Pumpkin Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

We're not huge pumpkin fans around here. However, I love pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. So a few weeks ago, I ordered a huge can of pumpkin with our Prime Pantry no-rush shipping credit :) 

I pretended to make "bread" this morning to avoid the pumpkin scowl, so when I added the chocolate chips, Jamie was like, are you making cookies? No, I'm making bread! Why are you adding chocolate chips? You'll see when it's done, I told him. I told him I was testing a new recipe to take to the Halloween party next weekend :) 

It turned out delicious, so here is the recipe I used, adapted from this recipe on All Recipes. 

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, mashed 

2 eggs 

1/3 cup vegetable oil 

1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin puree 

1/2 cup maple-agave syrup blend (original recipe called for honey)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a standing  mixer, stir together the mashed banana, eggs, oil, pumpkin, maple-agave blend and sugar. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and stir until just combined. Finally, add chocolate chips if desired. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Creamy Jalapeno Dip

This dip is a copycat recipe from Chuy's (one Austin/now Dallas restaurant we really miss!) Eat it as a chip dip, taco sauce, or get creative and top something else like a burger or salad with it. It's really delicious so enjoy! 

Mix together: 
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 can chopped green chiles (in a can)
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped jalapenos 
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper, to taste

My Favorite Guacamole

I LOVE guacamole. LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

My favorite recipe is simple:

avacados

finely chopped onion

finely chopped cilantro

fresh lime juice

salt

tomatoes

I add the ingredients to taste - for each avacado, I usually squeeze in one lime, add about a tablespoon each of onion and cilantro, pinch in a sprinkle of salt, and stir in about a half cup of tomatoes. I like to mash the avacados with a masher (best tool ever!) and leave them a little chunky. I stir in the tomatoes at the end. I encourage you (whoever you are) to experiment with guacamole and find your favorite combination of ingredients!!

Fried Halloumi Cheese

Here is how I made the fried cheese to go with our mediterranean-inspired beef empanadas!

I started with halloumi cheese:

I sliced it up into 1/4 inch slices, and heated up some olive oil in a small pan. When the oil was hot, I added the cheese and fried on both sides for about a minute on each side.

When it was golden brown, we ate it. The End.

 

 

Classic Salsa

This recipe is my favorite for home-made salsa.

All you need is:

• 2 cans stewed tomatoes
• 2 jalapenos
• 1/3 cup (approximately) chopped sweet onions
• 1/2 cup (approximately) chopped cilantro
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper, to taste

In this version of the salsa, I used one can of Rotel and one can of stewed tomatoes, but that was all I had :)

The salsa is really simple. All you do is combine all of the ingredients in a blender. You can seed the jalapenos if you wish. I usually put the seeds from only one of the jalapenos into the salsa.

Blend it all up!

And there you have it - freshly made salsa! Variations to the recipe include sauteeing the onions and garlic before mixing or roasting them in the oven. Any way you do it, this salsa will be better than anything you can buy at the store - I promise!

Hummus

Making hummus is fun, easy, and delicious! I begin with the following ingredients (pictured above):

• Olive Oil
• Lemon Juice
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tahini
• Labne
• Water (if needed)

I don't measure when I make hummus. This makes it more fun and easier to make! Once you make it a few times, you will become an expert so just keep trying. Just taste it after you've added everything, and add more of what you like! Also, be careful not to add too much liquid at first, as it is difficult to go back once it gets too watery (Unless you add more chickpeas).

Speaking of chickpeas, they are the most important ingredient in hummus! I like to cook my chickpeas myself in a crock pot opposed to using canned ones. They turn out absolutely amazing after cooking all day! All you do is soak them overnight in water, drain the next morning, and put them in the crock pot with more water (fill to the level of the chickpeas) and garlic cloves on low all day long. At the end of the day, you can whip up some yummy, healthy, fresh hummus! I always make a lot of chickpeas when I do this, so I save some in the freezer. For the recipe I am sharing here, I used chickpeas that I defrosted from a previous time that I slow cooked them. Here they are:

I add them to the blender first. You can also use a food processor; I just don't have one :)

Add a spoonfull of labne (really thick Middle Eastern yogurt/sour cream spread),

tahini...

yum!

Add salt,

pepper,

lemon juice,

and olive oil.

Blend it up until it is nice and creamy.

Beautiful!

Oh, and I almost forgot - you have to press in a clove or two of garlic!

Spread a thin layer on a plate, drizzle olive oil on top, and sprinkle some cayenne pepper on top for looks! Serve with pita bread - or my personal favorite: naan!

 

Jalapeno Poppers

Jalapeno poppers are delicious - They definitely make a great appetizer or football snack. They are also super easy.Thanks to Susan for the great recipe idea!

All you do is cut jalapenos in half, remove the seeds, and spread cream cheese inside.

Then you wrap each piece with 1/2 piece of uncooked bacon and secure with a toothpick.

I used turkey bacon but regular bacon would work too!

Grill them until the bacon is cooked and somewhat crispy. If you don't have a grill pan, you can bake them in the oven until the bacon is cooked!

Cheese Nachos - Joe T.'s style

Joe T. Garcia's is a classic Tex-Mex restaurant in Fort Worth, TX. Whenever we are in Fort Worth we visit Joe T.'s for a wonderful family style meal. They always bring out simple cheese nachos as the first course, and they are extremely delicious!

