Fireworks of flavor: 4th of July salsa!

30. June 2011 · 24 comments · Categories: Appetizer, cooking, food, recipes, Savory, Side dishes, vegetarian · Tags: , , ,

I’ve been promising you guys my family’s favorite salsa recipe and I finally got around to making it. As I mentioned in my last post, I visited my friends this past weekend and thought the salsa was a perfect appetizer on a lovely summer day. Plus, I wanted to get you this recipe in time for 4th of July. Obviously, it goes perfectly with any cookout along with some tortilla chips. Although, it’s so good that sometimes I just eat it with a spoon.

There’s nothing particularly special about the recipe, but my family has been making it for years. I’m not sure where it came from originally, but the recipe is called Brad’s Salsa…so thanks, Brad, whoever you are.

The ingredients are pretty standard for a salsa recipe. It uses canned tomatoes instead of fresh though. Is that normal? I’m not sure, but it makes one tasty dip. And for all you cilantro haters out there, I’m sorry, but this recipe contains a lot of it. I guess you could leave it out but it just wouldn’t be the same.

I think what makes it so amazing are that the ingredients are just so fresh. It’s best served after having mellowed out together for a day, giving it all a change to meld togetehr.

Because I made this on the weekend, I was actually able to take some pictures in daylight! I know. Amazing.

So here you go. Enjoy the pictures and the recipe. I hope you make it for this weekend’s festivities!


Brad’s Salsa
Recipe from Brad?

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Ingredients:

1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, drained (juice reserved), chopped
1 small can diced green chiles (in the ethnic/mexian aisle at the market)
1 Tbsp jalapeno, diced fine (optional)
1 red onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, diced fine
tabasco to taste
juice 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients. Add some of the reserved tomato juice if desired. Let mellow for 12-24 hours in refrigerator. It tends to get more watery as it sits, so don’t overdo the tomato liquid.

*Note: if doubling this recipe (which I always do), be careful of doubling the chiles and jalapeno. Be sure to taste before adding more than a single recipe’s worth.

Easy Grilled Bbq Chicken…impossible to mess up.

28. June 2011 · 30 comments · Categories: Baking, cooking, Dinner, food, recipes, Savory · Tags: , , , ,

I went to Cleveland this past weekend to visit two of my oldest friends, Mike and Sarah, who happen to be married to each other.

I’ve known them since nursery and kindergarten! And now they have the most adorable baby boy.

Here, you can see some pics of us all over the years.

Sarah and her brother used to come stay with my family in Martha’s Vineyard for a week in the summer since we had a house there. Her brother was also in the same grade as my brother. Here are Sarah and me on my dad’s boat :)

Here’s Sarah and Erica (remember her from my bday cake post a month ago?) and me at Sarah’s bachelorette party:

I can’t believe we forgot to take a pice of all of us while I was visiting! I had such a good time with Sarah and Mike, and got the bonus surprise of having her parents visit too, so we had some good catching up :)

Anyway, since Mike typically has to work crazy hours and they’re both busy taking care of the baby, I figured I’d take the opportunity to make them a yummy dinner. Sarah suggested that I take advantage of their grill since I don’t have one in nyc, and that’s exactly what I did.

The weather was so nice. It was perfect for being out on the deck grilling.

Now I have to tell you that I’m not much of a griller. That was always the men’s job in my household (although my mom is pretty good at it). I guess no one ever really showed me how. I can never tell when the meat is cooked.

But that’s what’s perfect about this chicken. You bake it first til it’s fully cooked, so there’s no chance of undercooking it on the grill. The grilling part is basically just used to caramelize the sauce on it and heat it back up. Also, because you bake it ahead of time, you can make it mostly the day ahead and just heat it on the grill the day you’re ready to barbecue. Easy peasy.

Note that I took the pics before flipping the chicken. Yours should have grill marks and crispy skin on both sides when it’s ready.

Come back on Thursday for that salsa recipe I’ve been promising you, just in time for the 4th of July!

