Guacamole

This is Part 1 of 5 of the special meal The Boy and I enjoyed this past Sunday. Never in my nearly 1 year of blogging, have I ever had a meal that included so many “blog-worthy” dishes. Some of these are things I’ve been making for a while, just haven’t gotten the energy to blog, and some are new recipes. The entire meal was VERY delicious. It’s nice to know we can enjoy the total restaurant experience, for a mere fraction of the price. Each component had a citrus theme, so they all tasted great together. I can’t wait to share each dish with you, I just hope I can get my blogging booty in gear to get it all done!

Up first is our appetizer and drinks. I had some blue corn chips I purchased for the chili competition, but didn’t end up taking with me. While at the grocery I decided to pick up an avocado, so we could enjoy guacamole with the blue corn chips. This is a basic, simple guacamole, that is also quite delicious. This is pretty much how I make it each time, and it’s never disappointed me. We enjoyed our appetizer while waiting for the chicken to finish cooking. It was perfectly complimented by my homemade margaritas.

Stay tuned for the next post…. Tequila Citrus Chicken!

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Guacamole for 2

Ingredients:

1 avocado
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 Tablespoon chopped onion
1 clove garlic
garlic salt (or kosher salt)
pepper
lime juice (optional)

Directions:

Mash avocado with fork or back of spoon. Add onion, garlic, tomato, and stir to combine. Season liberally with salt, and pepper as desired. Add just a touch of lime juice to keep it from turning brown. Serve immediately.

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Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes

It’s amazing how time flies isn’t it? It was just over 3 months ago I was “adopted“. I’m so glad I stumbled upon Dine & Dish‘s site in time to sign up for this Adopt A Blogger program. I was lucky enough to get adopted by a sweet & enthusiastic blogger.

I know that just because our 3 months are over, it doesn’t mean it’ll be the end of our communication. I’ve made a friend. Clara helped me learn a lot about blogging, and had the idea for the super fun giveaway. I love giving people gifts, so that’s part of the reason I had so much fun! I was so inspired by our giveaway, I went out and bought the cupcake book for myself!

Here’s a recipe from my copy of the book, using some seasonal blackberries I received in my CSA share. I halved the recipe, and ended up with a nice small batch. I think if I make these again, I’ll opt to make them all as mini-cupcakes. I love they way they look better with just one blackberry right in the center. These were super delicious, and tasted almost like a sweet cornbread. The sugary crust topping I really enjoyed too! These are great alone, or would be good served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes

from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
yields: 16

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. fine- or medium-ground yellow cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
7 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 containers (6 oz. each) fresh blackberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line 18 standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar. Set aside remaining sugar. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Pour over flour mixture, whisking to combine.

Fill each lined cup with a scant 1/4 cup batter. Top batter with blackberries (3-4 berries per cup), then sprinkle evenly with the remaining 2 tbsp sugar.

Bake until evenly browned on top, 20-25 minutes.

*Martha's tip says to be sure that your oven temperature is no lower than 375 degrees or your berries will sink. Well... mine did anyway in the regular sized cupcakes, but were fine in the minis.

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Slow Cooker Competition

So I’m a weirdo. Let’s make that clear. I got this hairbrained idea to enter a Slow Cooker Chili competition! The Food Network, Southern Food & Wine Festival was going on at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I read on the Nashville Scene blog Bites there was to be a slow cooker competition, and they had waived the $50 entry fee, you got free parking (usually $18 or something), and got in free to the event. I thought, “What the hey, what have I got to lose?” The extra weirdo part is, I didn’t really tell anyone I was going to do this! I don’t like attention really, so I think that’s why I just kept it to myself. Literally, The Boy knew, and my one producer/friend of mine knew (because he was in the room when I read about the competition and thought about doing it). Oh, and I told my twitter friends! But other than that I didn’t tell my family or friends IRL (in real life).

