Blistered Shishito Peppers: Delicioso!

Shishito Peppers: Ernesto and I gobbled up a plate of these mild chiles at a Japanese restaurant (can't remember the name) in San Diego last year.   They were delectable and we wanted to recreate them.  

I guess we forgot about them.   Out of sight, out of mind.  Fast forward a year and I spot them at our farmers market.  Straight into my stroller. 

A quick search on google turned up several "recipes."
If you can call salt and lemon a recipe.  Can you?  

Well, heat some oil, saute these babies until they blister up and get a nice golden color.  

 Squirt on some lemon juice and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Done and done!




As in GONE!  This plate did not last more than 5 minutes.  So. Damn. Rica!
They are the perfect snack/appetizer!

Go get ya some! 

Have you guys discovered a new favorite snack?  Do tell! 

Grandma's Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

I love baking.  I just don't like eating everything that I bake, so I don't do it often.  That has to change though, because I want my kids to have the same memory that I do.  My mom always had homemade deserts and cookies for us growing up. I grew up eating these oatmeal cookies (which was actually my grandma's recipe).

I think a lot of times our favorite things as adults tend to be things that evoke some sort of nastalgia.  

But it is more than nostalgia that make these cookies good.  They are cake like, but not heavy.  They have the perfect amount of cinnamon and raisins that will have you eating more than one.

Case in point:  My mom brought a big jar of these cookies to our house this past spring and I ate TWELVE cookies in one day.  TWELVE.

Little tidbit about me:  I have little self control when it comes to sweets/baked goods.  

While in Ohio this Summer (in both June and July) my mom made her oatmeal cookies.

"Grandma's cookies, grandma's cookies" Mateo cried.
Morning. Noon.  And night.  Until they were gone.  Next thing I knew I was pacifying him with a promise that we would make grandma's cookies at our house.   And he did not let me forget.   

Mateo did a great job helping me measure out the ingredients and turning on and off (on and off, on and off on and off) the mixer.  An hour later, we had "grandma's cookies."

 So without further ado, here is the vintage recipe card, straight from my mom's kitchen.

Let me know if you give them a try!

5 Recipes From A Domestic Godess [wanna-be]!

Remember our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch outing?

Well, I am sad to report that these never got carved.  They looked great on our porch, but since Ernesto was working everyday, we never got around to making these into jack o' lanterns.
 I am happy to report though, that they were still put to good use. Sort of.
While my mom was here for my birthday we were looking for "new and exciting" activities for Mateo.
I cut open the two big pumpkins on the deck, gave Mateo a big spoon with directions to scoop out all the seeds.

15 minutes of fun! Ha

Since my mom is the queen of "waste not, want not" she wanted to cut up the pumpkin so we could puree and freeze it for all the baking I do in my spare time. (Oh someday I will be that domestic goddess!).  I always see the little "pumpkin pie pumpkins" at the grocery store, but never thought you could use the big pumpkins for eating.  Before I knew it my mom had the pumpkin cut up and roasting in the oven.

My mom popped the pieces into our Vitamix and made a beautiful puree.  Unfortunately, my mom flew home and left me in charge of freezing it.  I may have left the pumpkin in the refrigerator a couple days too long, and when I added it to my eggs, it tasted acidic! UGH!  I'd like to just think that it was a bad pumpkin, instead of my own negligence. 

I had to resort to the canned pumpkin, which is not as exciting as saying I used fresh pumpkin that I my mom roasted.  Nonetheless, the following recipes turned out delicious! 

Pumpkin Muffins  

(recipe adapted from Deconstructing the Home and 
Flax Muffin recipe off Bob's Red Mill Ground Flax Seed bag )

Cook Time: 30 mins

Yield: 16 Muffins

Ingredients:

1 3/4 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup of Ground Flax Seed

1 1/4 teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon of Salt

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/4 Cup Chopped Candied Ginger

1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves

1/8 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

3/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar

3 Tablespoons Molasses

2 Large Eggs 

2 Cups of fresh (or canned) Pumpkin

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Whole Milk

1/2 Cup Walnuts
1/2 Cup Raisins

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray or use cupcake papers.  In a large bowl whisk together flour, flax meal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Mix until combined.
Toss in brown sugar, molasses, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla, and milk. Mix all ingredients until combined. Fill muffin tins ¾ of the way full. 
Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

These muffins turned out so delicious!  They only lasted 2 days in our house!  (we did have over night guests)  They are dense and filling, but best of all healthy!

