Cookistry

Sometimes when I see what I've gotten from Fooducopia that I need to work into a recipe, it's a real head-scratcher. Other times, I have so many ideas for recipes, I don't know which one to try first.

The Onion Seasoning from J-Burger had a lot of potential. It's sort of like caramelized onions, but with some additional spices.

The pieces of onion were really small, so I knew it would be easy to blend into recipes. I wanted to mix it into meatloaf or meatball, but weather made me change my mind. Meatloaf is a winter dish. I wanted to slather it on top of a burger, but that's not exactly a recipe.

And then the idea seemed obvious - onion dip.

Besides serving this with potato chips, it also makes a great spread for sandwiches, a dip for fries, and a topping for baked potatoes or grilled meats or vegetables. What can't you put it on? I'd stay away from desserts.

Onion Dip

1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup J-Burger Onion Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of garlic powder
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives.

Combine all the ingredients and stir well. If you want a completely smooth dip, you can blend it with a stick blender or put it in your food processor or blender.

Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if desired.

Serve with chips.

For information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

Pork shoulder is one of my favorite cuts of meat. It's so versatile. You can braise it or roast it or put it in a crock pot. You can grind it for sausage or cut it into cubes. And no matter, what, it's an amazingly tender cut of meat.

I figured it would work well with the latest product I got from Fooducopia, Captain Spongefoot Steak Wash. Just because it had "steak" in its name, it doesn't mean I had to use it on steak - or even beef. I added a few other flavors, and used it to cook some pork shoulder in my crock pot.

In winter, I might be more likely to make this in a Dutch oven on the stovetop or in the oven. In summer, the crock pot makes a lot more sense.

If your crock pot has a browning feature, that makes it easier. Or you can brown the meat in another pot and transfer it to the crockpot. You can skip this step, if you prefer.

While you can serve this right after cooking, I prefer to chill the meat and serve it the next day. There really is a difference.

Steak Wash Pork Shoulder

1 3-pound pork shoulder roast
1 5-ounce bottle Steak Wash
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 ounces whisky
1 cup water
Salt and pepper, to taste

Sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat, then brown on both sides. Place the meat in your crock pot (if you didn't brown it there).

Mix the steak wash with the tomato paste (it's easier to do this separately, to break up the paste better) and pour it over the meat. Add the whisky and water. The liquid should come about halfway up the sides of the meat.

Cover the crockpot and cook on low until the meat is tender - about 6-8 hours. Turn the meat over about halfway through the cooking time, if you're around to do so.

When the meat is done, remove it from the crock pot and place it in a suitable storage container. Pour the cooking liquid over it. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, or until the next day, if that works for you.

Remove the fat from the top - it should be solid and easy to remove. The meat is easiest to slice while it's chilled, or you can heat it and then slice - your choice.

If you like, thicken the cooking liquid with a roux or cornstarch to a make a thicker gravy. Serve hot, with the gravy on the side.

For more information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

Hot Gringas' Sweet Chili Sauce is both sweet and spicy - a combination that I really like. When I found a jar in my box of goodies from Fooducopia, I knew it had a lot of possibilities. In this recipe, I used it twice, and I probably could have come up with even more ways to incorporate it into recipes.

This recipe is incredibly simple, but that's the point of using something like this chili sauce - enjoy the flavor as it is. This doesn't need more salt, pepper, or spices. If I was using it in a stew, I might add more ingredients. But this is a simple recipe that you can whip up for a weeknight dinner without thinking too hard about it.

Sweet Gringas' Chicken

For the chicken:
1 cup Sweet Gringas' Sweet Chili Sauce
4 chicken breasts
Cooked rice, for serving
Chives, for garnish
For the sauce:
Equal parts of:
Sweet Gringas' Sweet Chili Sauce
Sour cream

The day before you will be cooking the chicken, place the breasts in a plastic bag and add the chili sauce. Massage it a bit to cover the chicken, then refrigerate until you're ready to cook. (Hint: if your chicken breasts are frozen, you can put them in the bag, add the sauce, and let them thaw in the refrigerator.)

Bring the chicken breasts out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking.

Remove the chicken from the bag and shake off the marinade - since it's sweet, it can burn a bit.

