The Dude Cheeseburger

So I've been on a little bit of a spicy kick lately and decided to alter what I usually do in making cheeseburgers!  These definitely aren't for the whole family...we don't want little tongues burned off, so make sure you make separate, normal burgers for those who don't like spicy stuff!  I made 2 pounds on cheeseburgers, kinda by accident so make sure if you're using LESS meat to adjust the ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground hamburger
2-3 Tbs Habanero sauce
1-2 Tbs Red Pepper flakes
1 Tbs Red Chili Powder
2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 tsp Liquid Smoke
2 tsp each Salt and Pepper
2 tsp each onion and garlic powder
2 tsp dijon mustard
 * I was going to use minced jalapeno peppers, but realized I didn't have any!

 *MAKE SURE YOU DON'T RUB OR EYES OR YOUR FACE UNTIL YOU WASH YOUR HANDS WELL!
Put hamburger in a bowl and add all ingredients.  Using your hands squish it all together until thouroughly mixed.  This will make about 10-12 patties.  I recommend making the patties about as big as your palm or a little beyond and fairly flat and thin as they will shrink quite a bit during cooking.

All I can say about cooking burgers, not having done it THAT much it too cook them over medium heat, turning 3 or 4 times and squishing them down with a spatula to make sure that no pink runs out in the juices.

We topped the burgers with Colby-Jack cheese and Pepperjack.  You can alter this recipe by adding more spices to make it hotter, but I thought they were pretty spicy!  Good luck and enjoy!

My Best Chili!

So yesterday I made the best chili I've ever made. Hands down. It's nothing fancy and I really just threw stuff together till it tasted good and it was spiiiiiiiiicy! I KNOW it was good because I took my concoction to the church Halloween party and it was the only chili that was gone! My husband said it was mildly spicy which translates in normal human terms to "makes your nose run" spicy. It was delicious.  The ingredients are approximate since I wasn't really measuring them out but you can give or take as much as you want to get your desired affect.

Chili a la Liz:

1 lb hamburger
1 sm can of vienna sausages
1 can each of Light Kidney Beans, Black beans, Great Northern Beans
4 normal sized cans of tomato sauce
1 sm can of tomato paste
1/2 medium red onion, minced
butter
1 to 2 Tbs Habanero sauce
2-3 Tbs Red Chili powder
1-2 Tbs Red Pepper flakes
salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1/2 Tbs onion powder, garlic powder, crushed bay leaves, cumin
1/2 tsp thyme, paprika, basil
1-2 Tbsp Liquid Smoke, Worchestershire sauce

Whew! I think that's everything!

Start by adding the tomato sauce, tomato paste, beans, chili powder, red pepper flakes to my crockpot set on high and let that start to heat up.  In separate pan, cook hamburger and saute minced onions in butter till nice and golden/brown, salt and pepper to taste. Drain and add to crock pot. Add in ALL of your other ingredients slowly, starting with the minimum amount, stir well and taste. Just keep adding until YOU think it tastes spicy enough for your preferences. This goes really well with tortilla strips (that you can totally make yourself the hard way, or the easy way!)

This is just a modge podge of what I had and threw together and it turned out really well.  I like spicy chili so I kept going until the burn lingered and my nose was runny:) (none of it fell in the chili I promise.)  Stir frequently on LOW in your crock pot or on the stove. The longer the chili cooks, the more the flavors will start to mesh and it'll get a little bit hotter over time. Turned out great!! Hope you enjoy and feel free to change and mess with your spices!

Homemade Tortillas/tortilla strips

This is a cool, yummy recipe I found to make tortillas at allrecipes.com and turned out great!


Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons lard

1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Mix in the lard with your fingers until the flour resembles cornmeal. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together; place on a lightly floured surface and knead a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
2. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly and golden; flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side. Place the cooked tortilla in a tortilla warmer; continue rolling and cooking the remaining dough.

