July 5th, Fruit Salsa, Monnie’s House

So her name is really Aunt Bunny, but she has been tagged as Monnie here. This is her Kick Ass sweet fruit salsa with cinnamon pita chips. My heavens, it was fantastic.

Fruit Salsa

3/4 – 1 Granny Smith Apple (finely chopped – use food processor or chop by hand – don’t use blender)

2-3 Kiwis (peeled and finely chopped by hand or processor)

1 cup Fresh Strawberries (sliced and finely chopped – ditto on chopping)

Dressing for fruit:

1/4 cup Orange Juice

2 TBSP Brown Sugar

2 TBSP Apple Jelly

Stir above ingredients well. Pour over fruit mixture, but you may not need all the dressing. You don’t want it to be too soupy, judge the dressing by the consistency.

Serve with STACY’S Cinnamon Flavored Pita Chips.

This recipe is too good, even RockStar loved it (Blondie, her cousin, not so much.) SR

Summer in 10 #7

The LunaR moth. It comes to feed on our moonvine. Here are pictures of the Luna moth and moonvine from Morguefile.com. I love that site!

Some Independence Day Sashimi

Looks like tuna to me?

Because it’s all food, all the time here.

Diet Food, Recipe Style

Once upon a time, in a land exactly where I’m sitting, Sketchy and BabyDaddy adhered to the Weight Watchers gestalt. The only positive thing we lost, and then regained – in spades – from that experience, was one of BD’s favorite soup recipes. This is not a minor point, as soup/stew is considered a Perfect food by BD. We had heard of this mythical soup from Fifi and Mary,Mary (my sister). It was only in a Points System/No Meat format that this ubiquitous diet food entered our house.

Do Not Fear. I can make anything dangerously unhealthy. It’s my gift.

Taco Soup

1 lb ground beef, turkey, or veggie crumbles
1 onion, diced
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packet ranch dressing mix
2 cans Rotel or mexican style tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 c broth, any kind

Brown beef or turkey in a medium soup pot with chopped onions. If using beef, drain excess fat. Mix in taco seasoning and ranch dressing packets and stir into meat and onions until incorporated. When meat is cooked, add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. (If using veggie crumbles, add them now.) Add more water for soupier consistency.

Make 8 -10 cups and freezes well. Very low fat and high in fiber.

Deliciousness Additions: Tortilla chips, sour cream, crema, creme fraiche, lime juice, crusty bread and salted butter, cheese, any kind of cheese, lots of cheese

Summer in 10 #6

Firefly Thorax. Not mine, but one of my favorite summertime sights.

Check morguefile.com for more wonderful photos.

My Holiday Bull’s Eye

The Tomato Sandwich

2 slices rustic bread

1 garden tomato, sliced

mayonnaise

salt & pepper

kitchen sink

Spread a healthy, insulating layer of mayo on bread to protect you against evil. Sprinkle pepper on mayo. Layer tomato slices to desired slippage/depth. Sprinkle tomato slices with salt. Assemble sandwich. Cut sandwich in half. Eat over sink to catch drips.

Rinse. Repeat. Relax in the cool like these two ‘Mater Sammich Addicts.

Mexican Restaurant Rice in the rice cooker

I will in no way vouch for an accuracy in locale to this recipe (found in general status under Mexican Rice II at allrecipes.com, plus generous reviewer contributions which will be incorporated here.) It tastes just like what I get with the Number 3 Lunch Spechul at my local taqueria. If you have a basic level fuzzy logic rice cooker, you get the Lazy Man’s Special, if not, check your skillet often.

1 c white rice (never ever used here except for this recipe)

1 1/2 c vegetable/chicken broth

1/2 c tomato sauce

1 tbs oil or butter

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, smashed and diced

1 tsp salt, plus salt for The Onion Sweat – not a new band, by the way

1 tsp ground cumin

*Put rice in cooker. Add tomato sauce to cooker next so you can clean out measuring cup with broth. Add broth.

Over low heat, add oil to skillet. Add cumin, cook for 30 seconds. Add onion, salt, and garlic. Sweat for 5 minutes over low heat.

(If cooking rice on stovetop, add wet ingredients AND RICE now , stir and cover. Cook over low heat for 20 – 30 minutes. Fluff and serve.)

Add onion and garlic mixture to wet ingredients in cooker and mix. Close cover and cook per directions.

Enjoy and fight over leftovers. I would have taken a picture of the rice, but we ate it all. Tee Hee.

By the by, the tomato sauce is enough for three servings of Fuzzy Logic Mexican Rice. Just sayin…

* These are instructions for kitchen geeks with small to medium sized fuzzy logic rice cookers.

Bitter Disappointment at Target

The Archer Farms Green Chile and Cheese Tamales have been discontinued from my SUPERTARGET. Yes, we are a SUPER U.S. Majority family, but do not punish us by taking away our most non-ethnic/homogenized “ethnic” food. Just like I dream we have a clothesline, and a pig, and hens roaming about the back 0.14 acre, I acutely now feel pain in paying $6.00 to burn sweet petrol to buy totally faux tamales. THEY ARE YUMMY. Damnation. The ironies in These Times do sting.

If only we had a Prius.

Tonight We’re Making a Run

For the border. Tamales, guac, and mexican rice.

Yummy!

A Can Called TUNA

Canned tuna was on double deep discount this week so BabyDaddy and I stocked up. As I adore the Sabra brand Tuna Salad (and hummus – oh joy! the hummus), I decided to try to fool around with my basic Tuna Salad recipe. I don’t like it very much, but it will suffice when time and funds demand.

Old Skool Tuna Salad

2 cans tuna in water, dranied

1 big spoon mayo

1 big spoon sweet relish

salt

Mix. Die of boredom.

Now, my recent jaunt to the Mediterranean has caused me to try a radical thought – lemon juice and tahini in tuna. I also added some salt, some mayo, and a sprinkling of my secret shame, my secret love – smoked paprika.

Not quite there yet. It still needs something. Mostly something sweet to balance out the rest of the flavors. I’m not sure if this will involve sweet pickle relish or not, but I’ll keep trying until I realize canned tuna is a horror that cannot be saved. I PROMISE.