Heat a barbecue grill or grill pan (or, you can broil or bake the chicken if you prefer.) Sear the chicken on both sides on high heat to get a good crust or grill marks, then lower the heat and continue cooking until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 155-160 degrees.

Let the chicken rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Slice the chicken breasts on a diagonal for serving. Place the slices on top of the rice.

Mix the Hot Gringas' Sweet Chili Sauce with the sour cream - approximately equal parts is fine - you can make as much as you like, and it's great for other purposes, so it's fine to make more than you need.

Drizzle the sauce over the chicken, then garnish with the chopped chives.

Serve warm. Pass extra sauce at the table, if desired.

For more information about Fooducopia, and my relationship with that company, see the tab at the top.

I like making different salad dressings every day. I mean, why make a vat of dressing and have the same salad day after day? And while there's nothing wrong with mixing extra and stashing it in the refrigerator while you use it up, why waste refrigerator space?

I mean, I make extra dressing when we have guests, because I never know how much they'll douse their salad with. Otherwise, I make enough dressing for one or two salads. That way, I can have a different salad every day, even if the greens are the same.

When I found a jar of ginger from Keres Spices in my box of products from Fooducopia, my first thought was baked goods. Gingerbread cookies, pumpkin pie ... but then I looked at the thermometer and the calendar. Nope, baking was out.

Salad dressing was in.

As much as I like fresh ginger, I don't use it very often, so it's not something I have on hand for spur-of-the-moment dressings. Ground ginger is always ready in the cabinet, though. Always. Might as well use it for something besides gingerbread cookies.

I usually use olive oil for salad dressings, but for this dressing, the flavor would be a bit assertive. If you have a "light" olive oil, that would be fine, or any neutral-flavored oil would be fine.

Sesame oil is used for flavoring, and it's pretty strong. A few drops is all you need.

Ginger-Sesame Salad Dressing

1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt
Several grinds white pepper
3 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
Several drops of sesame oil or toasted sesame oil
Sesame seeds for garnish
Several grinds black pepper for garnish

Put the rice vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, mustard, sugar, salt, and white pepper in a small jar. Whisk or shake to combine.

Add the oil and sesame oil. Cover the jar and shake until combined. The dressing with thicken and become opaque.

Taste the dressing and add more ginger, if desired, and add more salt, if needed. Shake again.

After you drizzle the dressing over your salad, sprinkle the salad with sesame seeds and grind on some black pepper, if desired.

For more information on Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

I love the combination of eggs with tomatoes - scrambled eggs with tomato wedges, or an egg sandwich with a slice of tomato. Salsa on eggs is great, too. And eggs in purgatory is a recipe where eggs are poached in a tomato sauce.

This recipe combines all those concepts. Fresh tomatoes with some spicy flavor, and an egg cooked on top. Not quite poached, but close enough.

And then we have nachos. This borrows the tortilla chips and cheese from that preparation.

The featured Fooducopia ingredient in this recipe is "The Hammer" Buffalo Wing Sauce from a company called Booya!

You could add extra ingredients like onions or peppers, but this is designed to be fast and easy. Just a few ingredients that work perfectly together.

The recipe makes one serving, but you can make a large pan of the tomatoes, top with as many eggs as you need, and divide it as needed.

Breakfast Nachos
Per person:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tomato
1/2 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon Booya! Buffalo Wing Sauce
1 egg
Hand full of tortilla chipes
2 slices of easy-melting cheese, like colby, American, or mozzarella

Dice the tomato (you can peel it first if you like). Heat a pan on medium heat, add the butter and let it melt, then and add the tomato and the wing sauce. If you're not sure how much you want to use, start with the smaller amount and add more after you taste it.

Toss the tomatoes with the sauce to coat. Taste them to see if you need more wing sauce.

Made a small well in the center of the tomato mixture and crack an egg into the well. Cover the pan and cook the egg to your desired doneness - I like mine when the white is cooked through, and the yolk is warm but still a little runny.

Note: if the tomatoes aren't very juicy, you might need to add just a little water to keep the tomatoes from sticking to the pan.

Meanwhile, arrange the chips on a plate, top the chips with the cheese, and melt the cheese in the microwave - about 15 seconds on high temperature for one serving.

