I need to confess something to you.

*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

…

Hhmm… I hope this thing is on.

I need to confess to you. I’m a salsa snob, no joke. I know salsa is salsa and it’s basically used to be a chips coat to cushion the pain of being crunched to bits into a hungry persons gullet. I can’t stand canned/jarred salsa. I think it’s eeww and I do not consume it unless being forced against my will. I would rather wait to eat and make a home made salsa than buy some. I told you, I’m a total snob. As I’ve said before my mom is awesome… red haired, green eyed, best-advice giving, awesomeness and always had home made salsa in the fridge. Whether is was a simple salsa picada or a salsa rostisada. The ingredients she used were simple but always prepared with love.

My mom taught me this salsa and it’s perfect with pork, beef or simply tortilla chips. As I mentioned a bit ago, love is a big part of salsa making and cooking in general. I have had my mom talk me through cooking and observe me as I make one of her dishes and it isn’t the same. The taste is not quite like hers. My 4′4″ tall grama has explained this phenomenon. She said that everyone has their essence and love being added to a dish during preparation; that will make every dish, although identical in preparation and ingredients, completely different. My grama is also 100% pure awesomeness.

Try this salsa out. It’s simple, delicious and can be used in many different dishes. We enjoyed it with sopes.

4 medium tomatoes
10-20 dried Chile de Arbol peppers (depends on how hot you want it)
2 T of salt
1 T of pepper
1/4 medium onion

Snap of the stems of the peppers. Wash and stem the tomatos. Place the tomatoes and peppers in a pot of water and boil until the tomatoes are soft and fork tender. Drain the tomatoes into the blender and add half of your peppers. Let the tomatoes cool before you blend, you will have salsa on your cieling if you don’t. Add the onion, salt, pepper and blend until smooth. Taste and add pepper, salt and peppers to your taste. When your taste preference is reached, pour into a bowl and sit back while it’s devoured.

If you have any problems or questions with this recipe, shoot me an email. I’ll be more than happy to help you enjoy this absolute deliciousness of a salsa.

Love,

this muffin is fantastical! I’m been listening to Lady Gaga a bit too much, but Poker Face is so catchy!

Last weekend while I was taking on the grueling task of making a lasagna from scratch (including home made pasta) my mom and I took a trip over to Trader Joes between wine coolers and Starbucks; I know, my mom is awesome. We were cruising through the dried fruit aisle and of course she picked something spicy while I picked something sweet. I haven’t been much of a cranberry person, due to eating a fresh cranberry once and realizing it’s the tartest thing on the planet. Not really, but it’s a punch in the face kinda tart.

While living with the Vazquez family, who are Cranberry freaks, I have grown very fond of anything cranberry. (Still not fresh ones though) I like eating dry cranberries and cran-grape juice is my absolute favorite. I decided on these because it’s a great combo of flavors, orange and cranberry. I’m sure they just cooked dry cranberries in orange juice to pump them full of an orange flavor. I was thinking a crumb cake would be delish with this, but thought the sweet topping of a crumb cake might take away from the cranberries. So I decided muffins would be perfect for these little sweet thangs.

I was looking for a recipe that was quick (I wanted to photograph in the sunlight) and also a recipe that I had all the ingredients for. (I didn’t want to run to the store) While flipping through Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trish Yearwood she has a great and simple muffin recipe that I knew I could work with and was very quick. I tweaked a lot of the recipe, so the one posted below is not exactly from the book. Go buy it, it’s great! She is one of my favorite country singers.

1 ¾  cups AP Flour

Scant ¾ cup Sugar

1 T Baking Powder

½ t Salt

1 t Ground Cinnamon

1 stick unsalted Butter, melted

¼  cup Milk

¼ cup Orange Juice

2 large Eggs

1 t Vanilla Bean Paste

1 ¼  cups Orange flavored Cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place paper liners or grease a 12-cup muffin pan.

