Horshradish Cheddar and Smoked Turkey Quesadillas with Dill Mustard Aoili

This was a midnight snack the other night that turned out SOOO good! Wow. There is really nothing Mexican about this quesadilla at all. The flavors were so different and yummy. I love to get my sliced meats and cheese at Basha's because they have Boar's Head, and I havent found any other meats or cheeses that taste better. The Boar's Head horshraddish cheddar is really good. Its got a kick to it that will clear out your sinuses!! I made up the mustard aioli based on things I like on sandwiches with turkey and cheddar, mustard, mayo and pickles.

2 12-inch flour tortillas
8 slices of horseraddish cheddar cheese
4 slices of turkey lunch meat
1 Tbsp mayo
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp dill pickle relish
chopped fresh dill (just a little)

Place the 2 cheese slices onto each tortilla, on one side. Top with turkey, then remaining cheese slices. Grill on a griddle heated to high heat, until crispy on each side and the cheese is melted inside. While the quesadillas are cooking, make the aioli dip. Mix the mayo, mustard, relish and fresh dill. Split into 2 portions and serve with the quesadillas.

Queso Fresco Quesadillas

Living in AZ, we eat a lot of Mexican food. I bet at least 3 meals a week are Mexican inspired. I bought some yummy tortillas at Ranch Market here in Mesa, so I decided to make some quesadillas. These are different. Usually I make them with cheddar cheese and green chilies and refried beans if I have them. Tonight I decided to try something a bit lighter. With Queso Fresco cheese and fresh chives and cilantro, this is a fresh change to the normal quesadilla.

Queso Fresco Quesadillas

2 flour tortillas
1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 roma tomato, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp chopped cilantro
salsa and sour cream for serving

Preheat a cast iron skillet to Medium heat. Place 1 tortilla on skillet. Sprinkle crumbled queso fresco all about tortilla. Then sprinkle with chives and place tomato slices on top. Season with salt and pepper. Dont be shy with the S&P, queso fresco needs a lot of flavor. Place remaining tortilla on top and cook until cheese is melted. Flip and cook another 3-4 minutes, or until both sides are crisp and the cheese is all melted. Cut into wedges and serve with sour cream and fresh salsa.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

This is a really great dip that I started making back when I got my first crock pot when I was in college. This recipe is from a crock pot cook book that I had at the time. It was a great book with a ton of great recipes. I somehow lost that book over the years, but this recipe has survived. The picture really does not do this justice at all.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

16 ounces of cream cheese, room temp
1 large bag of frozen chopped spinach
1 10 ounce can of artichoke hearts
1/4 cup half and half or whipping cream
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, garlic powder)

Let the spinach thaw. Squeeze out as much of the water in the spinach as you can. Roughly chop it up even more. Chop the artichoke hearts. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl till well combined. Transfer to a crock pot and heat on low heat until hot and all the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with melba toast, crackers, corn chips or sliced baguette.

Ham and Cheese Rice Balls

I know this sounds like a funny thing, rice balls...especially ham and cheese rice balls. Well, this turned out so well! Definitely a keeper in my book. I was looking for another way to use up leftover rice and this came to me. I had made some cheesy scallion white rice the other night and had a ton leftover. So I decided to add some goodies to it and form it into balls and bread it and fry it up! Oh my, they were so yummy! I first just ate them plain and they were yummy. When I reheated the leftovers, I dipped them in ranch dressing and it was YUMMY! I think they would go so well with chive basil cream. These are filling and satisfying. My kids both loved them and I cant normally get them to eat rice and ham, so that was nice. They reminded me of the Croquettas you can find in Spain. You could add anything to these. I was thinking chopped spinach would be great with ham and cheese, or you can use any leftover meats and veggies you have in the fridge. Kind of like fried rice, these are so versatile! The rice I started out with already had a lot of Cheddar cheese and scallions in it, so season it accordingly. If you are using plain white rice, it will need more salt and pepper to pep it up, if the rice isn't already seasoned.

