Summer Salsa

One of my favorite things about summer is making fresh salsa. This recipe can be tweeked to meet your needs and the needs of your family.

Here is the basic fresh salsa recipe

Basic Salsa
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup chopped yellow, green or white onion
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 to 2 jalapeño
Salt to taste

Now that recipe is amazing and delicious as is. BUT there are some variations that really take it to the next level!

Thick Salsa
Same recipe as above + 1 6oz can of tomatoe paste

Tropical Salsa
Same recipe as above, but instead of tomatoes use fresh pineapple, peaches or mango.

Salsa Add In's

• Steam one fresh ear of corn. Cut the corn from the cob and stir it into the basic salsa.
• Drain and rinse 1 can of black beans. Add to basic salsa
• Use a combination of tomatoes and mangos or tomatoes and pineapple.
• If you like your salsa sweet, stir in a teaspoon of sugar

This recipe is only limited by your imagination!!!!

Oatmeal Raisin Spice Muffins

Last night we did breakfast for dinner. I had a few of these yummy muffins in the freezer. Once thawed, I grilled them with a tiny bit of butter. YUMMY!

1 egg
3/4 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. raisins
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. all spice
1/4 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups (2 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches). Beat egg, stir in milk and oil and raisins. Stir in remaining ingredients all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown about 20 minutes. Immediately remove from pan. Makes about 1 dozen.

Fried Spaghetti - a GREAT way to get rid of left overs

When I was a kid my mom used to make fried spaghetti from time to time. She used bacon grease and it was greasy, spicy and wonderful! I like the idea of this quick treat but it needed a bit of a re-do.

Listed below is the recipe that I made from my family last night. This is a quick and easy version and I didn't really measure anything. I used the leftovers that I had on hand.

In a large skillet I heated olive oil, sliced onions, thinly sliced carrots and red peppers. To get the carrots nice and even, I used a veggie peeler and sliced them lengthwise.

Once the veggies were tender I added fresh garlic, cooked (drained) spaghetti, chili powder -you could also use crushed red pepper flake (to taste) and ketchup. Sometimes I used left over jar pasta sauce. Don't add too much ketchup. Just enough to thinly coat the pasta.

I toss everything around in the pan until it is evenly heated and serve.

That's it!

The ketchup cooked into a slightly sticky, sweet and spicy sauce. My youngest ate 3 plates!

Hey it just occured to me that you could easily do this is a wok! I used an iron skillet and it worked out just fine!

Ketchup - Big Batch Recipe

I just posted the directions on how to do a big batch of ketchup size and how to fill the bottle. I just realized that I failed to post the recipe for making a big batch.

Here it is:

This recipe will give you approximately 24 oz of the red stuff.

ENJOY!

Homemade Ketchup - Big Batch!

2 - 12 oz cans Tomato Paste

1 1/3c. cup tap water

1/3 c. vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt (seasoning salt works well too)

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 cups brown sugar

Mix and enjoy!

More about Ketchup

One of my favorite kitchen tips is making homemade ketchup. I LOVE the idea that I know what my family is eating. Plus it's easy and inexpensive.

The only of the downside of making my own is #1-it can be tricky getting it into the bottle and #2-if I'm short on time it can be a pain in the neck to find and measure out everything I need. So I have come up with a solution to solve both problems.

I have created for myself a "ketchup spice mix". Basically I mix all of the dry ingredients in a Ziploc bag ahead of time. When I need a new batch of ketchup I add the wet items and I'm good to go.

Also, I'm trying to add more pictures to this blog so I photographed the process in my kitchen this morning.

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First, I gather all of the spices that I will need to make a big batch. I usually make enough to fill a large ketchup bottle (approx 20 oz.).

Next I put the brown sugar and all of the spices to a Ziploc bag.

That's it for the first part! I label the bag of spices and store them in a cool dry place; namely my kitchen cabinet!

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Now I don't know about your house but at my house we ALWAYS need more ketchup. I have 4 sons who enjoy a squirt of the red stuff on EVERYTHING!!! So when our ketchup bottle is getting a little light I pull out my bag of ketchup spice and get to work.

To the bag of spices I add: 2 large (12 oz.) can's of tomato paste, the water and vinegar.

Next I gentle release all of the air from the Ziploc bag and seal. Squeeze to mix. Be careful not to burst open the bag.

Next lay the bag flat on the counter and squeeze the ketchup away from one corner. Use scissors to clip the tip of the bag.

Now gather the end of the bag together to form a spout.

Slide the spout down into the your empty ketchup bottle.

From the top of the bag gentle squeeze the ketchup into the bottle.

That's it!

Depending on how large a batch of ketchup you make and the size of bot bottle that you're refilling, there may be some leftovers. Place the Ziploc containing the ketchup in a container or inside of another bag and freeze.

Turkey Burgers!

It's that time of year and really who couldn't use a good burger recipe!

I have been making these Turkey burgers for a while now and it just occurred to me this week to add it here. (I hope I didn't post this already - I have such a bad memory).

Anyway- in my opinion most turkey burgers are dry and boring. I appreciate the health benefits but sometimes low fat leaves something to be desired in the flavor department.

So here is what I do to punch up my Turkey burgers and trick the kids into getting a little bit of extra vitamins.

I use either a hand shredder or a food processor to shred carrot or apple and onions into the meat. I use 1 small apple or 1 small carrot and 1/2 an onion for each pound of meat. In a bowl I mix the veggies, raw turkey, seasoning salt and pepper to taste.

Make sure not to mash the meat too much. You don't want a meatloaf burger. Simply mix with a fork until blended. Form into patties and let the meat rest a few minutes in the fridge.

If you're using extra lean ground turkey add a little olive oil so that they don't stick to the grill.

With this method you can pan fry, grill or pop them on the old George Foreman for delicious burgers in just a few minutes!

Enjoy and happy summer!!!

PS. As a side note - I have 3 young sons who enjoy using my apples for batting practice. The recipe is ideal for using up apples that are too bruised to be appetizing.