Oh, these pack a wallop. They are super hot, super sweet, and super delicious. A little goes a loooooong way. A really long way. We will be eating these for years.
My favorite preparation of these little babies is finely diced, mixed with cream cheese, and spread on a cracker, which you can see above. I needed just a couple tablespoons of the candied jalapenos plus a little bit of the liquid from the jar to 8 ounces of softened cream cheese. So good. Continue reading ‘Cowboy Candy’
We used this salsa to top some sort of generic grilled pork chops, and it was tasty. I used Fuji apples, but Cooking Light also recommends Spartan, Jonagold, and Liberty apples.
I’ve reduced the amount of lime juice from the original recipe, because we thought there was just a little bit too much of it. Ok, there was a lot too much. We might have lost a little tooth enamel. Next time I make this, I’ll start with just a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, then add if needed. The large amount of lime juice did leave the apples looking beautiful, but I can live with a little brown on my apples if it means I get to keep my enamel.
Continue reading ‘Apple Salsa’
Mike looooooves radishes. He can eat them by the bowlful. I tolerate radishes. I prefer them when they are very thinly sliced and are more of a garnish than an ingredient. I’ve seen the “radish-dipped-in-salt” idea before, so when I found this recipe I wanted to give it a try. I thought it would be wonderful, and Mike and I could start sharing many radish-filled meals together.
Not gonna happen.
I dipped my radish in salt and took a bite. A big bite. I got a horrid mouthful of salty hot that made me want to cry. It was truly awful. So, there will be no romantic radish dinners for us. On the plus side, Mike need not fear me sneaking a radish or two out of his bowl. They are all his.
The chive butter, however, is delicious. Really delicious. Butter for me, radishes for Mike. Hooray! Continue reading ‘Chive Butter and Radishes’
I looooved Shrimp Cocktail when I was a kid. I think the only place I ate it when I was little was at Red Lobster. We didn’t go there all that often, so it was special. Plus, it was a “cocktail,” so I felt very sophisticated. Then I would order popcorn shrimp and fries, which, as we all know, is the height of sophistication.
These days, I usually get my Shrimp Cocktail at holiday buffets, where the shrimp sit in a ring on a plastic tray surrounding a tub of pre-made sauce. I’ve bought a few of these shrimp kits myself, but I don’t think I will buying one again. This cocktail sauce is so easy to make and it tastes fantastic. I thought the 3 tablespoons of horseradish was just right, but you can adjust the amount to suit your taste. And let’s not forget about the shrimp—they are perfect! Continue reading ‘Shrimp Cocktail’
Ah, cinnamon popcorn. It has long been my favorite flavor from Topsy’s, our local popcorn maker. Topsy’s is a staple in most (maybe all) of Kansas City’s big malls/shopping centers. Even our dying neighborhood mall with approximately 7 stores still has a Topsy’s, which smells amazingly good as Mike and I walk laps there in the winter. Yup, we are mall walkers. We’re still cool though. Well, we think we are cool.
Anyway, Topsy’s is awesome, but I wanted to recreate the cinnamon popcorn at home. I doubted my ability to do this, but this recipe is spot on. It is so good.
I used an air popper to pop the corn. The air popper is a relatively new addition to my kitchen and I love it. I wish I bought one years ago. It is really the only way I can make popcorn without burning a large percent of the kernels. It is one of my best $20 purchases ever.
The recipe calls for 6 to 7 quarts of popped corn. Ask Poppy tells me that one ounce of unpopped popcorn yields one quart popped. Continue reading ‘Cinnamon Popcorn’
Why do corn flakes only come in gigantic boxes? I bought the smallest box I could find at the grocery store to make Dishpan Cookies around Christmas, but I still had a ton of corn flakes left. The people at Kellogg’s must realize that there a people like me, who buy corn flakes to use in other dishes but don’t usually just sit down and eat a bowl of them, because there were two recipes on the box. The Cheese Wafers were immediately appealing because, well, CHEESE!
I thought the corn flakes might be kind of a throw away ingredient here, but they really added a nice crispiness to the wafers. I really, really like these. Continue reading ‘Cheese Wafers’
These nuts are really easy to make and really tasty. I made several batches for gifts at holiday time. I packaged them in wide-mouth half-pint canning jars. Just add a tag and a little ribbon and you have a nice little present.
Continue reading ‘Toasted Rosemary Pecans’
I don’t have anything against the jellied cranberry sauce that shows up on many Thanksgiving tables, in a perfect cylinder with the ring pattern of the can decorating the sides. It is almost always on the table, and, frankly, I think it tastes pretty good spread on a crescent roll that has been slathered with butter.
If you aren’t a fan of that cranberry sauce from a can, you really should give this recipe a try. It might just change your mind. It is so fresh tasting and tangy. It is super easy, too. Continue reading ‘Cranberry-Apple Relish’
You might recall that I went a little peach crazy last month and bought a whole bunch of peaches. Not wanting them to go bad, I consulted our pickling cookbook for peach ideas. I selected this Peach and Pickle Relish because one of the suggested uses was serving it with cream cheese and crackers. Yum!
I have only made a jelly/jam-type dish once before, and that one I made in my bread machine, so it was a very hands-off process. This recipe is more involved. I would recommend using a high-sided pot. I used a dutch oven and had problems with my lava-like mixture spurting out of the pan. A couple of those spurts landed on my arms. That hurt. A lot. I have a scar. Even more of the spurts ended up on the stove top, the wall behind the stove, the counter next to the stove, and the floor. It cleaned up fairly easily, but a taller pot would have saved me some of that trouble.
The relish isn’t as spicy as I expected, but it did taste good with cream cheese and crackers. I also used some as a sauce for grilled chicken—I heated a small amount of the relish (about a tablespoon per chicken breast) for a few seconds in the microwave to thin it out a bit, then mixed in a little deli mustard. I basted the chicken with the mixture during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Good stuff. Continue reading ‘Peach & Pepper Relish’
Tostado Dip is my standard contribution to “food day” at work (we have quite a lot of them). It is usually referred to as 7 Layer Dip, but it is really only seven layers if you count the the chip that gets dipped. There are endless variations on this recipe—pretty much anything you might think about including on a taco can be added. Continue reading ‘Tostado Dip’