Important notes about the recipe:

You have to use skin on, bone-in chicken pieces or it will dry out. If you don’t like the skin, take it off when you’re ready to eat it, not before it’s cooked completely. It holds the moisture in. For this weekend, I used 4 breast pieces and a pack of chicken thighs. The breasts took maybe 10 extra minutes in the oven. You know they’re done when you prick it with a fork and the juices that come out are clear. If you’re worried with the big pieces, you can make a small incision in the thickest part and check that it’s not pink. If it’s a little pink it shouldn’t be a problem since they do end up cooking a bit more while on the grill.


Easy Grilled BBQ Chicken
Recipe from mom

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken pieces, bone-in, skin on
Seasoning: salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, etc
Equal parts of your favorite bbq sauce and Saucy Susan or other Sweet and Sour sauce (found in the ethnic aisle of supermarkets)

Preparation:

Bring chicken to room temperature. Liberally season chicken on both sides. Bake chicken, skin side up, at 350 for 30 min or until juices run clear when pierced with fork. Chicken should be completely, or almost completely cooked.

Cool chicken, or refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temp before grilling.

Mix equal parts of your favorite brand of barbecue sauce and sweet and sour sauce. The amount you use depends on how sauce you like your chicken, but I used about 1/2 small bottle of bbq sauce and had enough left for dipping.

Brush underside of chicken with bbq sauce mixture and place on grill. Grill 5-10 minutes or until grill marks form and sauce is caramelized.

Brush tops of chicken pieces and flip over, grilling skin side. Leave 5-10 min or until other side is crispy. Remove from grill and enjoy!

Remember, the chicken is fully cooked before grilling, so this step is really just to get that lovely caramelization.

Filling in for the head Elephant

23. June 2011 · 8 comments · Categories: Uncategorized

Hey! All loyal readers of Elephant Eats, Amy asked me (Nate!) to fill in for her on a post or two while she is out of town and recovering from our just completed move, but don’t worry she’ll be back in no time with more of her amazing recipes.  My life is less hectic right now than hers, so I have a bit more space and time to help her out here. Sadly, I cannot cook at all and obviously I have no need to with such an incredibly talented girlfriend.  The only advice I have food-wise is to always shop at Trader Joe’s.  When I was single, this is basically where all of my meals came from.

Turning away from food, though, I bet you are wondering what kind of person Amy is behind the scenes. So, I will provide you a taste of what life is like behind the blog.  Amy is one of those people that if she gets something into her head she will immediately try to figure out a way to make it happen.  As you can probably tell from all the various recipes on this blog. She is also extremely goofy and yet deadly serious.  I think this is best represented by this photo…

Amy Being Amy

I also would like it noted that photo was taken per her request, I did not put her up to posing for it, like I have with other various shots throughout our relationship.  It should also be noted that Amy is a very intelligent person, which I’m sure you all know anyway, possessing a multitude in degrees in a wide range of fields.  When I first met Amy I was definitely intimidated by the breadth of her knowledge, seeing as I was coming at her with my BFA in Film & Television.  She spent her undergrad years designing buildings and rebuilding families in grad school, while I sat through countless student films about smoking cigarettes and contemplating suicide with varying degrees of pretension.  However, she is not the kind of person who holds it over you.  She always wants to help and help you understand.

Yes, my head is that much bigger than hers.

If there is one flaw, though, to Amy I would say it is her tendency to take on too much at once.  I have a running joke that she is, in fact, Icarus, constantly flying too close to the sun. She does not give up though, ever.

So now you have a little background knowledge on what the cook behind these wonderful recipes is like. I’ll close this by giving a little hint about what the best meal she’s made was and oddly enough it was the first one she ever made for me.  I’m not sure if this was because of how phenomenal the food was or how amazed I was at having a girlfriend that could cook (and how!), but this fish dish was definitely my fave.  I’m sure one day she’ll make it again and then you guys can all get the recipe here, even LC loved it!

LC enjoying the remains of our first meal

I’ll close this post with a bit of shameless promoting to my own blog: 30 Years of Music.  Since I will be turning 30 in August I decided it was time to look back on the 365 songs that have impacted my life the most and my blog does just that. I hope you enjoyed my quick fill in here and don’t worry Amy will be back soon!

