TexMex Valley Lemon Curd

Aw, Tex... I seriously love this time of year. Hohoho and a bottle of rum and all that. But what I really love most about the time of year is that it is citrus season down South and citrus blooming season up North in my greenhouse.

TexMex is the name I have given to my adopted citrus tree my sister expertly cloned for me from her lemon tree growing in her family's front yard in Texas. This unique lemon has a storied if not entirely true heritage, but anyway, as it goes this "valley" lemon is of even more Southern parentage, coming from the much cherished lemons that were unique to the Rio Grande Valley. Don't know about all of that but it is a cool story and more importantly, it IS an incredibly unique and exceptionally flavored lemon.

My Tex is a rather rambunctuous youth and big enough to carry one rather large lemon.  This lemon variety is large and the ones in the picture came today from my sister as our annual holiday exchange is in full swing. Ok half swing because I still haven't tossed over the box of Tillamook cheddar her family hoards like the cheese rats they are which makes this another top reason to love the season even more.

So off we go to Lemon Land. Its a beautiful life indeed. When all I want for Christmas is a box of lemons, life seems rather luxe. :)

Lemon Pudding (Curd) with Flacas Valley Lemons

• 3 Organic eggs, beaten
• 1/2 c lemon juice
• 1 c sugar
• 1 stick of butter
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out or left in

I put everything into a double boiler over low to medium heat, stirring constantly. It does thicken nicely and when it does, it starts to smell like caramel, take it off the heat and pour into lidded pots, if you have them otherwise use plastic wrap or wax paper to cover them so the pudding doesn't develop a skin.

This is actually a lemon curd but if I use that word to a Southerner they thinking you are talking cottage cheese so I simply call it pudding and everyone's interested and happy again.

Our Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Bread

11 c all purpose flour
2 c rye flour
4 tbsp black cocoa
4 tbsp dutch cocoa
2 shot espresso
6 c warm water
3 tbsp yeast
3 tbsp salt
3 tbsp black molasses or honey

Mix, let rise in a rising container until doubled. Punch down and refrigerate for up to a week. I use a pullman loaf pan and this recipe makes two full loaves. Let rise with the cover nearly all the way closed, leaving a view to the rise. Sprinkle with caraway seeds.

Rise will take an hour or two depending on the weather. Our best loaf was one that overflowed a bit. It was so airy, yet dense. Amazing. So experiment a bit.

Either way, it usually takes exactly 45 minutes @ 450 degrees F.

Minnetonka Porridge

This is a take on a delicious hot cereal breakfast dish we have eaten at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis. There it is called Menohmonie Porridge but since I am just recreating it, I figured I wouldnt outright dare to claim to have it down pat.

The base of this dish is our traditional, local staple of wild rice. So to start, we need to make a batch.

Wild rice:

• 2 1/2 c wild rice 
• 5 c water 
• 1 tsp salt 

I put all ingredients into a creuset baking dish and bake @ 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Any extra wild rice can be portioned into freezer bags and reheats beautifully.

Porridge:

• 1/2 c toasted Almonds, Macadamia or Hazelnuts 
• 1/4 c raisins, craisins, peaches or dried cherries 
• 1 c heavy cream 
• 4 c cooked wild rice 
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 c dried blueberries, apples or apricots, diced 

Just throw all into a nonstick pan and reheat on low until heated through and starting to bubble. Serve warm in cozy cups or bowls. A serving ladel is a good, if not oversize serving as it is quite a filling, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal any time of day.

American Tart Tatin

1 sheet of puff pastry 
2 or 3 apples 
Cast iron skillet 
1 stick of butter, shaved over apples 
Cinnamon Vanilla extract 
~1 c loose brown sugar 
2 tbsp of heavy cream

Over low heat, arrange sliced apples in one nice tight presentation layer like a fan. Sprinkle lightly with brown sugar and shave butter with a paring knife equally on top of apples to distribute butter evenly. Drizzle heavy cream over top of apples to get the sugars bubbling. Add enough brown sugar to absorb the sugars and cream, contibuing to sprinkle brown sugar until the pan liquids are thick and bubbly. Keep on low heat! Do not stir! It will all caramelize without any help and it shouldnt burn on low.
 