Top the tortillas and cheese with the tomato and egg. Serve warm with extra chips, if needed.

For information about my relationship with Fooducopia (really, we're just friends - not dating!) see the tab at the top.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the ones that surprise people the most. Like stuffed olives.

Sure, you've seen plenty of stuffed olives, but think about it. Most - if not all - stuffed olives are green. Stuff some plain black olives and people will think you're a genius. It's unexpected, while at the same time it's very familiar.

But what would you stuff a black olive with? Cheese is good. I started with some chevre. Then I decided it needed some spice. Captain Spongefoot's Sriracha Z Table Sauce was perfect.

You don't need a lot of ingredients for something like this. The olives are a little salty, the cheese is tangy, and the sauce adds spice.

This post was written for Fooducopia. For more information, see the tab at the top.

Stuffed Black Olives

1 can pitted black olives
2 ounces chevre
1 teaspoon Captain Spongefoot's Sriracha Z Table Sauce
Several grinds white pepper
Milk (as needed)

Drain the olives and pat dry.

In a small bowl, combine the chevre, sriracha, and pepper. Stir to combine. Add milk to thin it out just enough so you can pipe the mixture into the olives. Or, if you have an olive stuffer, you don't need the milk.

Taste for seasoning, and add more sriracha if you want spicier olives.

Using a pastry bag or a plastic bag with a corner snipped off, or an olive stuffer, fill the olives with the cheese mixture.

Serve.

This post is part of #SundaySupper. Want to see more?

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I never buy salad dressing - I always make my own. Sometimes it's as simple as vinegar, oil, and a pinch of salt. Sometimes it gets a little more complicated. There are themes that repeat - lemon juice with a Greek seasoning blend or red wine vinegar with oregano, but most of the time I make just enough for the day, so even when the dressings are similar, they're never exactly the same.

Besides the usual suspects, I sometimes add other ingredients. Maybe a little cheese, or something sweet. It depends on what I have on hand and what I'm in the mood for.

This time, the added ingredient was raspberry jam. But not a regular raspberry jam - this is an uncooked jam from a company called The Jam, so it tastes a lot fresher.

Raspberry vinaigrette dressings are popular, and sometimes I'll order them at restaurants. But I've never gotten it exactly right at home, mostly because I couldn't find a raspberry flavor that was what I was looking for. This jam had the right flavor profile, with just enough sweetness and fresh raspberry flavor. It was just right.

It's also good on toast, but I have a feeling most of mine will end up on salad.

Raspberry Vinaigrette

1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
2 cups olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons The Jam's raspberry jam (plus more for garnish)

Combine all the ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until well-combined and the dressing is emulsified.

Serve on salad greens.

If desired, add tiny splashes of jam to add a pop of bright color to the salad.

For more information about my relationship with Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

Sometimes when I get products from Fooducopia to work with, it takes me a while to figure out what kind of recipe to make. Other items are much easier - their use is so obvious.

So, when I got a ball of pizza dough, the obvious answer was ...

... no, not pizza.

I decided to make bread sticks.

Pizza is the obvious thing you'd make, which is why I decided to make something completely different. It's a great use for the dough if you have extra left after pizza night. And it's great to buy extra dough just to make the bread sticks.

The great thing about crisp bread sticks is that they store really well. Bread goes moldy because of the moistness, but dry bread sticks are like crackers - they can go stale after a while, but they won't get moldy in a couple days like bread does.

You can use any herbs you like for this - oregano or thyme would be great, or any herb mix that you like.

Herbed Crispy Bread Sticks

1 ball of  pizza dough
2 tablespoons dried herbs or herb mix of your choice

Move the dough from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw the day before you'll be using it. Remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature an hour before you'll be rolling it out.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Flour your work surface and turn out the dough. Roll the dough to a rough 12-inch square. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the herbs. Fold the dough in thirds, like a letter, then fold it thirds again in the other direction.

Roll the dough to a rectangle about 6x12 inches. If it's difficult to roll, let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten and make the rolling easier.

Cut the dough into 12 6-inch strips. Pick up the strips one at a time and twist them to form a spiral while stretching them to about 12 inches long. Place them on a baking sheet leaving space between them.

