How To Make Sweet And Spicy Dill Pickles

Hi Folk's,

I like pickles sweet, sour, dill, bread and butter or spicy I just like pickles, and an older woman I know shared this recipe, of how she transforms regular store bought dill pickles into these pickles which have the yummy quality of dills with sweet plus a little kick of spicy.

Her original recipe makes a gallon of pickles but I cut the recipe down to a quart.

It is really simple and she say's the pickles will keep for months either refrigerated or not.

What you do is drain a quart jar of dill pickles any kind will do, I used Vlasic Ovals Hamburger Dill Chips.

Drain the pickles in a large bowl, and discard the liquid.

 Add 2 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of sliced jalapenos with juice and combine. Cover and wait at least 8 hours, giving the pickles a stir every now and then.

After 8 hours return the contents of the bowl into the original pickle jar. You can eat them now, but they only get better over time.

I hope you give these pickles a try.

Thanks for reading,
                              Roy

Easy Cherry Cheescake

Hi Folks,


This is a very easy recipe for cheesecake, that my wife loves.

You will need:

1 -  21 ounce can of pie filling (fruit of your choice)
8 ounces cream cheese
1 - 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

 1/3 cup of lemon or lime juice ( I used lime )

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 graham cracker pie crust


In a large bowl break up cream cheese and allow to soften at room temperature ( about an hour )

After 1 hour beat cream cheese with a mixer until fluffy

Add the lime or lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Beat until smooth, pour mixture into pie crust

Chill for at 4 hours, smooth pie topping over the top.



                                                  And serve

I hope you try, and enjoy this recipe.

Thanks for reading,
                               Roy

Homemade Tomatillo Salsa

 Hi Folks,

This is a very simple recipe for a tomaillo salsa that only takes
about 45 - 60 minutes from start to finish. The cost is well under $2.00, the main cost being the tomatillos.

If you have never had a tomatillo salsa the flavor is a little tart and sour and a little tangy. There is no heat unless you add peppers, so you can adjust the heat level with either more or less peppers, I just find this recipe right for me.

You will need:

1 pound of tomatillos
( tomatillos should be firm and a bright green )
3 cloves of garlic
2 serrano peppers

Peel and wash the tomatillos, place ingredients in a pan, roast on stove top or under broiler, checking and rotating often until ingredients are charred and soft, everything won't cook at the same time, so as ingredients become charred and soft, transfer to a container and cover with plastic wrap or foil

Continue in this manner until everything is charred and soft.
Once everything is in the container and covered, wait 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, you will have something that looks like this, your ingredients will have become softer and produced a good amount of liquid.

Remove the stems from the serranos
and the tomatillos,  peel the garlic.
Put all the ingredients, including liquid into a blender and blend until smooth.

The end result will look something like this, and will produce about
a cup of of salsa.

This salsa goes well with chips, tacos, enchiladas, eggs or as the base for other Mexican sauces.

You could also add lime juice, and cilantro, and mix with sour cream to transform this salsa into something that is even more yummy. Just try that on your on your next soft tacos.

I hope you you try and enjoy this recipe.

Thanks for reading.

Here's a link for my youtube channel where you can find this and other recipes.
Homemade Tomatillo Salsa

Easy No Knead Homemade Focaccia Bread

Hi Folks,

I decided  I wanted to try out some of Fleishmann's rapid rise yeast recipes, I love homemade bread, but it's not something that goes very quickly, and I wanted homemade bread quick.

We eat a lot of pasta so while reviewing Fleishmann's site, I saw this recipe in their no knead section, and thought focaccia - perfect with pasta, no knead and rapid rise how could it get any better?

Well I thought the only way it could get any better was what if I  made this recipe, halved it and made a savory focaccia out of one half, and a dessert focaccia out of the other half ?

Well it turned out pretty good. Here's the recipe and the changes I made to make 2 different breads.

Ingredients For dough:

3 cups of bread flour ( or all purpose )
1 envelope Fleishmann's rapid rise yeast
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 and 2/3 cup very warm water ( 120 - 130 degrees )
2 Tablespoons of olive oil ( I used 1 Tablespoon of olive oil  for the  savory, and 1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil for the sweet )

For the topping for the savory I used :
 1/4 cup diced onions
2 Tablespoons sliced black olives
2 slices of mozzarella cheese
1 Tablespoon olive oil
a sprinkle of garlic  powder, Italian  seasoning and a sprinkle of Parmesan  cheese

For the topping of the sweet I used :

 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Nestle's Crunch Bar cut up ( I added after 20 minutes cooking time )

I combined the first 5 ingredients and mixed well, and here is where I diverged from the original recipe, you are supposed to combine the first 6 ingredients but as I wanted to use to use the vegetable oil in my sweet I divided the dough into 2 bowls and the added my olive oil to one and my vegetable oil to the other.  I put my dough's in 2 different pans I had sprayed with oil, and let rise for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I preheated my oven to 375 degrees,  uncovered and poked holes in both dough's, added my toppings to each, covered and let rise for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes I baked both for 30 minutes, until lightly browned.

They where both delicious.

Now there where 3  mishaps along the way.

The first being I didn't read my recipe thoroughly, while waiting for my first rise, I reread  the recipe and I saw that I should have put the dough into  my pans, I had left the dough in the bowls and really thought I was waiting for a  15 minute rise, and then was going to put the dough in pans add toppings and then bake .