Preheat oven to 400 F. An hour before baking, defrost puff pastry, unfolded, dusted lighlt with flour and covered with kitchen towel so it doesnt dry out. Pinch seems together once  defrosted and using a pan lid that fits your cast iron skillet as a mold, cut a circle to fit your skillet. This will go on top and create the tarts crust once done.

Transfer pastry to top of apples and brush with egg wash. Bake 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and then flip onto a serving dish or plate, scraping out all remaing caramel and juices on top of apples. This is a really beautiful and decadent dessert. You can serve withh whipped cream but you will never miss it if not.

Shortcake Muffins

Shortcake Ingredients:
- 2 c flour 
- 1/4 c sugar 
- 4 tsp baking powder 
- 1/4 tsp salt 
- Dash nutmeg
- 1/2 c butter, diced (should be soft enough to cut but not melted)
- 1/2 c milk 
- 2 eggs, separated

1.  Mix the above dry ingredients in a bowl. 

2.  Add butter to the above dry ingredients using a fork to mix in the butter until a crumbly texture forms. 

3.  Mix egg yolks with the milk in a coffee cup and save the egg whites for later, maybe Macarons. 

4.  Next, add the yolk/milk mixture to the flour mixture until a dough forms. 

5.  Spoon into small muffin tins or make balls using a cookie scoop onto a baking sheet. 

6.  Bake @ 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. 

Topping Suggestions:
- Additional sugar (about 1 tbsp) 
- 1 c whipping cream 
- 2 1/2 c strawberries 

1.  Mix sugar to taste with whipping cream to form soft peaks. I also add a little vanilla. 
2.  Top mini muffins with fresh strawberries and whipped cream just before serving. 

This shortcake recipe makes such cute bite size muffins that I always bake it this way but you can certainly use any pan form you like, just test the center with a toothpick like Mama taught you to test for doneness. If the toothpick comes clean, it is done. If any moisture or crumbs adhere to the toothpick once you remove it from your test muffin, give it another couple of minutes, depending on your oven. Don't overbake them or they will get too dry and crumbly. Who cares, right? It will just taste more like a cookie than a muffin.

Poundcake Muffins

3 c flour
3 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
6 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 sticks butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sour cream or heavy cream
Zest of one lemon


Cream sugar, eggs and butter until fluffy. Mix sifted flour, salt and baking powder into the egg mixture a little at a time, alternating with the sour cream. Start with flour, end with flour.


Add batter to bundt, loaf or muffin pan. In my oven it took 2.5 hours at 325 F.

Gartopf Fermented Pickles

This is my 10L Gartopf fermenting crock. I've been using these now for several years after doing research and learning that these are the traditional vessels used for making sauerkraut and pickles in Germany and Austria.  I'm sure any old ceramic crock will do and I am antiquing around town in order to locate some of the awesome local crocks from Red Wing, but until then, these are my go-tos. They are sturdy, steady and quite heavy so keep that in mind if you do decide to start pickling this way. 

The nice thing about these crocks is that their lids are specially designed to let the gases escape and of course, since they are covered, bacteria can't get in.  The deep well on the outside is filled with water once the lid is in place and a little hole or gasket that sits above the water line releases any excess gas while the fermentation is in full swing. 

Fatalii, Red Congos, Purira, Punjab, White Habanero
Jalapeno Chili Peppers

If I had to guess, I would say this was around 7 or 8 lbs of homegrown very fresh peppers, picked from our pepper plants that same day.  From here you add the fresh peppers to the crock above and I admit this one is a little full so they will have to be pressed down somewhat so that the stone weights, which the vessels come with, will fit in and keep the peppers submerged in the pickling brine. This is extremely important if you do not want your peppers to rot. That can happen when the peppers are allowed to float on top of the brine and then, you run the risk of spoiling the whole batch.