Ham and cheese Rice Balls

2 cups leftover cooked rice, refrigerated (my rice already had 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup parm cheese and 1/2 cup chopped scallions added to it)
1/2 cup minced ham (I just used lunch meat)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp Louisiana hot sauce, or any hot sauce would do
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp water
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

In a large bowl, mix the rice with the ham and soy sauce. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and any other spices you like. Form the rice into little balls. In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the hot sauce and water. Pour enough oil into a skillet to be 1/2 inch deep. Heat on medium heat until hot. Season the bread crumbs with some salt and pepper. Dip the rice balls into the egg mixture, then roll into bread crumbs. Fry in oil until golden brown, a couple minutes on each side. Serve hot either plain, or with a favorite dipping sauce...ranch dressing, chive basil cream, marinara.

Antipasti skewers

Here is another easy and quick appetizer to whip up. For these, its just a cherry tomato, a slice of salami cut in half and a chunk of Mozzerella cheese. I served them with a store bought pesto for dipping. They would also be great with an olive on them too!

Good times and finger foods

I have to apologize to my readers and fellow bloggers about my lack of blogging lately. I really did think that as Fall arrived, Id be on a fall baking and blogging spree. Its just not the case. I have been so busy with other things that arent nearly as fun as cooking. I promise that soon I will be back on the bandwagon.

Last week, we had dinner at a good friends house and they introduced us to these yummy gems. I think these are one of the best appetizers Ive ever had. I made them tonight for my family and we ate them up in about 5 minutes. I was wishing Id made more. But in all actuality, Im glad I didnt, as these are fattening and full of everything we dont want to be eating too much of. I got this recipe from my good friend, Beth. She got it from recipezaar.com and the original recipe is here. Beth served it to us with a yummy honey mustard sauce that is so easy to whip up and just perfect with this dish.

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts with Honey Mustard dipping sauce (adapted from recipezaar.com)

For the chestnuts:

3 cans sliced water chestnuts
1 lb bacon
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Mix the soy sauce with the brown sugar and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Marinate the water chestnuts in the soy sauce mixture for at least an hour. Cut the bacon in half crosswise. Take 3 slices of marinated chestnuts and wrap a half slice of bacon around each stack of 3. Secure with a toothpick. Place in a large baking dish that is sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

For the dipping sauce:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup mustard

Whisk the honey with the mustard until well combined. Serve immediately.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

I love carving pumpkins and toasting the seeds. Here is my simple recipe.

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds, cleaned and rinsed
1 Tbsp olive oil
course salt to taste
paprika
pepper

In a small bowl combine the pumpkin seeds and oil, toss to coat. Add lots of salt and a dash of pepper and paprika. Spread onto a foil lined cookie sheet and bake in 300 degree oven for 20 minutes. Watch them carefully so they dont burn. I usually stir them once or twice while cooking.

Mummy Dogs

I thought these were really cute when I saw them on Picky Palate. I searched online and found that people made these with either refrigerated crescent dough, or bread stick dough. Just cut the dough to make long thin strips that are easy to wrap around the hot dogs. I used crescent dough, and they were really yummy. Sam loved these because he could help me cut the dough and wrap it on the hot dogs. Definitely a fun thing for kids.

1 package of Pillsbury crescent rolls
8 hot dogs

Roll out the dough and press the seams to create 4 rectangles. Cut each rectangle into 8 strips. Use 4 strips per hot dog and wrap the dough around in both directions. Make sure there is a spot that can be the "face". Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or a nice golden brown. Use mustard and ketchup to make little eyes on the mummy faces.

Summer Veggie Pancakes with Basil Chive Cream

Here is another great recipe I got from Eggs On Sunday. I love that blog. I swear, every single thing that woman makes, looks mouth watering! I followed her recipe exactly since I had squash, zucchini and carrots. Im sure you could sub any veggies based on what you have. I bet some green onion would be good in this, but I didnt have any. The Basil Chive Cream is really really good. It was my favorite part of this recipe. Just about anything would be good dipped in this sauce and its very easy to make. I will have to keep it in mind for my next veggie tray. I served these as a side with a salad.

