Roasted Vegetable Salsa

I love the Fall!! Harvest time! My hubby and I went yesterday to the Apple Barn in town, and came home with a box full of vegetables.

My big catch of the day was a huge bag of Heirloom tomatoes and Peppers. It screamed Salsa to me in the kitchen, I swear it did!

Some of the vegetables that came home with us!

Roasted Vegetable Salsa

3 large Tomatoes, quartered

2 large Red Peppers, quartered.

1/2 Red Onion, cut in slices.

6 cloves Garlic

Coat vegetables in Olive Oil, sprinkle liberally with Salt and Pepper and spread out on a large cookie sheet to roast. Roast in 425 degree Oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.

When vegetables have finished roasting put them into your food processor and add:

1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin

1 tsp. Hot Red Pepper flakes

1/2 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Pepper

Zest and Juice from one lime

A generous handful of torn Basil Leaves.

Process by pulsing salsa in the food processor. I like my salsas to be chunky rather than smooth. Taste and adjust your seasonings to taste.

For this Salsa we wanted to keep it hot rather than chilling it for our dinner. Salsa takes on a whole different taste when you serve it warm.

With the leftover salsa, you can chill the salsa and serve it next time with additional ingredients depending on your tastes. I like to add chopped up fruit such as Mango, Peach or Nectarines. It is also good with chopped up Avacado, grilled corn and black beans added to it as well. Serve with Tortilla Chips.

We served our Hot Salsa over Spaghetti Squash, Hassselback Potatoes and Baked Chicken.

Another hint with your homemade Salsas is to change up your herbs you add. Most Salsas have Cilantro added, but I like to add other herbs instead such as Basil. It totally changes the taste of your Salsa.

And of course you can make your salsa with Fresh Vegetables rather than roasting the vegetables. Roasting brings out sweetness of the vegetables.

Linking up with:

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http://lisaschaos.com/

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Taco Dip - Straight out of the Camera

 

I thought today was a good opportunity to add something yummy to SOOC with my Taco Dip. I took the photos quite a while ago but never had the chance to do anything with the photos and put them up here. I made this dip a couple of weeks ago for an appetizer for our Survivor night.

TACO DIP

1 1/2 LB. Ground beef

1 medium Onion, chopped

1 large Jalepeno, finely chopped

5 cloves Garlic, minced

Brown ground beef, onion, jalepeno and garlic in skillet until onions are soft and beef is no longer pink.

1 envelope of Taco Seasoning

1/2 cup Water

Sprinkle Taco Seasoning over top of beef mixture, add water and simmer mixture for a few minutes to thicken and evaporate excess moisture.

1 16 oz. can Refried beans.

Spread a can of Refried Beans into the bottom of your dish. A 9x13 in. baking dish works good. I made two dishes for this but you don't have to!!

Add your ground beef mixture evenly over top of the refried bean layer.

1 8 oz. container Sour Cream

Dollup sour cream evenly over ground beef layer and spread it over top of your ground beef layer.

Spread on 8 oz jar of Taco Sauce or Salsa over top of the sour cream layer.

One small container of Cherry Tomatos, quartered

1 oz. tin Sliced Black Olives

Evenly spread olives and tomatoes over top of the Taco sauce layer.

Top with a generous layer of Aged Cheddar Cheese and Mozzarella mixture. The more cheese the better!!

Bake at 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until it is very hot and bubbly and cheese is golden brown!

Eat with Tortilla Chips!

I swear it is the cheese giving it this orange glow, not my camera!!!!

This dip could be a meal, it is that good. Hope you try it out and enjoy!!

To see other Straight out of the Camera photos, please go and visit http://www.murrieta365.com/

Chicken Curry Dip

CHICKEN CURRY DIP

1 lb. Ground Chicken

1 medium chopped Onion

1 TBSP. Grated fresh Ginger

3 or 4 minced Garlic Cloves

1 tsp. Ground Cumin

1 1/2 tsp. Curry Powder

1/2 tsp. Pepper and 1/2 tsp. Salt

Fry all the above ingredients together until chicken is cooked and onions are browned well. Add the mixture to a large bowl.

Combine with:

8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1 Cup Grated Mozzarella

1/4 cup Golden Raisons

1/4 cup Mayonaise

1/4 cup chopped Green Onions

1 TBSP. Curry Powder or to taste.

Mix all ingredients together well and scoop the mixture into a Corning Ware 8x8 pan. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.

