Recipes to Rival: Tamales!

The tamales were due to be posted on August 27, but I had a rough week and wasn't able to get it done in time. At least I'm still making them, since I was really looking forward to this challenge!

I think that someone somewhere didn't want me to do this challenge. I wanted to make this while at my grandfather's cottage, like I did the eclairs, but my very picky eater father nixed that. Turns out I might not have been able to do them up there anyway as I couldn't find the corn husks. I completely forgot about banana leaves, but didn't see them anyway. I was going to spend the weekend before posting day doing an even wider search for corn husks, but I had some family stuff come up. I'm lucky to have some great people in the Recipes to Rival group and both Meg and Jen offered to send me some corn husks as they had loads extra.

Anyway, I finally go around to making the tamales today. It's definitely a project for the weekend or a holiday, unless you prep for several days in advance. I can completely understand why this is a traditional Christmas dish in Mexico.

The first step I did was to prepare some stock for the batter. I made a large vat of veggie stock (well, I used veggie bullion) and divided that into three parts for an ancho chile (smoked poblano) stock, chipotle (smoked red jalapeño) stock, and left one plain vegetable. All I did for the chile stocks was to take one dried pepper of each type and place it in three cups stock. I let it simmer until the chile was rehydrated and the flavor was infused in the stock.

I just love the ancho chile flavor and I wanted to have that flavor in other parts of the tamales. I made the bell pepper compote from a pork recipe I like, the rice and chili from the Southwestern Chili Lasagna, and a variation of the bean recipe from Debyi, our wonderful host this month. Since I haven't posted the bell pepper compote before, and I didn't use the bean recipe as written, I'll put those recipes later on in the post.

Since Lee had the car today, and I just wasn't thinking before today, I made a list for him to buy some ingredients for the fillings while he was at work today. He came home on his break today with the ingredients, so I couldn't get started until after 1:00.

First, got started on the chili. Usually, Lee is guilty of buying too much food, so I didn't even think that he would buy less than 2lbs. ground beef. I guess I should have thought of that. I ended up texting him to bring home some more ground beef when he came home from work. I got the rest of the chili started and allowed it to simmer, figuring it was better to get most of it ready while waiting on the other pound.

Next, I made the bean mix. I had some dried pinto beans in the cupboard, so I soaked those overnight. The recipe called for shredded carrots, and my box grater hadn't been cleaned since I used it to grate my Lush bubble bath, so I ended up just using my vegetable peeler to get thin shreds of carrot.

I was ready for the part where I am supposed to toast some coriander seeds (the seeds of a cilantro plant) and cumin seeds. I didn't have any cumin seeds, so I just toasted some coriander seeds. Well, I THOUGHT I didn't have any cumin seeds, but as I was making the bell-pepper compote, I found a jar of cumin seeds right front and center of my spices. Oops!!



The bell pepper compote and the rice went off without a hitch and were quickly finished.



Now it was time to fill the tamales. I had soaked the corn husks, and I divided the batter into batches. I used 3 cups masa, 1 cup shortening, and 3 cups stock to make each type of batter. I couldn't really taste much for the ancho chile dough, but once I made the chipotle dough, I could notice a big difference in flavor.



Lee helped out with putting the tamales together. He spread the masa on the husks while I filled and folded them. Spreading the masa on the husks was a bit frustrating for us. Neither one of us had eaten, nevermind made tamales before and had no clue how thick to spread the masa batter. I know other rivalers had problems with too much masa and I wanted to avoid that problem, but didn't want it spread too thinly either.

I didn't have a steamer big enough for the job. Actually, my steamer doesn't even really fit any of my pots, so I really have to be careful what I put in it. I knew tamales wouldn't work because they would be too heavy and would fall over. I was reading blogs and Lan had mentioned fashioning a steamer out of a colander and a large pot. I decided to go that route. I also read Temperance mention putting some stock as her liquid for steaming. I decided to use some of my vegetable bullion in the water for my steaming liquid. One last precaution for avoiding the dry tamales some people complained about was to take a tip from a site I visited (can't remember which, but it wasn't someone from R2R). I took my baster and squirted some of the plain vegetable stock into each tamale to keep them moist.




Since we had too many tamales to steam at once, I steamed the batch with the ancho chile batter first. While that was steaming, I made the chipotle batter and Lee and I assembled those ones.

