Salsa Verde

My husband loves salsa Verde so every year I make sure and can him a couple of batches.  This recipe is really versatile, you can make it as spicy or as mild as you want.  We go for Super spicy and use habanero peppers but you can substitute them for a milder pepper.  Plus you can grow most of these ingredients in your garden.

You’ll Need

5 1/2 cups of chopped, cored, husked tomatillos

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup of chopped peppers (use whatever ones you want)

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 TBS of minced cilantro

2 tsp. of cumin

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of red pepper ( I leave this out if I’m making a mild batch)

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of lime juice.

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min.  Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Process 15 min in a boiling-water canner.  The recipe says you’ll get 2 pints, but I doubled the recipe and got 3 pints and 3 -1/2 pints.

This recipe comes from the ball blue book.

Habaneros..mmm spicy

Stay and follow along this week for

• BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza
•  
• Blueberry Cheesecake
• 
• (YUMMY) Flourless cookies
• 
• Homemade Pizza Sauce
• 
• AND hopefully a bathroom redo
• 

25 Pies in 25 Days (or the Great Pie bake off) Season 2!

When I started this blog the first thing I did was this.  I had such a great time making all of those pies that I wanted to do it again this year, but there was one thing about it I didn’t like.  A majority of the recipes I got were from their (allrecipes) sponsors and not from at home bakers. So this year I wanted to have a little competition and open it up to anyone who wanted to submit a recipe.  You do not have to be a blogger to participate, but if you’re not already please become a Follower so you can watch all the pie fun come November!  Here is how it’s going to work: starting November 1st I will bake a new pie recipe every day until Thanksgiving (so this year there will only really be 24 pies). Every day I will actually be making pies and giving them an out of 5 stars rating.  Pies will be judged 75 % on taste, 20 % on ease of preparation and 5% on appearance.  So submit your best.  Also I will be posting the recipe so if you have a secret family recipe you don’t want posted then pick something else.   I will also be spotlighting you and /or your blog so I’ll need a paragraph about you and your pie recipe.  At the end of that time I will announce the top 3 pies as determined by an impartial judging panel.   And then crown a Grand Champion Queen on King of pies for an entire year.  I’ll have a fun button for you to post on your blog declaring you the king or queen of pies.  The Top Pie will also take home a $25.00 gift certificate.  You may submit more than one recipe but I might not use more than one of them if I get more than 24 submissions. So please number them so I know which is your first submission and so on. The deadline for submitting a recipe is October 31st.  I know it seems far away but hopefully I’ll get 24 pie submissions by then. FINGERS CROSSED.  If you want to help then spread the word!! you can’t have a competition without competitors. The more the merrier.  Submit recipes and blurbs to
imamomnotaprofessional@hotmail.com

Thanks everyone!  I can’t wait to get started!!
Jaime

Highway Carrot Robbery

So have you ever noticed that you can buy a 3lb. bag of baby carrots for around $5.99 and sitting right next to it is a 10lb. bag of “adult” carrots for the same price?? Yet time and again you buy the bag of baby carrots because they’re more convenient even though you are being totally robbed? Well a couple of years ago I got a huge crop of carrots from my garden and it has changed how I buy carrots ever since.  Basically that summer when I had carrots coming out of my ears I discovered that by just taking a little time you can transform your “adult” carrots into a convenient snack and you can just say “NO!” to overpriced baby carrots. It’s super simple and it works really well.

So you’ll need carrots, peeler, 9X13 Tupperware with lid and water.

It’s simple, peel your carrots and fill up your Tupperware. Mare sure you leave room at the top for the lid to go on. 

This bag happened to contain skinny carrots so I just left them whole.  But you can cut them into sticks if need be.

Once your Tupperware is full of carrots then you just cover them with cold water and store them in your refrigerator.  It keeps them nice and crunchy.  Plus they are ready to eat whenever you kids need a quick healthy snack. Or when you need carrots for a recipe.

I keep them on the bottom so the kids can just reach in a get one out.  They last for a long time like this, but truthfully at our house they’re gobbled up pretty quickly.  

There you go a random carrot tip. FYI this does NOT work for celery!!  Also some of you might be wondering why I don’t buy a 25 lb. bag of carrots from Cash and Carry for $5.99 and save even more money.  And the answer is simple, those carrots are nasty for fresh eating.

But they do make awesome soup!