For basil chive cream
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

For pancakes
3 cups coarsely grated summer squash - mixture of yellow summer squash and zucchini
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour [I've used white whole wheat flour successfully]
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large egg whites
olive oil or canola oil
sea salt

Directions

Make basil chive cream: In the bowl of a food processor or a blender, blend together the sour cream, basil, chives, and salt until smooth and pale green. Chill under you’re ready to serve.

Make pancakes: Place a large colander in your sink. Put the zucchini and yellow squash shreds in the colander and toss with the 1 1/4 teaspoons salt. Let the squash stand at room temperature 20 minutes in the colander, then take handfuls at a time and squeeze them firmly to wring out as much liquid as possible. (If you’d rather, you can put handfuls of it on a kitchen towel or paper towel and firmly blot it dry, but I find the hand method is most effective.) You really want to be sure you get as much water out as you can, otherwise they won’t cook properly. Transfer the drained squash to a large bowl and stir in the 1 cup of shredded carrots, flour, sugar, and pepper.

Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they just hold stiff peaks. Gently fold them into the vegetable mixture.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium high heat until very hot. Work in batches of 3, and scoop about 1/4 cup batter per pancake into the skillet, flattening and smoothing each slightly with the back of a spoon. Cook the pancakes until golden brown on both sides, flipping halfway through. Transfer the cooked pancakes to paper towels while you cook the next batch. When you’re done, sprinkle all the warm pancakes with a little sea salt.

Serve drizzled with some basil chive cream.

Makes 6 medium pancakes, enough for a light dinner for 2 with a salad or other sides.

Hummus

Today my sister and her husband came over with his parents and my grandma. We had a nice meal. They are on their way back to Spain now and we will miss them. We ate some good stuff though. I made Chili Lime Grilled Chicken, which I didn't get a picture of. Black Bean Confetti Salad, from a previous entry. My grandma brought a pasta salad. For appetizers, I had shrimp cocktail and Hummus. I decided that I needed to make the hummus.

This was my first time making hummus. I knew I wanted to use dried beans because Ive read that the taste is so much better. I set out to find a yummy, creamy recipe and found this one originally from Cooks Illustrated. I pretty much followed it to a tee, but I forgot to put the whole garbanzo beans on top for garnish. Oh well, it still looked and tasted great! And I made mine in a blender since my food processor is really tiny. Id say for a first attempt is was really good. And nice and healthy too! You cant beat that. I ate the leftovers late last night with celery! YUMMY!

Restaurant Style Hummus

(Cook's Illustrated)

1/4 cup water
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
6 Tablespoons well stirred tahini
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 15 ounce can drained and rinsed chickpeas (I used dried beans, soaked overnight then cooked for 90 minutes)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
pinch of cayenne
about 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Combine the water and lemon juice in one bowl, and the tahini and oil in another. Set aside about 12 of the whole chickpeas for a garnish.

Put the chickpeas, salt, garlic, cumin, and cayenne in a food processor and process for about 15 seconds. Scrap down the sides of the processor. Then add the lemon water mix through the feed tube with the processor running for about 1 minute. Scrap down the sides several times. Then add the oil and tahini, with the processor running, until the hummus is fluffy.

Put the hummus in a bowl, garnish with the cilantro and whole chickpeas, and drizzle with some olive oil if you want.

Grilled Polenta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

This was such a great snack. Actually it was my lunch. Carl went out with Sam and Charlie is taking a nap so I decided to whip something up for myself that was really yummy and enjoy my lunch alone.

I sliced polenta 1/2 inch thick and brushed olive oil on both sides and grilled it for 5-7 minutes per side. Then I topped it with salt and pepper and cheese and fresh tomato sauce. The fresh tomato sauce is common in Spain. You just take a couple whole tomatoes and grate them on a cheese grater. All of the pulp and seeds and juices come out and you are left with the entire peel in your hands, which you toss. Season with salt and pepper and a splash of olive oil and you are ready to eat!

