Quinoa con Queso

Holy time-suck, Batman!  I have fallen in love, and you might just reap the benefits of it.  My new obsession love?  Pinterest!  Pinterest itself is not a new idea, it's just taking the bookmarks I have in my favorites and putting them on a visual board for me (and my friends) to enjoy.  However, it has re-sparked my love of reading different blogs to look for new ideas for crafts, recipes, and inspirations in life.  It's also fun to peek into the heads of others to see what their bookmarked favorites may be.  Sure, Pinterest is getting to be old news now that almost everyone is there, but the more that join and play with it, the more fun it is becoming.

To keep this story short (too late!), one of my fabulous friends posted a recipe for Quinoa con Queso, and since we love to buy the 5lb bags at Costco, I figured this might be the perfect recipe!

 First of all, I only kind of followed the recipe.  I mean, I did, but if you look at the picture on the recipe link above, you'll see that my final picture looks nothing like it, so here was my recipe (and this was doubled for left overs).

Quinoa con Queso Ingredients
2 C of Quinoa
4 C Water
1 T Olive Oil
2 T Butter
1 Large Chopped Onion
2 tsp Pressed Garlic
4 Diced Bell Peppers
4 Diced White Chili Peppers
4 C Chopped Zucchini
4 T Tomato Paste (mine is far more red than the original recipe's photo!)
4 Roma Tomatoes (seeded and diced)
Kosher Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Italian Herb mix (I was out of Oregano)
10 oz of Queso Fresco diced
1 1/2 C milk



Directions:  This was SO SIMPLE, I'm definitely making it again!
1. Make the Quinoa according to the package (boil water, simmer, set - same as rice)
2. Take your big pan/pot and melt the olive oil/butter.  Add in your onion and cook until about halfway to clear.  Add garlic (for about a minute), then add your peppers and work them all until close to tender.  Then, add your zucchini, tomato paste, and tomatoes, and let the mixture cook down a bit.
3.  Next up, add your seasonings.  Once everything is tender and ready to go, add your cheese.  Our chicken wasn't quite ready, so the cheese was more melty than cubed, but I dug it that way.
4. Before serving, warm the milk and add it to your quinoa.  This finishes it off with a slightly creamy texture that compliments the cheesy warmth of the "con queso."

Sorry it's a bit blurry, but it was incredible just the same!

A-side from the Obvious...

What the what?  I made a side dish?!?  Oh yeah!!  I found a recipe this week for Peperonata.

Thomas claims this dish is like ratatouille, but without the zucchini.  Since I've only seen the Disney movie, I have no basis for comparison.  There were no rats in the kitchen, I promise.  The other part about this recipe that surprised me was the tomatoes.  I'm not a fan, unless they're cooked, but I figured since the recipe calls for them diced, they would be negligible.  Sweetness.  I started with the tomatoes, since it's the part I dreaded most.  I used more huller (which is now part of the core and more), and this mess was actually a breeze.  I then used my nicer dicer to, well, dice them, and I was ready to roll!

Luckily, I still had some basil in the house from my crusty pasta, and I bought three packages of peppers (a red and a yellow per package), but I also had a pepper in the fridge that needed to be used, so there were a walloping seven peppers harmed in making this dish, in addition to the whole package of Roma tomatoes...

I followed the recipe pretty closely.  I only used half of an onion (I had already used the other half), and I used Italian seasoning mix instead of dried oregano.  Either way, it all worked out.  I had to upgrade the pan I was originally using, but I probably should have started with my stir-fry wok anyway.  The dish was easy to make, and Thomas worked on the grill and making the rice, so the night was a piece of cake for me!

Don't mind the screen, it's been very warm this week, and we needed the airflow.  No lights going in this household!  As you can see, Thomas grilled a whole chicken, made Jasmine rice (with some of my peperonata juice and tomato boullion), and I contributed the peppers.  I can't wait until my garden peppers are big enough so I can make this all out of my garden.  AWESOME!

White Girl Tamales!

Okay, I'm super excited about this recipe.  See?  There's this abuela who rides in a broke down green Chevy Astro around our neighborhood selling tamales out of the backseat.  The problem?  There is no rhyme nor reason to when she'll drive by.  (No, mom, the problem is not that I'm buying food out of a random stranger's van.  Stranger danger only applies to candy.)   Unlike the ice cream trucks that drive by at least once every hour all day long, all year long, the tamale abuela is much more of a rarity.  Unfortunate, because her tamales rock my socks!  So, when I found this recipe, I couldn't wait to try it.  Sure, I'm all for authenticity, but I know my attempts couldn't stack up, so white girl tamales all around!!

