Close Enough

You know what sounds good right now - I mean really, really good?  A bowl of homemade guacamole and some really fresh, crunchy tortilla chips.  Ever since the Attack of the Infested Tomatoes started playing out, my obsession with salsa has understandably faded.  It’s been challenging to find ways to substitute what was always a frequently used staple in my kitchen.

I never really realized just HOW frequently I used tomatoes until now.  Sliced on sandwiches, cut up in salads (which my family eats just about daily in some fashion or another during the warm months), in tacos, cooked with pasta, and…sigh… in salsa and pico de gallo.

With salads, I’ve been replacing tomatoes with radishes and/or red pepper.  Some people like sun dried tomatoes in salads, but I’m still on the fence.  I think they’re amazingly good in pasta dishes, though.  They can fill the void nicely.  Then, too, there’s always the cannded tomatoes.  They mingle well with pasta. 

I also stir the petite diced tomatoes into taco meat for tacos.  They’ll do in a pinch for salsa, too.

But back to my overwhelming desire for guacamole.  I love this stuff and can’t get enough of it.  At the moment, I want it to show up for lunch with it’s tortilla chip friends, but it’s versatile enough to show up with a lot of other sidekicks.

For Example, you have to try the following:

1. Lightly toast some quality bread.  Spread the inside with guacamole.  Add a few sliced of smoked turkey, a slice of swiss cheese (optional), shredded lettuce, and a few slices of bacon.
2. A South of the Border Burger:  Grill, fry, or bake your burger patties.  Lightly toast your buns.  In no particular order, add your meat, sliced onion, a dollop of guacamole, jalapeno peppers if you’re brave, and a teaspoon or so of store bought picante sauce (I usually get Pace.)  Serve with fresh tortilla chips and enjoy being alive.
3. Toast a wheat english muffin.  Spread on some fresh guacamole.  To this you can add either a little picante sauce or hot sauce, if desired.  Now top it off with a poached egg.  Oh, come on now!  It’s good, I promise.
4. Cut up some cooked chicken.  I most recently used mesquite roasted chicken (YUM!), but grilled or baked chicken are delicious, too.  In a bowl, combine the chicken, some guacamole, and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Add as little or as much guacamole as you desire.  Use your chicken mixture to stuff lightly toasted pita pockets or wrap a warmed tortilla around and create a delicious wrap.
5. Serve guacamole beside your grilled steak or chicken.
6. Use guacamole as a potato topper - give sour cream the night off.
7. Slather on top of baked potato skins.
8. Serve with the Ruffles Pinch of Salt Chips and/or Frito Corn Chips I told you about in the last post!

Did you know that early Spanish settlers called guacamole the “butter of the poor?”  It got the name because it was flavorful, could be used a lot of different ways, and was inexpensive to make.  At least it’s still diverse and flavorful!

When I was killing time in Target yesterday, I thumbed through the new Top Secrets Recipes Cookbook by Todd Wilbur: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2: More Amazing Clones of Famous Dishes from America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains. Great stuff! Some of the restaurants featured are: Applebee’s, Bennigan’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s, Denny’s, Hard Rock Cafe, IHop’s, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster and more.

It’s such a great cookbook that I zipped over to Amazon.com this morning to grab a link to put on Buttermilk Press (it’s on the left, below the navigation, along with a link to the first cookbook as well). While I was on Amazon, I got to looking around at their kitchen gadgets, pans, appliances, etc. Holy Cow! I swear, it won’t be long before we can all do ALL of our shopping at Amazon.com. Books, jewelry, clothes, toys, groceries, electronics, etc.

I noticed that they had a cool new widget you could put on your website, listing the different goodies they had in different categories. Below is the one featuring Kitchen/Housewares. Hover over each for a picture of the item, then click for more information and a closer look. Pretty sweet!

Today’s second Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee sounds like a really fun “ride” - it’s all about Carnival Foods. The foods listed for the show are:

Candy Apples
Churros
Corn Dogs
Frozen Bananas
Funnel Cakes

I’ve set my dvr and am good to go - okay, I lied. My youngest daughter actually set the dvr to record….I could have attempted it, but I want it to actually record, so I went to the expert.

Can’t wait - I love each of the foods named - especially Corn Dogs and Funnel Cakes. I could go for a few right now, as a a matter of fact! Click HERE to see the recipes for the episode.

Joi

1 loaf Italian bread
1 lb ground beef
1 roll hot sausage
1 pkg pepperoni
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 pkg shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 far Spaghetti sauce
Italian seasonings

Cook the hamburger and sausage together. (The smell will bring people you don’t even know out of your woodwork.) In a separate pan, cook onions and peppers. Drain and combine with the meat. (Watch for more people.)

Add Spaghetti sauce and season to taste. Sauce will be quite thick.

Slice top of Italian bread - taking care not to slice it off. Dig out the middle of the bread, creating a “bowl.” Line bread with pepperoni and spoon the sauce mixture on top. Sprinkle the cheese on top and “close” the bread. Wrap in foil and bake until cheese is melted and bread is firm.

My favorite place to get Stromboli Sandwiches (AND killer Taco Pizza, AND great Chef Salads…) is at Mancino’s on H-way 54 here in Owensboro, Kentucky. But you can make a pretty darn good Stromboli, “close enough” to restaurant-quality at home. This recipe is a great start. You can make it just like this for delicious results, or you can change the ingredients up some. Have fun with it and create your own masterpiece.

1 egg
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. devil’s food cake mix
vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat egg, shortening, butter, vanilla, and half of the cake mix together - until smooth. Stir in the remaining mix until it’s all incorporated.

Roll dough out and cut into rectangles (or circles if you’d prefer). Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Using a fork, poke holes into them as soon as they come out of the oven.

Put ice cream between layers and freeze.

You could, of course, use any flavor or brand of ice cream that your heart desires - but Breyer’s Vanilla is second to none in this recipe!

Joi