Posole

I made this for Mitchell while he was home last week – he loved it and asked for me to post the recipe.  So here it is   Posole is SO cussing delicious.  And it’s very forgiving.  Feel free to make substitutions or throw some other things in (black beans or some sweet corn would be yummy).

Red chile sauce:
1 1/2 cups boiling-hot water
1/4 large white onion
about 5 ounces (around 8 dried chiles), ancho, or guajillo, or new mexico red chiles
2 cloves garlic (from whole head; the rest will go into the posole)

Posole:
1 large head garlic
2 quarts chicken broth, beef broth, or water
3-4 pounds pork shoulder or butt roast, fat trimmed, and cut into chunks
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
Prepared Red chile sauce, or substitute 2-3 cans of red enchilada sauce
2 can green chiles (optional); or substitute Hatch chiles or roasted anaheim chiles)
3 teaspoons salt
2 30-ounce cans hominy, drained, or dried hominy that has been soaked overnight
1 can Rotel tomatoes (optional)

Soak dried hominy, unless you are using canned hominy (dried is better though!):
The day/night before you plan on making posole, start soaking the dried hominy in water.  You will need to use ALOT of water as the posole will soak it up and swell up big.  That’s what she said.  Generally I add enough water to the container with the posole in it so that the posole takes up 1/3 and water 2/3 of the total level…

Red chile sauce instructions:
Tear the chiles apart by hand; remove and discard the seeds and and stems.  Place the chiles in a bowl and cover completely with boiling-hot water. Soak chiles, turning them occasionally, for 30 minutes. Cut onion into large pieces and in a blender purée with chiles and soaking liquid (do not drain the chiles before pureeing), 2 cloves of garlic, and 2 teaspoons salt until smooth. For a shortcut on the red chile – simply substitute 2-3 cans of red enchilada sauce.

Posole instructions:

Thinly slice remaining garlic. In a heavy skillet over high heat, preheat a couple of tablespoons of oil and brown the chunks of pork with sliced garlic. High heat results in nice crusty brown bits on the pork.  This is what you want. Remove from heat.

In a big soup pot – add chicken broth, pork, oregano, cumin, red chili sauce, green chilis (optional), salt, homony, and Rotel tomatoes (optional). Gently simmer the posole, uncovered, until tender, at least 1 1/2 hours.  Your cooking time will be longer if you started with dried hominy – taking at least an additional hour.  But this is not rocket science – simmer it until the hominy is tender and the house is fragrant with the wonderful spicy smell….and adjust seasonings to your own tastes.

Optional Accompaniments:
diced avocado
chopped white onion
cheese
sour cream
tortilla chips or strips

Blue’s Goat Cheese Salad

TO DIE FOR PEEPS!  You’ll love it.  Trust me.  If there’s any two things I know something about, it’s goats and salads.  Well, maybe not so much about goats, other than the fact that they produce some freaking awesome cheese.

Ingredients:

Goat cheese (log style)
Ritz crackers (my personal preference), or bread crumbs
1-2 egg whites
Olive Oil
Lettuce of choice
Cherry tomatoes
Almonds or pine nuts or candied pecans (any kind of nut will do here, even my nutty Tia Loco)
Perfectly ripe avocado
Blue’s Balsamic Vinaigrette

Directions:

Slice the log style goat cheese with dental floss, or fishing line, or thread (this works waaay better than a knife).  You’ll want slices about 1/4″-1/3″ thick and you’ll wind up with lovely little rounds of goat cheese when you’re done.

Lightly beat the egg whites with a dash of water.  Crush the crackers finely.  Dip each goat cheese round in the egg whites and then coat with the cracker crumbs – push the cracker crumbs firmly onto the cheese (but not so firmly that the cheese falls apart).  At this point you’ll want to refrigerate the breaded goat cheese in the fridge for at least 10-15 minutes (or longer, you can do this ahead).

To me the whole point of this salad is to make a salad that not only presents a powerful taste pop, but is also beautiful to look at. With this in mind…

Have your remaining ingredients ready to go before you cook the goat cheese.  Your lettuce should be washed and dry, your tomatoes should be washed, the nuts should be standing by (comments from the peanut gallery are welcome).  Your avocado should be sliced into lengthwise slices.  I’d even go so far as to plate these up on individual salad plates, taking care to make sure the presentation is gorgeous.  Place lettuce on the plate, then tuck the tomatoes on one section on top of the lettuce.  Fan out the avocado slices in a pleasing manner and put them on top of the lettuce.  Sprinkle the nuts on top.  Drizzle with Blue’s Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Now we’re ready for the best part – the goat cheese.  Pour a little oil in a skillet and heat the pan and oil over medium – medium high heat.  Carefully put the breaded goat cheese rounds in the oil (don’t walk away, they cook quick!).  When they are golden brown on the first side, flip them gently and cook a little longer until the other side is golden brown.  The cooking process literally takes a couple of minutes.

Place several goat cheese rounds on each salad plate, and enjoy!

Blue’s Balsamic Vinaigrette

If you’ve had this at my house, you remember it.  It is the most amazing balsamic vinaigrette recipe I’ve ever found.  I’ve made this for years.  It keeps indefinitely in the fridge and is far better if you make it a day or so in advance.  Also, when kept in the fridge, it has a tendency to solidify a bit.  Just give it a good stir or let it sit out for a little while.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon sugar
2 pressed garlic cloves (or some garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/4 cup olive oil
A heaping large spoonful or two of mayonnaise (this binds the dressing)

Directions:

Mix.  TAAA DAAAAH!!  It’s that simple.  Ok, I usually whisk it all together really good.  Then store it in the fridge.  This dressing is *perfect* on Blue’s Goat Cheese Salad.

