t o m a t o e s & t e q u i l a

No, I am not dead. I bought a house which is like being socially dead for at least a month. We are finally getting settled and I am able to get back to a little cooking. Truth be told, I am also trying to eat a bit more healthfully and sometimes it's hard to find blog-worthy recipes that are also healthy and delicious. I guess that dilemma extends beyond blogging - it's hard to find delicious, healthy, interesting recipes in LIFE. Boo.

These pretzel dogs would not fall into the healthy category. But, I simply had to make them for the Super Bowl. My Niners were playing and this momentous occasion called for really good football food. I mean, I've been waiting for a return to the Super Bowl by the Niners since I was like 6 - I wasn't about to ruin the day with icky healthy food. I did have some carrots and dip though - good job me.

I was so bummed they lost and had to wonder if they would have if Alex Smith had been playing. I'm not into all the Colin Kaepernick hype. I think they treated Alex Smith kind of poorly, booting him out mid-season and all. That's enough football talk though, I don't need angry Colin Kaepernick fans leaving nasty comments on my little food blog.

Aside from a bit of cooking and pouting over my team's loss, I have been spending time debating the very important differences between grey, beige, and "greige" walls. The final color choice is TBD - I'll keep you posted.

PRETZEL DOGS RECIPE
(Joy the Baker, originally adapted from Alton Brown)


1 ½ cups warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
about 14 cups of water
1 cup baking soda
1 large egg, beaten, with a splash of water
8 hot dogs (I prefer Hebrew National)
salt and pepper for topping

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine warm water and sugar.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and set aside for 5 minutes.  The mixture will begin to foam and froth.  If it doesn’t, throw the mixture away and start again with new yeast.

Once the yeast and water is frothy, add the flour, salt, and melted butter.  Using the dough hook, mix on low speed until well combined.  Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough until it is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, creating a ball of dough around the dough hook.  Beat on medium speed for approximately 4 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl.  The dough will be soft, pliable, and just a bit sticky.  That’s perfect.  Scrape any residue out of the bowl and coat the bowl with a bit of vegetable oil.  Place the dough back in the bowl, sprinkle with flour, cover with plastic wrap, and store in a warm place to rise.  Allow dough to rise, until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Place baking racks in the center and upper third of the oven.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and lightly brush the paper with oil.  It’s important to brush the parchment paper or the pretzels will stick! (I used baking spray and that worked fine)

Combine water and baking soda in a large pan (8 quart is fine) saucepan and bring to a boil.
While the water comes to a boil, turn the dough out onto a clean, slightly oiled work surface.  Divide dough into 8 or 16 pieces, depending on how large you’d like your pretzel dogs.  8 pieces of dough for whole hot dogs.  16 pieces of dough if you’re doing to slice the hot dogs in half.

Start with the fingers of both hands in the center of the dough, and roll, moving your hands outward as you roll.  Roll the dough along the oiled surface until you have about a 24-inch or 12-inch piece of rope (depending on how large your piece of dough was… the more dough the longer the rope).
Wrap pretzel around a hot dog, making sure to seal the ends.

When water has come to a boil, gently lower a few pretzel dogs into the boiling water.  Boil for 30 seconds.  Remove carefully, using a flat, slotted spatula.  Place on prepared baking sheet.  Brush boiled pretzels with beaten egg, and add coarse sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

Bake until deeply golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes.

Serve warm with spicy, grainy mustard - YUM!

So this is really weird, but, I get anxious when my fridge is too full. When I waste food, I feel like I am wasting money. Anyone who knows me will tell you this is basically my worst fear. Worse than vampires, or zombies, or space aliens taking over the planet. I am what one might call...umm...cheap. I like to think of myself as frugal, but who are we kidding, that's just debating semantics. When I feel the "too-full-fridge" fear (aka, major tightwad issues)  coming on, I know it's time to ensure I am using recipes that use lots of stuff I already have on hand. So, I start scouring all my cookbooks looking for recipes that require me to purchase only one or two things, at most.

In this effort, the hubby found this recipe for wonton chicken tacos. I had every single one of the ingredients except for cabbage/cole slaw, including an abundance of left over slow cooker chicken and frozen wonton wrappers. I love when that happens. In addition to already having most of the ingredients, the recipe was called "Sassy Wonton Tacos," and the hubby decided that we needed to make anything with the word "sassy" in the title. Weird.

On a side note, wonton wrappers freeze incredibly well. I just let them defrost in the fridge slowly over a day or so and they were like new.

Turned out these little suckers were awesome. Flavorful, easy, and healthy. We doubled up on the wonton wrappers, using two for each taco, to avoid breakage. These would also make a great appetizer or good football-watching-food. If you don't want to do "Asian" flavors, try mixing things up and going for more Mexican flavors with salsa instead of bbq sauce and cheese/sour cream instead of cabbage.