We put the stones in top, then pour the pickling liquid in so that it covers the stones completely. Put the lid on top and wait about six weeks for the fermentation to stop. The vessel will start "burping" almost immediately so if you smell something funny, don't blame your neighbor, they didn't do it, honest. :)

The standard pickling brine I use for cucumber pickles and pickled peppers is the following:

• 2 cups warm water, not hot
• 2 tbsp white vinegar (I love fancy, but not here, this needs to be standard white vinegar)
• 1 tbsp kosher salt

Repeat this exact measurement as many times as you need to completely cover the stones and peppers. My 10L needs about 6 repeats and 5L about 5. Don't ask me why, doesn't make sense to me why you don't need twice as much for the 10L but I have repeated this enough times to know that you need one more batch more than the 5L, usually.

Shocked? So was I.  But this is the perfect ratio for creating a natural pickling brine that isn't overloaded with vinegar or salt. It will work, trust me. The pickle flavor or the acid you are looking for will be there, I assure you, but it will develop naturally and allow you to store these pickles without hot packing BUT you will need to refrigerate them temporarily to stop the fermentation process. I learned this the hard way when a bottle of recent hot sauce nearly exploded at the kitchen table because we forgot to put it back in the refrigerator just after bottling it.  We put our hot sauce in medicinal dripper bottles because the dropper is the perfect way to distribute really, really hot sauce in moderation. Well, the rubber dropper on top turned into a big round bulbous balloon that was funny at first.

In an attempt to alleviate the pressure, hubby wanted to put it in the fridge. Due to recent events in which other things blew up my fridge, I was a little wary of this idea and insisted he put it outside where temperatures were already quite nippy.  Well, as you might expect during the day, the temps climbed and we forgot to take it back in. It alerted us by exploding with such a force that it literally shot hot sauce to the soffits of our roof, much to my dismay. Alas, putting it in the fridge may have been more prudent but don't tell him that.... :)

After these are done, we take them out of the brine then run it all through a juicer and the hot sauce will surprise you. Of course, you can also pack them into jars to brighten the day when the mood strikes if pickled peppers is more your thing. Just be careful and do your homework so you know exactly how to process fermented food as I'm still a novice (no? really??) myself. Experiment but arm yourself with a bit of google research so I don't lead you astray. But, above all, have fun!

Urban Legend: Your Bread Could Blow Up Your Fridge

Um, not just a legend, folks...

So, it was an unseasonably warm weekend. Temps were in the high 80's, almost 90 degrees F, I think and we were in an industrious mode.  We made pickles, jarred pickles, tended the gardens, did greenhouse prep to ready for the crazy weather we are supposed to have this week and generally, felt pretty good about our accomplishments.

I love to make our bread, as you may have noticed.  I don't just love it, I pride myself on it and after a trip to Austria to visit family, I fell in love again with what else: Bread.  Brotchen. Kaiser. Sacher Torte... ok, the last one isn't bread, but still.

Good bread isn't just a staple in Austria, it's sustenance. It's heart warming. It's the epitome of comfort food.  But they do it so well, like the French, that one could almost get a little complacent about it. Until you get back home to the States.  My hubby, being German, is a stickler for the "right" bread. Of course he means the bread he grew up with. A classic PB&J, on soft American white bread, well, to him, that is more of a dessert. And scratch the PB and substitute it with Nutella and we're getting close to the right track. Substitute the Grape Jelly with Apricot marmalade and we're getting closer... Substitute the soft white bread, which he frankly, will not eat... and we are nearing the mark so close we may crash head long into his childhood memories... Needless to say, I have looked at "his" kind of bread as the holy grail of bread making.

I digress...

Anyway, back to the story.  This time, after returning home and having the extreme pleasure of sifting through my cousin's "bread bible" or her study workbooks, I came across what I was looking for: Kaiser rolls. It was in German, but no better way to learn the language in my opinion than starting with food and recipes.  I saw what I needed and thought I had enough new knowledge to succeed in my ongoing quest.  My niece is an apprentice at a bakery and will one day be a full fledged baker someday in the near future and while she didn't understand my "wet" dough method of making bread and storing it in bulk, I just chuckled. There are tricks I have to teach HER yet...  But, I had to get there first.

