Spicy Chilled BLT Soup

It all started with this guy.

Here's the thing.  I can grow herbs with no problem...LOTS of them.  Basil, tarragon, rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage, mint and mint and more mint.  But that's it...when it comes to vegetables I am a dismal failure.  My mom, on the other hand, can grow tomatoes and green beans and pumpkins and zucchini and a million other things, and when I was leaving her house the other day I embezzled this guy from a giant jalapeno pepper bush that she had going.  (Bush?  Vine?  Plant?  Tree?  I don't know the technical term...I just know I saw him, and he was calling out to me, so I picked him.)

And then I remembered that I had this recipe for a spicy BLT soup that I had been meaning to make, and guess what it called for...yep.  One perfect little jalapeno.  And this is as good a time as any to give you my standard jalapeno advice, which is to wear surgical gloves (which you can get by the box) in your friendly neighborhood drugstore.  All it takes is forgetting to do this and then taking out your contact lenses ONE time to emblazon this on your brain forever and ever.

Anyway.  The soup is basically a quick and easy gazpacho-type number, which is thickened up a little by adding some torn up breads before you puree it.  And then just before you serve it, you garnish it with however much B, L and T you would like.  (I like a lot.  I am all about the garnish in this one.)  You could also float some nice homemade croutons on top if you have any hanging around...I didn't, but I plan to next time.

And to think, it all started with a stolen pepper!

Spicy BLT Soup, adapted from COOKING BY THE MOMENT

• 2 pounds chopped tomatoes


• Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper


• 1 small cucumber, peeled and chopped


• 1-2 jalapenos (depending on how spicy you like things), stemmed, seeded and chopped


• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped


• 1 garlic clove, smashed and peeled


• 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar


• 1 slice white bread, crust removed and torn into pieces


• 1/4 cup olive oil


• 1/2 teaspoon sugar


• Crumbled cooked bacon, shredded lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes and croutons for garnish

1. Sprinkle tomatoes with 1/4 teaspoon salt and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Combine tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onion, garlic, vinegar, bread, oil and sugar in blender and puree until smooth, about one minute.  Refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.
3. Stir, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with as much garnish as you like!

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Asian Shrimp, Pineapple and Peanut Salad

Here's the back story on this one. (You know I love the backstory).

Here are the main loves of my life.



Aren't they the sweetest?

And this, God help me, is the other love of my life.

And I was pretty much living happily ever after with all three of them, thinking life couldn't be much better.

Until this came along.

Yes, I know it is not right to fall in love with inanimate objects. But it plays all my favorite songs. It plays all my favorite movies. It lets me read all my favorite books...with a backlight!!! It shows off all my nine million pictures of chocolate chip cookies. And you can jazz it up with apps that tell you everything from where you parked your car at the mall to what to make for dinner when you have shrimp, pineapple and peanuts on hand and you just KNOW there's a good recipe in there somewhere.

For those of you who have one of these babies, there is an app called EPICURIOUS that is in the App Store for the low, low price of $Free. And for those of you who don't have one, as far as I can tell all the recipes are also available on www.epicurious.com. Anyway, one of the first delectable recipes that caught my eye was this one for a salad of shrimp, pineapple, avocado and peanuts, with a jalepeno lime mint dressing. Yes please, and thank you. It was quick and easy and delicious in a fun, tropical, summer-is-almost-here kind of way.

Asian Shrimp, Pineapple, and Peanut Salad, from Epicurious

Dressing:
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots (about 2 large)
1 small jalapeño chile, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons (packed) fresh mint leaves

Salad:
16 peeled deveined cooked large shrimp with tails intact
6 ounces fresh pineapple, peeled, cut into 2x1/4-inch spears (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 large avocado, halved, pitted, peeled, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons salted peanuts
1 lime, cut into 8 wedges (for garnish)

For dressing:
Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, oil, and sugar in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Stir in shallots, chile, and mint.

For salad:
Toss shrimp with salt and pepper in bowl. Add pineapple, avocado, and dressing; toss to coat. Divide among plates, top with nuts, and garnish with lime wedges.