To make tortilla STRIPS use the exact same recipe, only after you roll the dough flat, use a pizza slice to cut the dough into strips and fry them the same way as above...maybe using a little oil and salt for taste!

Fall Fun

I LOVE FALL!  I bought some pumpkins last for a really good price of 29 cents a pound at Alberstons and as we were carving them I decided I would try to make roasted pumpkin seeds...why waste them? I found a good recipe at allrecipes.com and decided to try it!

I did alter the recipe a little bit, but by suggestion from a user who had also tried the recipe. I couldn't believe how easy it was!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I took the seeds from two medium sized pumpkins getting about 2+ cups.

They're going to be covered with orange goo so get yourself a colander and rinse and re-rinse!

It's not going to hurt the seeds, but just get as much of it off as you can!

So you have your seeds rinsed and in a bowl.  The suggestion I followed was to boil the seeds for about 20 minutes in salt water to get the seeds really clean and really infuse the salty flavor.  You'll boil them till they turn a orangy-gray color.  

Lay them as single layer as you can on a greased baking sheet...I just used butter flavored cooking spray. I sprinkled the seeds with a little onion powder, garlic powder and sea salt and let them dry out over night..at LEAST 12 hours.

The seeds should be back to a white/gray color when they're dry enough so preheat your oven to 300 deg and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. They should be a nice golden brown color.  Seal in an air-tight container and enjoy!

On Tonights Menu

This is recipe I just found that I definitely want to try tonight.  I'm going to alter it a little bit as I don't like to cook with onions, don't have fresh garlic or something called mirin.  Instead I think I'll use some crushed red pepper flakes for the spice and onion and garlic powder instead. As for the lemon juice, lemon pepper seasoning should be fine. Click on the link here to get the "real" recipe!  Enjoy!

Spicy Green Beans and Tofu "Stir Fry"
Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds washed string green beans, tops and tails removed.
1 pound extra firm tofu
2 tablespoons soy sauce plus 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons plus 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Lemon Pepper, Onion Powder and Garlic Powder and Ginger! appx 2 tsp each!
2 onions, sliced into long thin half moons
Directions:

Press the tofu on top of paper towels under a modest weight to press the water out of it, about 15 minutes. Put paper towels between the weight and the top of the tofu so water can be absorbed through top as well as out the bottom of the block.
Cut the pressed tofu into 1/2" cubes and place them in a tupperware-type container. Add 2 tablespoons of soy, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, the garlic cloves, ginger, and hot sauce to the container. Close it up and shake gently until the tofu is completely covered with a well mixed marinade. Set aside and let soak for 20 minutes.
Put a tablespoon of oil in the bottom of a large non-non-stick pot or wok. Let it heat until touching the edge of an onion to the oil makes it sizzle violently.
Add the tofu and onions and stir well. Fry over high heat for about five minutes, stirring frequently. Add the green beans, lemon juice and soy and stir and toss well. Cover.
Let cook on high for 10 minutes, checking in every few minutes and stirring the pot. If it seems dry, add a tablespoon or two of water and keep cooking it covered to steam the beans.
After ten minutes take the beans and tofu mix off the heat and serve immediately.

I love tofu...I love tofu even more when it's fried crispy! I plan on making some brown rice and chicken and vegetable egg rolls to go along with it as well.  I'm just disappointed that it's only 11 am and I can't cook it yet!!!
Good as a main dish for 2-3 or as a side dish for 4-6.

An Unconventional Breakfast

So this morning I decided that I didn't want my usual breakfast of 2 eggs over-easy, 2 pieces of thick sliced bacon and 2 pieces of wheat toast. Yeah...I have that every morning. 

I've been wanting to try something involving black beans and salmon for awhile and haven't found much that makes it a "Mexican" side dish, so I decided to go to the laboratory, aka kitchen and experiment.

