Spice mixes

Hey, this is Camden. These are some of my spice mixtures that I think you will enjoy.

Chili Powder

1 smoked ancho

2 t cumin seed

1 t oregano

2 t garlic powder

Method: Put ingredients in spice grinder. Grind until fine.

Texas coffee rub

1 T ground coffee

1 T salt

1 T brown sugar

2 t smoked paprika

2 t ancho chili powder

1 t garlic powder
 1 t onion powder

1 t cumin seed
1 t black pepper

Method: Put ingredients in large bowl. Mix.

Coffee Chipotle pork rub 
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup ground dark coffee

1/4 cup paprika

2 T salt

1 T Chipotle

2 t granulated garlic

2 t cinnamon

2 t cumin

2 t allspice

Method: Grind chipotle peppers, then mix in a bowl

Venison rub

1 T salt

1 t black pepper

2 t ancho chili powder

1 t coriander

1 t cumin

1 T brown sugar

1 T espresso

Method: put spices in a large bowl. Mix well.

- hope you enjoy

Arepas

We made these to go with the black bean soup.  It's a mighty fine combination.

Arepas are Venezuelan.  Dan's family made them for breakfast, but they work well as a quick food for any meal.  It's like a cornmeal biscuit that's fried.  They aren't the healthiest option, but if you fry things at the right temperature, you can make them a relatively decent treat.

Arepas

In a frying pan or skillet, heat on medium high heat:
1/2 inch oil (Canola by itself works fine.  My favorite combo is mostly canola with about 3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil*).  

The oil should  be around 375 degrees.  If you don't have a candy thermometer, don't worry.  Put a little bit of the dough in the oil when you think it's hot enough.  If it sizzles, it's ready.  Oil can get too hot. If it begins to smoke, turn it off, remove it from the heat and let it cool down. 

While you are waiting for your oil to heat-
Mix together:
1 cup masa harena (the same corn flour you use for making tortillas)
1/2 cup warter

Your goal with this dough is to have it wet enough to form a biscuit easily, but still dry enough to hold its shape.

Make the dough into 3-4 biscuit size/shape pieces.  I like mine to be around 3 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick.  Basically, I press the dough out to about the thickness of my thumb and middle finger and shape it into a circle in the c-shape of my hand.

When the oil is ready, place the arepa pieces in the oil.  In about 2 minutes, turn them over to get the other side.  Your arepa should be crispy on the outside.  It will take a little trial and error to get them just right, probably, but take heart!  Dan's brother John made them for me while he was still in college, so it's not too hard.

When they are done, remove them to the plate with the paper towels to let them cool for a minute.  While they are still hot, but not so hot that you burn your hand, cut them open and fill them with just about anything.  Our favorite is:

sliced cheddar cheese
thinly sliced or chopped ham (if you can heat it a little, it's especially good)

These also take fried or scrambled eggs well.  Black beans when you want to go vegetarian is good, too.

Hope you enjoy!

-Jennifer

*Make sure it's refined coconut oil, not unrefined.  If it smells like coconut, don't try to fry with it.  Your food will taste like a bad pina colada.  Wal-Mart sells LouAnn brand. It's cheap and works about as well as any of the other brands.  Coconut Oil is also great for popping popcorn :-)

Black Bean Soup

I had a pile of black beans left after making a tostada bar and wanted an easy supper last night.  Viola!  Black Bean Soup!

This is the recipe I used
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/black_bean_soup.html

I am paring down the ingredients here so that it won't make black bean soup for you and the rest of your schoolmates :-).

In a medium saucepan, heat:
1 t. canola oil

Add and saute for a couple of minutes:
1/2 of a small onion, chopped (onion freezes well.  Chop the whole thing and stick the rest in a freezer ziploc for the next time you need chopped onion)

Add and saute for a minute:
1/2 T. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin

Then add:
1 15-oz.can black beans (the original recipe says to drain and rinse, I just dumped the whole thing in a cut down a little on the other liquid)
1 1/2 c. chicken broth or water
1/4 c. salsa (we used medium Hy-Vee Salsa, but pick your favorite brand)

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer (just barely bubbling) for about 10 minutes.
(At this point, it seemed a little thin to me, so I took a little of the liquid out, stirred some masa into what I had pulled out and added it back into the soup)

Pull out about 1/2 of the soup and puree it in the blender or use an immersion blender to puree the soup just a little.  Make sure to leave chunks!

Serve with a little fresh lime juice, sour cream, avocado or guacamole, or salsa.  These are all optional.  It's pretty tasty without these.

*If you've never pureed hot soup in a blender, beware! You can blow the top off if you're not careful.  Put the soup in, remove the middle part of the blender lid, cover that with a paper towel and  hold it down on the sides (so you don't burn yourself).  Blend away!

Hope you enjoy it!

-Jennifer

Potato Soup

I know.  Potato Soup?  Really?  Yes, really.  It's pretty spectacular and REALLY easy.  Like make it tomorrow easy.  Really.