I didn't realize how many corn husks were in one packet! We ended up with 24 tamales and we barely made a dent in the package of corn husks. We also only made about 2/3 of the total batter. I'm glad I had reduced the portions of the fillings because we would have run out of room in our freezer!

We ate a couple for dinner tonight and I plan to have some for lunch tomorrow, but there are just too many to eat in one week, so we'll freeze the leftovers. To reheat from the freezer, defrost and steam in a microwave oven or wrap in foil with some moist paper towel and heat at 350°F.

We didn't have any problem with dryness, but ended up not being too thrilled with them. We didn't like the masa. I'll eat up what we have, but besides that, I don't know if I'd make this again. They're a lot better with some sauce over the top. If I could figure out how to make the dough a lot thinner, it would be better, but I think we made the dough as thin as possible.

Although we didn't end up liking these as much as we'd hoped, I'm really glad I made them since I've always wondered how they would taste.

Tamales Made:

1. chipotle batter with bell pepper compote
2. chipotle batter with pinto bean filling
3. ancho batter with rice filling
4. ancho batter with chili filling
5. ancho bater with chili and rice filling
   

See the Recipes to Rival Blog for the official recipe.

Bell Pepper Compote

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1/2 red onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon Mexican oregano 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat.
   
2. Add peppers and onion.
3. Cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the remaining ingredients.
5. Cook until vegetables are soft, but not brown, and the balsamic vinegar scent has dissipated and flavors come together.
   

Pinto Bean Chipotle Filling 8 oz. pinto beans, rinsed 1/8 cup of shredded carrot 1/8 red onion, minced 1 cloves garlic, minced 1/8 tsp. chipotle powder 1/8 tbsp. ancho chile powder 1/8 tsp. whole cumin seeds 1/2 tsp. whole coriander seeds pinch of salt 1 tsp. of olive oil Option: 1 cup of soy chorizo

1. Shred the carrot.
   
2. Mince the onion and garlic.
   
3. Rinse the beans.
   
4. Combine all of these together in a bowl.
   
5. In a small pan, toast the cumin seeds and coriander seeds on a medium heat in the 1 tsp. of oil until the coriander seeds start to pop or the cumin seeds turn a deep brown color, whichever comes first.
   
6. Mix the chipotle powder, ancho chile powder, cumin, coriander, and salt together.
   
7. Toss this into the veggie mix.

Southwestern Chili Lasagna

So, this morning I was browsing a forum I frequent. There is a thread where people can post what they made for dinner and I like to read that to get ideas since my knowledge of different meals is still small. One lady made a post about a blog she loves and that she was trying the Mexican lasagna recipe from that site for dinner.

I posted last week that I was going to try making meals that take a while on Sundays since it's usually a lazy day and I tend to be home all day. I asked Lee what he wanted and eventually he decided upon lasagna.

Well, after hearing about the Mexican lasagna, I thought I would try that. I didn't see the Mexican lasagna on that site, so I decided to come up with my own creation. I thought that flour tortillas would work instead of the noodles and that chili would work in place of the tomato sauce and ground meat. I figured a Mexican cheese blend would be good for the cheese layer.

I got to work on my chili for the recipe since it needed to simmer. I was glad I had decided to buy some nice ground peppers from Penzeys. (Well, I actually bought some whole ancho chiles and whole chipotle peppers as well, but decided it would be easier to use the ground for this purpose.) I love the ancho chile flavor, so I decided to use some of that in my chili. I also added some chipotle pepper. Ancho chiles are smoked purple poblanos, and chipotles are smoked red jalapeños. Add some smoked Spanish paprika (smoked red bell pepper) and I had a great smoky taste with my chili!

I was eventually directed to the post about the Mexican lasagna, but by that time I had already started my own version, so I just took the idea of adding some rice to the lasagna to add another layer of texture to the dish. I'm so glad I saw that post and added the rice! It would still have tasted good, but it tasted more complete and well-rounded with the addition of rice.

I ended up using the same peppers in my rice that I did in my chili. I thought it would be best for making the rice and chili blend well together, plus I like those flavors anyway. When Lee first tried a bite of the rice on its own, he said "Oh, wow! First you taste the rice, then you get some heat from the peppers, then there is a smoky flavor!" Yes, my dear, that's the smoked peppers! The rice had nice flavor from the Basmati rice (it was recommended in the blog post for the nice flavor and texture and I have to agree). I think it was the sensation of the flavors coming in waves that he thought was so cool.