Bake the bread sticks at 300 degrees until they're dry and stiff to the touch and they're lightly browned, about 35 minutes.

Remove the bread sticks from the pan and let them cool completely on a rack.

For more information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

This has been submitted to YeastSpotting.

Honey is more than that sweet yellowish generic syrup - there are probably an infinite variety of  honeys, based on what the bees have been feeding on. Some are dark, some are light; they all have distinctive tastes.

Grampa's Gourmet Tamarisk Honey from Fooducopia is a dark honey with deep flavor that reminded me just a little of molasses. Maybe a little caramel. Definitely complex.

When I started thinking about what I could made that would highlight that flavor, I was thinking about drizzling it over biscuits, or using it in a barbecue sauce.

But drizzling isn't a recipe, and I thought it might get a little lost in the barbecue sauce. I wanted something where you'd actually taste the nuances of this honey.

I was thinking about a honey glaze on some kind of meat - ham or pork, maybe.

And then I hit on the perfect idea. Honey mustard. With a good dose of honey.

This would be perfect on a ham sandwich, as an addition to a hot potato salad, or slathered on a pork roast or ham prior to cooking. It's so simple to make that you don't need to make a lot of it - you can whip up as much as you need right before you need it.

And there's another good reason to make just as much as you'll need in a few days. The mustard will lose its potency the longer it's stored. The heat of this mustard also depends on the mustard you start with. Fresh mustard powder will have a good kick, but that jar in the back of the cabinet that's been languishing for a decade will be like sawdust.

While I suggest using this fairly quickly, it's best to let it rest just a little while, to give the dry mustard a little time to hydrate just a little bit. A half-hour is fine, or you can make it the day before, if that works better for you.

This is enough for a few sandwiches, but if you need more, you can easily double, triple, or quadruple the recipe to make as much as you like.

(Very) Honey Mustard

2 tablespoons dry mustard
1 tablespoon Grampa's Gourmet Tamarisk Honey
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 pinch salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add more vinegar or a bit of water to thin it out.

Refrigerate any unused portion. It's likely it will thicken as the powdered mustard hydrates even more. Add more water or vinegar to thin it to your desired thickness.

For more information on Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

I've got to say it's interesting to get new products from Fooducopia to try, and it's always fun to try to come up with recipes using the products. This time, the product was J-Burger Chipotle & Onion Seasoning. Imagine well-caramelized onions with a healthy kick of smokey chipotle.

There's also a milder version without the chipotle, but I reached for the heat.

The label mentions using the onions as a condiment on burger and for sure it would be great on that. And it mentioned mixing the onions into meatloaf - that would be good, too. So of course I went in a different direction. No beef. No meat at all. I decided to use the onions in a frittata.

This recipe makes a small frittata - in an 8-inch skillet. If you prefer something larger, you can easily double or triple the recipe to fit into a larger pan.

Frittata with Chipotle & Onion

2 tablespoons butter
1 small potato, thinly sliced.
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
1/4 medium tomato, diced
1 tablespoon onion jam
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Sour cream (for garnish, if desired)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat an 8-inch cast iron skillet on medium heat. Add the butter and when it is melted, add the potatoes. Cook them for a minute or so, moving the pieces around and flipping them over so they begin cooking evenly.

Break the eggs into a small bowl, and beat with a fork until blended. Add the salt and diced tomato and stir to combine. Pour this mixture over the potatoes in the pan. Dot the chipotle onions on top distributing them evenly.

Put the pan in the oven and cook until the eggs are set - about 15 minutes. Top with the cheddar cheese and place back into the oven just until the cheese melts. You can switch the oven to broil if you want to speed up the process.

Since there's melted cheddar cheese on top, this isn't the sort of fritatta that you'd flip out of the pan. Instead, let it cool a few moments, then cut it in wedges and serve from the pan. Garnish with sour cream, if desired.

This is also good served at room temperature.

For more information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

I never had shagbark syrup until my friends at Fooducopia sent me a bottle of it, made by a company called Mystic H. It looks like maple syrup, but the flavor is from molasses and hickory bark syrup.