Life-Like Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

When Grue and Blue were young, we used to make Christmas Cookies with this recipe. I would mix up three batches of this dough, refrigerate overnight, then roll out the following day. The dough was painted as described below before baking. We would invite our friends over and we had a table full of kids painting Christmas cookies while the Moms baked them and rolled the dough. Then we’d split up the cookies with the other families and have cookies for the entire season. Well, that is, if you hid some where the kids couldn’t find them.

The cookie dough:

3/4 cup Parkay margarine (don’t substitute butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add combined dry ingredients; mix well. Chill 4 hours or overnight. Roll out half the dough on floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters, (the kind with the detail inside the cookie cutter) pressing firmly on cutter; place on greased cookie sheet.

Paint with Stained Glass paint after baking, or Paint Box Paint (below) before baking at 400 for 5 to 7 minutes. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Stained Glass Paint

Combine one teaspoon of light corn syrup with a few drops of food coloring for each color. Colors will be intense but transparent. Mix six different colors in a six muffin muffin tin (red, blue, green, yellow, pink, orange). Paint on baked cookies.

Paint Box Paint

Blend three egg yolks with 3/4 teaspoon of water. Divide the mixture into six muffin muffin tin and color with food coloring, adding drops of color until you get the desired colors. Combining the basic colors will give you a wider variety of “paints”. Using small artist brushes, paint the Life-Like sugar cookies before baking them. Use your imagination when painting the cookies, following the lines or coloring large areas. One Christmas, a State of Texas cookie was made into pregnant angels! Kids think of great ways to vary the cookies. If mixture thickens, add a drop or two of water. Bake and cool cookies as usual. For an added sparkle, sprinkle the painted cookies lightly with granulated sugar, then bake as usual.

Peanut Patties

Margie brought this recipe into the family, it makes the best peanut patties you ever ate. I had lost the recipe and found it recently in a file where I had dumped a lot of loose recipes that I used to have in a recipe binder. Thank goodness! I’ve tried dozens of recipes but none were as good as this one. This is a well-loved Texas treat.

3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light Karo
2 cups raw peanuts (red -skinned, preferably)
few drops of red cake coloring if you can’t find the red- skinned peanuts

Mix the sugar, cocoa, and salt in a heavy bottomed pan. Cook over medium heat to a boil, then add peanuts and food coloring. Cook to soft ball stage. Remove from heat and “beat” (stir rapidly) with a wooden spoon until “creamy”. This will take several minutes. Mixture will become lighter when ready to make patties. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Let them cool.

Rose’s English Toffee

1 cup chopped pecans (or almonds)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Butter 9×9 pan. Spread pecans on bottom. Heat the sugar and butter to boiling. Boil, stirring constantly, for 7 minutes. Spread over pecans, then sprinkle chocolate chips over while still hot. Cover and let chocolate melt, then spread chocolate over. Cut in squares while still hot.

Delicious!

Corn Pudding

This corn pudding is wonderfully creamy and rich, and especially good with a holiday meal. Of course, it may also
be prepared during the summer when fresh corn is readily available. We especially like it in the fall when Hatch chiles are available, when we add chopped roasted green chili to it. Best corn pudding I’ve ever had.

1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
6 large eggs
2 cups cream
1 stick of butter, melted
6 cups of fresh corn (you can substitute frozen)

Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk, then stir in the cream and melted butter. Gradually add the sugar, stirring until smooth. Stir in the corn and pour into a greased 13×9 baking dish. Bake at 350 or until deep golden and set. Let stand 5 minutes before stirring.

I like to add green chile to this dish (of course!).

Maude Knox’s Buttermilk pie

I found this recipe in Marguerite’s files, she attributed the recipe to her mother, Maude Boesch Knox. I don’t remember Mema ever making the pie, but we love it! We baked it for Thanksgiving 2009 and it was the first pie to go.

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
3 eggs, beaten
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 deep dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar together until light. Add the eggs, beat thoroughly. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the batter alternately with the buttermilk; beat until smooth. Pour into a deep dish pie shell and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350 and bake for 50-60 additional minutes. Done when pie is a nice golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean. Best while still warm.

Variation: Use lemon extract and lemon zest in lieu of vanilla.

Try this recipe when you have buttermilk you need to use.

Hint: I like to prebake the pie crust for a few minutes, and skip the high temperature beginning, baking for 80 minutes or more at 325.

Tomato Basil Soup

Tia Loca sent this recipe – it sounds heavenly, as well as delightfully quick and easy.  I will be making this soon – you should too.

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh tomatoes, blanched, skinned, chopped (Or two large cans of whole, diced or stewed)
4 cups tomato sauce
12-14 basil leaves, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
¼ cup minced onion
1 small container fresh parmesan
1 pint of Half and Half
¼ lb. butter

Directions:

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Add tomatoes and sauce, simmer for 30 minutes. With a hand held mixer or in food processor, puree tomato mixture and chopped basil. Add butter, cream and Parmesan and puree. Season with fresh ground sea salt and pepper. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Top with croutons and extra Parmesan.

For croutons, take day-old french bread, brush with olive oil, and toast in the oven @ 400 for 10 – 15 minutes until brown.

Cranberry Apple Gelatin Salad

Another recipe from Tía Loca.  I love Tía Loca more than a fat kid loves cake!

Ingredients:

1 3-ounce package cranberry or raspberry jello
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups cold cranberry juice
1 cup tart medium apple, finely chopped (granny smith)
1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of cloves

Directions:

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Add remaining ingredients and stir to blend. Pour into a 3 cup mold. Chill at least five hours. Serve as a relish with meat or poultry.