This comes out of the oven looking like this!

Onto the next step....

Cool baked dip for a couple of minutes until the bubbling stops, then spread the entire top of the dip with Mango Chutney.

This one will do! Spread a good thick layer of it over the top of the dip.

Here is what it will look like.

Now that the dip is covered with Mango Chutney it is ready for its final topping.

TOPPING:

1/4 Cup Sweetened Flaked Coconut

1/4 Cup Slivered Almonds

Garnish with Chopped Green Onions

And its ready to eat!

You can serve this warm dip with Pita Chips or Slices of Naan.

This dip has it all, sweet, salty, savoury and spicy. I am sure you will love it!

Enjoy!!

Macro Monday

What a weekend so far! I had a first this weekend and I am here to show it to you and tell you about it!

I am sure everyone has heard of Whoopie Pies, except me of course until this weekend! I think they are a sweet treat more found in the States than here in Canada. I know that before this weekend, I had never seen or heard of them, much less tasted one.

One of the newer bakeries here in town called Traceycakes, had a Whoopie Pie special. Two for the price of one of these sweet little cakes. Never have I had one before so of course we made plans to go and check it out!

There were six different flavours, here are Toasted Marshmallow, Mint with Chocolate Sprinkles and Salted Caramel.

These ones are Cookies and Cream, Raspberry and Chocolate. Six different flavours so hubby and I got one of each kind to share.

My favorite is the Salted Caramel. With the chocolate cake cookie base, it was a perfect combination!

They were very good, about the size of Oreo Cookies but fatter, and so incredibly sickly sweet that no way could the two of us finish them off to the last crumb. We did give it a good try though!

We washed the Whoopie Pies down with locally roasted Coffee with cream and more sugar. We were so overdosed on the sugar of the Pies and the Caffiene of the coffee that we literally bounced out of the bakery after. I honestly think I poisoned myself, or at least came darn close to it. I won't be going there anytime soon to repeat the lesson but I am glad I got the chance to try out something new and live to tell about it!

To see more photos of Macro Monday, please go and visit http://lisaschaos.com/

Grilled Prawns

I love any excuse where I get to feed my family something new. Its not something that I would make just for myself if it was only me that I had to feed. My daughter Lora was coming over for supper tonight so it was reason enough to find something new to cook.
The days are turning a bit cooler here, fall is just around the corner. The leaves are starting to turn colour and some even falling off. I don't mind the cooler days. The heat this year was a bit hard to take.
The barbeque is needed for this dish. I suppose you could cook them in the oven but it would not be the same.

Barbequed Prawns

1 small Onion, chopped

3 or more Garlic cloves, chopped

1 TBSP. Olive Oil

1 lb. Uncooked Prawns

Combine all ingredients in Ziploc Bag and marinate in fridge for 3-4 hours.

Skewer prawns on skewers and grill in barbeque until prawns are pink.

Prawn Dip

Zest of 1 lemon

3 TBSP. Lemon Juice

1 TBSP. Peanut Butter

1 tsp. Pepper

1 tsp. Salt

Combine all ingredients, mix until smooth. May have to slightly heat this in microwave to soften peanut butter enough to mix thouroughly.

Dip cooked Prawns into sauce and enjoy!!

Serve with grilled vegetable medley, white rice and a salad of your choice!!!

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

On my holiday visiting my sister and family, it is safe to say that we ate a lot of food, good food!! We cooked so much food at each meal you would think we were feeding an army instead of just the few of us.
One of our meals was a brunch we had on one of the first days of my holiday. Brunch because usually this is something you would eat for lunch and we had consumed a couple of pots of coffee by that time for breakfast.

These Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are not ordinary. You could say they have a bit of yummy attitude. We liked them so much we went out that day and got more ingredients to make them again the next day.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.

1 loaf very fresh Sourdough bread, cut in thick slices
Butter
1 Wheel of Camembert Cheese, sliced thickly
Lots of Fresh Basil Leaves.
Chunks of Good Quality Milk Chocolate

Layer Camembert Cheese over one slice of Sourdough bread, Layer Basil Leaves all over the Cheese Layer and then spread lots of Chocolate Chunks all over the Basil. Top with another slice of Sourdough bread. Butter generously the outside of each of the Sourdough bread slices and grill slowly on a Grill Pan until the sandwich is nicely browned and the Cheese and the Chocolate Chips are all melted and gooey!!
Slice and enjoy.