My first thought was to use it in a savory application, like maybe brushed on grilled meat, or mixed into a barbecue sauce.

That would be great ... but it's not what I did.

Instead, I used it in a vinaigrette that I used on endive. The sweetness of the syrup balanced the slight bitterness of the endive, and the tartness of the vinegar balanced the sweetness of the syrup. Pepper added a teeny hint of heat, olive oil added richness, and endive supplied the crunch.

I used both red and green endive, for color, and poppy seeds for an accent. It was a pretty dish. And pretty good, too.

If you don't like endive, you could use your own favorite greens, or a mix.

Endive Slaw with Shagbark Vinaigrette

2 cups sliced endive
1 tablespoon Shagbark Syrup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Put the endive in your serving vessel.

To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and whisk to blend. Or, put them in a small jar and shake to combine.

Drizzle the dressing over the endive, and serve.

For more information on Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

It seems to me that side dishes often get treated like second-class citizens on the plate. I'm as guilty of it as anyone. Truth is, I like things like plain mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

But it doesn't always have to be that way. Sometimes you want to have a side dish that makes you sit up and take notice. Something with color and flavor and a little bit of something that's ... different.

I know potatoes are the great American starch, but I love rice. I love plain white rice, and I love rice pudding, and I love "Spanish" rice with tomatoes and peppers. I even love wild rice, which isn't rice at all.

As much as I love rice when it's simply prepared, one of the great things about rice is the way it absorbs flavors.

And colors. Because sometimes a white side dish isn't that exciting. Vibrant yellow, on the other hand, can be a great accent on the plate.

In this case, the color - and flavor - comes from turmeric.

Let's take a second here to have a serious talk about spices. When I was a kid, my mother had a container of turmeric. She used it for one thing - pickles. She made those pickles once a year. She had that container of turmeric when I was a little kid, and she had the same container when I moved out of the house, It might have had flavor when she first got it, but it ran out of flavor long before she used it up. It still had color, though, so she never got rid of it.

Turmeric doesn't have a strong flavor. It's not going to punch you in the head. But it does have some flavor - sort of warm and mustardy, When it's used in Indian cooking, it's just one of many flavors and it definitely fades into the background. But when you omit those strong flavors, turmeric adds both color and flavor.

Well it adds flavor if your spice is fresh. That ten-year-old jar doesn't have any life left. Maybe it's time to toss that old jar and pick up a fresh one.

I made this rice in my rice cooker, but you can cook it on the stovetop, if you prefer.

Spicy Yellow Rice

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
Water, as required
1 cup frozen spinach
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lime juice

Put the rice (two rice-cooker cups) in your rice cooker and add water to the level your rice cooker recommends. Add the remaining ingredients, stir to combine, and cook per your rice cooker instructions for white rice.

Fluff the rice and stir to distribute the spinach in the rice. Add more lime juice, if you like. Serve warm.

For more information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

I know there are some die-hards who fire up their grills all winter long - but I'm not one of them. When there's snow on the ground, you'll find me cooking indoors, where it's warm and toasty. But once in a while I like to have a whiff of smokey flavor in my food. What's a cook to do?

Of course, there's that liquid substance that has smoke flavor, and I know some people like it. But for some reason, I've never been fond of it. Frankly, if someone uses too much of it, it gives me a headache.

On the other hand, I've never had a problem with smoked foods. Or barbecued or grilled or otherwise smoke-flavored. And a great way to add a little smokiness is with smoked salt. You use it like regular salt, and it adds that hint of smoky flavor along with the saltiness.

And unlike some people's heavy-handed over-used of the liquid product, you're pretty unlikely to go overboard with smoked salt - because after all, it's salt. Your taste for saltiness will keep you from turning your meal into a taste replica of the bottom of the fire pit.

In this case I used lamb, but smoked salt is great on chicken, steak, pork, burgers ... if you would think about cooking it on a grill, it will work with this salt. And before you look too closely at my lamb steak and wonder what cut it really is, this isn't a typical supermarket cut - I buy my lamb from a farmer, so I get some pieces that don't look like what you'd buy at the store.

This time around, I used Applewood Smoked Salt from Salts of the 7 Seas.