I remember we always roasted the seeds from our pumpkins growing up, but Im sure they weren't spicy.  And since this is a requirement at Casa Espinoza, I went online and found this quick recipe from Martha.  Pretty tastey.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin seeds, chili powder, cayenne pepper, coarse salt, and fresh lime juice; toss to coat. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until puffed and browned, about 15 minutes.

Of course one of the recipes has to be pumpkin pie!  Ernesto loves pumpkin pie.  Kroger pumpkin pie?!  Last year on Thanksgiving we had a blind taste test, and I am ashamed to say Kroger beat me!  Ugh!
But not this year!
I used the recipe from Libby's canned pumpkin and used a graham cracker crust.  It was delicious. This recipe has been going strong since 1950, and it's way better than Kroger!!


Ingredients
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
15 oz. can of Libby's pure pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk

Directions

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.

Last, but surely not least, is the pecan pie.  My mom and I set out to midtown's Christmas parade last week and on the way back to the car we stumbled upon a pecan tree where all of the pecans had fallen right on the sidewalk.

My mom could not walk by without loading up the stroller.  I had Marcelo in the carrier, but I ended up doing some squats to help her collect.  Believe it or not, I was sore from picking pecans.  What?! That is when you know it is time to work out again!

These pecans along with a couple other sweet spots by my house afforded us enough pecans for several pies!  We made two.

We used the classic Karo Syrup recipe and doubled the nuts!  It was the best I have ever tasted!  More is more!

Pecan Pie
1 cup Karo® Light OR Dark Corn Syrup
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon Spice Islands® Pure Vanilla Extract
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) pecans
1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie crust


Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake on center rack of oven for 60 to 70 minutes (see tips for doneness, below). Cool for 2 hours on wire rack before serving.

One more recipe I whipped up is this one from Smitten Kitchen for Spicy Gingerbread Cookies.
Im telling you guys, these are amazing!  I made them last year, and again this year.  A tradition starts!  I don't see why I would ever need to try another recipe as this is the perfect blend of sugar and spice.  And I do mean spice.  A teaspoon of black pepper and good dose of ginger gives these cookies a bite!

Mateo has been so into Play-Doh lately that he had fun "helping" me with the cutouts.  Snowflakes and the traditional men!  They are gone.  Didn't last 3 days. I think this is the reason Im not a domestic goddess.  We would eat everything I make...and quickly.  Yes, yes that is why.

Mom's Zucchini Cake

I have had a few requests for my mom's zucchini cake, so I thought I would post it here.  It is definitely blog worthy. I grew up eating this cake. It is moist chocolaty and addictive. So much so that you will have a hard time believing it's made with a vegetable.
(Disclaimer: I wouldn't exactly call it healthy, but it's a darn tasty treat!)

This year I made it for Mateo's birthday party and everyone went gaga for it, eating more than one piece. At the moment, I don't have a picture of the inside of this cake so you can see the texture and how moist it really is, but you will just have to trust me on this.  A recipe doesn't get made over and over for over 40 years if it ain't good!

Whenever I ask my mom for one of her recipes, my dad just scans the original recipe card, which I love.  Make it.  You'll love it.  Period.

So without further adoo....

Mom's Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Habanero Hot Sauce

When we came home from our San Diego trip our garden was a mess.   It was raining so much before we left, things grew like crazy.  I guess the month we were gone though, it only rained a couple times. My potted wisteria vine?  Dead.  My potted Japanese Maple?  Dead.  Potted boxwood?  You guessed it.  Dead!  Not surprisingly, all my potted succulents look beautiful.  I never learn.  Pots should be filled with succulents here unless you can water regularly, which I have proven year after year that I can not. 

I did get smart with my little vegetable garden this year though.  It was hooked up to a soaker hose on a timer, so every morning at 5am they got 10 minutes of water.  The tomatoes, peppers and herbs were saved.   As a matter of fact they were thriving. 

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram,  you saw my habanero plant was weighed down with peppers.  

