Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Chilaquiles.

This chilaquiles recipe is special to me for 2 reasons; it was the first meal I ever cooked for Daniel ( Valentines 2004) , and second,  I remember clearly asking my now mother in law for the recipe when I was dating Daniel, and I felt as if it was my first of many bonding moments with her :' )


I remember telling my family, "Daniel's family is so weird, they eat chilaquiles with white rice and soy sauce!" But then Daniel pointed out to me that my family ate fried chicken with spanish rice haha, so it is what it is. Point is when making this recipe, you need to side it with white rice, soy sauce, and of course ice cold coke!


Here is what you'll need..


Corn Tortillas
Vegetable Oil for Frying
4 Tomatoes
5-7 Chiles Serranos
Salt
Queso Fresco ( Cacique Ranchero, My personal favorite )
Cooking Tongs



So obviously you'll start with cutting the tortilla's, I cut each tortilla into 5 triangles, and start heating your vegetable oil, I use a deep pot because I have oil burn scars on my arm from using a short pot..and I no longer want any..lol and deep fry your little heart away, the tortilla chips just do not taste the same if baked, I mean everything is better deep fried.
While frying the tortilla's you can start cutting the tomatoes in 4ths and toss into the blender with the serranos, raw, you will cook the sauce after blended, add about 1/4 cup of water to the blender, and start blending. I do not fully blend it, I use the ice crush setting, and just do random pulses, because you want it somewhat thick, chunky, and red sort of how Jovani likes his women ;)

Pour the sauce into a pot and start heating. The picture above is right out of the blender
This is after reaching cooking for about 15-20 minutes on low-medium heat. You can now add salt to the sauce, I don't have a specific amount, but you can do it to your liking. 
Once all of your tortillas are fried, you can start adding the sauce to your chips. This was the biggest difference between the chilaquiles I grew up eating, and what Daniel grew up eating. My mom would pour her salsa into a pan of fried chips, and the chips would get soggy immediately. Personally not a fan of soggy things, who is?



toss in a handful of chips, coat them and take them out quick, you.do.not.want.soggy! 
and put them on your plate, do this is until you have enough chilaquiles on your plate, +/- 3 handfuls for Daniel's plate. 

Final Product, topped with the grated queso fresco, you can always add more sauce over your chips. I like mine as dry as possible to prevent sogginess, but hey to each their own. 
Now of course, the real star of the meal is the ice cold coke. This meal just would NOT be the same without good old Coca-Cola. hehe. Have a goodnight! 


Monday, March 26, 2012

FRENCH FRIES..!

So I've been trying to eat healthier since uhmm 2 weeks ago? If you know me, you know my extreme love of cheeseburgers and fries. Oh what I would do for a backyard bacon cheeseburger with avocado slices right now...ahh. Okay, so I made bacon meatball subs ( how's that for healthy :/ ) on Sunday, and I figured I would make baked french fries, and I am so glad I did, because these guys were so good. I got the recipe from Food Network's "Ask Aida", I watch her every morning while getting ready, shes awesome..Okay so here is my first official food post, and it couldn't be more perfect..Garlic French Fries.

You'll need
Russet Potatoes
Olive Oil
Garlic
Kosher Salt


                                                                 Wash your Potatoes!


Peel Them, and I rinsed again..


I used 8 or 9 Garlic Cloves, I have a thing for Garlic, your're going to want to mince them as small as you can.


In low-medium heat, sautee your garlic in olive oil, make sure not to burn it or let it get to brown, it will get super browned in the oven. Speaking of oven, start your oven at 400 degrees. Before sauteeing the garlic, I sliced my potatoes into the thickness that I like for my fries, I then let them soak in hot tap water for about 10 minutes..not really sure why, but thats what Aida said!



So once your garlic is all done, you can set that aside, drain the soaking potatoes & pat them dry. You'll then pour the garlic flavored olive oil alllll over your fries, make sure you coat each one and sprinkle a little kosher salt over them. Spread them on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 25 minutes, flip them and I left them in for another 15.


So unfortunately I didnt get to take a picture of them right out of the oven because I was busy with the meatballs, and as soon as I turned Daniel & Ben had eaten half of the fries! So this was the best I got. They are so good, I will def be making these very often.





Thursday, March 1, 2012

3 Months Ago

Have not posted in a while, and I really want to start using this blog more, so I need to look for my camera charger..and start taking my laptop home to blog from home.

Two pictures from Christmas in California..


Dress: Lulus.com
Daniel's button up: Urban Outfitters
Daniel's Pants: H&M
Benjamin's PJs: Carters