Monday, March 8, 2010

Guacamole - Freshness at it's best!

Would it be way conceited to say I freakin' love my guacamole? It's pretty unreal for me to say that at all since up until about a year ago, I wouldn't eat any guac no matter who made it. Funny enough, I've been making it for about 5 years now but always had to have the hubs and daughter tatse it to adjust seasonings because I didn't like avacados! Then, one day, I finally took the plunge and tried it myself because I didn't want to be a weenie my whole life - and dang....my guac was good (but I still can't eat an actual, plain avacado)! It's super easy, super fresh and super tasty. The following recipe makes about 4 cups worth if not a bit more. Enjoy!I start with 6 regular-sized avacados (not those huge ones). I halve them, remove the pit, scoop'em out and toss'em in a big mixing bowl.
This picture skews the appearance of the amounts of veggies I prep - it looks like a lot of jalapeno! But shown is actually 3 roma tomatoes, diced small...about 1/2 of a good sized onion, also in a small dice, 4 cloves of garlic put through a press and one biggish jalapeno (seeds and membrane removed from one half), diced waaaay small.
Now, I don't know what happened to the pic of the beautifully dark green, fragrant cilantro that I chopped, but you can see remnants of it here! I chopped about 4 tablespoons worth - cilantro makes the guac, my friend :-) Speaking of beautiful...look at this lime! It was so incredibly juicy! Big, beautiful lime got squeeeeezed....
.....and gave me almost 3 tablespoons of wonderful juice - about twice what is shown here (I wanted to get the pic mid-squeeze ;-)
Once everything gets prepped, the avacados get the pastry blender treatment! I love my Pampered Chef pastry blender and using it is so much easier than using a fork. I feel like the avacados are sorta slippery under the pressure of a fork....
I leave the avacados a bit chunky as it they get more broken down/creamier when the other ingredients get stirred in. Sorta like leaving pasta al dente if you're gonna finish cooking it in the oven for mac-n-cheese, ya know?
The prepped veggies and all the lime juice get dumped in . Now, I always leave a palm-full of tomato, onion and 1/4 of the jalapeno out of the first mix-in, just in case I feel like there's plenty to start. And although I usually end up adding in the remainder, I just can't bring myself to toss it all in from the get-go. You know the old addage "you can always add but it's hard to remove"? It haunts me with the guac!
Mmmm..almost there....fold it all in....
...marry, marry, marry.....
YUM! Season with salt and pepper to your liking and if you feel like it, add a dash or two of Tabasco - I usualy don't like to, but if I'm feeling like more heat than the jalapeno offered, I'll dash twice, stir, taste and add another dash or two from there...
This guac is so, so good! Your chips will be diving into it without you!
Maryn's Guacamole
Ingredients:
6 ripe avocados
3 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced small
2/3 medium onion finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper – remove half of the seeds and (leave them all in for a little more heat), very finely diced
4 Tblsp finely chopped cilantro
Approx 1 -2 Tblsps fresh lime juice
3 -4 garlic cloves – minced or put through garlic press
Salt
Pepper
Few dashes Tabasco (optional)

Cut avocados in half, remove pit and spoon flesh into a mixing bowl and smash well with a fork or pastry blender (leave it as chunky as you like). Add diced tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and garlic. Mix thoroughly to combine. Taste, then add salt and pepper to your preference. If you prefer a little extra heat, add a few dashes of Tabasco. Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap (press the wrap down ONTO the guac...no air in between), and chill until ready to use.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies!

You know...everyone's putting bacon in their sweets nowadays! This past weekend, I took the plunge. I had read that Monday was not only National Pig Day, but National Peanut Butter Lover's Day as well...so, the idea for the cookies was born! I'd recently heard about candied bacon (I guess they call it 'pig candy' in the south?!), so I wanted to try that and then add it into my fave PB cookies. The results were dang good - but you DO tend to think....'do I really need bacon in my peanut butter cookie?' For me, although tasty, the answer is 'no'. It's just....well...kind of unnecessary! Fun - but unnecessary. I DO encourage you to try these at least once...I mean...peanut butter, bacon, brown sugar, maple.... Nothing wrong there ;-)
I first candied the bacon by laying 10 slices of thick-cut bacon on a rack on a sheet pan.
I baked it for about 10 to 15 minutes at 400-degrees until it was about 1/3 'done'.
I then brushed the bacon with maple syrup.....
....just a nice even coating.....
..then each slice got a sprinkle of brown sugar! I LOVE brown sugar! After the bacon 'got the goods', I baked it for another 15 minutes or so. I watched it carefully to make sure it didn't burn but I wanted to make sure the bacon was done and wasn't floppy.
Look at this! It's like bacon jewelry! SO pretty! And yuuuuummmy!
Once the bacon was completely cool, I gave ot a chop. Not too small, not too big.
I whipped up my fave peanut butter cookie dough.......
....then folded in the bacon pieces.
I rolled 'smaller-than-a-walnut-sized' balls of dough and put them on parchment-lined baking sheets, and flattened each in the traditional criss-cross fashion with a fork.
All ready for the oven!
9 minutes on the dot and they were done to perfection. Slightly crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle.
They were really good -not over-powering bacon flavor, but the bacon flavor that was there was nicely complimented by it's candy coating.
So - all in all, a good cookie :-) Really glad I made them 'cuz ya gotta do a trendy thing now and then, eh?! This trend for me though - was a one-timer. Nice to have met you, peanut butter bacon cookie!
Peanut Butter & Candied Bacon Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup butter (or ½ cup shortening & ½ cup butter)
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat over to 375 degrees. Mix sugars, peanut butter, butter/shortening and eggs until well combined. Add in dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in chopped, candied bacon. Place just-smaller-than-walnut-sized balls on dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8 to 9 minutes. Remove to cooling racks.



Candied Bacon
Lay 10 strips of thick-cut bacon on a rack placed on a jellyroll pan. Bake for 10 minutes in 400-degree oven, then brush with maple syrup and sprinkle with brown sugar. Return to oven for another 15 to 20 minutes, watching to make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool completely. Chop into small pieces and fold into peanut butter cookie dough...