Elote Asado (Grilled Corn with Chile & Lime)

Holy crap this is wicked good!!!!

I don't have step by step pics, because I was wicked busy and distracted, but this is too good not to share!

I found this in the Better Homes & Gardens Mexican magazine... ya know... those cooking magazines at the checkstand at the grocery store? One of those!

I'm SO glad I picked it up!!

Elote Asado
6 large ears of corn, husks and silks removed (I used 8)
1/2 C snipped fresh cilantro
1 TBLS ground ancho chile pepper
2 tsp finely shredded lime peel
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 C butter, melted
2 TBLS mayo (I used reduced fat)
2 TBLS Mexican crema or sour cream (I used reduced fat sour cream)
2 TBLS lime juice
Salt

Cut each ear of corn in half. Place corn pieces in a large pot and cover with water. Let soak for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl stir together cilantro, ground ancho chile pepper, lime peel, and cayenne pepper; set aside. This stuff smells amazing!!!!

In an extra-large bowl whisk together melted butter, mayo, sour cream (or crema), and lime juice and set aside. Drain corn. Brush corn with butter mixture and place on a grill directly over medium-high heat. Cover and grill for 15 to 20 minutes or until corn is tender, turning every 5 minutes and brushing with butter mixture several times during the last 5 minutes of grilling.

Place grilled corn in the remaining butter mixture in the bowl and toss to coat. Sprinkle cilantro mixture over corn and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt.

I had a piece as soon as I took them off the grill because they smelled so good... then I had another! They were great! The sweet corn with the tangy sour cream & lime juice, the savory chile powder, the spicy cayenne, more tangy lime, herby cilanto... so so so yummy!!!! My husband HATES cilantro... but he LOVES this corn!!

Then I let everyone else know they were ready!

Enjoy!!!

Chicken Peanut Stew

I've been seeing this recipe a lot over the past couple of years and wanting to try it. But it seemed like one of those things that my family might not like. No real reason, just a feeling. So I kept putting it aside.

Well, let me tell ya, I wish I had tried it a lot sooner! It was SO good!

This recipe is very slightly adapted from JungleFrog Cooking.



Chicken Peanut Stew
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb potatoes, peeled & cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded & diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 in piece ginger root, grated
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
chopped peanuts, if desired
skinny chile pepper slices, if desired

Cut the chicken (breast or thighs, whatever you prefer) into bite sized pieces.
Chop the veggies.
Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add onions and jalapenos. Cook until onions are slightly translucent.
Add chicken. Cook and stir a few minutes. Add ginger, garlic, tomato paste, curry, coriander. Cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.
Add chicken broth, peanut butter, brown sugar and sweet chili sauce. Stir and cook until well combined. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Stir.
Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 60 - 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Garnish with chopped peanuts and chile slices. Serve with crusty bread.
Enjoy!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cut up your chicken. I used boneless skinless breasts.


Cut up your veggies.


Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes




Heat the oil in a dutch oven.

Add onions & jalapenos and cook until onions are a little translucent.


Add chicken.


Cook a few more minutes.

Add ginger root, garlic, tomato paste, curry and coriander.


Stir and cook a few minutes until spices are really fragrant.

Add chicken broth.


And peanut butter


Stir until peanut butter is totally mixed in.

Add brown sugar.


Sweet Chili Sauce


And tomatoes.


Stir and add potatoes & sweet potatoes.


Stir, cover and simmer for 60 - 90 minutes or until potatoes are tender.


I had fully intended to garnish this with chopped peanuts & chile slices, but totally forgot to buy them!


Tear off a nice crusty piece of bread and enjoy!!


I didn't tell Jon what was in this, because I thought he'd say that the ingredients didn't 'go together'. That way he had a less biased mind to try it. He is really good about trying everything I make, well... except Rappie Pie... anyway...

We both LOVED this. Bob didn't care for it, but I really didn't think he'd like it. Tawny and Lilly weren't home, and they didn't get to try it, because Jon & I just finished up the leftovers for lunch!