Click here for printable recipe

Cheddar Jalapeno Huevos Rancheros in Tortilla Cups

Here's one of the many things I love about my little blog...one thing leads to another and I end up getting ideas and recipes from the most unexpected places. Take this little number, for example. Where would you expect something that has the words "jalapeno, huevos, rancheros" and "tortilla" to come from? Someplace south of the border, right? Someplace warm and sunny?

Someplace like this?

If you guessed tropical, sultry Vermont, you would be right. I wish I had a picture of it with a little more snow...this is actually what our cabin view will look like in the spring when things thaw out a little...but you get my drift. So here's what happened....I was singing the praises of Cabot cheddar recently in my post on Butternut Cheddar Soup. That particular recipe came from an ad for the wonderful Vermont Cabot cheddar, and the great folks at Cabot liked my post. They sent me a groovy package of stuff, including a recipe booklet full of things that you can make with Vermont cheese and Vermont sour cream and Vermont butter...including a recipe for Huevos Rancheros. Vermont style. Which means you need to use Cabot sour cream, and Cabot pepper jack cheese.

So before we get to this seriously wonderful recipe, just a little bit about Cabot. They are a farm family-owned dairy coop located in Cabot, Vermont, and they make some of the best cheddar cheese you will taste anywhere. You can find it in most supermarkets, and in wonderful giant hunks at Costco. They also make butter, sour cream, yogurt, and probably some other stuff that I don't even know about. Check them out here:

Cabot Vermont

Now on to the main event. You take some nice corn tortillas -- I used the 6 inch round guys -- and soften them up in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Tuck them into whatever nice round oven-safe dishes you have -- I have these little Pyrex bowls that are about 4 inches across. Just big enough to put a tortilla into and have it fit with just a little bit of nice curving along the sides. Now drop a good-sized handful of grated Cabot pepper jack in there. Be generous. Pop the tortilla bowls in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is just a bit crispy.

Meantime you are going to throw together a quick salsa of chopped tomato, chopped red onion, jalapeno, a little honey and some lime juice. Mix up a little cumin with some Cabot sour cream. Poach yourself some eggs. Still with me? Now you are ready for The Assembly.

1. Drop a good dollop of cumin sour cream on the top of the melted cheese inside the tortilla.

2. Line the inner edge of the tortilla shell with sprouts. (Now, I am of two minds about the sprouts. They certainly tasted fine, and they made a lovely contribution to the picture. But I did roam around the supermarket for an extra 10 minutes hunting them down, and they are a little pricy for being basically a garnish. Sorry, sprouts. If you want to use some chopped lettuce, feel totally free -- it will work out just FINE.)

3. Tenderly lay a poached egg in the center of the shell.

4. Put as much salsa around the egg as you need and want. Put a spoonful on top of the egg for good measure.

That's it -- you are ready to roll. I served these up to the Southern husband with a fork and knife, but we looked at the tortilla cups, looked at each other, looked back at the cups, and picked them up with our hands. It was messy and delicious and fun.

So the next time you are looking for great Mexican recipes? Vermont. Of course.

CHEDDAR JALAPENO HUEVOS RANCHEROS

2 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 teaspoon honey
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup Cabot Sour Cream
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 corn tortillas
8 ounces Cabot Pepper Jack, grated (about 2 cups)
6 large eggs
1/2 pint alfalfa sprouts

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. In medium bowl, combine tomatoes, onions, cilantro, honey, jalapeno, and lime juice. Season mixture with salt and pepper and set aside. In another bowl, combine sour cream and cumin and set aside.

3. Place one tortilla between two sheets of paper towel and microwave for 15 seconds to soften; Press into large custard cup or ramekin to form into bowl shape. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

4. Place cups or ramekins with tortillas on baking sheet and sprinkle one sixth of cheese in each. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

5. Meanwhile, poach eggs in pan of simmering water to desired degree of doneness.

6. To serve, place sour cream and some of sprouts in each tortilla cup; top each with poached egg and spoonfuls of tomato mixture.

Click here for printable recipe.

