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Twenty Dollar Tuesday – Mango SALSA!

August 31, 2010 By

Twenty Dollar Tuesdays is usually reserved for helpful hints and decorating ideas. But…I’ve decided I’m going to give you a recipe today (Because I’m just that WILD!).  I am NOT a mango eater. I usually think they taste like iced tea in fruit form…BUT a year or so ago, I ordered a crab cake at one of my favorite restaurants and it came with mango salsa. This stuff was AMAZING and was the perfect compliment to the crab cake. So, a few weeks ago, when I decided to make crab cakes, I thought to myself “Kate, you could pretend you work at a fancy restaurant and whip some of that mango salsa right on up”.  And so I did! It was my first time working with mangos (and I confirmed that I STILL do not like them in non-salsa form), and it turned out great! I’ve made it several times since then and I just love it! It’s great with meats, with chips, and tonight I had it with a veggie quesadilla. YUM!

So why am I including this in Twenty Dollar Tuesdays, you ask? Well friends, I think if you have a recipe that is this versatile, well, it’s worth at least $20! :) So, without further ado, Mango Salsa:

Mix together:

*2-3 mangos, diced

*1 bunch of green onions, diced

*1/4 cup or so of cilantro, diced

*juice of one lime

*(optional) red or green pepper, diced

Combine and add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

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Cafeteria Food-Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

August 30, 2010 By

I went to a teeny weeny public school in rural Missouri. I went to the same school K-12 and had 21 kids in my graduating class (crazy, eh?) So every single day of my school career K-12 I ate lunch in the same cafeteria. I was a bit of a picky eater, but, this may come as no surprise…but I LOVED desserts. One of my favorites? Peanut butter chocolate squares. Last fall, my mom sent me the recipe for them, and this weekend, I FINALLY made them.  They were so simple, and just as yummy as I remember!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Servings: 24 Squares

* 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, divided
* 2 cups creamy peanut butter
* 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
* 3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
* 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of the butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, and graham cracker crumbs. This will make a stiff dough.

Spread dough in a lightly greased 9- by 13-inch dish. Press down evenly.

Melt remaining 1/2 cup butter over low heat. Add chocolate chips and keep heat very low. When chocolate is soft, stir gently. Continue heating until lumps are all melted. Stir, and then spread this mixture over the peanut butter layer.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator.

De-lish!

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An Egg-cellent Tip!

August 26, 2010 By

My friend Mamaku posted a haiku yesterday about her chickens (and their cannibalistic habits, yikes!), so I’ve had eggs on the brain. With all these eggy thoughts, I decided I HAD to tell you a tip my friend Autumn shared with me last week about eggs: how do you tell if an egg is fresh or not (without looking at the expiration date on the carton)?

Submerge your questionable egg in water. If it is fresh, it will lay on the bottom; if it’s a week or so it will lay on the bottom but bob a bit; if it’s a few weeks old, it will balance on it’s end. But if it’s a BAD EGG, it will float!

Why does this work? Well, there is a small air pocket in the large end of an egg. As an egg ages, it looses moisture and carbon dioxide shrinking the eggy insides and increasing the size of the air space. Of course, the more air there is, the more it floats! Pretty neat, eh?

So just remember: never eat a floating egg!

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The Importance of Plating

August 25, 2010 By

I think one of the most important things in cooking and baking is the plating. When you go to a fancy restaurant, you tend to see things like this:

Learn Food Photography

Or this:

For the Love of Dessert

But it doesn’t have to be that fancy! When I was laid up last week, my hubby made me lunch quite a few times. He’s pretty darn sweet like that. And my favorite lunch of the week was a simple roast beef sandwich with chips and carrot sticks. But he made it special for me! He served it up like this:

The Hubby

The little things he did for me like this made my week at home fly by!

So, moral of the story? Don’t forget to plate your food…your efforts in the kitchen will look that much more amazing (look what it did for a sandwich!) And you might just make someone’s day!

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