This is a really hearty, thick, flavorful, satisfying stew and I wish I had tried it sooner! I'll definitely be making this again. Give it a try and don't wait as long as I did!

Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

There's a Lean Cuisine I like called Ranchero Braised Beef with Chipotle Sweet Potatoes. Admittedly, lots of Lean Cuisines aren't very good. But this one doesn't totally suck. The meat isn't great... but I love the sauce mixed with the mashed chipotle sweet potatoes. So I decided to make the Sweet Spicy Mashies myself.



Alton Brown's Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped
1 teaspoon adobo sauce from can of peppers
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put cubed potatoes into steamer basket and place steamer into a large pot of simmering water that is no closer than 2 inches from the bottom of basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Add butter to potatoes and mash with potato masher. Add peppers, sauce, and salt and continue mashing to combine. Serve immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have 4 sweet potatoes, because mine were pretty small.


Peel 'em.


Cut them into cubes and steam them for 20 minutes or until they're fork tender.


While they're steaming, you can chop your chipotle pepper.

I like to buy the San Marcos brand, because it's a really small can and I usually only use one pepper at a time.


Mmmm... spicy & smokey!


Even with one chipotle, these potatoes have a nice spicy kick.


All steamed and tender, butter added...


Mash them up!


Add the pepper & sauce.


Mix until the pepper and sauce are well combined with the sweet potatoes.


Now they're ready to serve.

They were perfect with some grilled chicken, sugar snap peas and baked beans.


The color is bright and gorgeous! They were creamy, sweet and spicy! Totally delicious! And a gazillion times better than a Lean Cuisine!

Amazing Shrimp Marinade

My friend, Erin & I had been dying for grilled shrimp for quite a while. Ericka was in town for the weekend, so I decided it was a perfect time to make it!

I kinda dawdled trying to find a recipe for the marinade. I had looked at a few that looked OK, but nothing looked really great.

So finally... being the procrasti-slacker that I am... the morning of dinner, I jumped online again to look for a marinade.

Not wanting to waste time, I went to allrecipes.com. I found a five star recipe with over 1600 reviews. Even with people reviewing... and changing ALL of the ingredients before they make it, I figured this had to be a good one... and let me tell ya, I was NOT disappointed!!



Marinated Grilled Shrimp
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

In a large bowl, stir together the garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce, and red wine vinegar.
Season with basil, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Add shrimp to the bowl, and stir until evenly coated.
Cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring once or twice.
Thread shrimp onto skewers, piercing once near the tail and once near the head.
Discard marinade.
Preheat grill for medium heat.
Lightly oil grill grate.
Cook shrimp on preheated grill for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until opaque.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I doubled this recipe. I started with a 5 pound bag of frozen shrimp. (I left a pound in the freezer)

Since I procrasti-slacked, I had to thaw mine in the sink under cold water instead of in the fridge.


Then I set up my peel & clean station in the sink.

Colander filled with thawing shrimp. Empty colander for peeled, cleaned shrimp and a ziplock bag to collect the shells to make stock at a later date.


The shells & legs pull off easily, put them in the ziplock bag.

To devein the shrimp, just slice along the center back, pull out the vein and wash it down the drain.



Now I have a big bag of shrimp shells to make stock!


Just store them in the freezer.

And a big bowl of cleaned shrimps!


Whisk everything together... I added extra cayenne, because we like it spicy...



I put the shrimps and the marinade in a ziplock bag and into the fridge.



After about an hour I skewered them on wooden skewers that had been soaking in water for about an hour.

I put them in a glass baking dish for easy storage until I was ready to grill.


I also poured the leftover marinade over them, since it would still be a little while before I was ready for grilling.

Then onto a pre-heated grill.


Flip


And it's dinner time!


I spiced mine up a good bit, but they weren't too spicy.

These shrimps were a HUGE success. Everyone really really loved them. I can't say enough about how delectably delicious they were!

If you actually have leftovers, which I doubt you will... they'd be awesome on a salad or in a wrap.

Plus they were so easy!!

To BlondiePerez on allrecipes.com.... Well done!!