Making these cheese nachos at home is incredibly simple... you only need 3 ingredients:

• Chips
• Jalapenos
• Cheese

The assembly is incredibly simple too!

All you do is place a layer of chips on a baking sheet, cover them with cheese, and then place sliced jalapenos on top. To finish, you place them under the broiler until the cheese is bubbly and melted.

I cut the seeds out of the jalapenos first, because we don't like things too hot, but the nachos would be delicious any way you sliced the jalapenos - or even with pickled jalapenos! Additionally, I used shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese on these nachos, but any kind of cheese would work. I'm sure monterrey jack would be delicous. Enjoy!

Football Dip

Over the past three weeks, my life has been full of TOO MUCH FOOTBALL!!! It seems neverending, but hopefully it will end soon. There is one thing that makes football better, though: Queso!

Queso is a challenge for me because I have been trying for the past two years to make my queso taste like the queso you can get at restaurants in Texas. I started with the traditional Velveeta/Rotel combo, progressed to adding my own salsa instead of Rotel, then attempted to make the dip completely from scratch using Homesick Texan's recipe. I was never very happy with my results, as it was never as good as Texas queso. I think I would have been happy with the Homesick Texan recipe (the taste was amazing), but I could never find the right cheese that would melt the right way so my dip was always the wrong consistency. I developed a theory that all restaurants use some kind of secret cheese (Velveeta) that melts perfectly every time.

A few months ago, Jamie and I uncovered a secret on the back of the Jimmy Dean sausage label:

Jamie really wanted me to make it for him, so I did, and we were very pleasantly surprised with the results. It's still no Trudy's, but it is definitely a step above the traditional Velveeta/Rotel. The recipe calls for 2 lbs. of sausage and Velveeta, but I have no idea what I would do with that much queso, so I scaled down the recipe a bit:

Sausage Queso Dip

You need:

1/2 lb. Jimmy Dean Sausage
1/2 lb. Velveeta 2% milk cheese
1/2 can of Rotel
about 1/4 cup of salsa
about 1/4 cup of green onions

Do this:

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat, until it is no longer pink. Add the Rotel, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cheese and salsa, and cook until melted. Sprinkle green onions over the top, and serve.

Now you have a yummy football snack, and football is much more tolerable!!! 

Also - I must confess that I made this dip twice this weekend, and the first time I skipped out on the green onions. Big mistake - they add great fresh flavor that makes the dip much better!

Crab Dip

Here's the recipe for some yummy crab dip I made for book club two weeks ago!

Ingredients:

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened

2 6-oz cans crab meat

1/4 c. diced green onion

1/4 to 1/2 of a mild green chili pepper (Anaheim pepper), minced

1/4 to 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper, minced

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. white pepper

2 T. shredded parmesan

cayenne Pepper

chopped fresh parsley

1 fresh lemon or lemon juice, if desired.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to broil. Combine the cream cheese, crab meat, green onion, minced peppers, salt, white pepper, and lemon juice (if desired) in a bowl. Spread the mixture into the bottom of an oven-safe dish. You want to have a thin layer of dip. Sprinkle the parmesan over the top, and broil until the cheese on top begins to brown. Sprinkle the parsley and cayenne pepper over the top.

If desired, you can squeeze a little lemon juice on top as well. Serve with blue tortilla chips.

 

Pigs in a Blanket

It's been crazy around here!

Last week our kitchen was a pigs in a blanket factory for C5 floor rush. It's like sorority rush, but for MIT students. It's a pretty awesome event - and involves lots of pigs in a blanket!

Pigs in a blanket are so much fun...

Chex Mix

On Saturday, Jamie and I went on an adventure! I'll have to post the details of our adventure later, but for now, I'll tell you how I made the snack we took with us!

I started by mixing together approximately:

1.5 cups of rice chex

1.5 cups of corn chex

1 cup pretzels

1 cup cheetohs

1 cup garlic-flavored bagel chips, broken up into small pieces

Next, I measured 3 tablespoons of Smart Balance, and melted it in the microwave.

Then, I gathered:

1 T Worcestershire Sauce

3/4 t Lawry's Seasoned Salt

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 t onion powder

And then, I mixed all of the spices and worcestershire sauce into the melted Smart Balance...

...poured it all over the chex mix, and mixed it all together (with my hands)!

I stuck the mixed together bowl of future yumminess in the microwave for one and a half minutes.

I took it out of the microwave, and stirred it all up. Then, I repeated the microwave and stir process two more times.

I spread the hot mixture out onto a paper towel to cool.

It was really yummy!

Simple Salsa

Cambridge Cowgirl participates in the Amazon Affiliates Program, which means that by clicking on links in this post, I will earn a small commission at no cost to you. 

I love making salsa! My favorite salsa recipes usually involve cilantro, but this is a new one I've been making that doesn't call for fresh cilantro. It comes in handy when I can't make it to the grocery store that sells cilantro for a reasonable price or when the store is all out!

To make this super-easy salsa, throw the following ingredients into a hot pan, and then remove them from the heat when they are charred on all sides. Then, throw them all into a blender and blend. Just be careful to remember to hold the top of the blender or wait for the ingredients to cool just a bit - pouring very hot ingredients into a blender can create a kitchen catastrophe (Which I learned the hard way)!

1/2 of an onion
1 Serrano or Jalapeno pepper
3 cloves of peeled garlic
4 plum tomatoes
Finally, season your salsa with a little salt and enjoy!