Tilapia Tacos with Peach Salsa

I'll admit, I am not a big fish person. I do love most shellfish (ah, lobster!!), but when it comes to fish fish, I tread very carefully. Even though I know it is oh, so good for you. But over the years I have found some types of fish that I really do like, and one of them is tilapia. It's light and mild, so mild in fact that it needs to be paired with something that can dress it up and give it some pizzazz...and this great little taco dish is just the ticket.

The tilapia itself is cut up into strips, breaded and popped into the oven for a a few minutes just to cook it up and brown the bread crumbs. The real prep for this dish is the fabulous peach salsa that goes with it. Chopped peaches, red onion, lime juice, jalapeno...sweet and spicy and wonderful! You tuck the tilapia strips into a nice warm tortilla, spoon some peach salsa over the top, and you are in fish taco heaven.

Now, naturally I did not decide to make this until it was completely not peach season...not even my beloved Fairway had any fresh peaches. But happily, they did have frozen peach slices which in the long run actually turned out to be better. They defrosted into already peeled slices, and all I had to do was chop them up. Way easier than battling with a fresh peach...I don't know about you, but I still haven't learned the easy secret way of getting a peach pit OUT of the peach without completely mangling it. (I do know the avocado pit trick). I'm sure there absolutely is a peach pit trick and one day I will learn it. One day. You have to have goals in life, right?

Meantime, here's the taco recipe, adapted from Cooking Light.

TILAPIA TACOS WITH PEACH SALSA

Salsa:

• 2 cups chopped peaches
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (wear gloves!!)
• 1 minced garlic clove

Fish and tacos:

• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (panko crumbs are great)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
• 1 pound tilapia, cut into 2 inch strips
• 8 corn tortillas

1. Combine all salsa ingredients and let stand at room temp for 3o minutes
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375. Combine crumbs, salt and pepper in medium bowl. Add fish strips and toss to coat.
3. Bake fish strips on greased cookie sheet for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking.
4. Heat tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds. Divide fish among tortillas, and spoon salsa over the top.

Click here for printable recipe

Jalapeno Poppers

I made these cute little poppers from the new Pioneer Woman cookbook, and they were a snap to make, and I really, truly did want to eat every single last one of them my own self...and I actually did eat two of them. But these are SPICY little numbers, and after two of them my eyes were watering just a little. However, anyone who really knows me will tell you that despite my Mexican chocolate chip cookies, I am pretty much a total wimp when it comes to anything with any sort of spicy kick to it, and therefore the wonderfully spicy Southern husband is a much better judge of this particular recipe. And so I asked him for a quote to put in today's post. Here it is:

"These jalapeno poppers popped for me!! Mingling the taste of the cheese, bacon & spicy peppers took me back to my southern roots, where we always looked forward to a nice spicy snack or meal, usually involving bacon & barbeque."

And I can confirm this by saying I put these down next to him while he was watching the football game last weekend (WHAT is going on with the Giants??? Can someone explain this to me??) and 2 seconds later the plate was empty. And the dog was in the other room.

So if you are a fan of fun, spicy finger food, these are most definitely for you. A word to the wise on preparing these or anything else involving a jalepeno pepper. WEAR GLOVES. I am not kidding. As I pointed out in my corn salad post last summer, if you don't, and a few hours later you rub your eyes (or take out your contact lenses, even worse)...I don't even want to think about it.

Okay then! Now go make them for the spiciest person you know.

JALAPENO POPPERS, adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

18 fresh jalapenos

1 8 ounce package cream cheese

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 green onion, sliced

18 slices bacon, cut in half

1/4 cup bbq sauce

1. PUT ON GLOVES! (I get the box of latex surgical gloves at CVS. They are perfect for this sort of thing).

2. Cut the jalapenos in half length-wise and take out the seeds and membranes with a spoon or your gloved fingers.

3. Combine the cream cheese, cheddar and onion in a bowl until combined.

4. Stuff each jalapeno half with cheese mixture.

5. Wrap each bacon half-slice around the pepper and secure with a toothpick.

6. Brush with bbq sauce.

7. Now and only now may you remove the gloves.

8. Bake in preheated 275 oven for one hour or until bacon is cooked and sizzling

9. Can be served hot or at room temperature, if they last that long.

Click here for printable recipe