Chicken Quesadillas

Quesadillas are quite prevalent here in Texas as a staple of everyones food diet. Well, I have not had any in quite a long while and decided to cook some up. Probably a little different flavor than most quesadillas but I like it a little different.

Ingredients:
1 lb Chicken Breasts, frozen
Flour Tortillas
Garlic Salt
Mesquite Seasoning
Paprika
Ground Cumin
Celery Salt
Perfect Pinch - Cajun
Ground Allspice
Italian Seasoning
Ground Cloves
Shredded Italian Style Cheese
Finely Shredded Sharp Cheddar
Fiesta Blend Cheese
Mozzarella & Parmesan Finely Shredded Cheese
Vegetable Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Water
Tequila
Olive Oil

I began by gathering the spices.

I also made sure to have all my cheeses too.

So I mixed my spices together. No real amount, just remember to go light on the Allspice and Cloves. They tend to overpower everything else. I also went light on the Cumin as well. I love, yes love, Garlic Salt so I added a LOT of that.

I have used pre-made marinades before and they always call for vinegar, vegetable oil, and water. So that is what I added to the spice mix. About 1/4 cup Water, 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar, and 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil. Mix together well.

Now I did not take a picture of me freezing and then dicing up the Chicken. It's pretty simple and allows you to cut into smaller pieces due to the Chicken being frozen. Try not to cut yourself. Please. Then add to marinade and mix together.

Hey look! I found a bottle of Tequila! Let's use this in cooking tonight.

I put about 2 shots worth of Tequila into a skillet and turned the heat to MEDIUM. Once the Tequila began to burn off, I added in the marinade and Chicken.

It looks so pretty when it's cooking. This part should only take a minute or two due to the Chicken being diced up so finely.

Strain the Chicken out and put it in a bowl.

Grab a small skillet. Using a small Tortilla, add some Cheese. Then some Chicken. Then some more Cheese. Fold it over and put it in the skillet with some Olive Oil(not too much).

Flip over after about a minute or minute and a half. Take off about a minute later.

Looks tasty I know...let's cut it up. Enjoy.

Chef's Original: Zesty Sauce on Farfalle

Now, this was a spur of the moment dish when I was digging through the fridge looking for stuff to cook today. I had all the ingredients and thought that they would make a great sauce for pasta.

Ingredients:
2 LG Tomatoes
1 Sm Tomato
1 cup Basil Leaves
2 White Onions
6 Scallions
5 Carrots
Italian Herb Mix
Ground Cumin/Coriander
Cayenne Chili Powder
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Fennel Powder
Turmeric Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Dry Sherry
Olive Oil
Teriyaki Sauce
Soy Sauce

This dish began by gathering the ingredients.

Now, I took the Basil Leaves and cut them up into smaller pieces. Along with the Carrots I chopped up into small pieces, go into the deep saucepan.

Step 2 of this was to add in the diced Scallions and diced White Onions. Make sure there is air flow cause the Onions make you tear up and that's no good when you are using a knife.

Step 3 is dicing up the Tomatoes. They don't have to be that small of pieces since everything gets pureed later on.

Now put the saucepan on the stove and turn the heat to MEDIUM. Pour in about a half cup of Olive Oil. Add a good quarter cup of the Teriyaki Sauce and Soy Sauce too.

Then season it. I did a dusting of the Fennel Powder, Fenugreek Powder, Turmeric Powder, and Ground Black Pepper. The Cayenne Chili Powder measured about a 1/3 of a spoonful. Too much of that will make the sauce too spicy, so do that if you dare! I added a couple of pinches of the Italian Herb Mix coupled with 3 spoonfuls of the Ground Cumin/Coriander mix.

Then mix together thoroughly. Add in your 1/4 cup of Dry Sherry as well. Mix again.

Now it should take a good 5 to 7 minutes for it to be done cooking. It should be mostly mushy and soft when it is done cooking. The carrots might still be hard, but that's of little consequence.

Turn the heat off and grab your blender or food processor. Pour the contents you just cooked up into the blender or food processor. Puree until smooth. I used a blender and had to do it in 2 batches. I served on some Farfalle Pasta. I did not include how to cook the Farfalle Pasta here since it's easy to cook. You also might know it as Bowtie Pasta.

I plated the Farfalle Pasta with a healthy serving of this Zesty Sauce on top. A garnish of a pinch of Shredded Asiago Cheese topped it off. Enjoy.