WONTON CHICKEN TACO RECIPE
(health.com)

Nonstick cooking spray
8 wonton wrappers
4 ounces cooked, shredded skinless chicken breast (1 cup)
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
3/4 cup packaged coleslaw mix
2 tablespoons low-fat sesame ginger dressing (I didn't have any Asian dressings on hand so I just made up my own using rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, red chili sauce, and garlic - even just plain old soy sauce would be fine)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray inside and outside walls of a deep square pan with nonstick cooking spray. Drape wonton wrappers over the pan's walls on a diagonal, making triangle-shaped "shells." Bake until crispy (3-4 minutes). Remove pan from oven; cool. Combine chicken with barbecue sauce in a bowl. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine coleslaw mix, sesame ginger dressing, and cilantro. Microwave until softened (45 seconds); set aside. Carefully remove wonton shells from pan; fill each with 1 tablespoon of barbecue chicken and 1 teaspoon of cilantro slaw. On a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray, lay filled wontons on sides. Spray tops of wonton shells lightly with nonstick cooking spray; bake until warm and crunchy (5 minutes).

It's really hot. Like really, really hot. Or as my Dad would say, "It's like the sun!" The heat is making me lazy and I have no energy to tell you any stories, or fun anecdotes. Instead, today you are simply getting a really yummy recipe, and that's it. These pot stickers are delicious, and surprisingly healthy. Under 300 calories for 5 of them. 

CHICKEN POT STICKERS RECIPE
(Weight Watchers)

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the broth to a boil. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle in the flour and stir until dissolved. Pour the broth over the dumplings and cook, partially covered, until the liquid evaporates. Uncover and cook until the bottoms are crisp. Carefully loosen the dumplings with a spatula. Serve, sprinkled with the sesame seeds, with sauce on the side.

I had forgotten about this recipe until I had to make a somewhat last minute appetizer on Saturday. I was browsing my recipes, looking for something easy, and suddenly I flipped to this page and thought - why haven't I made this in like two years!

This is a great recipe and I'll tell you why:

• It's healthy
• There is no dairy or mayo so it can sit out basically all day
• It can be served cold or at room temperature
• It takes about 3 minutes to make
• It is pretty to serve because it is so bright green - looks great on a white serving platter
• It's cheap
• It is easy to keep the ingredients on hand - and if you are like me you always have frozen peas and sun-dried tomatoes around.
• It can be served with crackers, bread or veggies - again, whatever you have on hand.

And if those aren't enough reasons to try it, it's really, really tasty!

SUN-DRIED TOMATO AND PEA DIP RECIPE
(Giada De Laurentiis)

1 lb. frozen peas, thawed
8 oz. sun-dried tomatoes, drained (about 3/4 cup) (I use tomatoes not packed in oil for lower fat and calories)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the peas, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse the machine until the peas and tomatoes are finely chopped. Add the olive oil and pulse until the olive oil is incorporated and the mixture is minced but not yet pureed. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the salt and pepper.

Here is Stromboli from a few weeks ago. Use store bought dough to make this really fast and serve with some marinara sauce for dipping. Yum.

EASY STROMBOLI RECIPE
(tastykitchen.com)

1 can Pillsbury Country Italian Bread Dough (13.2 Oz)
6 slices Genoa Salami (can Add More)
2 pinches Kosher Salt (plus More For The Top)
A Good Sprinkling Of Garlic Powder
A Few Pinches Of Dried Oregano, Crushed Between Your Fingers (plus More For The Top)
A Couple Pinches Of Red Pepper Flakes
A Liberal Sprinkling Of Freshly Grated Parmesan (plus More For The Top)
6 pieces Provolone Cheese (can Add More), Broken In Half To Facilitate Rolling
Several Slices Of Pepperoni
Pizza Sauce For Dipping
Preheat oven to 350F. Place a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed sheet pan.

Unroll the bread dough and place on a lightly floured surface. Unrolling this kind of dough can be challenging sometimes, so have patience. When unrolled, the dough should form a rectangle. Lay the dough so that the long edge is closest to you. Make sure the dough is not overstretched in some spots, or the filling will burst out in those areas.

Place 6 to 8 slices of Genoa Salami on the dough, leaving a 1/2″ border around the edges. Sprinkle on a little kosher salt, some garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Add the Parmesan and provolone cheeses. It’s easier to roll the dough when you break the provolone in half (or even smaller) when adding it to the top of the dough. Finally, add as much (or as little) pepperoni as you want on the top of the provolone, making sure to leave a 1/2″ border around the rectangle of dough.

Starting from the edge closest to you, roll the dough like a jelly-roll (or cinnamon-roll style). As you roll the dough, make sure to keep all of the ingredients tucked inside and pinch the ends as you roll to keep the filling from slipping out as you roll. Carefully pinch the seam shut (and the ends) and place on the sheet pan seam-side down.

Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with kosher salt, dried oregano, and grated Parmesan.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is a deep brown. Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into 1″ slices. Serve with some warm pizza sauce for dipping.

• No kneading
• It can sit in the fridge for up to a week - meaning you bake some off whenever you want fresh bread
• You can make the loaves as large or small as you want
• It only has 4 ingredients
• It's fool proof - seriously, you can't mess this up
• It can be used for more than a typical loaf of bread - for example, my friend rolled the dough out, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, sliced it, and made cinnamon rolls out of it 
• It's so easy to up or down the ingredients for a ton of bread or just a loaf

Place the loaf on a baking sheet, bake for 25 minutes (or more depending on the size of the loaf) or until very deep golden brown on the top. (I use a touch of olive oil on the top before I bake the loaf to help crisp up the crust.)When done, remove immediately from baking sheet to prevent sticking.