Here are the results of that experiment...I give this recipe a 3 out of 5.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans...whatever the normal size is
Half a can of Pink Salmon...
DISCLAIMER: I used, unknowingly, a can of salmon that still had bones and skin attached and I had to pull little spine pieces off and search through it for little bones...I highly recommend getting salmon already cleaned up! Those little vertebrae were disgusting.
2 Tbsp Olive oil
2 tsp Lemon pepper
1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper flakes
1 tsp Hot Mexican Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Dill
2-4 Eggs (depending on how many servings)
1-2 tsp pepper
sea salt (to taste)
1 Tbsp parsley
A1 steak sauce
3 Tbsp mild green chilli's
wheat toast

Directions:

Drain and rinse the beans well and put in a saucepan with the olive oil. Add the salmon and over medium heat stir together.  As the beans heat up they will be easier to smoosh. Add a little parsley, pepper, lemon pepper, chili powder, red pepper flakes, dill, salt, approx 3 Tbsp steak sauce, and green chili's.  These are definitely approximate measurements so really just add these to you taste.

I always cook my eggs over-easy. I just like them over-easy...don't judge me.  So, I cooked 3 eggs over easy and sprinkled them with dill, parsley, salt and pepper. All I do to cook them over easy is crack them in the pan, making sure not to break the yolk, get them sizzling and put about 2 Tbsp of water in the pan and cover to steam the egg whites, but leave the yolks runny.  Yum!

Once your black bean paste is heated through and steaming, glob it onto a plate, about a 1/2 cup on each plate and smooth out covering about 1/3 of the plate. Take your awesome eggs and lay them on top of the beans.  I took some wheat bread and toasted it a little crispier than normal and cut it into little triangles. Lightly butter the bread.

I found that the salmon was good, as long as you don't use too much, then it becomes overpowering. Also, the chili pepper gives it a nice warm feeling...not spicy.

The best way to eat this is to take a triangle of bread, a bit of bean mix and a bit of egg, layered on the bread and you get all the flavors together.

This recipe is really up for interpretation. We liked it alright. It's definitely different, but good.  I might try it again someday, as long as I buy the right kind of salmon next time.

3 out of 5 stars.

On Tonights Menu...

Tonight, as tired as I was, I decided to whip up something I've never made before...hence the adventure.  I've been trying for the last couple of weeks to really utilize the foods that I have at the house and cook from "scratch" as much as possible.  These recipes aren't fabulous or groundbreaking, just really me getting my feet wet in the cooking world. As dinner is now finished and my creation labeled a SUCCESS I'll share it!  I think I'm going to call it.....

Shrimp Noodle Surprise!

Ingredients:

Approx 1lb cooked, de-veined shrimp..average size
1/2 cup or so of fresh mushrooms, cut into smallish chunks
2 cans of Campbells Cheddar Cheese "soup"
Milk
Half and Half
2 Tbsp parsley
1 tsp pepper
1-2 tsp sea salt (or regular)
2-3 Tbsp Lemon pepper seasoning DIVIDED
2 Tbsp butter
3 tsp garlic salt
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp dill
Linguine or spaghetti noodles...whatever works

Directions

Cook the cheddar cheese soup according to directions using 1 can of milk and 1 can of half and half...just on lowish heat so it doesn't burn.  Add parsley, pepper, salt, dill, 2 Tbsp lemon pepper, onion powder, garlic. Whisk all together, mixing well.

In a saute pan or whatever you have, "saute" the thawed shrimp and mushrooms in your butter. (Or just use a little butter flavored cooking spray to cut the calories!) You can sprinkle the same spices as above over the shrimp to get the extra flavor as I did.  When the shrimp is nice and pink and the mushrooms browned, add to sauce mixture and mix well.

While you're doing all of this, make sure you have your noodles boiling. This makes quite a bit of sauce, so cook enough noodles! (I got about 6 good sized servings.)

Drain noodles well and add to sauce mixture!  Using a spaghetti spoon, stir mixture to your liking. This should make an ooey, gooey, wonderful dish!

Instead of salt and pepper on top, sprinkle with some more lemon pepper for a little more kick!  Both my husband and brother-in-law thought it was wonderful and I look forward to making it again someday!