Chunky Taste O' Autumn

Today I decided that I wanted to make tomato sauce. Well, I got everything out and did not feel like getting the food processor out to puree everything into a nice chunk-free sauce. Then I thought, why not make tomato sauce in a different way. So I did, by leaving it extremely chunky which oddly enough now tastes like autumn instead of strictly being tomato sauce.








Ingredients:
2 Large Tomatoes
1 Large White Onion
1 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 stick Butter
1.5 cups of Red Wine
dash of Teriyaki Sauce
Dash of Lime Juice
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Italian Herb Mix
Fennel Powder
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Turmeric
Cumin/Coriander Mix
Dill

So I began this whole recipe by putting a pot on the stove and cutting up the 1/2 stick of Butter and putting that in. I turned the heat to medium. I then turned back to the Tomatoes. These I cut up into chunks and dumped them into the pot 1 Tomato at a time. To this, I diced the Green Bell Pepper and added it. Finishing this part I diced the Large White Onion and dumped it in as well. Then I stirred it all together.

After a minute or so, I added the spices. They went in as follows:
-dash of Paprika
-dash of Turmeric
-dash of Dill
-dash of Onion Powder
-coating of Garlic Powder
-heavy dash of Ground Black Pepper
-1/2 cup Italian Herb Mix
-heavy dash of Fennel Powder
-2 spoons of Cumin/Coriander Mix

After this stage, I added a 1/4 cup of Lime Juice, 1 1/2 cups of Red Wine, and a dash of Teriyaki Sauce. Then mix. Mix regularly so as to not let anything cook itself into being a new part of your pot and to make sure all of it is cooking properly.

Taste test to see that it is done to your specifications. I chose to leave it at this stage as it is delicious.

If you choose to make it into a sauce, let it cool a bit and pour into a blender to puree. Boom, instant sauce!

Tasty Summertime Tomato Sauce

This tomato sauce was kind of just thrown together with what was in my kitchen and I decided it was tasty enough that it needed to be put up here!

Ingredients:
6 Greenhouse Tomatoes
4 Carrots
4 sm Sweet White Onions
1 md Red Onion
1 Green Bell Pepper
2 Anaheim Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers (cored)
Italian Herb Mix
Garlic Salt
Cumin/Coriander
Tumeric

I started with 6 Greenhouse Tomatoes and pureed them in my trusty Food Processor. Added to this was 4 Carrots, also pureed in the food processor. All put into a large saucepan, with the heat on medium.

After I had those two ingredients in the saucepan, I proceeded to use my food processor to chop up 4 small Sweet Onions, 1 Red Onion, 1 Green Bell Pepper, 2 Anaheim Peppers, and 2 Jalapeno Peppers(cored). Then I stirred them all together and added about 3/4 cup of Dark Beer. Stir.

Once I had all of that stirred to an even consistency, I grabbed the spices. My Italian Herb Mix went in first, about 3 spoonfuls. Then I added Garlic Salt, maybe 2 spoonfuls...maybe. Here I added Ground Cumin/Coriander and Tumeric. About 2 spoonfuls of each. Stir heavily. Let cook with semi frequent stirring for about 10 minutes, then turn off heat and serve at your discretion. I served them with some sliced Sourdough Bread. Enjoy!

Homemade Hummus

Hummus is a great snack food for anyone who has or has not tried it. If you have not, I suggest you do. It's fairly simple to make as well.

Ingredients:
2 or 3 Cloves of Garlic (diced up)
1 can of Garbanzo Beans
1 spoonful of Cumin/Coriander Mixed Spice

I used my trusty food processor for this tasty snack. I started off with the Garlic Cloves. I peeled then diced them. Once that was done, I threw them in the food processor.

Second, I opened my can of Garbanzo Beans. There is a very pungent liquid in there with them, keep at least half of it. Pour the liquid with the Garbanzo Beans into the food processor.

Third, I sprinkled the Cumin/Coriander Mixed Spice on the top of everything in the food processor. Then blend...blend until it is smooth. Just take out and serve, easy as that.

Tangy BBQ Sauce

I meant to post this the other day, however time got away from me once again. I attempted to make my own BBQ sauce....I say it's a success.

Ingredients:
1.5 cup Ketchup
1.5 cup Red Wine Vinegar
0.5 cup Water
2 Tsp Spicy Brown Mustard
2 Tsp Ground Cumin
2 Tsp Ground Tumeric
1/4 cup Ground Black Pepper
2 pinches Oregano
2 pinches Sage
2 pinches Thyme
2 pinches Basil

Pretty much just get a mixing bowl and add the ingredients in starting from the top of the list. You can adjust the rest of it to your own tastes. Also, using a blender or food processor could help out.