Since I was making up my own recipe (although basing proportions of ingredients on recipes I found online since I'm not very comfortable being completely on my own with this), I wanted to make sure that the rice and chili each tasted good on their own. I figured if they taste good on their own, they would taste great together. Turns out I was right and now I have a great recipe for chili and a great recipe for Mexican rice!

This had a mellow heat to it. I wouldn't describe it as spicy. If you want spicy, add some more chipotle or add some cayenne pepper to it. Ancho chile doesn't have much heat to it, so it wouldn't do much for added spiciness.

Only problem with this was I couldn't think of an appropriate side dish. Any suggestions are welcome!

What started out as an improvisation is now a new favorite in our house!

Southwestern Chili Lasagna

For the chili:
2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 lbs ground beef
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon chipotle powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper

For the rice:
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup diced onion
1 garlic clove
1 (10 ounce) can Rotel
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked spanish paprika

For the assembly:
4 large flour tortillas
shredded Mexican cheese blend
cilantro (for garnish)

1. For the chili:
2. Dice the medium onion.
3. Cook in a 8qt. pot over medium heat.
4. Dice 2 cloves garlic and add to onions.
5. Add ground beef and cook until browned.
6. Drain out most of the fat.
7. Add the remaining ingredients for the chili. Simmer on stove for several hours or until all the flavors have come together.
8. For the rice:
9. Rinse rice to remove excess starch. Add to pot with the chicken stock.
10. Bring to boil, cover, and reduce to simmer until all the stock has been absorbed.
11. Remove from heat.
12. Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter over medium heat.
13. Add 1 cup diced onion, Rotel, and 1 clove minced garlic. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir together.
14. Cook until onion and garlic are tender.
15. Add to tomato mixture to the rice by fluffing with a fork until it is evenly incorporated.
16. For the lasagna (I made an 8x4" lasagna):
17. Ladle a thin layer of the chili on the bottom of your pan.
18. Trim the rounded edges off the tortillas and cut into strips. Create a layer of tortilla strips in the pan.
19. Scoop about 1-2 cups rice and spread in even layer over tortillas.
20. Spread about 2 cups chili over rice.

1. Sprinkle to cover with cheese.
2. Repeat until you are within 1/2" of the top of your pan. Leave the cheese as the last later.
3. Sprinkle with cilantro.
4. Spray aluminum foil with non-stick spray and bake in a 350°F oven for about 1/2 hour. Remove foil and cook until cheese is melted, browned, and bubbly.

Steak Burrito

Wednesday night, I had some late conferences, so we ate out at Qdoba. I got the Fajita Ranchera burrito and Lee got the Steak Burrito. Lee agreed with me that the burritos taste better at Qdoba, but the chips and salsa are better at Moe's.

I had the Fajita Ranchera before, but hadn't tried the steak burrito. I tried a bite of Lee's and it was pretty good. I prefer chicken burritos, but I'd have no problem ordering the steak burrito once in a while.

I forgot to take a picture again, but I did take a picture of a cute kitty we found in the parking lot!

SSShhhh...I snuck a meal out!

Ok, so this isn't the most discrete sneaking of a meal out I've done, but it's my new food for the day, so I guess I kinda have to fess up. My boyfriend and I are trying to save money by not eating out much, but I had some errands to run and decided to try Qdoba while I was out. My former roommate raves about it and I like Moe's Southwest Grill and figured this would be similar.

I was a little sad to see that they didn't just give you chips and salsa with the meal. They did have a sign that said they were available for free upon request, I don't know why they do it that way, maybe because it's across the street from Moe's and they do it for free with everyone's meal?

Anyway, I think I prefer Moe's chips and salsa and Qdoba's burritos. I can't explain it well, but the chips and salsa just tasted better to me at Moe's. I preferred the burritos at Qdoba because everything was just more fresh tasting and flavorful. I could actually make out the different flavors of the ingredients depending on where I bit in. I don't get that with Moe's.

Hmmm....I wonder if it'll look strange if I get some burritos at Qdoba and head across the street to Moe's for the chips and salsa....

White Chili

I have made White Chili before when I got the general ingredient list and method from a forum I frequent, but I used a jar of salsa for it and ground turkey for the meat. It was also a lot of going ty taste and feel, and being new to it, I wanted to write it out as a recipe so I wouldn't forget. This time I made my own homemade salsa and used some ground pork for the meat.

