Down and dirty tuna salad

Tags

recipe, salad, tuna

OK, let me start by admitting there is nothing “down and dirty” about this tuna salad–it’s just so quick, I can make it on the fly. Like so much of my cooking, it changes depending on what I have on hand. Right now, that isn’t much!

Ingredients:

• One can tuna, drained
• Two tablespoons sweet pickle relish
• Two tablespoons diced onion
• Three tablespoons mayo or salad dressing (or, if you’re like me, the dregs of the salad dressing with the rest made up in mayo!)
• One eighth teaspoon lemon or lime juice

1. Mix everything together in a bowl.

2. Serve in a) a sandwich, b) on crackers, or c) in a scooped out tomato (my favorite).

In this tuna salad recipe, the lemon or lime juice is key–it makes something uber-simple into something worth eating!

Food share, episode 2

Tags

cooking, fruit, leftovers, pasta, salad

By the end of the festival, we were beginning to get low on food stuffs, but still managed to create something amazing. (For the first episode, click here)

What the girls in the other tent had:

• Penne pasta
• Spaghetti sauce
• Blood oranges and grapes

What I had:

• Bits and bobs of leftover veggies from tacos
• Apples and oranges

What the fellow in another tent had:

• Peanut butter cookies

The sauce was put to simmering over the “grill” side of the camp stove while the penne was cooked on the burner. As soon as it was almost al dente, it was drained and added to the sauce, along with the bits and bobs of chopped onions and other veggies from the night before (maybe a bit of green chile got in there–no telling!).

We made a fruit salad with the apples, oranges and grapes, and used some of the blood orange juice as a dressing. Served it all up with some St. Clair Winery Pecan Wine I had taken as a little gift from New Mexico, and ended the evening with the cookie offering. There was plenty for the four that we fed and then some–we were offering food to strangers all evening!

Simple vodka cream sauce with smoked fish

Tags

cooking, fish, kitchen, pasta, recipe

Returning from nine days on the road, there was almost nothing in my kitchen. The roomie is away for the weekend, so I’m cooking for one. Figuring out something to eat that wasn’t on the menu for the past week and a half was a high priority this evening!

My cousin sent me home with some smoked kokanee salmon, so I did a google search on what I could make with it. One rather complicated vodka cream sauce caught my eye, but I never go to that much trouble. Instead, here is my simple version of a delicious and filling meal (this recipe is enough for one, but can easily be doubled, tripled or more):

Ingredients:

• One teaspoon olive oil
• Three tablespoons onion, diced
• One garlic clove, pressed
• Meat of two small smoked fish, boned and torn into small pieces (the flavor is very strong, so you might try halving this amount)
• One shot vodka
• One fourth cup milk or cream
• Pepper to taste (I found the fish salty enough)

1. Place olive oil, onions and garlic in a saute pan (small skillet) and saute until the onions are transparent.

2. Add fish and warm slightly, then add vodka. Cook over medium heat until the vodka cooks down until almost no liquid remains.

3. Add milk and pepper and cook over very low heat stirring almost constantly until the sauce thickens. With this small amount of milk, it took only about 7 minutes. More liquid will take longer. Be careful not to let the milk boil, or it will burn.

4. Toss with a “fat” pasta such as penne or shells, and top with parmesan and fresh chives or tomato if you have it.

Oh my! I’m eating this as I type and I’m going to make it again when the roomie gets home. From start to finish, it took me less than 30 minutes and it tastes like something from a fancy restaurant. Enjoy!

For those who follow me, I will come back with Episode 2 of my Food Sharing series this weekend.

Food share, episode 1

Tags

beef, cooking, cooking supplies, green chile, hamburger, rice, rice cooker, salad, vegetables

For the past week I’ve been on a literal and metaphoric spiritual journey, three days of which included a wonderful weekend at the Wild Goose Festival in Corvallis, OR. I have all the necessary gear to cook over a camp fire, but don’t own a camp stove, so I “advertised” for help with this dilema an Facebook and connected with another festival goer who had the necessary cooking stuff. (What I did take was my coffee maker and rice cooker! Yep, there was an electrical outlet near the campground)

Part of what made this experience so much fun was sharing food. Since this was simple, basic cooking, I’m not going to couch it in terms of a recipe, per se, but more in regards to the sharing of food and feeding the collective spirit.

What I had:

• Organic hamburger
• Roasted green chile
• Rice
• Salsa
• Tortillas
• Onion
• Jalapenos from my garden

What they had:

• Camp stove and cooking equipment
• Mixed greens
• Tomato
• Salad dressing
• Sesame chips
• Red wine

What we did:

I browned the hamburger with some salt and pepper while my new pals fixed a salad, cut up the veggies, and got plates ready. I cooked rice in my cooker, then folded in fresh cut salsa–made the perfect “Spanish Rice”. Then we filled tortillas with a little bit of everything, including salad, a whole green chile, taco meat, rice, veggies. We also had salads on the side–fresh greens in the camp site felt like a decadence.

Green chile pesto with penne

Tags

cooking, green chile, pasta, recipe

I have a bad habit of making things up and never writing them down…ergo, a blog in which to keep track. This one is not for everyone, but it rang my bell! Here’s what I had:

Ingredients:

• One cup fresh basil from the garden (about the only thing that is growing!)
• Half cup pine nuts
• Half cup grated parmesan
• Half cup extra virgin olive oil
• Two cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Two roasted green chiles, skinned and minced
• Penne pasta, cooked

1. Place the basil, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil and garlic in the food processor and pulse it to a nice “pesto consistency”. Some people say to add it in several parts, but it always seems the same to me if I put all the ingredients in together. If you want to get fancy, wait and add the olive oil slowly at the end while the food processor remains on. Remove the blad and add your salt and pepper with a spatula.