So, I proceed and make a dark black rye bread that I am nearly accomplished enough to pretend it is "close enough" to the real deal. The brotchen or kaiser dough, well, I needed help on the ingredients which surprised me a little. Not quite enough egg to call an egg bread, not nearly enough butter to call it a brioche but it was a happy medium between a 'boule', 'brioche' and 'challah'.

The black bread usually doesn't rise that much or that quickly but I was surprised when hubby called me back into the kitchen only a half hour after letting the blacky rise for it's initial rising. I little expected to see what I saw: My bread all over the kitchen counter and literally hanging on the cabinets, stretched all the way to the floor where it's 5 qt proofing container sat upright. The scene told the story... It exploded with such force out of the proofing container that it landed upright on the floor. Amazingly, none of the dough was anywhere that it couldn't be used again and it just needed to be put back to bed once again.

We put on a timer to keep a better eye on it. After a half hour, we punch it back down and after this second rise was done, I punched it down and put it in the fridge to slow it down a bit, as usual.  I went on with my business and about a half hour later we heard a loud bang and went running to the kitchen only to find that the black dough had risen again and created such pressure in the rising container that it literally blew itself free and rocked the fridge door wide open!  We were shocked. So, the majority of it stayed in the container and we rangled it back into it's container deciding that we needed to make some bread now. And quick.

Later that day, I made a batch of "brotchen" or white bread using my new knowledge and determined to get the flavor and consistency right after many years of trying.  After mixing my new batch, I was full of hope and could just tell that the texture was beautiful and just what I had been missing all these years. I was thrilled!  We let it rise, kept an eye and it really needed babysitting so we didn't repeat the black bread experience.  So far so good. We make an initial batch of rolls and I was delighted with the results!  Hubby said I nailed the flavor, just needed to work on the classic shape.  HUGE accomplishment.  We punch down the rest of the dough, put the remainder in the fridge and go about our business.

After about  a half hour, we heard another loud explosion, this time a little more fierce... Glass shattering.  OH NO, I thought... I didn't move. Hubby just pulled me along into the kitchen to see what I was really afraid to see: The Bread didn't just explode.  IT BROKE MY FRIDGE.  Ok, not the whole fridge but the force of the explosion put such force on the shelf it was on that the metal bracket broke and the glass shelf shattered into a million pieces, ruining not only the dough but everything else in my crispers which were now open to the world.  I was so bummed.  Hubby was a little ticked, I could tell, but he just quietly helped me clean it up.

And then, I went online to see about replacement parts for my fridge... Can't believe we didn't take a picture but I think I was too shocked and wanted to limit the damage as quickly as possible. Damage control for real! Needless to say,  I found a new glass shelf but the rest of the parts for my fridge are no longer made. Even so, the fridge is still ok and we plan to get a new one next year anyway but this may have just escalated the need.

Holy Chorizo!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork, ground (we prefer 1 lb ground pork, 1 lb ground venison)
• 3 1/2 tsp freshly ground sea salt
• 8 tbsp Spanish paprika, hot and smoked equal parts
• 6 - 20 small hot dried red chiles: chiltepin, Thai dragon, pico de gallo or similar, crushed
• 6 cloves garlic, grated
• 2 tbsp dry leaf oregano
• 2 tsp whole cumin seed, crushed
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, ground
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 4 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 tbsp water

Directions

Place ground pork and venison in a large bowl, mixing gently to incorporate. Add all remaining ingredients and mix using two forks until thoroughly and evenly mixed.

Cover, refrigerate and let chorizo cure for a couple days, if you really can resist. I actually think you should give in and cook a quick pat tie to test the flavors. I like a little more acid, but truth be told, when Hubby made this tonight I was blown away. How freaking easy?

You can use it immediately, but it always tastes much better when you let the chorizo spices blend together. This authentic mexican chorizo will keep in the refrigerator about a couple of weeks. But, it likely won't last.