Grilled Polenta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

6 big slices of polenta, 1/2 inch thick.

olive oil

2 small tomatoes, grated to make a fresh sauce

Parmesan or feta cheese

salt and pepper to taste

St. Petersburg Potato Skins

A few months ago, Carl and I went to AZ88 in Scottsdale and were introduced to my favorite appetizer ever. St. Petersburg Potatoes is home made potato chips, with sour cream, julienned cucumbers and radishes and smoked salmon. It is sooo yummy. Since that first taste, Ive been thinking of ways I can re create a version for us here at home. Loaded potato skins was always a favorite appetizer when I was younger. Its usually pretty fattening and greasy with all the cheddar cheese and bacon, then ranch dressing for dipping. I decided to try out a different kind of potato skin recipe, and merge 2 favorites.

These were pretty good, and its much more heart friendly. Oh, I also added crumbled feta cheese to a few of these and they were the best ones! Feta is definitely a great addition to this. Carl was disappointed since the potato skins weren't crispy enough. Next time I will broil them on both sides to crisp them up really nicely. Carl made a suggestion that I am going to try, use frozen waffle fries, and crisp them up in the oven, then top with all the goodies. I cant wait to try it that way, I think it may taste more like the resturant version.

4 or 5 baking potatoes
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup julienned cucumbers
1 cup julienned radishes
1 3 ounce package smoked salmon, chopped up

Bake the potatoes in a 400 degree until fork tender, about 45-55 minutes depending on size. Once cooled, quarter the potatoes and scoop out most of the flesh leaving about 1/4 inch on skin. Brush skins with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil for 5 minutes, until crisp. Watch them carefully so they don't burn (well, the edges may be burned, but that adds yummy flavor) then flip them over and broil them on the other side too. When they are finished, arrange them on a serving platter and sprinkle with feta cheese if you like, then let them set and rest a bit, letting them cool down some.

Put the sour cream into a zip lock baggie and cut a 1/4 inch off the corner and pipe sour cream onto each potato skin. Then sprinkle generously with smoked salmon, radishes, and cucumbers. Pipe on more sour cream on top and they are ready to serve.

Shrimp Scampi

Tonight I made shrimp scampi. It was yummy. Its not hard to screw it up. How can you go wrong with butter, lemon, garlic white wine? I don't have much to say about this dish. Took about 15 minutes to make dinner. Usually I serve it with pasta, but we are trying not to eat so much pasta, so we had it with bread and steamed broccoli.

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Heat butter and oil in a pan. Add garlic cook until soft and fragrant. Remove garlic from oil with a slotted spoon. Add shrimp, wine and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes, being careful not to overcook the shrimp. When shrimp is done, top with cheese and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pasta, bread or its even great by itself.

Jessie's Baby Shower

Today my mom and I gave a baby shower for my beautiful cousin Jessica. She is having a baby girl in September. They are naming her Hanalei Lee. We are all so excited a for Jessie and Mike. I know they will be such great parents.

The menu for the shower was extensive...as are all menus for parties we usually throw. Its so hard to decided on what to serve and what not to serve. We had fruit salad, pasta salad, goat cheese and watercress tea sandwiches, roast beef and horsey sauce tea sandwiches, ham and pickle roll ups, Caprese salad, and of course chocolate ganache cake and ice cream. I was in charge of making the goat cheese and watercress sandwiches, and the cake.

I first made these goat cheese and watercress sandwiches for another shower I did for my niece, Kristi. Its a crazy combo, goat cheese on cinnamon raisin bread, but it works so well! I love these! The recipe comes from epicurious. The chocolate ganache cake recipe comes from Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Desserts cook book and is so easy and extremely elegant and rich.


Goat Cheese and Watercress Tea Sandwiches

2 5 1/2-ounce logs soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet), room temperature
1/2 cup chopped watercress leaves
16 thin slices cinnamon-raisin, date or whole wheat sandwich bread, crusts trimmed
5 tablespoons (about) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans Watercress sprigs (for garnish)

Mix cheese and chopped watercress in medium bowl. Season with salt. Spread mixture evenly over 8 bread slices. Top with remaining bread. Butter edges of sandwiches. Cut sandwiches diagonally in half. Place pecans on plate. Dip buttered edges of sandwiches into pecans. Arrange sandwiches on platter. Garnish with watercress sprigs. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover sandwiches tightly; chill.)