It turned out great! It was a lot easier for me to adjust the heat of the chili since I made the salsa myself as well. I also used some extra tomatillos to add liquid to the chili instead of as much chicken broth as I had before.

The only problem I had was that I used dried pinto beans and didn't soak them for long enough, so they were still a little firm. They still weren't bad, my boyfriend didn't even comment on that, but it was noticable to me.

I'm not sure I noticed a huge difference in flavour between using a jar of salsa and making my own, but it's been so long since I made it, that I could just have forgotten.

An interesting note: In the UK, they serve chili curry-style, over rice. My boyfriend was surprised and confused to find out that in the US it's served like a soup, in a bowl. He can't bring himself to eat it like a soup and must have it over rice. I don't care either way.

¡Entomatado de Pollo, Salsa, y Torillas!

I've been interested in Mexican food a lot lately. I've learned that what we, in the U.S., usually think of as Mexican isn't really authentic. I was reading Ben's blog at What's Cooking? and I borrowed a couple of Mexican cookbooks from the library. The more I read, the more I wanted to try to make some authentic Mexican food.

On What's Cooking? I saw a recipe for a dish called Entomatado de Pollo and thought it sounded really good. I've never noticed tomatillos at my local markets, but I've never looked. The rest of the ingredients were easy enough to get, so I decided to give it a go.

Some notes about the ingredients:

Tomatillos are little green tomatoes. They are a little more tart than the red ones, I guess the best way to describe them is to say they are the Granny Smith apples of the tomato family. On Ben's blog, he posted a picture of tomatillos. From the picture, I thought they'd be the same size as regular tomatoes, but they are actually quite a bit smaller. The tomatillos were about the size of a cherry tomato, though some were closer to the size of a clementine or tangerine. The tomatillos have husks on the outside like corn. When buying tomatillos, you should look for ones that are more green in color and are firm to the touch. The husks should still be close to the tomatillo. I actually found some at two stores. The first store had tiny tomatillos and I barely got enough good ones for a 1 lb. I guess they aren't bought too often because there were a lot that were going bad, the cashiers at both stores also had to ask me what they were! The second store had better tomatillos and they were also slightly larger.


My local Price Chopper, the store with the better tomatillos, also carries Mexican Oregano. It was very inexpensive, at $1.99 for the container, and it is worth it to buy some for cooking Mexican dishes. The Mexican Oregano has a different flavor than the Mediterranean kind. It is more fragrant and intense in flavor than the regular oregano as well. You can read more about Mexican Oregano at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden's website.

I decided that I would make a salsa and chips to eat before the meal. Since I found better tomatillos at Price Chopper, the second store I went to, I had a total of 2lbs. tomatillos. I figured I'd make two types of salsa, one red and one green. I forgot to make sure to get corn tortillas at the store, and bought flour by mistake. I figured I'd go ahead and use the flour ones, although I do prefer the taste to corn tortilla chips. I had to go get my boyfriend while I was making the salsa and chips, so I didn't fry them, I just coated them with oil and baked them since it wouldn't have been safe to leave a pot of oil on the oven while going to get him, but I could run out between batches of baked chips. My red salsa was a little watery, but had an excellent flavor. The heat came in as part of the aftertaste so it had an interesting blend of initial cool, then heat. I prefer my salsa verde to the one I had at Moe's. My boyfriend didn't like the salsa verde at Moe's but said he liked mine.

Now it was time for the main dish. Since Lee was late getting out of work, I scrapped my plans to try to make authentic Mexican rice and used the box of Spanish Rice flavored Rice-a-Roni instead. Everything I've heard and read says that Mexican rice is tricky even for professional chefs, so with all the other new things, I thought I'd just go with a box mix for today. I'll try the authentic rice another time. I have never had the Spanish Rice before, and it was really good! I wasn't expecting to need a can of diced tomatoes, but I just diced up two tomatoes I bought today, and used a can of Rotel.

The Entomatado de Pollo was easy to make. The most difficult part was cutting the tomatillos. The smaller ones were quite firm and weren't very easy to chop. Other than that, it was a breeze and it tasted delicious!

All in all, I'd definitely make this again and would be sure to make some authentic Mexican Rice to go with it. I can't wait to try more authentic Mexican food and have some of this again for lunch tomorrow!