Lamb Steaks with Smoked Salt

4 lamb steaks (or chops)
Applewood Smoked Salt
Pepper, to taste
Oil, for cooking

About 30 minutes before cooking, remove the lamb from the refrigerator and salt and pepper both sides, to taste.

Heat a cast iron frying pan on medium-high heat and add about a tablespoon of high-heat cooking oil. When the oil shimmers and you see the first wisp of smoke, carefully place the lamb in the pan. Let it cook on the first side until it is nicely browned.

Flip the meat over and cook on the second side until it is nicely browned. Turn the heat down to medium and cook, turning as needed, until the meat is cooked to your liking. With thin pieces of meat, it may be done as soon as the second side is browned, if you prefer your meat on the rare side. Keep in mind that the meat will continue cooking for a short time after it has been removed from the heat.

Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

To carry the smokey theme a little further, used the smoked salt as a finishing salt on your vegetables, soup, salad ... where ever you think a little smoke flavor would be appropriate.


This post was sponsored by Fooducopia. For more information, see the tab at the top.

When I looked into the box with the most recent goodies from Fooducopia and saw the Raspberry Jalapeno Jam from LuAustin, I had no shortage of ideas.

That sweet-spicy combination would have worked perfectly as a glaze for meat or the beginnings of a sauce, or with some crackers and cheese.

So many ideas, but then I decided to go a completely different direction.

Have you noticed the unusual ingredients bartenders are using these days?

Mixology has gone far beyond the usual sodas and citrus and bright red maraschino cherries. Herbs like basil and rosemary have invaded cocktails. Drinks are no longer just sweet or sour - now they might be spicy.

So I decided to make drinks. And it couldn't be easier.

Fooducopia Fizz

Raspberry Jalapeno jam from LuAustin
Prosecco, sparkling water, or lemon-lime soda
Basil or mint for garnish

Put a teaspoon or two of the jam in the bottom of a glass.

Top with chilled prosecco, sparkling water, or lemon-lime soda.

Stir to combine and garnish with a sprig of basil or mint. Serve.

For information about Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

We've all done it. Make a chicken for dinner and you have plenty of leftovers. But the next night you think that it would be great to use the meat in a different way. But what? Sure, you could make chicken salad, but that sounds more like lunch than dinner. And the chicken is already cooked, so you don't want to cook it even longer in a casserole of some kind.

I know a few people who say they don't like leftovers, but that's usually because their mom reheated the same meal in the same way night after night until the meat was dry and the vegetables were mush. What might have been a wonderful meal on the first night was less than appealing on the third night.

That's one way to treat leftovers. The other way to treat them is to consider them as ingredients in a new dish. Instead of serving the same thing for three days straight, you can use the same ingredients to make three different meals.

In this case, I used a poached chicken breast that I had left over from another dish, you you could use roast chicken instead. Or even cooked pork. The point it that you add the meat at the very end of cooking, just long enough to heat it, and then you serve. Voila! New meal.

Of course, you could skip the whole "leftover" idea and cook the chicken specifically for this dish.

The Sweet Chili Sauce from Hot Gringas' packs a nice amount of heat, but it's also a little bit sweet, so it adds several dimensions of flavor to this dish. And since it's a condiment all on its own, you can hold back on the amount in the dish itself (in case you've got heat-squeamish diners) and pass more sauce at the table for those who want to amp up the flavor even more.

I served mine over rice, but this would be great as a filling for a taco, if that's your preference. And since this is loaded with vegetables, one chicken breast - with the rice - was more than enough to feed two people. Guess what I'm having for lunch?

Hot Gringas Sweet Chili Chicken

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, quartered and sliced
1 bell pepper*, cored, seeded and sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 chicken breast**, cooked, sliced into strips
2 tablespoons Hot Gringas' Sweet Chili Sauce

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan until it just begins to shimmer - you don't want it smoking hot. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften. Add the bell pepper, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the vegetables are your desired doneness.

Add the chicken breast and Hot Gringas' sauce and cook, stirring, until the chicken is heated through.

Serve over rice or as a filling for tacos. Make sure to bring the jar to the table, for those who want more sauce.

* I buy bell peppers when they're on sale and clean and freeze them, so I used green, yellow, and red bell peppers. You can use whatever color you like, or a mix. And if you really like peppers, add more.

