm)
Cook or bake how ever you'd like.

Tortilla's
Fry corn tortilla's however you like them....extra crispy or soft and bendy...that's how I like them. I season them with season salt, it's my favorite! ;o)

Tomatillo Salsa
10-12 tomatillo's
1/2 med onion
1 jalepeno
3 cloves garlic
juice of 1 lime
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
handful of cilantro
Boil tomatillo's, onion and garlic for approx 15 minutes. Strain out tomatillo's, onion and garlic reserving the liquid. Put that and the rest of the ingredients into a food processor. Pour as much of the reserved liquid to make the consistency of the salsa as thick or runny as you like it. Salt to taste.

Sour Cream Lime Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of one lime
1 tsp agave or sugar
Stir well.

Mango Salsa
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 of a mango, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped finely
Mix all of the ingredients, and salt to taste.

Don't forget to chopped lettuce, assemble the taco's and EAT THEM!!