a lime obsession

kasia and i have a new obsession......limes! it doesn't help that our local grocery stores usually have them on sale all the time. i'm always on the lookout for fun recipes that involve citrus in some way. i can't help it! so on saturday night, we made lime freezes while we watched "bad boys 2." i love that movie and had wanted to watch it for a while.

ingredients:

*1-2 tsp vanilla

*5 limes, juiced and zested

*clear soda (we used club soda......next time it will be sprite!)

*ice

*vanilla ice cream

kasia was excited to show me how she and her dad get the limes ready to squeeze.....she started to throw them on the floor and we had a little soccer game going on for a while. i usually roll them on the counter, but this works too!

directions:

*fill the blender with ice cream

*add vanilla and ice (about 10 cubes)

*slowly add clear soda and lime juice

*liquify until desired consistency

i can't wait to try this with lemons and oranges!!

the bird is the word

these last few days have been super crazy...parties, movie nights, work, choir, church stuff...just life. kasia and i were excited to be able to finally have some time to ourselves. we have some of the best friends ever, but sometimes it's nice to just relax and be with just us. well, i guess we never really relax...we break out the newest recipe we found and end up spending more energy cooking than if we had a ton of people over. well, saturday night we discussed what we wanted to have for sunday dinner. i figured in honor of my mother, i wanted to make cornish game hen and sauteed veggies. mom makes the best cornish game hen and it was the best way to honor her (strictly food speaking). the problem? i've never cooked those little birds before and had only cooked a whole chicken once. it was going to be an adventure!

we ran to the grocery store around 10:30 saturday night and picked up the birds and trimmings.

i can hold brains, eyes, kidneys, and whatever else we did during high school anatomy. i have the HARDEST time handling a whole raw bird. i don't know what it is...but it makes for an awesome picture!

haha the birds are ready!!

i was just making it up as i go, so i stuffed the bird (my favorite part) with some butter, garlic, 1/4 of a lemon, and rosemary. i also put some butter under the skin on top to help get it flavorful. i topped it off with some salt, pepper, and tony's. we always use tony's!!

i filled the bottom of the pan with a little water so we could baste it while it was in the oven. i also put a few pieces of butter around it to get the bottom juicy! they went into the oven at 350* for about an hour, uncovered.

i love it when i'm home in southern california and mom makes veggies. again, i was just flying from the seat of my pants. i grabbed some yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, and an onion. i cut all the veggies into medallions, only peeling the carrots, and then diced the onion (thanks to the salsa party, i'm a pro at dicing!).

i start with a little butter (about 1/4 cup), the onion, and carrots since they take the longest to cook. i decided to change it up a bit and add a handful of brown sugar. it was so subtle, yet delicious. there were so many veggies in the pans (yes, i had to use 2 pans because of the amount of veggies) that it wasn't overpowering.

i let the carrots cook until i could easily stab them with a fork. i separated the carrots evenly into the 2 pans and started adding the squash until we couldn't put any more in and then just let them sit covered on low heat until tender.

this was what we had...a bird each and a ton of veggies. kasia was so cute and asked me if i could also make some of my honey-mustard rosemary potatoes. i can't say no to her (and i really wanted them) so i happily obliged!! they turned out much better the second time around. oddly enough, the first time i made them was when i cooked my first chicken! the secret? only kasia and i know...

SaLsA!!

this past weekend, we celebrated cinco de mayo. what is cinco de mayo? ask any kid and they'll tell you they have no idea. ask any teenager and they'll tell you it's to celebrate mexican independence. although they would be wrong, it's fun to watch them try to prove how smart they are. i hosted a cinco de mayo party on saturday. one of our friends is from pakistan and it was fun to answer his questions about what cinco de mayo is and why we celebrate it. it was also fun listening to him try to pronounce "cinco de mayo." by the end of the night he was telling everyone "hasta manana." we're going to learn something in farsi to tell him next time we see him!

onto the party! i think at one point we had about 35 people crammed into our little apartment. good thing we had kasia mostly moved in with her extra chairs! it was wall to wall people...mainly from the ward and a few other friends. kasia and i started prepping for the party the day before. we had to make a few runs to Rancho Market for the veggies and fruit, and then a midnight walmart run for a spice. awesome. so in total, i made 8 salsas. yes, 8. here's the breakdown:

*pico de gallo

*salsa verde

*salsa de la gringa (salsa roja)

*cowboy salsa

*cucumber salsa

*mango salsa

*strawberry mango salsa

*pineapple salsa

the only ones i had made before was the salsa verde and cowboy salsa. my dear friend michelle taught me how to make the salsa verde when we were in college. i make it often during the summer when i can get yummy tomatillos and serrano chilis from the farmer's market. i don't remember when i first learned about cowboy salsa, but it's always something we've had at family gatherings. i would make it and then eat it for a week since it made so much. the rest i found off of pinterest and made a few enhancements of my own.



i don't know why, but i always get excited when i see fresh produce. the above picture is of the ingredients for most of the salsas...minus the fruit, avocados, cucumbers, and spices! the majority of the evening was spent breaking down the produce. i am now an expert at dicing everything. i did have to watch a tutorial on youtube to learn how to dice up a mango, but that's it.

behold the pico de gallo!! it was super easy to make! i just diced up the following ingredients and combined them together:

*12 roma tomatoes

*a handful of cilantro

*1 white onion

*1 jalapeno

*6 drops of tobasco sauce

*1 T vinegar

*juice of 1/2 a lemon and rind

*salt and pepper

*1 T garlic salt

*1/4 t ground cumin (secret ingredient)

now on to the green one of the bunch! i love salsa verde and use it up quickly after making it. i tried to tame it down a bit since i've found that most people in utah don't appreciate a little kick in the mouth. thank goodness kasia loves spices and heat!! there really isn't a "recipe" for this one per se, so i'll try to remember everything i used for it:

boil:

*10 tomatillos (washed)

*4 roma tomatoes

*10-14 serrano chilies (depending on the heat)

once the green items look brownish, put them in a blender with:

*a handful of cilantro

*a spoonful of minced garlic

*1 white onion

*salt and pepper

*lime juice

i don't have a large enough blender to blend all the ingredients at once, so i did it 3 times. good thing my downstairs neighbors are up late!

and voila! we have salsa verde! seriously the easiest thing to do to make a meal kick you in the face! it doesn't always turn out this green...almost brownish...you can help it out with food coloring...

not too long ago i made a mozzarella avocado tomato dip and added cucumbers to get a little more crunch. since they were on sale at Rancho Market, i ended up getting 6. needless to say, i had a few extra. i found a recipe for cucumber salsa that i fell in love with. out of all of the salsas i made, this one has to be in the top 2. it's so refreshing and healthy! and, it could also be eaten as a salad!

dice up and mix the following ingredients: 

*4 cucumbers (peeled and cut out the seeds)

*4 roma tomatoes

*1 green bell pepper

*1-2 jalapenos

*1 white onion

*1 spoonful of minced garlic

*juice of a lime

*1 handful of italian parsley

*2 handfuls of cilantro

*salt

*1 t dried dill weed

one thing i learned from this salsa: parsley actually has a distinct taste and smell! weird, but i always thought it was just a decoration!!

as i mentioned above, i had to watch a youtube tutorial on how to cut a mango. i think this was my first time cutting one up. i always got mango slices to eat when i would be at disneyland, but i never had a reason to buy them whole before. they have a weird core which is not exactly like a seed...more like a core in a pineapple. there's not a real clear line on where to cut around it, so i had to guess. then i turn in almost inside out and it's pretty easy from there. and pretty.

dice up the following and mix together:

*2 mangoes

*red bell pepper

*3 stalks of green onions

*1 handful of cilantro

*1 jalapeno

*juice of 1 lime

*juice of 1/2 a lemon

 

i debated about whether or not i should make both a mango salsa and a strawberry mango salsa. i thought that since they both had mango as a key ingredient, people would think they tasted the same. boy was i wrong! the only similarity between the 2 was the mango and nothing else really that stood out. plus, i was excited to use strawberries...it's been a while since i've seen them in the stores (the good ones).

dice and mix the following together:

*2 mangoes

*1 carton of strawberries (add a little sugar on top if they're a little bitter)