This was a really fun event, and a new experience for me. I did it totally alone. I lugged all my equipment around the behemoth that is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel till my arm turned blue, set up, and nervously fidgeted until it was time to begin. Luckily my basic “Sweet Heat Chicken Chili” was pretty darned easy to prepare. I brought most of my ingredients, but did use some provided. It took less than an hour to assemble the chili, and clean up. Then I was off to eat lots of free samples browse the exhibits. I got to see the Biscuit Lady, from the Loveless Cafe, do a demo, and I met a really talented food photographer. But mainly I just walked around and ate. I did purchase a few things from some of the vendors. I also went to the wine-tasting area. I am very ashamed to admit, out of the 26 vendors, I only sampled about 14 of them! I just couldn’t make it through it all!

When it came time to plate up my finished dish, I realized I was a little inexperienced! Some people went all out. One team had an accompanying shot of tequila! Oh well, it was a learning experience. I totally went into this as just a fun thing to do, on a rainy Saturday I didn’t have anything else going on. I’m not a hugely competitive person, so it didn’t upset me to learn I didn’t advance to the next round. And, I got to keep the awesome slow cooker! It’s MUCH better & bigger than the one I currently have. Plus, if I had of advanced, I would of needed to shop for the ingredients that evening, and then get up early AGAIN on Sunday. And… being a night shift worker, getting up early just ain’t my thing!

I would like to give a special shout out to all my “internet friends” who encouraged me to do this! It’s funny how I’ll share with strangers that I’m doing something like this. I twittered during the whole event pretty much, so even though I was there alone, I never felt that way with all the support tweets I was getting! If anything like this pops up in your town, whether it be a pie contest, a chili cook-off, a barbecue event, or whatever, consider doing it. I had a lot of fun, and I think stuff like this builds character. Believe me, as I’ve said MANY times before, if I can do it, ANYONE can do it!

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Sweet Heat Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1lb ground chicken
1/2 poblano pepper
1 tomatillo, chopped
1/3 habanjero, finely chopped
2 roasted red peppers, chopped
1 bottle Negra Modelo beer
1 28oz can Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
1 10oz can of Rotel Diced tomatoes with lime juice and cilantro
1 14.5oz can of diced tomato
4.5oz can of chopped green chilies
2 15oz can kidney beans rinsed and drained
1 15oz can black beans rinsed and drained
1 Tablespoon Chili power
1 Tablespoon Cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 Tablespoon chipotle rub (if you don't have this awesome seasoning, use smoked paprika and/or chipotle powder)
Salt and Pepper to taste
light sour cream (optional)

Directions:

Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat. Dice onion and mince garlic. Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add ground chicken and cook until browned. Season with salt, pepper, and some of the chipotle powder.

In slow cooker combine canned tomatoes, canned chilies, beans, beer, poblano pepper, habanerjo pepper, tomatillo, and the ground chicken and onion mixture. Add in chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, chipotle powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours, or on high 3-4 hours.

Serve topped with sour cream if desired.

*Sorry for the crappy photos. I took most of these with my iPhone, and just a couple with my point & shoot. We’ll return to the GOOD photos tomorrow!*

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Blueberry Crumb Bars

Don’t you just love blueberry season? If you’ve read my blog even occasionally you know I love brightly colored food. I’m drawn to it like a fly to honey. Early on in my blog surfing days I saw these bars on Smitten Kitchen’s blog. I have no idea why it took me a year to make them, but I’m so glad I finally did. They were every bit as dreamy delicious as I thought they’d be.

I took these into work with a post it note that said “Blueberry Bars in Erin’s Edit Bay”, and they were gone VERY fast. In fact, when my producers came in to view something I’d edited, I think they were disappointed to discover the bars were gone. Note to self: Next time always save treats for people who will approve my work!

Don’t wait as long as I did to make this seasonal treat! You won’t be disappointed.

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Blueberry Crumb Bars

from Smitten Kitchen, originally from All Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown.

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