The Best Thing I Ever Made - Salsa

I love to make salsa, and I make it often. It is the one food that my husband really gets excited about and it could not be easier. My usual recipe is so simple: one can of diced tomatoes, 2 tbs yellow onion, 2 green onions, 1 clove of garlic, whatever chile peppers you like (usually 1-2) a pinch of cumin and salt to taste. Zap the stuff together in the food processor until it is whatever texture you like and you have a great, simple salsa.

When I made the salsa pictured below I thought there was no way Tom would try this, but apparently as long as it has the word 'salsa' in the name he is willing. He ate almost all of this in a very short amount of time. I would definitely call it a hit. In fact as I was typing this he saw the picture and said, I loved that!!



Avocado Salsa

Ingredients

* 1-2/3 cups frozen corn, thawed
* 2 cans (2-1/4 ounces each) sliced ripe olives, drained
* 1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
* 1 small onion, chopped
* 5 garlic cloves, minced
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup lemon juice
* 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon pepper
* 4 medium ripe avocado, peeled
* Tortilla chips


Directions

* In a large bowl, combine corn, olives, red pepper and onion. In a small bowl, combine garlic, oil, lemon juice, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper; mix well. Pour over corn mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight. * Just before serving, chop avocados and stir into salsa. Serve with tortilla chips. Yield: about 7 cups.

Do you make your own salsa?

Michael Symon's Braised Chicken Thighs with Spicy Kale

One of my favorite celebrity chefs is Michael Symon. I have been fortunate enough to visit two of his restaurants, B Spot and Lola. If you are ever in the Cleveland area I highly recommend both. There is also a new B Spot in the Pittsburgh airport you can check out.

I recently purchased his new cookbook called Carnivore and it is awesome. I picked a chicken thigh recipe to share because if you have been following my blog you know I love thigh meat.


I cut this recipe in half because as the name of the blog informs you, I would be dining alone. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lets get started.


You will need lemon, parsley, carrot, tomatoes, kale, chicken, wine, onion, garlic, bay leaves and bread crumbs. You know what else you need, jalapeno, because the name of the recipe includes SPICY. But guess who forgot the darn jalapeno? Yep, this lady. But cooking is all about improvisation, so I just dashed in some tabasco. Problem solved.


The recipe says to salt the chicken the night before, and somehow I remembered to do that. I have done this a couple of times with meat based on Chef Symon's recommendation and I really like how it really brings out the flavor of the meat. It doesn't make it overly salty, don't worry.


I like to zest the lemon first because it smells so wonderful.


Chop up your veggies.


Chop up your kale. You can use spinach or swiss chard in this as well.


Combine the parsley, bread crumbs, and lemon zest.


Get some olive oil in a large pot and heat it up.


Put your thighs in skin side down and let them cook for about 4 minutes or until browned.


I am always paranoid about stuff sticking so I may have flipped mine too early. Cook on the other side for another 4 minutes.


Get them out of there and let them hang out on a plate.


Drop in the onions and let those cook with some salt for about a minute.


Add in the carrots and garlic. If you actually remembered the jalapeno it goes in now. Cook these for 2 minutes.


Add in the wine and scrape everything up from the bottom of the pan. Cook this until half of the wine is gone.


Add in the tomatoes and bay leaf and once it starts bubbling you can put in your kale.


This looks like a ton of kale but don't worry this will reduce way down.


Put the lid on for about five minutes. I love my Le Creuset dutch oven!


After the kale has reduced down put the chicken back in and put the lid back on. Put this in the oven for 20 minutes and walk away!


When it comes out of the oven sprinkle it with the breadcrumb mixture and you are ready to eat.


This was so delicious, and so simple. Thighs are always on sale and I think they have a much better flavor than chicken breasts by a long shot.

Here is my bonus tip for leftovers...


Strip the meat off the leftover thighs and put it into a container with any leftover veggies and bread crumbs. The next day put all of this in a crockpot with some chicken broth and let it cook on low for 5-6 hours. You will have the most amazing soup with no work at all!


So easy and so delicious.

The Best Thing I Ever Made - Seafood

I knew what I was posting this week as soon as I saw the topic, seafood. This tuna recipe will make you look like a rockstar and it could not be easier.

The recipe is for Sesame Seared Albacore Tuna and it looks fancy, and tastes delicious.



What is your favorite recipe that looks gourmet but is super simple?

Healthy Harvest Chili

One of my guilty pleasures is reading People magazine. They usually include one or two recipes per issue and this one caught my eye because it looked super easy and cheap, who doesn't love that?


I did one less can of beans than it calls for so that it did not make a ton of food. I love leftover chili but not for a whole week. One thing to note is the seasoning packets have a lot of salt in them, so you do not need to add any more during the cooking process for this to turn out delicious.


You will need some ground turkey or chicken, beans, tomatoes, onion, corn, a taco seasoning packet and a ranch dressing seasoning packet. Talk about easy, you don't even have to measure anything!


Chop up your onion and get it in the pan with some olive oil. Cook this over medium for 8-10 minutes or until the onion just starts to brown.


Once your onion is cooked get the meat in the pan. Cook that for about 5 minutes.


Once the meat is ready stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring it to a boil. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes and you are ready to eat. I told you this is easy!


The best part of this recipe is that while the chili simmers, there is nothing to clean up! Use that 20 minutes to do some holiday shopping online, call a friend, or just relax.


Get the chili into a bowl and enjoy! This could easily be done in a crock pot as well, just brown the meat and onions and throw everything in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours.

I hope you all have a great week!