Oh, I'm sorry about the bad picture quality for the Entomatado de Pollo picture. I usually take several photos and post the best, but I accidentally dropped my camera in the food after that picture and thought I'd give it a break for a bit...

I am rating this 4 out of 5 stars because the red salsa was a bit water for my tastes.

Salsa

You can use this recipe to make either red or green salsa. For green salsa, simply exchange the tomatoes for tomatillos. You could make this without roasting the tomatoes/tomatillos and peppers, but it would not have the same flavor.

Salsa de Molcajete
2 jalapeño peppers (or 4 Serrano peppers)
3 unpeeled garlic cloves
3 medium red tomatoes or 4 large tomatillos, husked
½ cup finely chopped white onion
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon lime juice
salt, to taste

There are three techniques for roasting the peppers and tomatoes or tomatillos. a) Preheat oven to the broil setting and roast until blackened, turning halfway through, b) use a cast iron skillet and cook on each side until charred (do not add any oil to skillet), or c) Heat one side of the grill and roast vegetables with indirect heat until blackened in spots. The garlic should either be roasted in the broiler or skillet, you'd need a fine mesh grill to keep them from slipping through the bars of a grill.

1. Roast the peppers, tomatoes or tomatillos, and garlic. When done, allow to cool before handling.
   
2. Meanwhile, chop onions, place in a mesh strainer and rinse under cold water.
3. Cut the stems off the chilies and remove the seeds. Peel the garlic cloves.
   
4. Peel tomatoes or tomatillos. Remove charred bits from the chilies.
   
5. Mix tomatoes (recipe calls for unstrained, but I think I'll try straining them a bit next time), garlic and peppers. Blend, or pulse in a blender until desired consistency. Season with lime juice and salt. If serving within an hour or two, add onions and cilantro.

Baked Tortilla Chips

8 large torillas
2 tablespoons oil

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Brush tortillas with oil and use a sharp knife to cut into eighths.
   
3. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cook for about 10 minutes or until crisp and slightly golden brown.
   

Entomatado de Pollo

4 chicken thighs
1 lemon
salt
pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
¼ white onion, diced
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 lb dehusked, chopped tomatillos
2 Chipotle peppers (or more for your tastes)
1 tbsp Mexican Oregano

1. Sprinkle chicken thighs with lemon juice, salt, and pepper on both sides. Refrigerate for approximately 2 hours.
   
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Sauté garlic and onions.
   
3. Add chicken, skin side down. Cook for about 4-5 minutes or until light brown.
4. Turn over thighs and cook for about 4 more minutes.
   
5. You may drain the juices, but the dish will lose flavour. Add tomatillos, peppers, and oregano. Stir, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
   
6. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Triple Lindy

Well, tonight was a bit of a bugger...I got my new deepwater overflow cover for the bathtub, so I decided to try my new Lush bath bomb (called Sex Bomb and it was great, I added a touch of Play Your Cards Right and it made my skin so soft!!), but that's not really the story here...

While I was in the bath, reading a good book, I apparently got a call from my boyfriend letting me know he was going to be late getting out of work. I didn't get the message, so I drove to pick him up at the normal time. Well, he said he was going to be 15 minutes late...he ended up being an hour late! At this point, it was late and I didn't want to cook since all the stuff we had would take a while and it was a good thing I didn't leave something cooking like I sometimes do since it would have burnt to a crisp. I stopped at Moe's Southwest Grill while waiting for him and picked us up some food. I was kind of disappointed because I had a dish in mind for our pizza night and we didn't end up doing it! I'll probably do it tomorrow instead. Hopefully he'll get out of work on time!

Last time I tried Joey Bag of Donuts. This time my boyfriend wanted it, and I had to go with something different, so I got the Triple Lindy. It is very similar to the Joey Bag of Donuts, but it has guacamole or sour cream and it also had mushrooms, peppers, and onions on it. This thing was so full they couldn't close the foil and the tortilla burst! Oh, well, I just ate my burrito with a fork and a knife. It was delicious, although I'm not sure how much of a fan of guacamole I am....I liked the parts without it better. I'll have to try guacamole with something else sometime so I can see how I feel about it.