Sift the flour with the sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add the melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla, and stir just enough to incorporate all the ingredients. Gently fold in the cranberries.

Evenly distribute the batter into the muffin pan and bake 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

These muffins are fantastic, extremely light and have tons of flavor. Try them out and once you’re food comatose from eating all of them (I almost did) go onto Amazon.com and buy Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen.

Love,

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Gosh I suck. I need to make more time for this blog. I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m just so frickin’ busy! Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to do, five minutes later I’m being pulled in 100 different directions. It’s a blessing and a curse… sigh. Well, on with this post.

I joined the Daring Kitchen! I love how challenging the recipes they chose have been and can’t wait to dive in and try something out of my comfort zone. This month is the first savory dish that has been brought to the Daring Kitchen. It was Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna. It’s a spinach pasta with a bechamel sauce, country ragu and parmigiano reggiano. That’s it. No ricotta, mozzarella or basil. It’s a very intricate, yet simple recipe. The prep was what really took the longest. Or maybe it was the wine coolers, Starbucks and Trader Joe run that my mom and I did. Either way, it took all day to make.

The pasta was the most tedious part of the recipe, but it was fun to make. I don’t think I’ve made pasta since my culinary days in high school. I’m thankful I bought a pasta machine though, I hear other challengers have the biceps of a body builder now!

I must confess, I don’t think I will ever grind my own meat at home again. It really gave me the ickies watching it. I’ve never really thought about ground meat before, but ugh… it really gave a stench to the house for a bit. Watching some of the fat get caught in the blades wasn’t something I want to see again. This recipe had quite an array of meat. Prosciutto di Parma, pancetta, veal (I used lamb), beef skirt and pork loin.

Confession number two… I didn’t eat it. I’m not sure if it’s the 8 hours I spent on it that kicked my craving or grinding my own mean but I didn’t want to eat it. I had one bite and that was it. My mom and dad sat and pondering what could be wrong with me. They don’t see how a food lover, like myself, could deny this amazing dish. They sat and wondered through two plates of lasagna. I think it’s the grueling factor. I’m usually not too hot about a dish if I have to be in the kitchen for more than 6 hours. But then again, I don’t mind baking for hours on end so I’m not sure it’s the length of time spent on the dish. I’m leaning towards the whole meat grinding issue. The best part of this recipe was the freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Oh how I absolutely love the smell of that cheese. The lactose intolerant in me is screaming in terror. :-/ Yuuuummm…

If you want the recipe, shoot me an email and I’ll send it to you. It’s pretty long and I don’t want to scare anyone. Ha!

Love,

Megan,

I left you a special message here.

Love,

I friend of mine gave me CS3 a few weeks ago and I am slowly but surely falling in love with that program. Complete and absolute love. I know you can’t love a program but I’m a middle child so it’s possible. I may have mentioned that I’m a middle child before, maybe not… but that is what I am. It would explain a lot of unique things about me, but unfortunately it doesn’t explain them all.

I was taking some photos of my plant that I brought back from the dead a couple of weeks ago. I was exploring all of its buds that are opening up and all the flowers that have opened up and are saying hello. I love this plant; it’s kind of short and stubby. Like me. It is pretty flowers are blooming only on the top. Uumm… kind of like my “over-bloomed” top half. It will survive anywhere its put. (Inside, outside, direct or indirect sun light) Definitely like me.

But when I began to edit these photos I realized how much of my middle child came out.

I will be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a control freak. I like to know what’s happening, when it’s happening, why it’s happening. Having that grey area, the unknown, the abyss… it just isn’t my cup of tea.

Ask anyone about me and they will say I’m interesting. My mom things I’m vibrant, colorful and a bit spazzy. I like that though; setting me apart is a key to being a middle child.

I’m a lover and a fighter. When put in distress or adversity, my true colors always shine. These situations show me that even when the chips are stacked against me, I will not falter and will prevail.

This may not make sense to you at all, but if you’re a middle child it will.

Enjoy!