2. Cook your pasta (if you haven’t already).

3. Place the pesto in a large skillet and heat slightly to allow the ingredients to cook just a bit, but not until the cheese has melted.

4. Add the diced green chile and pasta. Toss over the heat until the pasta is coated and everything is warm and fragrant.

Serve this with a nice caprese salad and a glass of wine and you have an amazing vegetarian meal, or add a pork chop for nom-nominess.

Cover art vote

Tags

chile

In my regular every day life I own an ad agency. One of our big projects has been a magazine and map for the New Mexico Chile Association. Not sure which of these is the best cover–and I’d love some more input (they are currently so close in the voting among my friends that I really can’t pick one, and I love them all).

You can visit the New Mexico Chile Trail web site and click on Covers (I’d love for you to take a look around)…or you can comment here.

1.

First choice: chile bag

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.

Second choice – chile field

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

Third choice – chile harvest

Banana bread pudding

Tags

cooking, dessert, leftovers, recipe

I got home from nearly a week on the road and found a chunk of banana bread I hadn’t finished before I left town (thanks to my new roomie, I have lots of baked goods these days!). I wondered if I could make bread pudding with it–it was beginning to be a bit stale, but wasn’t molded. So I tried it and I think I have a new favorite treat!

Ingredients

• Leftover banana bread (I had enough for 16 one inch cubes)
• Enough butter to put a little dab (1/8th of a pat) on each cube
• Enough milk to fill the bottom of the casserole dish
• Raisins
• One teaspoon vanilla (or more, if you have more banana bread cubes)
• Cinnamon to taste
• Brandy to taste

1. Place the cubes of banana bread in the bottom of a casserole in a single layer. It took a small 6″ X 9″ casserole for my 16 cubes.

2. Pour milk around cubes until they are covered to about 1/3 their height. Place a little piece of butter on the top of each cube.  Sprinkle in raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, and brandy.

3. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Stir once and put back in for a few minutes until all the liquid is soaked up.

4. Turn the oven to “Broil” for another 5 minutes, or until the top of the pudding is crispy. My small amount made two nice servings. You can even add ice cream–a nice vanilla bean would be perfect. Serve it hot and enjoy!

Watermelon margaritas

Tags

cocktails, fun, recipe, watermelon

Yes, you have noticed that I like margaritas. I am constantly searching for the next great ‘rita. For tonight, this is it. We had a huge watermelon that the two of us couldn’t finish, so margaritas fit the bill.

Ingredients:

• Cup and a half of watermelon, cut in 1″ chunks and seeded
• Three shots tequila
• Two shots triple sec
• One shot simple syrup (or less, to taste)
• Juice of two limes (or two to three tablespoons lime juice to taste)
• Ice

1. Place the watermelon, tequila, and triple sec in a single layer in a large bowl and leave in the fridge for anywhere from two to twenty-four hours.

2. Pour the watermelon/alcohol mixture into a blender with all the other ingredients. Pulse until very thick and “creamy”. Add ice until it’s the perfect thickness.

3. Salt four glasses and pour. Mmmmmm. Summery and festive all at once!

Summer posts

Tags

vegetables

Summer postin’, really a drag
Summer postin’, all in the bag
The sun is shining, calling to me
The garden’s growing sweet as can be
Summer days driftin’ away, to uh-oh those summer nights

Uh Well-a well-a well-a huh
Tell me more, tell me more
Did you go on vacay?
Tell me more, tell me more
Was it quite far away?
Uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh

Oven’s sleeping the hot days away
The grill is keeping hunger at bay
Cool iced tea out in the yard
Is it time to harvest the chard
Summer sun, nothing’s begun, but uh-oh those summer nights

Uh Well-a well-a well-a huh
Tell me more, tell me more
Did you forget how to type?
Tell me more, tell me more
Are the tomatoes ripe?

Shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop,shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, shoo-bop bop, YEH

Frozen ‘ritas, cool in my hand
Frozen anything making its stand
I will post! I solemnly vow!
Wonder where my computer is now

Summer dreams of posting, it seems, are cast off for those long summer….
Ni-ights!

Taco salad

Tags

cooking, hamburger, recipe, salad

A friend posted a cute idea on Facebook–taco salad cups made with corn tortillas on the back of a muffin tin! I had the right leftovers tonight, so I made taco salad. MM MM GOOD!

Ingredients:

• Six corn tortillas
• Left over taco meat
• One can black beans
• Salad fixings: lettuce, tomato, onion, zucchini, radishes, olives, etc.
• Grated cheese
• Taco or picante sauce
• Sour cream

1. Wrap the tortillas in a wet paper towel and microwave for a few seconds. Spray each one front and back with a small amount of canola cooking spray and gently smush* into the space between muffin spaces on the back of a muffin tin. Place in oven at 400 degrees until crispy.

2. Reheat meat, heat beans, and cut up all the salad ingredients.

3. When salad cups are crispy, fill with beans, meat, cheese, salad ingredients and chow down!

*if you are unsure how to “gently smush” the corn tortillas, just think about the shape they need to be once they are cooked. I couldn’t think of another way to describe it–it takes some careful manipulation.