 We have absolutely no problem eating all of the peppers from the two jalapeño plants.   I harvested about 40 habaneros the other day and there are still a ton [of green ones] on the plant!  I called out to facebook friends for suggestions of what to do with all of these peppers and got back some great ideas.  (Thanks!) I did give some away, I sliced some and froze them to use for our spicy popcorn, and we've added some to our red roasted salsa just for an extra kick.  Other suggestions for habaneros were: pepper jelly and a pepper hummus. Both of which I would like to try on the next harvest. 

But what did I do with the other 24 peppers from this "first harvest?"

Ahhhh, yes.....the point of this post.  Habanero hot sauce.  While visiting my brother Tim back in January, he pulled a plastic squirt container from his fridge.  It was full of fire.  We loved it.  He just sent me the recipe and it is from Rick Bayless.  (Of course!) If you love Mexican fair, you probably know this guy.  If you haven't heard of him, you are missing out.  Go make one of his recipes NOW!

Since I put hot sauce on a lot of food [and Ernesto puts it on everything] I doubled the recipe.  (I figured we could freeze some too)  It is a quick, simple recipe and really has delicious flavor, if you don't mind the burn.

HABANERO HOT SAUCE

Makes about 2 cups

INGREDIENTS

5 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1/2 cup peeled, roughly chopped carrot (you'll need 1 medium carrot)

1/2 cup roughly chopped white onion (you'll need about half of a small onion)

12 medium (about 5 ounces) orange habanero chiles, stemmed

1 cup apple cider vinegar

About 2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

DIRECTIONS

Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, turning regularly until soft and blackened in spots, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and peel.

In a small saucepan, combine the carrot, onion and habanero chiles with the vinegar and 1 cup water. 

Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots are thoroughly tender, about 10 minutes. Pour into a blender, add the roasted garlic, salt and sugar. Blend until smooth.  (I vita-mixed the shit out of this, the texture is perfectly smooth!)

Thin with a little additional water if you think your hot sauce is too thick. (mine came out just right) Taste and season with additional salt if you think necessary.  (not needed IMO)

Pour into jars or containers and store in the refrigerator .

 We ate this on grilled chicken tonight and I'm looking forward to eating it with our eggs tomorrow morning.  Yum!   So, do you think you will try this recipe?

Pss. Years ago we made this habanero salsa.

Postre al Limon {a lime creme dessert}

Let me start by saying that this dessert [in the words of my friend Janie] is sinful. 
Once you have a taste, it will be very hard to not finish off the whole dish. Seriously.  It happens. Be careful.

It's quick, easy and inexpensive to make.  And yes, sinful too.  Please let me know if you make it and how you like it!

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can media crema (in Mexican section) or  14oz half & half
1 can evaporated milk
2-3 packs of Marias cookies (also in Mexican section)  Could substitue animal crackers
juice of 7-10 limes


TO PREPARE:
Put the 3 cans of milk and lime juice into a blender until mixed well.  Layer the cookies and milk mixture into a 9x9 glass dish, starting and ending with the milk.   Put in the freezer for at least 2 hours and take out approximately 30 minutes before serving. 


Spanish Version:

1 lata de lechera nestle
1 lata de media crema nestle
1 lata de leche evaporada carnation (clavel)
2 o 3 paqutes de galletas Marias
10 a 12 limones. (jugo)

Poner en una licuadora las 3 latas de leche y el jugo de los limones y batir por unos 4 minutos hasta que la cremita quede bien batida.  En un refractario vaciar un poco de la mezcla y poner una capa de galleta maria bien acomodadas que queden apretaditas, despues otra capa de la cremita y otra de galletas, asi sucesivamente hasta que llenes el refractario. Meterlo en el congelador por 2 horas y sacarlo a temperatura ambiente hasta que se ponga aguadito y a comer y disfrutar!   Riquisimo, rapido y barato!

Flan Recipe [Clasico de Navarro]

{a perfect flan}

I love flan. 
I ate quite a bit of it too in San Diego the last few weeks.
Mi suegra shared this simple recipe from her abuela.
I am now sharing it with you.

This is a beautiful dessert in it's own right, but a decorative pan/dish could really take it up a notch.  I am now on the hunt for one of my own.

Bottom line: Make it.  You're going to love it! **

 Mi Suegra's Flan
2 16 oz cans of condensed milk
2 cups fresh 2% milk
8 eggs

In a blender mix milk and eggs on high speed until smooth.