Ours was awesome and because we used half venison, it wasn't at all greasy like some of my favorite local chorizos. We are in the Heartland and venison is a local specialty easier to come by in the Fall if you know an excellent woodsman like I do. We don't just get venison, we get Midwest corn-fed, y'all. Don't have it? Try lamb or bison. Anything without as much natural fat, to balance the lovely fat in the pork.

Wrap the sausage in small packages and freeze unused portions. Chorizo will keep several months in your freezer. It can also be stuffed into casings and smoked like any other pork sausage. (Seriously, we are trying the smoked version tomorrow night. We have a salmon curing tonight for the smoker so we might as well do them both on the Egg at the same time!)

Location:Minneapolis,United States

Red Currant Jelly

My nieces and nephews love these "little red circles".  I planted this Red Lake currant about 4 years ago and it has turned into quite a stunning berry bush, loaded with little red circles that people and chipmunks love.  We have to share with the wildlife around here or rather, the wildlife on occasion, shares with us.  Before this bush was capable of producing the substantial harvest we are now starting to see, I was always super bummed to witness the 'munks stuffing their little fat cheeks with as many of these circles as they could stuff into their funky-munky mouths.  It was simultaneously funny and not-so-much, but what can ya do?

This year however, the bush produced even more berries than they could handle and it seems that after a while the 'munks do tire of collecting them and move onto other delectables, so we were lucky enough to get these. Yep, you can see the long strands that were literally, picked off, by the critters.  Nice of them to leave me a few, huh? At any rate, we managed to share at least this many and next year, I suspect will be our best year yet.

My harvest this year was enough for me to juice and make a little jelly.  I grew these for my hubby who told me stories of his childhood summers in Austria where his grandmother made current jelly and soda syrup that she would bottle and then dilute with water to make a homemade "kool-aid".  Now, I do the same and I have to say, "Kool-Aid, eat your little fat jug heart out!"

Chizza - Child of Pullman

Ingredients:

• 6 1/2 cups flour 
• 1 1/2 tbsp yeast 
• 1 1/2 tbsp sea salt 
• 1 Konig's Pilsner 
• Bake @ 450 degrees F for 25 minutes (45 minutes for the pullman loaf pan)

What do you get when an overactive beer yeast dough overflows its proverbial banks? Well, you get an extra bit of dough that makes a perfect meal in itself. For me, I just threw the dough in a mini spring form pan and loaded the top with Supremo quesadilla cheese because that is what I had. The beer in the dough gives this dough extra flavor and adds a bit of rise so when this little cheese pizza hit the oven, the rise is quite marvelous. If you ever wanted a bagel without all the lye, malt bath jazz, this might just be it. Instead of the malt being in the bath, it is in the dough itself. Great flavor, tender chewy texture that I really enjoyed. My hubby just said, "Money. Wify, this is money." The money must be in the imported beer I kidnapped for the bread... A wonderful Austrian Pilsner that rivals my favorite Czech beer. It was well worth the risk of misadventure and will likely become a staple if I can spare a beer every now and then. The cheese on top melts so nicely and creates a cheese crust that just gives the right amount of cheese flavor. Use what you have. An aged cheddar would be excellent. We split this little experiment and few crumbs survived to tell the tale.  

This recipe fills a Pullman loaf pan which is what I started with to begin with. Actually, I make the dough so that Hubby can make bread if he runs out mid week. He started the rise, left it a bit too long and the excess oozed out and that is how this chizza was born, y'all.

Hopped Up Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:
- 6 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1 Konig's Pilsner plus water to equal 3 liquid cups

I started experimenting with a Pullman loaf pan when my nieces and nephews were here and wanted sandwich bread.  What I noticed about the request was that it didn't have to be uber soft, like typical American white bread, it just had to be square, for making sammies.

So, I complied with this request. We started making mayo and our version of Miracle Whip, when they needed that and this fascinated them to no end. So much so that every time they come, it is one of the first things we do together. Or they do and I watch. I want them to be self sufficient cooks when they are older and not just be able to cook, but be able to think they can replicate anything they really love. It's all about the palate and what I find with kids is that they love to try when THEY can make things. Veggies aren't that gross when kids make them for themselves. Nothing is weird, nothing is yucky. In fact, cooking with children is the fastest way to get kids to expand their minds and their palates.