It comes from this recipe, but I changed it just a little
http://www.food.com/recipe/unbelievably-easy-potato-soup-74275

For each person:
Cut up and put into a small pan:
One decent sized potato (you can peel them, but why?  It makes the soup harder to make and takes out some of the nutrients.  I say - Keep the skins!)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery.

Put in water that doesn't quite cover the vegetables and bring to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer until the vegetables are tender (maybe 10 minutes?).  Drain them a little, but don't feel like you need to get all of the water out.  Then mash up your vegetables with a fork or potato masher.

Add:
1/4-1/2 cup half and half - basically until it's to the consistency you like your soup.
Plenty of salt and pepper (If you think the soup doesn't have much flavor, just add some more salt.  Remember that there isn't any salt in the recipe up to this point, so you can control the taste and sodium content).

Heat it a little more and enjoy!

See, I said it was easy :-).

-Jennifer

Chocolate pie!

This was so easy and so good.  I feel like a slacker using a pudding mix, but it's worth it for the taste!

Chocolate pie

Pre-cook and cool your favorite nut crust from the "Desserts" post.

In a medium bowl, mix together:
1 small box chocolate pudding mix (Jell-o brand was gf last I checked, but I'd call to make sure)
2 c. ice cream
1 c. milk

Pour it into your crust and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight

Beat until soft peaks form or shake in a tightly sealed jar until stiff:
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1/2 t. vanilla
1 t. sugar or 1 T. powdered sugar
pinch of salt

Spread over your chocolate pie and top with chocolate shavings.

Top with cool whip, if you can't make your own whip cream.

-Jennifer

Desserts

I'll flesh this out more tomorrow, but I wanted to get the basics up here so you had something to work with.

These are notes from my friend Lynn about what she does for her gf pies

+++++
I make crust with almond flour . . . probably not easy for her to get, but
she can grind them herself if she has almonds and a coffee grinder. 

JOC nut crust: 375 oven, 2 cups almonds (or walnuts or pecans) chopped to
meal or ground, mixed in with a fork the following: 4 tbs. softened butter,
3 tbs. sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt.  Press into pie plate; bake until golden brown,
10-15 min.

I do an apple pie with a more streusel-like topping with the almond crust
also.  You could tell her to do JOC nut crust (pre-bake it), do filling for
JOC Apple Pie II (7 cups peeled, cored, and sliced apples; heat 3 tbs.
butter until sizzling, add apples, toss and cover and cook on medium,
stirring frequently, until apples are softened on outside but slightly
crunchy, 5-7 min; stir in 3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. salt;
cook on high until apples boil and juices become thick and syrupy (3 min.),
immediately spread on wax paper-lined baking sheet to cool to room temp; put
in cooled nut crust), and bake it with a streusel topping made from ground
almonds, butter, and a some brown sugar mixed together (Try this one: 1 cup
ground nuts, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 3 tbs. butter, mixed with a fork and
spread over top of pie filling before baking).  I'd bake the thing at 375
until the filling has begun to bubble, over an hour?  I don't remember how
long I bake apple pie . . .

Another yummy dessert that I have made in the past is a pre-baked nut crust,
filled with sliced pears, caramel poured over it in ribbons (cook 1 c. sugar
and 1/4 c. water on medium until it barely starts to turn golden brown, not
stirring at all, shaking the pan a bit to help clarify the sugar), and then
pour on a custard made from 1 egg, 1/2 cup milk, 2 tbs. sugar, and 1 tsp.
vanilla whisked very well together.  Bake at 400 until pears are soft and
custard is firm, 20-30 min.
++++

Cornbread Stuffing

Stuffing is probably the hardest thing for me to give up at Thanksgiving.  I love bread stuffing!  Ah, well... I love the people I spend Thanksgiving with more than bread stuffing, so I'll survive without it.

Make the Southern cornbread the day before, so that it's cool and easy to chop for this recipe.

Cornbread Stuffing

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Chop into cubes
1 recipe southern cornbread

Put on a rimmed cookie sheet (I grew up calling these jelly-roll pans, but I'm not sure what the rest of the world calls them).  Toast them in the oven for 5 minutes to dry them out a little.

Turn oven down to 350

Heat in a large skillet over medium heat:
4-8 T. butter

Add and cook, stirring, until tender (5 minutes)
2 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped celery
1 seeded and chopped green bell pepper
1 seeded and chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced (or pressed in a garlic press)

Remove from heat and stir in:
1/4-1/2 c. minced fresh parsley
1 t. dried or 1 T. fresh chopped sage
1 t. dried or 1 T. fresh thyme
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Stir into bread cubes.  You can add up to1 cup of chicken stock at this point.  It depends how you like your stuffing.  If you like it more firm, you can also add 1-2 beaten eggs.  I usually add some stock and no eggs.
 
 Pour into a shallow baking dish and bake at 350 (or really, whatever temp you have the oven at for everything else) for 25-40 minutes, or until a crust is formed on top and it is heated through.

-Jennifer