For dessert, my boyfriend apparently thought a rotten banana laptop sounded good...Me? Not such a big fan since it was my laptop that got rotten banana on it! He had a banana in a backpack he uses daily and forgot about it and put my laptop in the bag. Anyone know any tricks for getting bits of banana out of ports on the computer? I'm just afraid of things happening if it stays there long! :-(

Rotel Cheeseburgers

I went to Sam's Club today to stock up on some things and saw a box of Rotel. I had bought some on my grocery shopping trip to Walmart a couple of weeks ago and liked it, so I bought the box and figured I could try some more great recipes.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make for dinner, but I eventually decided on cheeseburgers. I thought about trying to put some Rotel in them. I searched Recipezaar and didn't find any recipes, but I'm becoming more adventurous with my cooking since I've been doing this blog, and I decided I would just come up with a recipe on my own!

I am at the end of my grocery budget, so I didn't buy many supplies. If I were to do this again, I think I would maybe top these with a Mexican cheese blend and some pico de gallo on top. I cooked these on the George Foreman Grill and since it cooks so quickly, I thought I'd cook the Rotel and onions ahead of time. It might give more flavor to cook in the meat, but I wasn't keen on the idea of having undercooked onions in the burger and my boyfriend doesn't like raw tomatoes.

These turned out really well! The first batch didn't turn out very flavourful, but luckily my boyfriend loves to eat and wanted to help me get the recipe right. He ate four burgers and we finally got to what we thought of as the perfect ration of burger to Rotel. Now, this may be different based on your taste buds, but this is the one we liked.

Rotel Burgers

1-10 oz. can of Rotel
¼ white onion, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
cheese
buns

1. Sauté Rotel and onions in a skillet over medium heat until cooked.
2. Measure out ¼lb. ground beef and mix with 4 tablespoons Rotel and onion mixture. Form into burger shape. Repeat with remaining meat and Rotel.
3. Cook on grill. Top with cheese.
   
4. Let sit until cheese has melted. Place on bun and top with desired condiments and enjoy!

Joey Bag of Donuts

Welcome to Moe's!!!

It never fails to bring a smile to my face when I hear that walking into Moe's Southwest Grill. I know it must be annoying for the staff, but as a customer I love it!

Well, I've been having problems with my garbage disposal, and Sunday night's roast dinner clogged the bugger up. Our dishwasher backed up and maintenance fixed the disposal, but the dishwasher still had three inches of yucky water in it. I had spent over an hour washing all the dishes by hand and couldn't be bothered to cook. When I picked up my boyfriend, we decided to head to Moe's to grab some takeout.

One thing I like about Moe's is the creative names for the meals, all after someone in the entertainment industry. My friends love the Homewrecker, but I usually get the Alfredo Garcia. I decided to try something different and after a lot of thought, settled on the Joey Bag of Donuts with chicken as the meat and pinto beans instead of black. Joey Bag of Donuts has a choice of meat, beans, rice, shredded cheese, and pico de gallo. I thought about getting the Homewrecker, but I don't like sour cream and there was sour cream in the Homewrecker and the only other thing the Joey Bag of Donuts doesn't have is guacamole, which doesn't bother me if it's left out.

I liked the Joey Bag of Donuts. One thing I don't like about fajitas is the assembly, and I loved not having to assemble the burrito, it's already done for me!

I also tried their tomatillo salsa. I liked it, but it prefer the red salsa. Their tortilla chips are also delicious, and not salty like ones you buy in a store.

I didn't realize until I started eating that I had actually fulfilled my quota of a new food! I usually stick to the same old things when I ordered out. I guess in about a month and a half, this blog has already started changing how I think about food!

South of the Border Dinner

Two nights in a row are brought to you by Zaar Tag. Last night I made a Salsa Meatloaf recipe to review. I was excited about this one and couldn't wait to try it.

When I finally began to put together the recipe, I realized there was a very high meat to vegetable ratio. In the end, there ended up being more filler in the meatloaf than actual meatloaf. I feel a meatloaf should be very simple comfort food, and this wasn't. I think that grating the onion, carrots, and zucchini would have been easier if I had a food processor I could put them through. As it was, I decided not to grate the onions to save my eyes. I used frozen zucchini, so I used the chopper attachment on my new immersion blender, which ended up more pureeing the food, but it worked out fine. At this point, I was becoming very worried about how much we would be able to taste the meat. After all, there was definitely more filler than meat at this point.

I decided to keep going. The meat mixture was very loose and watery, but I knew that some of that would come out of it while cooking. I was surprised the recipe did not call for any salsa in the meatloaf, it was just poured on top halfway through cooking.