Chocolate Ganache Cake

Cake
1 box Swiss chocolate cake mix
1 box instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup water
4 eggs
1/3 veggie oil
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
1 package semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs, and oil in large bowl. Beat for 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in the 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Transfer batter to bundt pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool cake completely.

2. Heat cream in a small sauce pan over low heat until small bubbles appear. Remove from heat. Add the 12 ounces of chocolate chips to the cream and stir until smooth. Cool ganache just until slightly warm. Pour ganache over cooled cake. Transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with additional chocolate chips if you like.

Pineapple Wontons

One of my favorite places to have sushi is Ra. I always love to get their pineapple wontons. I decided to try to recreate them myself. I used whipped cream cheese because that was all I had. The cream cheese part just didnt hold together like it would have with regular block cream cheese. The flavors were there though. I served it with a hoisin dipping sauce, but I wish Id have had a sweet and sour sauce or a plum sauce instead. It needed something more sweet and less salty. Hoisin is just such a strong taste.

24 refridgerated wonton wrappers
1 sm can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, drained
1/4 cup cream cheese

Mix the pineapple with the cream cheese until well combined. Put 1/2 teaspoon filling into center of each wonton wrapper. Wet the edges with water and fold over and seal with your fingers. Just press them together really really good, squeezing out as much air as you can from the filling. Fry the wontons in hot oil till browned on both sides, drain on papertowels.

I made a bunch of these and I froze some for quick snacks or appetizers. They reheat pretty good in the oven. I just heat up a pizza stone to 350 degrees and then throw the wontons on. Bake 5 minutes, or until sizzling and heated through. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Spicy Shrimp Boats

This was a really great appetizer! Everyone came back and complimented me on these. They are cool and fresh and healthy! Its a pretty labor intensive recipe, since there is so much peeling and chopping. And it only makes 24 shrimp boats. Next time I do this I will definitely be doubling it. This came from Everyday with Rachael Ray June/July 2008.

Spicy Shrimp Boats

2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt
2 English cucumbers
12 ounces peeled, cooked shrimp, finely chopped
2 Tbsp minced jalapeno chile
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

In a small glass bowl, microwave the vinegar and sugar for 30 seconds or until hot. Stir until the sugar dissolves, season with salt and let cool.

Peel the cucumbers and trim off the ends. Cut each crosswise into 12 rounds. Scoop out part of the flesh from each round.

In a bowl, mix together the shrimp, jalapeno and mint. Add the vinegar dressing and toss. Spoon the shrimp mixture into the cucumber rounds.

Shrimp Ceviche

Tonight we had Carl's sister Audrey and her husband LaRue over for dinner. Carl requested that we have ceviche. I had made a great ceviche last year, but could not find the recipe anywhere. So I posted on The Nest that I was looking for a recipe and Nest Colleen, who writes a Dinner Q&A posted this recipe. I followed it almost to a tee, except I only used 1/2 the bunch of cilantro and I added about 1 tsp of Cholula hotsauce to give it a kick. Also, I used a yellow onion instead of a red one, because that was all I had on hand. Also, I didnt do the olive oil, just because I forgot all about it until later. It was still great! I served it with home made tostada shells. We had it for our main course and it was perfect. Light and healthy. Next time I will double the recipe because we had no leftovers. Ceviche is even better the next day! We will definately be having this one in the future! Everyone loved it!

Mike & Jan Thompson's Shrimp Ceviche

1 pound medium shrimp
3 limes, juiced
3 lemons, juiced
1 orange, juiced
1/2 cup seeded tomatoes cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup red onion cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 bunch cilantro, stemmed and chopped
1 Serrano chili, roughly chopped
1 large Hass avocado, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch dice
large cucumber peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 ripe mango peeled and diced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Tortilla chips

In a large pot of boiling water, add the shrimp and simmer until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to a bowl of ice water to chill.

Drain the shrimp, cut into 3/4-inch pieces and transfer to a bowl. Add the lime, lemon and orange juice, stir to combine and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Stir the tomato,onion, cilantro, salt and chili into shrimp mixture and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Prior to serving, stir in the avocado, cucumber and mango. Drizzle the olive oil over the mixture, stir gently and serve with tortilla chips.