This pullman loaf pan sorta scared me at first. I mean, why should I have to enclose the bread? Will it come out? But, the truth is this method of cooking bread couldn't be any easier and the top helps to make the bread perfectly square. My niece, who just graduated from high school, is about to venture into the world as a young adult and she, definitely, needed to know how to make bread. She has a tight budget to watch as she prepares to pay for college, so she'll need all the budget saving tips you can get and nothing can stretch a dollar like knowing how to cook and feed yourself. You can get a 25 lb bag of flour from Costco for about $6 and at least 25 loaves of bread.  At max, you could get around 7 loaves at the grocery store.

Prep:
Mix all ingredients until incorporated and then put the dough in a covered container to rise. I use a rising container that holds 4 qts. This batch of dough fills it by half. So in an hour or two, it is usually doubled in size and should be punched down then put in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. I keep it in the same rising container and once a week, I start a new batch.

Method:
For the method itself, I simply take my refrigerated dough from the fridge when I'm ready and put the whole batch in the Pullman loaf pan. I slide the top on nearly all the way but leave a little room to peep at it so I know when it is nearly to the top. In the summer, set a timer of max 2 hrs, because this bread tends to rise faster of course because of the warm temperatures but also because of the extra activity of the yeast in the beer. It will poop out the sides even if the top is thoroughly on and that is how you get Cheeza. But that is another story for another time. 

Bake:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. Slide the top off and use a slim butter knife just to loosen the edges of the bread from the pan and it will pop right out. You really should try to get the bread out of the pan while it's warm if you can or the bread bottom and sides will get a tad soggy as it cools off. Not to worry. If you have no choice but to leave it like that, just leave the bread to sit out for an hour or so once it is out of the pan and it will dry right up.  I cut the bread in half, put it in a bread box and that will last us all week or more. If I need to store it, I just wrap it well in wax paper and plastic wrap and freeze it.

Tabbouleh

Ingredients:

• 2 cups bulgur wheat, I use Bobs Red Mill quick cooking
• 2 cups cold water, soak for an hour at least
• 1 Cucumber, diced
• Handful or a bunch of Parsley, finely chopped stems and all
• Tomatoes (oddly what I didn't have), diced

Dressing:

• lemon juice (I used what I had, Rangpur limes)
• Olive oil, the better the better :)
• Sea salt
• Cinnamon, optional

Once the bulgur has soaked, it will have absorbed all of it's original soaking water. Next, you really just add all ingredients to this bulgur and mix well. You should refrigerate it or let it stand for another hour so that the flavors of the dressing and fixings can really marry. The grain will continue to swell and absorb the dressing. If there is excess liquid, just pour off and reserve for later, if the grain becomes too dry.

I try to keep a bag of bulgur on hand because this salad calls for no cooking whatsoever. Aim sure you could throw it in soup by I never quite get there because I enjoy this salad so much. Maybe I should just buy more bulgur, huh?

At any rate, tonight I didn't want to cook but I wanted fresh, so I headed out to the garden and grabbed everything I needed from my own garden. The citrus, (yes, Minnesota-grown citrus, you heard me!) the greenhouse cucumber, the parsley, mint, little cilantro, green scallions and a beautiful Italian heirloom scallion that is rose colored and bunches like a white scallion. These are gorgeous and have become so well established in my gardens because I use them as ornamental perennials in the flower gardens.

As I mentioned, I didn't have tomatoes. I just chopped the old girl down in the greenhouse to rejuvenate her. I have had a beautiful heirloom called Black Krim, growing in the greenhouse all winter so I ate our last Krim only yesterday or I would have everything on hand. Alas,

Black Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

Round 1 - Black chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 c (2 sticks) of butter, softened
• 3/4 c sugar3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c Callebaut Bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp black Cocoa powder from King Arthur
• 2 tbsp Double Dutch Processed Dark Cocoa powder from King Arthur

Put all dry ingredients in a sifter two or three times to mix the cocoa into the mix consistently. Yes, do this you lazy frog, it makes a difference. If you don't have a sifter, be creative and use something that has a metal mesh like a strainer basket, tea strainer or splash guard for frying to sift the ingredients.  It keeps out the dry lumps from the baking soda and you can better break those up with a spoon or fork. No one wants a taste of baking soda in their cookie love...