** I used a poached chicken breast, but you can use any part you have on hand. Roasted or rotisserie chicken will work really well.

For more information on my partnership with Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

No matter how you look at it, dried beans take a long time to cook. There's no sense in rushing them - let them cook slowly and you'll be rewarded with flavorful beans that are soft and creamy without being mushy.

I know that conventional wisdom says that you shouldn't salt the beans when you cook them, but I find that soaking them in salted water rather than plain water works really well. They end up flavorful, creamy but not mushy, and not a lot of burst beans.

Give it a try once, and see what you think.

I know that white beans like navy beans are the most common ones for baked beans, but I used pintos. They're just a little larger, and around here, they're much more common than navy beans.

The barbecue sauce I chose has a mustardy kick and quite a bit of spice that would be perfect on your pork ribs or your pork roast. In these beans, it adds a bit of heat and the mustard adds a different dimension that you won't find in your usual baked bean recipe. It also makes it a very easy recipe - just add ketchup and molasses for those familiar flavors, and you're done.

Barbecue Baked Beans

1 pound dried pinto beans
1 tablespoon salt, plus more as needed
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup Cook'n'Shoup Bold n Tangy Barbecue Sauce
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup

Sort through the beans to remove any rocks or other bits of unwanted material. Rinse the beans until the water runs clear. Add the salt and enough water to so that it's at least 3 times the depth of the beans. Soak at least 6 hours or overnight.

After the soaking, rinse the beans and put them in a heavy-bottomed oven-safe pot. A Dutch oven is perfect. Add clean water to cover the beans by at least a few inches. Cook on low until the beans are cooked through, 1-2 hours, depending on the beans. Add water, as needed, to keep the beans covered with water during the cooking, and stir as needed to keep the beans from sticking or burning.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Drain out the excess liquid, leaving about a cup of liquid (you can drain it all out and add it back in, as needed, if you prefer.) Add the onion, barbecue sauce, molasses, and ketchup. Stir to combine. You should have enough liquid to come just below the level of the beans. If you need more, add some of the drained bean-cooking liquid or water.

Cover the pot and put it in the oven Cook until the onions are soft and the beans have absorbed most of the liquid - about 3-4 hours. Serve hot.

This post is sponsored by Fooducopia. For more information, see the tab at the top.

I've never been a big fan of garlic salt.

There, I said it.

But really, I never saw a point to it. The garlic salt of my mother's day was a finely granulated product that seemed pretty useless. Why not just buy garlic powder and add salt to taste? Or why not buy garlic and use as much salt as you like?

When I opened the container of  Sel D’ Ail Roti from Fooducopia, I could see that it was very different from that old-fashioned garlic salt. This had much larger salt and it smelled a heck of a lot more like fresh garlic.

Okay, this is something that makes a little more sense.

As soon as I opened the jar, I thought of a whole lot of things I could do with it. A sprinkle on a salad would be perfect..That's not much of a recipe, though. How about this?

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Olive oil
Sel D; Ail Roti (garlic salt)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

You can use any kind of potatoes you like - I used russets and purple potatoes. Cut them into chunks and drizzle with olive oil

Sprinkle with the garlic salt and a few generous grinds of black pepper.

Put the potatoes on a baking sheet. (Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier cleanup, if your like,)

Beke at 350 degrees, turning to potatoes a few times for even browning, until the potatoes are cooked through - about 45 minutes, depending on how big the potato chunks are.

Serve hot.

I have to say that it's probably impossible for anything in my house to be truly gluten free. I bake so much that the air is probably one percent wheat flour. And that's on a day when I haven't had an unfortunate flour-spewing accident.

That said, these cookies were made without any intentional gluten. What fell out of the air, I can't control. But the ingredients were all gluten-free. The flour I used was lupin flour. Never heard of it? Neither did I, before I got it from Fooducopia. For info about my relationship with Fooducopia, see the tab at the top.

Lupin flour is made from lupini beans. You may have heard of them. You may even have eaten them if you've ever indulged in an Italian antipasto plate.


