Wednesday, 9/22/2010

Katie and I picked Ben up from work tonight.  By the time we got home, we had about 20 minutes to make and eat dinner before I had to head out the door for a service at church.  We made a large chicken quesadilla, which Ben and I shared.  I dumped some shredded rotisserie chicken into a small skillet, added a packet of chicken taco seasoning and a little water.  I stirred them together and let them sizzle for a few minutes over medium heat.  In a larger skillet, I started to build the quesadilla.  On a large tortilla, I put down a layer of shredded Mexican cheeses, a layer of the seasoned chicken, chopped jalapenos, another layer of cheese, and topped it with another tortilla.  I let that cook for a while, hoping that the bottom tortilla was getting a bit crispy. 

Now, I don't know about you, but the flipping of a filled quesadilla is always a bit daunting to me.  It is big, not all melted together yet, and you know you need to get some heat to the other side.  Tonight I used a large spatula and did my best.  I got most of it turned over, but when it was done, the quesadilla had some crispy cheese and chicken on the part that didn't turn well.  

In the meantime, Ben blended about half of the remaining salsa I made this week into a thicker, less chunky texture.  I thought I was going to have the "raw" salsa with my quesadilla, but quickly found myself using the blended salsa instead.  The blended salsa stuck to the quesadilla slices, where the unblended just slid off.  I want to say that I prefer the raw salsa texture, because I feel it would show the maturity of my taste buds.  But, if I am being completely honest, I do prefer the blended texture. 

Monday, 9/20/2010

I picked up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store this morning.  I shredded it as soon as I got home, so that we can use it for meals this week.  It is much easier to shred chicken when it is warm than when it is cold.  Tonight we used the chicken in a caesar salad.  We usually add freshly cracked black pepper and extra Parmesan cheese to a Fresh Express Caesar salad kit.  Unfortunately, I didn't notice that we were almost out of Parmesan. The rest of the ingredients were quite good, but the lack of Parmesan left the salad a little short on flavor tonight.

Once we got Katie down for the night, I started to make salsa for the first time! When I first met Ben, six years ago, I wouldn't even try salsa.  Now, I love the stuff enough that I bought tomato and pepper plants this year.  I sure wish the weather had cooperated with us more.  The tomatoes and peppers got a really late start and are just barely getting ripe.  I ended up choosing this Alton Brown salsa recipe off of www.foodnetwork.com.  The recipe called for six Roma tomatoes.  I used four tomatoes from the store and supplemented with four smaller tomatoes from my yard.  The recipe also called for a total of four jalapenos--two roasted, skinned and chopped and two seeded and minced.  Since a lot of the heat of a jalapeno comes from the seeds, I decided to use the Felicity peppers from my yard for the seeded, minced peppers.  I purchased a couple jalapenos at the store to roast.  

I've seen peppers roasted on the stove top, over a gas burner on the Food Network before.  When Ben walked into the kitchen, he said something like "Nice work Emeril."  That made me smile:)  Roasting peppers was harder than I expected it to be.  The peppers seemed to release some oils during the roasting process, which made them slippery.  They kept sliding off the burners and needed to be watched constantly.  Having never done it before, I ended up pulling them off of the grill too early.  After being roasted, the peppers went into a paper bag where the steam was supposed to help loosen the skins.  Well, the only parts that loosened were the parts that were crisped by the burners.  It took a little scraping with a knife to skin them.  I think that it would have been easier if I let them roast longer.  

Anyway, an hour later, I had chopped tomatoes, onions, dried peppers, roasted peppers, raw peppers, juiced a lime, and added in a few other ingredients to create a delicious salsa.  The recipe said to refrigerate the salsa for 12 hours for flavor infusion.  I couldn't wait and was happy to try it in its chunky, fresh consistency on a couple tortilla chips.  Ben is not a fan of chunky salsa, but was willing to give it a try.  I plan on serving this Wednesday with chicken quesadillas and will put some of the salsa in a blender so that Ben will enjoy it more.  I am definitely going to save this recipe, but will continue to try others.  I am so pleased to have grown some of the ingredients I used:)  

Monday, 8/23/2010

It's nacho week at the Ackers home.  Well, really, it will only be nacho Monday and nacho Thursday.  Anyway, I covered two plated in tortilla chips, added a layer of shredded cheese, a layer of taco seasoned lean, ground beef, a little hot sauce, and then another scant layer of cheese.  Popped in the microwave and dipped into salsa, these were pretty good nachos:)  

I tried to give Katie some left over pork, grapes, and cheese for dinner.  She wanted nothing to do with them.  She was only interested in dipping things into the salsa.  The catch was that she really didn't want to eat any of the things she dipped into the salsa.  So, she would whine and grunt and point and make awful sounds to get something like a chip and then continue that noise until she was given the salsa to dip into.  She would dip in, lick it, then give it back to me.  I will admit it--it got quite annoying after a while.  Sorry Ben, I wasn't very patient with that tonight. 