Making the caramelized sugar top is very easy, but must be done right for a successful flan.  Place your pan over your burner and sprinkle enough sugar to cover the bottom, make sure to get in all the crevices [of an ornate mold].  Keep on the heat until the sugar melts and caramelizes.  It will turn into a dark brown syrup as seen below.

{mi suegra melts the sugar}

Pour blended mix into dish and place it into a bigger pan.  Add enough water [into bigger pan] to cover bottom.  This is called a "baño maria".  Cover with lid and cook on medium heat for 2 hours.

If you don't have a pan/pot big enough to fit your flan dish, you can cook in the oven on 350 for 2 hours using the "baño maria" method.

Test flan by sticking in a fork.  If it comes out clean, it is done.  Chill for a several hours and serve.
Enjoy.

** Fred, Im sure your neighbor just didn't make it right, there is no way that you could not like this stuff!

Sopa de Fideo. A Mexican Favorite

Sopa de Fideo is something that Ernesto ate a lot when he was a kid.  His mom made this for us last time we were out in San Diego and the flavor simply delicious...for kids and adults.  Tomatoes and zucchini? Que rica!  Now that Mateo is eating more solids, we thought we would introduce him to noodles.  The recipe couldn't be easier and it goes a little something like this......

Sopa de Fideo

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups pureed tomatoes (canned is fine if you don't have fresh)
1 7oz bag of fideo pasta** (looks like vermicelli)
7 cups water
1 small zucchini finely cubed
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
salt to taste

Saute onion and garlic until onion softens, add vermicelli noodles and toast.  Once ends start to brown add pureed tomato.  Let cook for a few minutes. Add water and cook until noodles are done. (5-7 minutes) Throw in zucchini and cilantro.  Continue cooking until zucchini turns bright green.  Serve hot.

**This soup is also made with tiny alphabet letters.  If you can't find the Fideo or letters, you could use cut up vermicelli/thin spaghetti noodles.  Here is what the bag looks like.  They sell it at my Kroger for $1.

 The soup was a big hit with Mateo.  He was curious about the texture of this new food and wanted to play with the noodles before eating them. 


Give this soup a try for your little one or for yourself.  It's a repeater for sure. Healthy, delicious and easy to make. 

Aunt Margies Blueberry Pie

Our fridge has been packed lately.  We have been making regular trips out to the Dekalb Farmers Market and barely have enough room in our ample fridge to house all the fruits and veges we come home with.  The other day Ernesto and I both picked up blueberries without knowing the other did too, so we had quite a few.   My Aunt, who is here with my parents visiting suggested a blueberry pie.

Yes, have some.

 Aunt Margie got me a "pie making kit" at my wedding shower [11 years ago], and I was embarrassed to not have ANY of it in my new kitchen.  No rolling pin, no pastry cutter, no glass pie dish, ugh! (it must be in storage)  Being the baking queen that she is, she made due with the "tools" I had and created this:

I would say the key to any pie is a good crust...and obviously a delicious filling.   I do buy graham cracker pie crusts for my yogurt pie (I'll share the recipe soon)  but for regular pie crust I'm not too sure why you would buy it ready made with the "from scratch" is so quick and easy to make.

Perfect Pie Crust

1 cup Crisco

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Blend with metal pastry blender (or fork if yours is in storage)

Add 4tbsp. ice cold water and stir (it should be crumbly now)

Add 3 more tbsp water and work with hands until all dough pulls away from dish.  

Place dough ball onto floured surface and roll to about an 1/8 inch thick. 

Place in baking dish and fold over any excess on the sides.

To crinkle the edges, press your thumb like so into the dough:

Continue around dish.

For the lattice topping, roll another piece of dough out and cut into thin strips to criss-cross over the top of the filling. 

 

Aunt Margie's Blueberry Pie 

4 cups fresh blueberries 

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp tapioca (could substitute cornstarch)

1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix together and add to pie pan.  

Criss-cross lattice over filling.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and cook for 45 minutes.** 

** My Aunt let me in on an a trick she has been using for years.  As a matter of fact she learned this in her microwave manual when it first came out (whoa?) back in the late 70's early 80's??   She "pre-cooks" the pie in the microwave for 10 minutes before putting it in the oven.  I admit I was a bit disappointed when I found out she puts pie in the microwave (since I only use mine to warm up coffee or left overs) but, just like she said, the crust was very flaky and delicious! If you try it, pop pie in the oven for 15 minutes after microwaving for 10.