The problem with this recipe is that it wanted me to make my cornbread from scratch.  I understand that some people may find this to be a positive, but knowing that I have a box of Jiffy Muffin Mix, or something similar means I plan on being lazy and just adding the ingredients I need.  My surprise?  For once, there's no Jiffy in the pantry.  However, I did have a box of Krusteaz Natural Honey Cornbread .  Double bonus, since you only need to add water to make it a mix!

I started by chopping the pepper, and spreading it throughout the bottom of a well greased pie dish.  Truth?  I used a whole pepper, and I probably should have used two pie plates since mine are small.  However, I figured I was going for the "cram it in" approach, and all is fair in love and tamales!  I then made my taco meat the way I normally would.  I just added taco seasoning instead of many of the other ingredients, since taco mix generally contains all of them anyway.  Plus, we buy McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix in the bulk size, so it only makes sense to keep with what you've got instead of starting from scratch every time.

Speaking of things already in the house, I still had two-thirds of a block of pepper jack cheese. I just shredded the whole thing and added it to the cornbread mix. I didn't measure it - figured it needed to get used, and who hates cheesy cornbread/tamales anyway?   I followed the directions after that, I swear! I put part of the mix over the peppers and tried to spread it out as best I could. Turns out my mix was very thick (what with all the cheese and all), so I had to spread it out with my fingers, otherwise the peppers kept moving with the mix.

 

I then added the completed taco meat/salsa mixture, and then topped it all off with the rest of the cornbread mix.  I baked it per the recipe, although it did finish up about 3 minutes quicker than expected.  Could be my mix, could be how it was overflowing anyway.  Who knows?  I'm just saying know your oven and watch your food!

Now, the tricky part...  You're supposed to invert this on to a plate.  Now, I can't say that's the scary part.  I make pull apart (monkey bread) rolls and kick butt at inverting that mess, but if you remember back about two paragraphs, this mix was very thick, and it was difficult to spread.  I feared that my tamale pie would be three separate layers, and the taco meat layer would send the bottom (now top) layer flying.  Like any good wife, I connived convinced my husband that he should try the inversion process and I'd supervise take pictures.  Lucky duck - it worked like a charm!

It might not be the prettiest tamale you've ever seen, but I do believe I qualified that this was a white girl tamale and there was no holds barred!  We sliced it up and served it with lettuce - I'm not sure what my shredded lettuce obsession is, just go with it!  Thomas said it could have used something else, maybe more salsa or some guacamole, but I thought for a fake tamale it was pretty darn good (and it held its shape pretty well)!

"Spicy" Sausage and Pepper Penne

Hey, remember that one time I claimed that we could never be an Italian food blog?  Okay, well that still holds true, however that doesn't mean that once (or so) a month I won't be cooking a nice red sauced Italian dish.  I may be all about marital compromise, but that doesn't mean I have to be a pushover.

That being said, I do choose strategic days for the type of foods I like.  Days where there may have been a company party, or a big lunch, or any other number of reasons where I'm more hungry than he.  Days like last Tuesday: a perfect day for pasta!


I chose the penne recipe because it looked cheap, easy, and tasty.  Fortunately, I was correct on all of the above - AND it even contained a meat that started out raw that I had to cook by myself.

Since the meal wasn't that complicated, I decided to buy some quality ingredients from the local farm stand, or from my own garden.  I also used whole wheat penne, mostly out of personal preference.  I used two cans of tomatoes (one fire roasted, and one with garlic and onion), an extra clove of garlic, and almost 6 oz of an Italian cheese blend, instead of just Parmesan.  Oh, and I used a sweet Italian sausage instead of a spicy turkey sausage.

Okay, maybe the recipe was just a suggestion, but my tweaks were amazing.  There were second servings all around, and there was still enough for four hearty lunch portions to be made.  I also baked up an Albertsons fresh garlic bread with mozzarella on top for the side.  I probably should have made a side salad, but the dinner played well just as it was.  Seriously, amazing.  I might have to add this to my standard rotation of meals that I like to make.  I know I choose recipes that sound like they will be good, but I'm always surprised when the meal actually exceeds expectations.