I'm going to be trying this marinade on chicken, beef and pork!

If you want to leave your dinner guests, ooooing and ahhhhing over your mad culinary skills... I highly recommend you try this!

Baked Jalapeno Poppers

So last Friday I opened my email and the Daily Dish email from allrecipes.com was Jalapeno Poppers. Nice! I'll check it out. I only actually open a handful of those Daily Dish emails. If the dish doesn't seem appealing, I delete it, unopened. Maybe I lose out on some winners that way. But I get a lot of daily recipes, so I pretty much only open the ones that instantly seem interesting. (I do have a TON of appealing Martha Stewart Cookie of the Day emails saved!)

So last Friday was Jalapeno Poppers I!

That got an instant open. 4.5 Stars & 238 Reviews! Ohhhh and they're baked!! This is looking good! After reading all of the reviews, with everyone's changes & comments, I decided I would definitely be making these for the Steelers game!

This reflects my version of Jalapeno Poppers I



Baked Jalapeno Poppers
2/3 of 8 oz package cream cheese,softened
1/3 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 C pepper-jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 TBLS Chipotle Tabasco
12 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
1 egg, beaten
splash of water
1 1/2 cups finely crushed corn flake cereal
1 - 2 tsp Penzey's Arizona Dreaming Seasoning
Olive Oil mist

Cut & seed Jalapenos; place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake 15 minutes at 325F. This is just to take the crunch off them. Allow to cool to room temperature.
While they're cooling, combine cheeses, mayo & Chipotle Tabasco.
Crush cornflakes. I did this in my KitchenAid food processor until I had fine crumbs. Mix Arizona Dreaming Seasoning with cornflakes.
Fill cooled jalapenos with cheese mixture. Whisk egg w/water and brush the tops off the filled peppers. Sprinkle seasoned cornflake crumbs over each pepper. Lightly spray peppers with olive oil.
Bake at 325F for about 30 minutes. Serve plain or with dipping sauces of your choice!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slice jalapenos lengthwise & seed.


Be sure to wear gloves for this part. You'd be surprised at how hot jalapenos can be, especially if you touch your eyes or some more delicate areas!


Lots of the reviews said that the peppers were a little too crunchy when prepared according to the original recipe and some people blanched them to get around that. For whatever reason, that just felt weird to me, so gave them a little pre-bake.


Mix up the cheeses with mayo & Chipotle Tabasco.




Pipe the cheese mixture into the cooled jalapenos.


Honestly, this was a little thick to come through a baggie. I would have been better off with an actual piping bag. But going slowly, the baggie worked out ok.


Whisk up the egg with a little water.


And brush it onto the filled jalapenos. I did about 5 or 6 at a time. You want the egg wash to be nice and wet to hold the crumbs.


Season the crushed cornflakes with Arizona Dreaming.


Sprinkle your seasoned cornflake crumbs on top of the egg-brushed poppers. Again working in batches of 5 or 6 peppers at a time.


At this point, I put my tray of poppers into the fridge. Because I had an hour or so before the game. You could even put them in the freezer if you were working ahead for a future party.

Time to bake them. Preheat the oven to 325F. Lightly spray each pepper with olive oil.


I have both of these oil misters. I got them at Sur La Table

I LOVE them!!
The white one on the left has a little filter on the tube, so you can put herbs or spices in your oil and they don't clog up the sprayer. The one on the left comes in 4 fun colors and is a little cheaper. Both work great and I use them ALL the time!
Ok... end review of oil misters! Back to the poppers!

After you mist the poppers with oil (for fun you could use garlic oil or bacon oil or chile oil or cilantro oil... you get the idea!) pop them into the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.


The topping is nice & crunchy!


These really came out awesome and will be definitely show up on the Football Menu at my house often!


The cheese didn't leak out. They were wicked easy to make. They can be made ahead of time. The topping is crunchy, the filling is creamy and a little spicy. I served them with ranch dip. But a berry dip might be nice too!

Definitely a winner!

What's on your football menu this week?