Seared Ahi Tuna

I've never made seared Ahi Tuna before. I had Carl in mind when I was searching for a recipe because he LOVES seared or raw Ahi Tuna. I was thinking about the seared tuna he orders when we are on vacation in Kauai. I found a recipe that had a lot of great reviews on AllRecipes.com . I made a couple changes to the ingredients in red below. Based on the reviews I read, I decided not to coat the tuna with sesame seeds. Instead, I toasted them, then sprinkled them onto the seared tuna right before serving. I served it with a salad of mixed baby greens with Annie's Shiitake Sesame Viniagarette. It was pretty good. Carl loved it. He gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. I gave it more like 3, but he is the Tuna lover and I trust him when he says this was GOOD. I cooked mine longer since I dont like raw tuna, but his was very rare and he said it was wonderful. Next time I make this, I will probably only use 1Tbsp of Sesame oil, since I felt like it really over powered the dipping sauce.

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (I left this out because I didnt have any)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
4 (6 ounce) tuna steaks
1/2 cup sesame seeds
wasabi paste
1 tablespoon olive oil (I used Peanut Oil because it is better for high heat)

In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, mirin, honey and sesame oil. Divide into two equal parts. Stir the rice vinegar into one part and set aside as a dipping sauce.

Spread the sesame seeds out on a plate. Coat the tuna steaks with the remaining soy sauce mixture, then press into the sesame seeds to coat.

Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot. Place steaks in the pan, and sear for about 30 seconds on each side. Serve with the dipping sauce and wasabi paste.

Fried Pickles and Fish

Ive really wanted to try fried pickles for quite some time. I love pickles and I love pretty much any veggie or anything fried. Who doesn't? So I decided to search for a recipe for a good beer batter. I found this one from Cooking Cache. I used a Corona beer, since we had some here, but I would think that any kind of beer would work great. I also decided to double the recipe since I was going to fry some fish as well. That probably wasnt necessary as the batter expanded alot when it was resting and I ended up throwing a bunch of it away. I just have to say that this batter was so good! I will always use this recipe in the future when I fry fish or veggies. Since we hardly ever eat deep fried stuff at home, that wont be very often. Anyways, the batter is so versatile. I ended up throwing some mushrooms in there too. And did these pickles meet my expectations??? YES. They were so good and crisp. I will definatly make those again sometime.

Beer Batter (from Cookingcache.com)

1 Cup plus 1 tablespoon of flour
salt if desired

1 tablespoon oil

3/4 cup beer at room temperature

2 tablespoons luke warm water

1 egg separated

Put flour and salt in bowl and add oil, add beer and water. While stirring with a wire whisk beat in egg yolk. Cover with cloth and set in warm location for 2-3 hours. Beat egg white until stiff and fold into batter right before frying.

For frying the pickles, slice the pickles about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Pat with paper towels to remove moisture. Get some oil going on medium heat. I filled up a large skillet about half way up the side with oil. Then just dip into the batter and drop in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown.

Fran's Fiesta 9-Layer Dip

This is the best 9-Layer dip Ive ever had. I used to beg my stepmom, Fran, to make this for parties when I was in highschool. Its always a hit and there are never leftovers. The secret is in the home made guacamole and the taco seasoned sour cream. I also sometimes use black beans in place of pinto beans, or put green chilis or jalepenos on top. Today my mom requested this for my grandfathers 80th bday party.

2 cans of refried beans
1 container (16 oz) sour cream

5-6 avocados

1 envelope Lawry's taco seasoning

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 can sliced olives

1 large tomato, diced

In a small bowl, mash the avocados with a Tbsp of sour cream and a Tbsp of salsa. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. In another small bowl, stir the taco seasoning into the rest of the sour cream.

In a large 9x13 baking dish spread the first can of beans in the bottom. Then spread 1/2 of the guacamole over the beans. Then spread 1/2 of the sour cream over the guacamole. Repeat the layers. (its easier to take the beans from the 2nd can and stir them in a bowl first, to soften them up so they are easier to spread.) Top with shredded cheese, olives and tomato. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.