Side Note: Potatoes are great with this BBQ sauce!

Salsa Spectacular!

Had a relaxing weekend and today I decided to make some salsa. Two different kinds really. I didn't think one kind would do it, however the second is almost half salsa - half arriabata sauce.



Verde Salsa

Ingredients:
4 Roma Tomatoes
2 Med. Yellow Onions
2 Poblano Peppers
3 Anaheim Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers
2 spoonfuls of Spice Mix

Spice Mix:
McCormick's Steak Seasoning
Garlic Salt
Tumeric Powder
Curry Powder
Marjoram
Oregano
Basil
Ground Black Pepper
Ground Cumin
Ground Allspice
Ground Nutmeg

The Spice Mix is pre-mixed together and was mixed in once everything else was mixed together. The Ingredients were added in the order listed, top to bottom. The Roma's, Onions, and Peppers were all diced up/almost pureed in a food processor first.

Mix together and serve with tortilla chips. I used Tostito's Scoops since they are the best for salsa if you ask me.

Roja Salsa

Ingredients:
6 Roma Tomatoes
1 Lg. White Onion
1 Orange Bell Pepper
1 Yellow Bell Pepper
3 Hungarian Wax Peppers
2 Jalapeno Peppers
3 spoonfuls of Spice Mix*

*Spice Mix is same as listed above. I keep it in a jar since I tend to use it a lot.

The Roma's were pureed in my food processor, along with the onion, wax peppers, and jalapeno's. The bell peppers were just diced up by hand. What makes this one very different is that once the tomatoes and onion were ready, they went into a saucepan. I turned on the heat to medium and added in the bell peppers, then the wax peppers, finally the jalapeno's. On top of all that, the spice mix. I stirred it all together, as well as every few minutes for about 10 minutes. Then turned heat off and it was ready for serving, also with Tostito's Scoops.

Chef's Choice Chili

So as many of my friends around here know, I absolutely LOVE to make chili. I love it. I make it a lot during the colder months, however after making the Tomato Sauce yesterday, I decided that I have gone too long without chili.



Homemade Tomato Sauce:
-Get your soup pot or large saucepan depending on how much you are making. Mine filled a large saucepan since I did not make my normal amount(about 1/2 of normal).
-Mix all your spices together in a bowl to your liking, or straight in the pot like The Chef does. I went heavy on the basic ingredients as well as the Tumeric and Cajun Perfect Pinch. The rest I went light on since they are just there to smooth out all the flavors.

-Now that your spice mix is making your kitchen smell amazing, onto the food processing happy times! Basically I like my chili smooth with not a LOT of huge chunks in it. The order I processed was Roma's, Greenhouse Tomatoes, Onion, Carrots, Poblano Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers. Add to pot as you go, turn the heat on med-high when you add the Roma's and stir them in with the spices. A little olive oil will smooth it out if necessary.

-Grab your grouping of green onions and dice them up almost to the white part. You can put the green onion's roots into water and they will grow back! Add to pot.

-Stir everything together evenly and turn to medium heat. Once it starts boiling, change the temperature to low or simmer.

-Let simmer for about an hour, then it should be tasty enough to eat!

Homemade Tomato Sauce:
6 Roma Tomatoes
2 Greenhouse Tomatoes
1 White Onion (Large)
2 Jalapeno Peppers
2 Poblano Peppers
4 Carrots
1 cup diced Green Onions

Spices for Tomato Sauce:
Cayenne Pepper*
Chili Powder*
Garlic Salt*
Ground Cumin*
Ground Allspice
Ground Cloves
Paprika*
Celery Salt
Ground Black Pepper*
Ancho Chili Powder*
Ground Tumeric Powder
Curry Powder
Mesquite Seasoning*
Perfect Pinch Seasoning - Cajun

*are the basics, the rest are choice ingredients.

For Chef's Choice Chili:
-First get a pot the size you think you need for the chili, or maybe a little bigger.

-Get your pound of ground beef and brown it in the pan with Lowry's Seasoning, maybe some butter too if you love calories as much as I do!

-Once the beef is all browned and tasty smelling (yes take a sample to make sure, you know you want to!), you get your tomato sauce and add it directly into the pot. Stir.

-Use food processor for white onion, then add it in. Stir. Let it cook on low to medium-low for about 30 minutes.

-That time frame is just a rough estimate of time needed, so whenever your frequent tastings of it say it is done just dish it out.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 White Onion
Lowry's Seasoning
Shredded Cheese