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

 
Hello my long-lost friends! I know, I haven't posted anything in a month but hey, life happens. I got busy. The hubby and I are buying a house and that has pretty much been consuming us for a couple of weeks. We just entered into a contract on one yesterday! Hopefully all goes well and we will be the proud new owners of a home!

I had a lovely four days off for Thanksgiving and it was truly much needed. I feel refreshed and ready to get back to life. How was your Thanksgiving? - good I hope. We spent Turkey-day with my in-laws in Colorado Springs. We had a very nice, quiet day. It's funny how when you marry someone you become part of these very intimate family gatherings that have been slowly molded over years and years. I think in these situations the parents (either mine or his, or yours, or whatever) have become so accustomed to their family traditions over 30+ years, it all seems perfectly normal to them, and they don't really stop to think about how radically different other people celebrate the holidays. But as the "kid," moving between different families, you really get to compare the different moods and traditions of each family. The good news is that you get to observe and see what you like and don't like, and bring the traditions that you do like into your family. The bad news is that you have to stay very adaptable and flexible, which can be hard sometimes. Especially for yours truly who is a creature of habit.

Anyway, on to the important stuff - the food! I was in charge of dessert and also wanted to make cranberry chutney, as it is something my Mom always makes. I'll try to share each recipe with you over the next week or so, including a pumpkin pie version of these, that I made just for fun.

Since my father-in-law and sister-in-law have a soft spot for pecan pie, I made this twist on the classic - Bourbon Pecan Tart with Chocolate Drizzle. This tart is crazy rich. You literally only need a small slice and it is more than enough, which is kind of nice after a big dinner - no?

BOURBON PECAN TART WITH CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE RECIPE
(Cooking Light)

1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup (I only had light so I used that and it was no big deal)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
2/3 cup pecan halves (I used about a cup since 2/3c. did not seem to be enough)
1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
Cooking spray
1/2 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 10 ingredients, stirring well with a whisk. Stir in pecans. Roll dough into a 13-inch circle; fit into a 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan coated with cooking spray. Trim excess crust using a sharp knife. Spoon sugar mixture into prepared crust. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Drizzle chocolate over tart.

I think pizza might be my favorite food and has been since as far back as I can remember. What's not to love?! You can make healthy, veggie-topped flatbread pizzas, ooey-gooey cheesy bad for you pizzas, grilled pizza, pizza with an egg on top, pizza with a salad on top, personal pizzas, big giant pizzas, thin-crust pizzas, thick-crust pizzas, pizza with white sauce, pizza with red sauce....you get the idea.


So one kind of pizza I had never made (or barely eaten for that matter) is a deep-dish pizza. I have just never lived anywhere that had deep-dish pizza. Last weekend I decided it was time to rectify that and made my first ever deep dish pizza. It was SO good. I topped mine with italian sausage, peppers, olives and red sauce - delicious!!

This recipe from America's Test Kitchen is really easy. I did not follow their instructions for the sauce and filling, I just used what I had on hand instead.

DEEP DISH PIZZA RECIPE
(America's Test Kitchen)

• Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each.
• Transfer 1 dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into 13-inch disk about 1/4 inch thick.
• Transfer dough to pan by rolling dough loosely around rolling pin and unrolling into pan.
• Lightly press dough into pan, working into corners and 1 inch up sides.
• If dough resists stretching, let it relax 5 minutes before trying again.
• Repeat with remaining dough ball.
• For each pizza, sprinkle 2 cups grated mozzarella evenly over surface of dough.
• Spread 1 1/4 cups tomato sauce over cheese, add whatever toppings you want to use and sprinkle 2 tablespoons Parmesan over sauce.
• Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Remove pizza from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

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).