 As for the  second mishap, I'm not sure if  was the choice of candy bar I used, or the timing I added it to the top of the bread ( I was afraid it might burn if I added it when I first put it in the oven ) or a combination of the two.

The third mishap was I was also making a youtube video,  ( my second) , for this recipe on  a cloudy day, and parts of the video didn't come out really well.You can see it here, but I warn you I'm no Tom Hanks  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE5NPI-Hels

Now some of the goals I have for this blog and my youtube channel, beyond becoming as big as the pioneer woman someday,  is that maybe I can show people who  may not have a lot of experience in the kitchen, or who may be on a limited budget that they can make good food, and eat well, with cheap easy delicious recipes.

So try the original recipe from Fleishmann'n website , or diverge a little and make your own version you can throw just about anything on top of focaccia, and it will taste delicious.

Thank's for reading, Roy

Sour Cream Enchiladas

         
Pork Roast Part 1                          

                              Enchiladas With Sour Cream Sauce


For the sour cream sauce you will need
1 - 15.5 ounce can of vegetable or chicken broth
8 ounces sour cream
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup water

Warm broth and water in microwave for 1 minute
In a medium size saucepan melt butter over medium heat, after butter is melted, add flour stir until well blended cook until a light tan color slowly add broth and water stirring constantly until well blended, continue to cook until thick and bubbly, remove from heat. Whisk in sour cream until well blended. In the bottom of a 10 by12 baking pan spread 1/4 cup of sauce. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


For the enchiladas you will need
12 ounces shredded pork ( or chicken, cooked hamburger, beef or cheese can be substituted)
8 ounces cream cheese
4.5 ounces green chilies
12 corn tortillas
4 ounce grated cheddar cheese
1 Tablespoon sliced jalapenos (optional)

Put pork ( or other meat), in a medium sized nonstick pan, heat until warm, add the cream cheese and the chilies and continue to heat until cream cheese is melted, remove from heat. ( If using  cheese instead of meat, exclude this step, just warm cream cheese slightly in microwave, so it blends easily with the cheese).

Put tortillas between two damp paper towels, and microwave for 45 seconds. Remove from microwave ( caution they will be hot).

 Spread 1/2 cup of sauce on  the bottom of a large baking pan. Take one tortilla, place flat on a cutting board, spoon  1 heaping Tablespoon of mixture of choice near edge of  tortilla and roll up, (you will need to get 12 Tablespoons from this mixture), place  rolled tortilla in baking pan seam side down, continue filling and rolling tortillas until all are filled. Spread remaining sauce over tortillas, top with grated cheese and sliced jalapenos ( if desired) bake for 15 to 20 minutes until hot and bubbly.

Goes well with a side  of Mexican Black Beans, or Mexican Rice.

Mexican Black Beans

Mexican Black Beans

These beans are awesome. They make a great side dish, or add a side of cornbread, and a salad or rice for a complete meal. Any other dried beans such as Pinto Beans can be used in this recipe.

Ingredients

1 - 1 pound package of black beans cleaned and rinsed
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 clove of garlic
6 slices of bacon
1 medium onion diced

Place beans in large pot cover with 2 quarts of water bring to boil, after beans come to boil cover with lid and turn of heat. Let set for 1 hour. After 1 hour drain and rinse beans,  cover with 2 quarts cold water, add garlic and bay leaf  bring to boil reduce heat to medium high and cook for 2 hours or until tender. I've had  beans be done in 2 hours and sometimes take 5 hours. Check beans often stirring and adding water as needed, once beans reach desired tenderness, add bacon mixture, and cook for another 30 minutes. Enjoy

Bacon mixture:

While beans are cooking slice bacon into 1/2 inch pieces add to pan and cook until crisp, remove bacon from  pan with slotted spoon drain grease and add chopped onion to pan,  cook 3 - 4 minutes
add diced tomatoes and cook for 3 more minutes, add bacon and remove from heat, and set aside.

Mexican Restaurant Style Salsa

Hi Folk's !

Here's my version of salsa.

You will need :

1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
2 garlic cloves smashed and peeled - reserve 1
1 jalapeno pepper
1 habanero pepper
2 serrano peppers
1/2 a diced onion yellow or white
1/2   tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
2 TBLS chopped cilantro
2 TTBS fresh lime juice

Open and drain tomatoes reserving liquid (add enough water to the reserved liquid to make 1 cup), slice peppers length wise and remove stems,  place in  a pot, add reserved liquid, peppers, onion and 1 clove of garlic, bring to boil then reduce to simmer and cook until onions and peppers are soft add more water if need ( just enough to keep everything moist).

After onions and peppers are soft, put in blender with tomatoes, reserved garlic  and spices, blend until smooth  ( this is a pretty hot salsa you may want to remove the peppers from the mixture before blending, blend with just the onions and liquid, and then taste for heat level, you can then add peppers as needed till you get it to the heat level you like).

After salsa is smooth and at the heat level you want, add cilantro and lime juice and blend for a few seconds more. Pour into container and chill for an hour to let all the flavors marry. Serve with tortilla chips.

I hope you try and enjoy this recipe.

I have just started a youtube channel Roys Kitchen which has this recipe ( the only one so far )on it. I hope you will watch and click the thumbs up (like button).

Thanks for reading,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpX9MRROtA

Roy