This tastes like heaven. You can taste the yeastiness and freshness of the bread, the creaminess and richness of the cheese and a hint of the spiciness of the Fresh Basil and the sweetness of the Chocolate all melted and melded together.
An ordinary grilled cheese sandwich will never seem the same again!!

Mexican Chicken Fajita Casserole

My brother Mark had plans of coming over for a few days visit but had to cancel because of a terrible cold he came down with. This was the meal we planned on for his first day of his visit and it is such a good casserole and I had bought all the ingredients for it that we decided to make it anyways.
Here is the recipe for it. I tweak it a little by adding corn kernals to it and also a bit of salsa to the tomato mix. It is very easy to make, looks really impressive, smells wonderful while it is cooking. Your guests will think you went to a whole lot of bother for them and you don't have to tell them otherwise!! Here is the cast of Ingredients. It doesn't take much but it sure looks like lots when its assembled!!

Chop all your fresh vegetables. Grate the garlic cloves. You can use whatever vegetables you like it all tastes good!!

Chop your fresh or frozen boneless Chicken Breasts into small pieces. I used four breasts for this recipe.

In large skillet, add Olive Oil and cook the chicken and the vegetables together.

In a large bowl, mix together tomato sauce, refried beans, Fajita spice mix and salsa together.

Grate together your cheeses. I used a combination of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese.

Add all your cooked chicken and vegetable mixture to the tomato bean mixture and stir together.

Assemble all the parts and ready to assemble your casserole.

In the bottom of a large rectangular pan, layer first tomato mix, cover with soft tortillas, then layer again the tomato mix and cover that with cheese.

Cover each layer with a good helping of cheese!!

Repeat all the layers until the ingredients are all used up. End with a good thick cheese layer.

Cover with tin foil, bake in a 375 degree oven for thirty minutes. Remove foil cover and continue baking for another 20 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

Let sit for about 15 minutes to let the juices reabsorb and bubbling to settle, then cut yourself a big slice and enjoy!!!

You can make this spicy if you like that by adding some hot sauce etc to the tomato sauce mixture and you can garnish with chopped cilantro if you like.

You can serve this with sour cream and salsa and chopped avacado as well.

This really lends itself to anything your imagination can dream of.

Layered Black Bean and Lime Sour Cream Dip!!

Layered Balck Bean and Lime Sour Cream Dip.

The cast of characters!!! Peel garlic for grating, the more the merrier!! Chop Roma Tomatoes to ready for the processor.

Add rinsed black beans, lime zest and juice and a couple cloves of garlic to processor and puree.

Spread the black bean mixture into the bottom of nine inch pie plate.

Mix sour cream, lime juice, cilantro and green onions all chopped up together.

Spread sour cream layer on top of the black bean layer.

Chop Roma Tomatoes and some more garlic in processor. Chop more green onions.

Spread tomatoes on top of sour cream layer.

Sprinkle chopped green onions over the Tomato layer.

Cover with three cheese shredded cheese. And its done.

Chill the whole thing in the fridge until ready to serve. Serve with Tortilla Scoops. Delicious!!!


Layered Black Bean and Lime Sour Cream Dip.

3 Plum Tomatoes, seeded

2 Limes

19 oz. can Black Beans

3 or more Garlic Cloves

2 tsp. finely chopped Chipotle in Adobo sauce or chipotle Tabasco

1/2 cup light or regular Sour Cream

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander

3 chopped green onions

1 cup grated cheese

1) Finely chop tomatoes. Finely grate peel from limes. Set aside. Drain beans, rinse and drain again. Place beans, garlic and chipotle in a food processor. Squeeze in 1 tbsp. Lime juice from 1 lime. Whirl until beans are pureed. Add 1 to 2 tbsp. water if puree is too thick. Scrape into a serving bowl or pie plate.

2) Place sour cream in a small bowl. Squeeze in 2 tbsp. lime juice from remaining lime. Stir in coriander and lime peel and green onions chopped, about 1 1/2 onions. Dollop over bean puree and smooth top as best you can. If making ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight.

3) Before serving, bring to room temperature and scatter tomatoes overtop. Sprinkle with cheese, then top with onions. Excellent served with blue corn or regular tortilla chips or with pita crisps for scooping.