Why I love when Mom and Dad visit!

 I love when Mom and Dad visit - example A:  We go out to eat at yummy places.  This place is called West Side Drive-In.  They serve prime rib on Friday and Saturday - and it is the best prime rib I have ever had.  It was featured in Drivers and Drive-In's - see the episode here - then come and visit me :) 

Example B:  They bring raspberries that then result in 21 jars of jam.  This new baby loves jam - I eat it all the time.  If I had it my way - it would just be hooked up to an IV that I could carry around.  I've never been very good at making jam though - and Mom totally had to teach me how to do it.  Thank goodness for Mom! 

Mom also shared some of their yummy tomitillo salad dressing and salsa.  How did I ever live without tomitillos?

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

I didn't take a photo of this one, but it's a yummy salad dressing that used some of the mountains of tomatillos we are harvesting this year. It makes good use of the blender!

2 large jalapeno peppers (seeded and coarsely chopped)

3 cloves garlic

2 or more tomatillos (I used 4 large ones and chopped them a bit)

1 handful cilantro--I used about half a bunch

juice of 2 limes

2 cups milk

2 envelopes Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing mix

Put all this in the blender and blend. Pour into a large bowl and whisk in

2 cups mayonaise

Refrigerate until ready to serve. Makes about 1- 1/2 quarts

Apple Crostada

This is my favorite apple recipe to make.  It's like a rustic country apple pie--it doesn't have to look too nice and neat.  And the crust is more like a tart crust, which I love the flavor of.
I got this recipe from Erin.  I imagine she got it from a famous chef.  I'm guessing Ina Garten?

Apple Crostada

Pastry dough:

2 cups flour

¼ cup super fine sugar or granulated

½ teaspoon salt

½ pound very cold unsalted butter, diced

Tart dough makes 2 tarts

Filling is for one tart:

1 ½ pounds apples (macouns)

½ teaspoons grated orange zest

¼ cup flour

¼ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon allspice

4 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Pastry: place flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl of food processor with steel blade.  Pulse a few times to combine.  Add butter and toss quickly with your fingers to coat each cube of butter with the flour.  Be careful; the blades are sharp.  Pull 12 to 15 times until the butter is the size of peas.  With the motor running.  Add ¼ cup ice water all at once through the feed tube.  Pulse.  Stop when dough comes together.  Put on well floured board.  Form into two disks.  Wrap with plastic and refrigerate one for at least an hour.  Freeze the rest.

Preheat oven to 450.  Roll pastry into 11 inch circle.  Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or French silpat.

Filling:  Peel, core, quarter the apples.  Cut each quarter into 3 chunks.  Toss chunks with orange zest.  Cover tart dough with apples chunks leaving 1 ½ inch boarder.  Combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and allspice in bowl of food processor.  Add butter and pulse into mixture is crumbly.  Pour into bowl and rub with fingers until it starts holding together.  Sprinkle evenly on apples.  Gently fold border over apples, pleating it to make  a circle.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until crust is golden.  Use 2 large spatulas to transfer to wire rack.

Flank Steak Tacos with Grilled Corn Salsa

We discovered this recipe this summer from Cooks Country, a division of America's Test Kitchen, and found that it was fast, easy and delicious!

2 ears corn, husks and silk removed

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (or little green onions)

1 jalapeno chile, stemmed, seeded and minced

1/4 cup lime juice (2 limes) (divided)

1 TBS minced fresh cilantro

salt and pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 (1-1/2 to 2 pound) flank steak, trimmed

12 (6 inch) corn tortillas

1/2 cup sour cream

Heat the barbecue to hot...

1. Place corn in large bowl and microwave, covered until nearly tender, 3-5 minutes.

2. Stir onions, jalapeno, 2 TBS lime juice, cilantro, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper together in a bowl; set aside.

3. Combine cumin, 3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a bowl. Pat steak dry with paper towels and rub with cumin mixture. Grill corn over hot fire, turning often, until lightly charred and tender, about 10 minutes.

4 Grill steak over hot fire until will browned and registers 120 to 125 degrees (for medium rare), 5-7 minutes per side. Transfer steak and corn to carving board and tent loosely with foil. Grill tortillas until lightly charred, 1-2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and tent loosely with foil.

5. Combine sour cream and remaining 2 TBS lime juice in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Cut kernels from the cobs and add to reserved onion mixture.

7. Slice steak thinly against grain.

8. Serve with corn salsa and sour cream mixture.

serves 4 to 6

I forgot to add the sour cream in the photo, but it is important! Make lots of the corn salsa as it is so delicious that people start eating it by the spoonful! They claim that this is a 30 minute meal--and it is pretty close to that. they precook the corn in the microwave because otherwise it would take longer than ten minutes to cook it on the barbecue.

Applesauce a' la Vitamix

Don't think for a second that I'm done raving about my Vitamix yet.  Nearly every day I think how lucky I am to own one of these!  Thanks Dad!

And now my Vitamix just saved me a ton of time and helped me make and can applesauce.

The normal way to make applesauce:
Peel, core and cook down a bunch of apples in water.  Cook them for about 30 minutes.  Push them through a sieve or food mill.  Add sweetening, cinnamon, etc.  Put hot applesauce in sterlized hot jars, place in a hot water bath on the stove to seal them, etc. etc.  These 8 steps are enough to make me not want to try to make my own applesauce.

Hello  Vitamix!  Welcome Simplicity!

Take the core and seeds out of the apples.  Put the apple sections in the Vitamix.  I used Macintosh apples.

Blend until all of the apples are chopped.  Use the tamper.  Don't add any water!

See how white and lovely this applesauce looks with the bits of red flecks running through it?  The peels give it a nice rosy glow.

Compare the applesauce I made moments before the new batch.  As soon as those ground apples hit oxygen, they start turning a nice rosy brown.  The new batch is so white, but will be the brown color in about 30 seconds.  This is the point where you could add a sweetener or cinnamon.  I added neither.  The apples didn't even need sweetening.  They were great on their own.

Put the applesauce in these fabulous plastic freezer jars.  Throw them in the deep freezer.

Use all of the extra time you saved to make cute labels on the computer for your applesauce.
And there you have it--fresh applesauce in less than 5 minutes.
I love you Vitamix!

Green Smoothies

In continuing my love affair with my Vitamix, I'm learning to love these healthy drinks.  They have become my standby for lunch every day.  Mostly I love how great I feel that I'm eating at least 5 different vegetables in every drink.  And that they are all fresh and not cooked.  And I swear I can finish sentences better and do complex calculations after drinking one.  What's not to love about vitamin goodness?

Broccoli, Kale and Celery Juice

2 broccoli florettes

1 handful of fresh spinach

1 kale leaf

1/2 celery stalk

2 small carrots

1/4 apple

1/4 cup cold water

1/2 cup ice cubes

1 thin disc of ginger root (peeled)

1 slice of lemon, seeds removed, zest and peel left intact.

(I also add about 1 Tablespoon of flax seed, but don't worry about adding it if you don't have a Vitamix.  Other blenders don't break up the flax enough to let your body use any of it's super powers.)

Run on high for 1 minute until smooth.

You can throw in other vegetables you have around--the beet and green smoothie that I made turned a hideous brown color.  Also, adding fruits or fruit juices can improve the flavor, but I'm pretty sugar sensitive so I don't want to use fruit juices.  I just want vegetable wholesomeness.  I found that the lemon and ginger improved the flavor VASTLY.

Hope you'll try  a green smoothie for your lunch!