Boxes and baked beans…and more boxes

20. June 2011 · 18 comments · Categories: Baking, food, recipes, Savory, Side dishes · Tags: ,

If you couldn’t figure it out, I’m currently up to my ears in boxes.

I was going to use this post to show you pictures of our new apartment and cop out from baking something and posting about it. You see, my apartment is currently in shambles. Boxes are covering 87.5% of my floor space and there’s barely even room to walk, no less bake.

But then I remembered I baked my family’s favorite baked bean recipe a month ago and didn’t post it because the pictures weren’t much to look at.

But since the 4th of July is fast approaching, I thought this recipe would actually be quite appropriate. Please don’t judge the taste of the recipe by the pictures. Beans just don’t photograph well. I promise you this is the best baked bean recipe you’ll ever have.

This recipe has no annoying overnight bean soaking. No hours spent over the stove stirring. This recipe is so simple, you won’t believe how it could result in such a delectable product.

I hope that this will be an addition to your summer barbeques this year!

And now, I’ll leave you with a picture of Nate thoroughly excited about our new living room…I can’t wait til we’re all moved in!


Minnesota Style Baked Beans
Recipe from a family friend

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Serves 8

3 cans (16-20 oz. size) beans: lima, butter beans, red kidney, etc., drained
1 can (28 oz.) navy beans, with pork
3 large onions, chopped
½ lb. bacon in 1” squares (plus ½ lb. cooked ham or sausage
if for main dish)
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 ketchup
¾ c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. spicy mustard

1. In heavy skillet, brown bacon on medium flame, stirring constantly. Add additional meat if used. When all meat is browned, push to one side and pour off all fat but glaze at bottom of pan.

2. Saute onions in fat on low heat until soft, about 10 min. Add vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Stir well and simmer.

3. Add about ¼ of beans to a slow cooker or heavy dutch oven. Add ¼ of meat, alternating until beans and meat used up. Stir well. Cover and bake for 1-2 hours at 300. Add more ketchup if dry.

It ain’t easy bein green…

16. June 2011 · 12 comments · Categories: Appetizer, cooking, recipes, Savory, vegetarian · Tags: , , , ,

…and it really ain’t easy bein’ cilantro. Cilantro gets such a bad rap sometimes, and I don’t know why. It seems so nice and mild to me. It’s never caused any trouble. And yet for some reason, it has so many haters.

This could in part be due to the fact that some people are genetically predisposed to think cilantro tastes like soap. Weird, but true. I certainly hope you’re not one of those people. You’d be totally missing out. I also hope you’re not one of those people who lacks the gene for winking…because that’s just sad.

We happen to love cilantro in my family. We have an amazing fresh salsa recipe (I might post that near the 4th of July) and we always add way more cilantro than it calls for. Perhaps that’s why warm weather makes me want some cilantro.

So when I came across this recipe for Cilantro Lime Dressing, I thought I’d give it a try.I had hopes of it being really creamy, but it wasn’t so much, so I added in some light sour cream I just happened to need to use up and the result was delicious. Too bad it doesn’t photograph well.

I tossed it with green beans, orange slices, cucumer and fresh mint. It ended up being a fairly tasty combo but not worthy of putting on my blog (because of the combo of veggies/fruits, but not because of the dressing). I think in the future I’d just stick to dressing a plain old lettuce salad, but you can do whatever you want with it. I won’t judge.

Now if you don’t like cilantro, I can’t promise that you’ll like this recipe, but you could at least make it for everyone else to enjoy. Just understand that you’ll be missing out.


Cilantro Lime Dressing
Adapted from Everyday Health

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Makes about 1 cup

*This dressing is best after refrigeration because it gets creamier. Make a day ahead.

Ingredients
1.5 cups cilantro, packed
1/3 cup oil, olive, extra virgin
1/3 cups lime juice
1/3 cups orange juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper, black
1 pinch garlic, minced
1/3 cup low fat sour cream

Puree cilantro, olive oil, lime juice, orange juice, salt, pepper, garlic and sour cream in a blender or food processor until smooth.

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