Canning Carrot Fennel Soup

So the past few days I have been turning a 25 lbs. bag of carrots into Carrot Fennel soup.  I LOVE this soup.  Not only is it really good but it is so handy to have for a quick dinner (especially after soccer practice ).  I just open up a couple of quarts of soup and serve it with some homemade bread or grilled cheese.

You’ll need

2 bulbs of fennel (sometimes it will be labeled anise)

2 TB of olive oil

4 lbs. of carrots

6 cups of veggie broth

6 cups of water

1 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of white pepper (optional)

Directions:

Chop your fennel and sauté in a large stock pot with 2 TBS of olive oil. After the fennel is transparent, but not brown add the carrots and veggie broth.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat simmer until veggies are tender.  Then puree in  a blender or I use my stick blender and avoid the mess. Once the soup is super smooth add 6 cups of water, salt and pepper, bring to boil again, reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.  When finished fill clean quart size jars leaving 1 inch of head space and process at 10 lbs. of pressure for 35 min.  Pressure canning can be intimidating for a beginner but once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t that big of a deal, and as long as you follow the directions it’s perfectly safe.  So be brave and give it a try!

  Since I use the entire 25 lbs. (5.99 at Cash and Carry) bag of carrots to make soup I just divide them into 6 piles. (yes I know 4 X 6 is really 24 and not 25 but close enough)

Instead of buying veggie broth I always just use this.  One box makes 2 batches of soup.

I love finding jars that have awesome pictures on them like this one.

So 25 lbs. of carrots made 26 quarts of soup.  According to the recipe it should have made 36 quarts but I have never had it make that much.

RANDOMNESS

If you’re going to make this soup I would suggest growing fennel yourself, because it’s kind of expensive to buy and it’s super easy to grow. PLUS fennel is a bulb so it keeps coming back every year without replanting. 

ENJOY!!

Lime Rolls

We have a plethora of limes around our house these days.  While thinking of ways to use those limes, I came up with this recipe.  It is super fresh and bright.  I will definitely be making these again.

First you’ll need dough.  If you don’t have a recipe that you love you can try this one.  (I only used half a batch) After you dough has risen the first time punch it down and roll it out into a rectangle.  Spread with butter.

In a separate bowl mix together the zest of 4 limes and 1 cup of sugar.  You might need more depending on how much dough you made, but that is a good ratio to use.

Sprinkle/spread evenly over the buttered dough.

cut into rolls and let rise again for about 30 min.

I also added a little bit of crumb topping to a few of the rolls to see how that would taste.  The crumb topping was a little butter, flour, sugar and more lime zest. It’s good if you go light.  Then Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 min.  BELOW THE CENTER OF THE OVEN!

The glaze for the top was a scoop of butter (2-3 TBS??) then two scoops of powdered sugar (1/2 cup??)  then thin it out with lime juice and the zest of 1 lime.

They were seriously yummy.  I’m pretty sure they have replaced cinnamon rolls at our house for good. 

P.S. This week will be recipe week, I have a lot to share so hopefully you’ll enjoy some!

Baked Blueberry French Toast

Yesterday was the kids first day of school, so I wanted to make them something special for breakfast.  They had a choice between baked blueberry french toast and a baked oatmeal.  (I’ll share the baked oatmeal recipe soon) They picked blueberry french toast. I found the recipe here and she found the recipe here.   We make a savory version of this breakfast every year for Christmas and I will share that recipe with you later on too. So YUMMY!!

First you’ll cut 6 slices of Texas Toast into cubes. Variation- You’re suppose to cut up a 8 oz. brick of cream cheese into cubes and sprinkle them over the top of the bread, but I find globs of cream cheese seriously off putting.  So next time I would spread the bread with the cream cheese and then cut it into cubes, I also only used about 5 oz. of the cream cheese.

Sprinkle with the blueberries, it calls for a cup but I used more like a cup and a half.

Cut up 6 more slices of texas toast and pour the egg mixture over the top.

I sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar.  Then you cover it with foil and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

Then you set your alarm to 4:55 a.m. because you husband has an early morning business call at work and has to be there are hour early and you really don’t want him to miss out on the wonderfulness. But luckily your oven at least can be set so you don’t have to wake up any earlier to pre-heat the thing.  SIDE NOTE – I seriously wish someone could invent the refrigerator stove!!

There is also a blueberry syrup recipe to go with the french toast.

So how was it?? Well 4 of the 7 of us LOVED IT, 2 of us LIKED it and 1 of us gagged it down like they were forced to eat earthworms.