The problem with a lot of gluten-free baked goods is that they can have a weird texture, or the hint of a strange flavor. The background note in these is the almonds, and upfront is the chocolate. There's no odd flavor, and there's nothing about the texture that screams "gluten-free." And they look pretty.

For the chocolate, use your favorite - anything from unsweetened to milk chocolate will be fine, since it's such a small amount - even those mini chocolate bars you've got squirreled away from Halloween.

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Almond Cookies

1 1/2 cup lupin flour
1 cup almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the lupin flour, almond meal, baking powder, kosher salt, and cocoa. Whisk to combine and break up any large lumps.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or you can use a hand-held electric mixer, if you prefer) beat the butter until it is soft. Add the sugar and beat until it is light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until they are incorporated. Add the chocolate, and beat until it is incorporated.

Add the flour mixture, and mix until it is thoroughly combined. This is the point where a regular cookie recipe would tell you to not overmix. There's no gluten here to worry about, but there's still no sense in mixing it to death, either. Just combine it well, and you're done.

Using a small scoop (I used a #40 scoop, which is less than 2 tablespoons) put rounds of cookie dough on your prepared cookie sheets, leaving room between them to spread during baking. If you don't have a scoop, just use a spoon to portion the dough and roll it into a ball with your hands.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies have spread, cracked on top, and are just barely browned, about 15 minutes. Move them to a rack to cool completely - they will crisp up as they cool.

This post is sponsored by Fooducopia. For more details, see the tab at the top.


I don't do a whole lot of gluten-free baking, so when Fooducopia gave me gluten-free all purpose flour mix made by Outrageous Baking to work with, it was a challenge. I decided to use it in a recipe where gluten-development was pretty much undesirable - shortbread dough.

But even though gluten-free flour mixes are designed to mimic the properties and flavor of wheat flour, it's never an exact match. This dough felt different as I handled it. But in the end, it worked. And no one I gave them to thought they were unusual in any way. And that's all that counts.

Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookie Cups

1 cup Outrageous Baking Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour Mix
3/4 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
1 stick cold butter

Cut the butter into several pieces, Put all the ingredients into your food processor and process until the mixture forms a coherent dough.

Remove the dough from the processor, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator until it firms up - about an hour; longer is fine.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces Place a piece into a mini-muffin tins and press the dough into the bottom and part way up the sides of the tins. If you have a tart tamper, you can use that to press the dough, or a shot glass with a flat bottom will do a fine job.

Bake at 325 degrees until the shortcake cups are lightly browned - about 12 minutes. Let the cups cool in the pans until the firm up - about 10 minutes. Remove the shortcake cups from the tins and let them cool completely on a rack.

To serve, fill the cups with a bit of jam or jelly or preserves, sweetened cream cheese, caramel, or whatever you like.

This post is sponsored by Fooducopia. For details, see the tab at the top of the page.

When I opened the jar of Primo Loganberry Ancho Preserves, the first thing I thought of was cornbread. It had the right sweet-spicy flavor that would match perfectly. The preserves are more sweet than spicy, so people who don't like spicy food would probably like these preserves. In these muffins, the heat is moderated even more, leaving just a little warmth.

These would make a nice addition to the holiday table - a nice options for those who are bored with the usual dinner rolls. Because of the sweetness, they'd also be nice with breakfast.

Masa harina isn't the same thing as cornmeal. These muffins have more of a southwestern flair than a southern one. But the taste is subtle, so you needn't worry about them clashing with your dinner. They're corn muffins - just different corn muffins.

Masa Muffins

1 cup flour
3/4 cup masa harina
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup Primo Loganberry Ancho Preserves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray 12 muffin cups - the cupcake size, not the giant ones - with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, masa harina, sugar, salt, and baking powder. whisk to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the milk, egg, and vegetable oil. Whisk to break up the egg and combine the ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until it is well-combined and most of the lumps are gone - it doesn't have to be completely smooth.

Fill the muffin cups about 1/2 full with the muffin batter. Add 1 teaspoon of the preserves to the center of each muffin. Top with the rest of the batter.

Bake at 400 degrees until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean of batter. You might find preserves on that toothpick, but there shouldn't be any wet batter.

Remove the muffins from the pan and let the cool on a rack if you won't be serving them immediately.