Whip the butter, mix in eggs and vanilla and when light and fluffy, add ib dry ingredients little by little. Once the batter is mixed well, add in chocolate chips. Now, here is the part that could create a problem for most of us... The secret to an AWESOME chocolate chip cookie is in the maturity of the dough. No, you don't have to wait for it to grow up. But you should wait for at least 24 hours before you use it.  Cover it, put it in the fridge and do your best to forget about it until the next day. Maybe take a nibble now and again to take the edge off the wait. :) But wait. And if you have the power of a Saint, then wait 48 hours and you will NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. I assure you, this step does indeed make a better cookie. Trust me. I have faith in you and I know you can do it if I can!

Now, before your cookies go off to college, prep them for the oven after this period of torture is over... Hopefully, 48 hours later but if not, oh well, you did your best, right?  If you have any dough left at all, I'm proud of you and you have shown true enlightenment.  Use a spoon to scoop out cookies trying to make it look more like an ice cream scoop. This top mound effect helps the cookie create a nice thickness instead of collapsing in the middle.

Bake at 325 F degrees for 11 minutes on silpat placed on a quarter sheet pan. No Silpat, that's ok. Butter your cookie sheet in that case.  I baked four and will put the remaining batter in a ziplock bag to continue to age and that way, we can bake fresh cookies when we want. They are warm and well, it keeps things from getting crazy if I am on a binge; let's face it, happens to everyone.

They look great so far. Oh. My. Goodness Gracious. These are just freaking perfect.  Tooooo good. Really, bake only what you WANT to eat, not what you KNOW you can eat. :)

Rangpur Habanero Pico de Gallo

(Xni-Pec)

• Any chili you have, de-seeded (yes, important)
• White or yellow onion, finely diced
• Citrus of any kind
• Tongue of steel and gut of iron

This, basically, is a really freakin hot salsa...  In Mexico, my hubby and I have often requested this version of salsa. I tried to wiki it but there isn't an entry, surprisingly. However, if you google it, you will see loads of recipes, sites, articles etc. This salsa is traditional in the Yucatan Peninsula region of Mexico and it delights and surprises the Mexican staff when we ask for it because most Americans want a "Pace" version of salsa, no heat, etc. But, we think of salsa in a different way. Maybe it's my Southern roots, but salsa isn't salsa unless it has a bit of a kick. I once saw a Tabasco billboard here in MN that was hilarious. It read "Dear Minnesota, Ketchup is not a spice. Love, Louisiana"  I JUST LOVE THAT. To me, Tabasco is Mother's Milk and not only do we use a good deal of it at my house, but we keep the institutional size on hand and a spare in the pantry.  For emergencies.

These chilis I use are nothing short of dynamite, though, and have more heat, typically, than even the habanero although they are close relatives. The bevvy shown above though are from my perennial chili "trees" because as long as they don't get too cold, chili plants will live for years and years. Even before the greenhouse came into my life, I would cart these kids indoors for the winter and put them under a cheap fluorescent shop light you can get for under $10 at the hardware store.  They loved it and didn't care one bit that they were indoors. My hubby put in a shallow ebb and flow tray, put the whole thing on a timer and they produced peppers the whole winter. Semi-hydroponic. Inside. In the living room. (Yes, hubby is very tolerant and quite an enabler so when he gets a bit huffy when it gets a big jungle-like, I just have to point out his brilliant handy work and feign total innocence. It's his problem after all, that he is such a genius... :)

To make the salsa, simply mix everything together in a bowl, squeeze in your citrus juice and mix well. I cover it with plastic wrap, put it in the fridge so the flavors can marry and then keep it until it runs out. It keeps amazingly well, for weeks, if covered well and stirred occasionally.