Thursday, 8/19/2010

Today was quite busy for Katie and me.  We took a nice long walk with our friend Nancy this morning.  Then I worked while Katie took a 3.5 hour nap!!!  I really think she is in a growth spurt.  After lunch, we dashed off to Costco and Fred Meyer for a few errands.  I wasn't going to be getting home in time to make anything for dinner, so I picked up some fried chicken at the deli counter.  It was fine fried chicken, no QFC to be sure, but fine.  Katie ate a few bites of chicken, but mainly snacked on sugar snap peas.  I dipped some of my chicken in salsa.  Katie decided that her peas should also be dipped in salsa.  I love that little girl:)  

After dinner we said a quick "hi, bye" to Ben and drove off for a Casper Babypants concert in a West Seattle park.  We met our PEPS friends there and had a great time.  Katie danced for a good 1/2 hour straight.  She shared crackers with Ari.  She took crackers from Jackson.  She kissed Oliver on the cheek.  She gave lots of hi-fives and made cheesy smiles.  And, she touched Jackson's belly button!  It was a fun night to be her mom:) 

Wednesday, 8/11/2010

Tonight I made the Southwest salad I planned to make last night.  It turned out just okay.  I tossed romaine lettuce, shredded rotisserie chicken, and corn in Briannas Chipotle and Cheddar dressing.  I had high hopes for the dressing, but actually think it was a bit too sweet and was definitely lacking heat.  Instead of breaking up tortillas into the salad, I decided to eat them separately so that I could down some salsa;)  Previously, we used Marie's Creamy Chipotle Ranch for this salad and loved the dressing.  I went to three grocery stores this week and can't find it anymore.  Maybe there is still hope, since it is still shown as a product on Marie's website. 

Tuesday, 8/10/2010

Katie and I were gone most of the day today.  I took her to Waterbabies swimming lessons this morning.  She is doing great!  She doesn't mind going under water at all anymore:)  She jumps off a platform in the water, goes all the way under, and comes up blinking and asking for "more".  Swim suit, or shee shee as she puts it, has become a frequent word in the house.

After swimming we went to Red Robin for lunch, Bellevue Square for an hour of shopping, the chiropractor, and then Redmond Town Center for more shopping. She did pretty well during the day, considering she only napped 5 minutes in the car, just before we got to the chiropractor's office. After all of our shopping, we drove back to Seattle to pick Ben up from work. Thankfully, she fell asleep on the way and had a good nap before we got home.

I planned for us to have a Southwest salad for dinner tonight. But, at the last minute, we decided to have chicken nachos instead. We took a plate of tortilla chips, topped it with shredded rotisserie chicken I bought at the grocery store, hot sauce, and cheddar cheese. After being heated in the microwave to melt the cheese, we dipped the loaded chips into salsa. It was a very satisfying dinner.

Katie ate deconstructed nachos for dinner--shredded chicken, cheese cubes, and chips. She is soo funny. She really likes to dip her food into condiments. So, it makes sense that she would want to dip chips and chicken into the salsa. But, she wasn't so fond of the salsa itself. She kept sticking out her tongue to taste it, but would shake her head "no" just before actually tasting it. Then, she would so kindly offer her food to us. I didn't mind so much when she decided not to eat the loaded chip I gave her and gave it back to me. It was like finding an extra fry in the bottom of the fast food bag. Thanks for sharing Katie:)

Saturday, 6/12/2010

Wow, tonight's meal was FANTASTIC- easily the best meal I've had a long time. In May 2008, we went to an auction at our church to benefit a mission trip to Mexico. Along with our friends Laura and Bron, we purchased a dinner for 12 people at our pastor's home. He and his wife Lyn, well known to be a great cook and entertainer, offered an un(wine)d party where they promised to serve mojitos and arepas. An arepa is a bread made of corn, popular in both Colombia and Venezuela. We were not disappointed. So, here's what we had tonight:

Beverages: Mojitos- fresh squeezed lime juice, simple syrup, tonic, rum, and mint. Wine and sangria were available with dinner.

Appetizer: toasted baguette slices, spread with cream cheese, and topped with a cherry, onion, jicama mixture. Lacking a better description, it was like a sweet bruschetta.

Dinner: grilled chicken breast that had been marinated in a heavenly orange-flavored marinade. A salad made of sliced naval oranges, jicama, and thinly sliced red onion. And, then, the arepas topped with: white rice flavored with onions and finely diced peppers, black beans, and an amazing salsa. I'm not sure what all went into the salsa, but it definitely had avocados, tomatoes, and onions in it. I helped to slice the avocados and tomatoes:) The flavor combination was soo good. I just can't say enough about how good it tasted!

Dessert: chocolate brownies with Full Tilt ice cream. Lyn and David offered us either coconut or salted caramel flavors. Ben had coconut, and I had the salted caramel. Both paired perfectly with the brownies.

Well, it goes without saying that we were quite stuffed when we left their house. But, it was totally worth it. We had a great meal with some of our favorite people. Thank you Lyn and David for hosting such a memorable evening!

EDITS FROM LYN:
Lyn, our wonderful cook, looked at my blog and sent some updates to the ingredients I listed for the meal she prepared. Here they are:

1. The mojitos were made with club soda, not tonic. And, they included triple-sec and lemon juice.
2. The cheese spread on the bruschetta was a blend of goat cheese and ricotta. Mint and cayenne were mixed into the cherry topping.
3. Dijon mustard is the special ingredient in the salsa. Good thing I didn't know that ahead of time. Mustard usually turns me off. But, I will embrace that I liked it in this dish!

Wednesday, 5/19/2010

We had Caribbean Pork Bowls tonight. I don't have time to type up the recipe today, but will definitely be making it again. So, the recipe will come to those who continue to follow this blog:)

Basically, it is pork tenderloin, tossed in chili powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper, pan fried in olive oil. Kielbasa and minced garlic are added to the pan and eventually deglazed with fresh lime juice. It boils until syrupy. We served it with white rice and a delicious tomatillo salsa. I actually made up the salsa months ago and froze it in an ice cube tray. Now, each time we fix this dish, I just defrost one cube and I'm good to go!