I wanted to try to make my own version of mashed potatoes and thought this would be a good time to try. Since I was making a salsa meatloaf, I decided to add some spice to the mashed potatoes. I didn't have any fresh peppers, so I added some hot sauce, cayenne pepper, and chipotle powder. I then sprinkled it with freshly grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese.

The verdict: the meatloaf was ok, and my attempt at making my own Mexican Mashed Potatoes turned out pretty well (I liked it and I asked my boyfriend to be brutally honest since I was going to post it if it turned out well). We both wanted to taste more of the meat and to have some of the salsa within the meat itself.

I'm posting the recipe as I would make it in the future with a link to the original.

Salsa Meatloaf

2 egg whites or ¼ cup egg white substitute
¼ cup oatmeal
¼ onion, grated or minced
¼ cup zucchini, grated
¼ cup carrots, grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1lb. ground beef
¾ cup salsa

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. In a bowl, lightly whisk egg whites. Add oatmeal, onion, zucchini, carrots, garlic, Worcestershire Sauce, salt, thyme, ¼ cup salsa, and pepper. Mix well.
3. Add ground beef and mix with clean hands until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Line a roasting pan or baking pan with sides with aluminum foil. Put meat mixture in the pan and shape into a loaf. Cook for about 40 minutes. Pour rest of salsa evenly over meat and cook for about 20 more minutes or until meat reads 170°F with a meat thermometer.
   

An Easy Dish After a Crushing Blow

I admit, I'm devastated today by the Patriots loss yesterday. It would have been so much easier if it wasn't for the perfect season, or if it wasn't lost with 36 seconds left on the clock. I love my Pats, and always will. I have avoided the news all day. I tried watching BBC World News America this morning while getting ready for work, but even they had a segment about the game! This is one time I'm glad there is an election going on and it's saturating the news, it makes it easier to avoid being reminded of last night. I know it's only a sport, and I'm just a fan and not a player, but when you love a team so much, it's heartbreaking all the same. Note to news stations: hometown fans would have liked to see House, not continuing news coverage something so depressing. That would have been a sole point of comfort last night, since I couldn't sleep well and was in shock anyway.

But this is a food blog, not a sports blog, so I'll end my rant and get on with the food.

I did not feel like cooking tonight, so I was looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner. I had bought a couple of cans of Rotel the other day because I've heard good things and never tried it. I'm starting to get better at eating spicy foods since my boyfriend likes curry and I wanted to try it to see if it was good. I found a recipe for Rotel Goulash.

I liked it. I thought it was spicy, but drinking a soda with it took care of the burn. My boyfriend thought it was ok. He doesn't really like uncooked tomatoes, or tomatoes that haven't been cooked for a long time, so I think that if I were to make it again I would have to cook the tomatoes for a lot longer than the recipe calls for. He also didn't like the heat in it, strange since he loves curry and liked the Mexican Mashed Potatoes I made a while ago. We both feel that this is a different type of spicy than curry. Curry is spicy in a thick, creamy kind of way...this was spicy in a light way. I hope that makes sense, it's difficult to describe.

Rotel Goulash

1lb. ground beef
16 oz. of tomato sauce
20 oz. of Rotel
8 oz. of elbow macaroni
1/2 cup shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook macaroni until al dente.
   
2. While macaroni is cooking, brown the beef in the skillet. If there is a lot of juice, drain.
3. Add the tomato sauce, Rotel, macaroni, salt, and pepper. Simmer 15-20 minutes.
   
4. Shred cheese over macaroni and heat until melted.
   

Spicing up our Night

I had some leftover white chili in the freezer and thought I'd make some of that for dinner tonight. Since that is technically not a new dish tonight, I needed to make something to go along with it. I've never really eaten chili much, so I have no clue what goes with it. I went to trusty Recipezaar and did a search for Mexican side dishes and came across a recipe for Mexican mashed potatoes. I had a plan!

The recipe called for white and green onions as well as some hot sauce. I didn't have any of that, so I improvised with onion powder and crushed red pepper for some spice. It ended up being a great side dish and I will make it again sometime.

Mexican Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4

4 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1/8 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Cook mashed potatoes.

While mashed potatoes are cooking, sauté tomatoes, crushed red pepper, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Cook until tomatoes are soft.

When potatoes and tomato mixture are finished, mix together. Sprinkle cheese over potatoes and let sit until melted.