*1 red onion

*6-8 basil leaves

*juice of 1/2 a lemon

*salt and pepper

isn't it pretty?? it was the most colorful and was the first to be devoured. thank goodness i tried it right after i made it...otherwise i wouldn't have gotten any!!

pineapple salsa is a dessert. just saying. it was so yummy! i knew that i was going to have a guy over who is a pineapple lover and i wanted to blow him away! i think i did...

dice and combine the following ingredients:

*2 pineapples

*1 handful of cilantro

*1 red onion

*1 jalapeno

*3 stalks of green onions

*zest and juice of 1 lime

*dash of sugar

*salt and pepper

cowboy salsa is a tradition in my little household. i love making it since the ingredients are pretty cheap and i usually have most of them lying around. this was a good comfort salsa to make.

ingredients:

*2 cans black eyed peas

*2 cans white northern beans

*can of corn

*5 avocados diced

*6 roma tomatoes dices

*large handful of cilantro

*5 stalks of green onions

*juice of 1 lime

*bottle of italian salad dressing (i'm a snob and will only use wish-bone)

i didn't get a picture of the salsa de la gringa because it was the last one i made on friday night and i was zonked! i'm excited to still have a little left of it! the recipe is pretty easy and is made in a blender:

*2 cans diced tomatoes

*2 cans of rotel tomatoes (yeah, had to learn what those were)

*1 white onion

*1 jalapeno

*1 t honey (right?)

*1 t salt

*1/2 t ground cumin (haha we meet again)

*handful of cilantro

*juice of 1 lime

so this is what my fridge looked like on saturday afternoon before the party. good thing kasia and i hadn't gone grocery shopping for reals yet, otherwise i would have had to borrow my neighbor's fridge! the party was a success and i had so much fun learning how to make more of the "fun" kinds of salsa that you don't usually see. it was a long process, however. i started on friday night around 10 and finished around 2pm on saturday. i only have a few salsas left and had one for lunch. it was a lot of work, but so worth it!!

"a taste of summer" salad

one of my managers at work commented that i always seem to be cooking/baking super late at night. while i knew this to be true, i never really thought about it until she mentioned it. i don't intentionally wait until the wee hours of the morning to cook...but my schedule is usually so crazy that midnight seems to be the only time i can get into my zone. cooking (like cleaning) is therapeutic for me. i don't have to think about anything else except the ingredients and what i'm doing. so i guess i'm mindless when i cook. oh well...

so i was on pinterest yesterday and found a picture of this awesome salad. i got the initial recipe from this blog and just made a few enhancements. it literally is a mouthful of summer! i went to rancho market immediately after work (before i got kasia from the airport) because i was so excited to make it!! we had to make a run to winco at 11 to get the basil, limes, and mozzarella. so worth the drive!! our place smelled soooo good!!

ingredients:

1/2 container of cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 carton fresh mozzarella balls (i used marinated ones)

1 avocado, diced

1 cucumber, diced

handful of basil, julienned or chopped

handful of parsley, chopped

2 limes, juiced

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

baguette if you want...i wanted one

shout out to aunt mel for my disney shakers!!

 

directions:

chop up the tomatoes, cheese, cucumber, basil, and parsley. you can add more tomatoes if you want...i just had flashbacks to a story that my mom likes to tell me when i was a toddler and got into a jar of cherry tomatoes.

 in a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, salt, pepper, and lime. a trick i learned a while ago (although i can't pinpoint the exact moment in time) with juicing limes...you want to roll the lime on the counter/table and kinda squish it to get the juices going before you cut it. try it. it works.

toss the dressing with the diced veggies, herbs, and cheese. add the avocado after you mix it. i don't like mushed avocado unless it is in the form of guacamole. you want this to chill before you serve it, so let it sit covered in the fridge so the flavors can marry. the only thing i would change for next time would be to add a little cilantro. 

i have some awesome friends moving into the apartment above me and they happened to be running up and down the stairs last night, so i got to use them as my taste testers. i love to cook, but i love to feed people more. i sliced up my baguette and drizzled a little olive oil on top and threw them in the broiler for 3 minutes to get nice and crisp. i topped them with this salad and i think it was a hit. i didn't bring it to work today because, well, i don't have an oven to crisp up the baguette!