Salsa!

I don't dance.

But I do eat salsa. Occasionally. Actually, when Cande, our daycare cook, makes salsa, I put a little teeny-tiny dallop on my plate to test it out. And I'll put a teeny drop of it on a bite of a taco. Because, man, that's spicy stuff.

While I can't do really spicy salsa, my tongue has become accustomed to some salsa. Yesterday, a group member was leaving, and asked Cande to write down how to make her salsa. She didn't have time before she had to leave for devotions, so she explained it to me quickly, and I wrote it down for him.

So now I know.

Ready? It's super simple.

Get a skillet pan and roast your tomatoes and peppers (jalapeños or whichever you want). You know, you roast them until the skin is kinda brownish. This makes them all soft and easily blended. It also brings out the flavors. You can also roast a little cut up garlic if you want. You do this with NOTHING else in the skillet (no butter, spray, water, nothing).

Put the peppers and tomatoes in the blender with some water. Blend. Voilá! Salsa!!

Cande says you can add the garlic, salt, cilantro, and a little bit of onion, however you like it - it's yours to experiment with.

To make green salsa, roast green tomatillos instead of tomatoes.

Guacamole:
While we're at it, this is the simplest way to make guacamole. I don't know if it's just Baja style, or all the people I know, but this is great for putting on tacos (especially carne asada tacos!).

Ripe Avocado, water, garlic salt, blender. Make it a creamy, yet liquid-y consistency.

The end.

Pizza

Let's talk about pizza.

I don't think this is a topic I would have ever brought up on my own. Pizza is good. Pizza is fine. I will eat just about any brand or style of pizza, without many complaints. You know when pizza is appropriate? On moving days. You invite your friends over to help you move, and you give them pizza for lunch. Or you order pizza on a movie night. Or you get pizza for a kid's birthday party. These have always been my pizza thoughts.

Then I met Manfriend.

Manfriend loves pizza. Not only does he love pizza, but he knows a lot about pizza. He's a pizza fiend. When visiting different cities, he gets on his computer and hunts down that city's best pizza. He writes pizza reviews. Say what? Yes. He writes pizza reviews for a very large website. He uses words like "char", "undercarriage", and "notes of..." to talk about the appearance and flavor of pizza. Where did this guy come from?

Well, I don't really care where he came from, but he's here, and all of a sudden I know more about pizza than I ever did before. In fact, just last week Manfriend was visiting a restaurant to write a story about a special kind of pizza topping. He shadowed the pizza chef (are they called chefs? I don't even know), wrote notes, took pictures. When we tasted the pizza afterward, the pizza chef (who already knew Manfriend) asked me, "So are you now along for all of the pizza adventures?" I responded that yes, I now know more about pizza than I previously did, and how I can somehow distinguish whcih restaurants I like better.

One day I may even begin to formulate a reason why I like a certain pizza better other than "Ummm, it was good." 

On to the story: So Manfriend likes experimenting with homemade pizzas, and while we were at his place in Seattle, he made a very tasty Sicilian style pizza. What's Sicilian? I don't know. But it was good. 

He made the dough, using this recipe. It was fairly simple, and made easier with a stand mixer and a dough hook. It had to rise for two hours. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can still make it, but it will take 9-10 hours to rise. However, we did not use the sauce listed with that dough recipe. I'm sure that one's fine, but we used another recipe.

The sauce (New York style) was also pretty simple, much simpler than I had anticipated. And yes, the onions cook like that. 

We topped the pizza with parmesan, fresh mozarella, and fresh basil. It didn't need anything else because it was so delicious. 

While Manfriend was preparing this scrumptious pizza, I actually thought to myself "I wish my blog had the ability to transmit smells, because this smells so amazing."

Apple Pie Time

While Manfriend was here we made an apple pie. I made the same apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving. The only thing was that this time I had to make my own pie crust. Cutting cold butter into flour is no laughing matter, for which I was happy that Manfriend was there to help. He's a good manfriend like that.

It was delicious.

***You can find the apple pie recipe here. The only thing that should be changed is that it was on the watery side, so add more flour.
***The pie crust is found here. It was incredibly light and flaky. We used salted butter instead of shortening, and it was great. We doubled the recipe, thinking that it was only enough for one crust, but we were wrong - we had a ton left over. 

And you know what my family does with leftover pie dough? We make peanut butter and jelly pie. It's what it sounds like. And it's even better than you're thinking. And it is wonderful.

You're welcome.

Real Meal Deal: Taco Salad and French Bread

Now, I shouldn't really call this a Real Meal Deal. I've made salads forever, and they're not really a specialty or anything new. The other day I had it in my head to make taco salads, so I couldn't help myself.

The best part of making a taco salad is putting on the black beans. I love black beans, and black beans love me. They're good for you, says I.

(plus the cheese was pepperjack. Yum.)

My friend over at ElktonRunner posted a french bread recipe, which I had to try. It was good, but it wasn't fluffy like French bread in the middle. It still tasted yummy. It makes two big loaves, so we ate one, and froze the other.

Stevie likes it, but I'm beginning to think Stevie will eat anything.

In the same post as the French Bread recipe, ElktonRunner talks about her registration into the Boston Marathon. In case you don't know, you have to achieve a qualifying time in another race in order to get into Boston. Then you have to beat everyone else to race registration the day it opens. The online registration for Boston closed in 7 or so hours!! Some believe it was a self-fulfilling prophesy because everyone was talking beforehand about how it was going to close so fast. At any rate, those getting into Boston are fast runners, and Elkton is one of them.

I, on the other hand, will never have to worry about the stress of qualifying and registering for a race of this caliber, as the qualifying time for my age and gender would mean I'd have to wear a jetpack in order to make it. And I don't have money for a jetpack. Congratulations, Elkton, and good luck!! I shall live vicariously through you.

Real Meal Deal: MEATLOAF

Let's start something fun! I'm starting "Real Meal Deals", which will be an inconsistent sampling of my attempts at cooking. I'd like to preface this first Real Meal Deal by saying that it's not that I can't cook, it's simply that I don't ever do it. I don't usually feel the desire to. And let's face it - cooking for one person isn't that desirable. I've survived plenty of years of singlehood living off of beautiful salads, wonderful sandwiches, bowls of soup, etc. But spending 2 hours cooking a single meal? Not my cup of tea (and I don't drink tea). So this is something exciting.

I can make a four-star, extraordinary chocolate chip cookie. I can (I just found out) make a delicious homemade chocolate cake. I can make, what others consider to be, scrumptious peanut butter chocolate bars. I can make homemade applesauce. I've been successful in making homemade cinnamon rolls. But dinner? My creativity stops right about there.

This leads us into Tuesday night's dinner, inspired by Jenna over at Eat, Live, Run. I saw her recipe for Indian naan bread. It looked incredibly easy - so I decided to go for it. Not only is it naan bread, it's Roasted Garlic Indian Naan Bread! With capital letters! That shows you its importance.

I confessed to my roommate that I've never even chopped garlic before... so that shows you a bit of my expertise. After some slight coaching from my mom, and some question answering from my roommate, I ended up with meatloaf, naan, mashed potatoes, and cantaloupe for dessert. It was... good. I know I didn't quite do the naan right. Our ovens are a little testy, so sometimes it's a matter of working with what ya got. I think I worked with what I got.

I roasted garlic!! (nevermind the fact that I burned it the first time around)


Then I made the naan bread. This is pre-baking, but it looked the same afterward. I didn't get to broil it and make crispy edges like Jenna did.


The meal (I know, starch heavy, but c'mon! It was delicious)


Stevie approves!

That is my first real meal deal! Not bad, considering I've never made any of these things before!