Tamales Moreno

I seriously have just had the best tamales of my life!

Tamales Moreno is forever ingrained in my heart.

It's small.
It's hole-in-the-wall.
It just backs my opinion that some of the best food is served in the dirtiest and shadiest of all places.

If you live in the Denver area, do yourself a favor and go get some.

It was worth the drive for me and the kids. I cried once over the deliciousness of the complimentary tamale and bunuelos we snacked on while waiting for our order. I cried a second time on the way home realizing that between the kids and I, we had already eaten more than a quarter of the tamales we ordered and was distraught that I didn't order more.

Dear Tamales Moreno,

Do not fret. We will be back. You are now considered part of our tamale-loving family.

Sincerely,
The Tamale Addicts

House of Blues Rosemary Cornbread

I was trying to share this recipe with a friend of mine and was shocked to find out I never posted about it!

This is soooooo yummy. My favorite things about this are the bits of corn in every bite, the rosemary - heaven in bread, the sugary pan - forgive me, I'm drooling.

Eat this with Red Beans & Rice. Eat this with piping hot Chili. Eat this with Barbeque. Just EAT THIS!

House of Blues Rosemary Cornbread

Ingredients:
3 ounces frozen corn
1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves (no stems)
1 cup heavy cream
1 package corn muffin mix (I always have Jiffy stocked in my "pantry")

1/4 cup finely diced red pepper

2 eggs

1 tablespoon minced shallot or green onions (I usually prefer shallots over green onions - but who want to make another run to the G-store?)

Spray a 9x9-inch or 8x8-inch dark cake pan with non-stick oil and coat with granulated sugar.

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into cake pan and bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes at 300 degrees F.


Raise temperature to 325 degrees F and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Martini's Bistro: The Twist

A few weeks ago, I was blessed to join a few book clubbers for dinner in Longmont, CO.  The book: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (aka Pioneer Woman). I LOVE me some Pioneer Woman, I love everything about her: her humor, her life, her and her hunky husband's love story, her recipes. But I'm not here to talk about my beloved Pioneer Woman. Today is for the glory of Martini's Bistro's menu.


Their martini's FAB.U.LOUS!
Their appetizers SCRUMPTIOUS.
Their choices for entrees MOUTH-WATERING.

I gobbled (not kidding...I was hungry from a long day of work and a wimpy lunch) the Sassafras. I have a thing for sweet potatoes.

My friend Kelli was sitting next to me and ordered the Twist. We poked at each other's plates (and martinis) and were delighted in deliciousness.

I left the restaurant in complete tummy satisfaction. My hour-long commute was in taste-bud bliss. And a few days later, I still couldn't get the menu off my mind. So guess what I made.

Here's my version of the Martini's Bistro's The Twist.

And here's the part you can't see in the close-ups.

Oregano fresh from the garden, infused in liquid gold!

If you look at the menu, you'll see all the ingredients you need. I used chicken, seasoned with garlic powder, salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil, that I baked in a 350 deg oven for 20 minutes. I used Cherub Grape Tomatoes - really, there's nothing better unless you grow them yourself (mine aren't ready for picking). I also used canned artichokes and halved kalamata olives in their own brine.

Frontega Chicken Panini

 

Ok. I've mentioned this before...I Truly. Madly. Deeply. Love me some Panera. Their pastries, breakfast, bread, lunch and dinner make my heart skip a beat. Really.

It's the perfect place. Right?

Well, with two little ones on the go, a perfect place is virtually non-existent.

Wait, I take it back. If it has a drive thru and they don't ask, "Do you want fries with that?", then it's perfect. Unfortunately, those places are EXTREMELY hard to find.

Anyway, back to Panera. My Go-To order is some combo that includes the Frontega Chicken Panini. I love it. I love it so much I don't even know why they bother to put any other panini options on the menu.

So one day, I was curious and looked up copy cat recipes.

Bingo! I found it here.

Except, it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. So I changed it up a little bit and didn't bother with measuring.

The result: Wow! Could it be?! Did I manage to one-up Panera on this one? You be the judge!

Here's what I did:

Frontega Chicken Panini

Focaccia Bread, sliced sandwich style
Rotisserie Chicken (seriously, who has time to cook chicken and then make a sandwich?)
~1/2 c. mayonnaise
~1 T. diced green chile
~1/2 t. crushed red pepper
Basil leaves, cut into strips
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tomato, sliced (and for me, seeded...seeds...bleh!)
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Mix mayo, green chile, and red pepper until combined. Set aside to let the flavors meld.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Saute red onion slices until onions are tender and start caramelizing. (Why do I do this??? Because I don't like raw onions - the one exception is white onions in piping hot albondigas soup. But I digress. This is the one thing I don't like about Panera. You can't ask them to remove the raw onions. They just won't. So I just remove them before eating. But at home, I can have onions any way I want. And sauteed is the way I like it.)

Spread the mayo mixtures on the top and bottom slices of the focaccia bread. On the bottom slice, start by spreading the rotisserie chicken first, followed by the cooked onions,a single layer of tomatoes, the basil strips, and lastly the mozzarella cheese. Top it off with the other slice of bread.

Bake in a 350 deg oven for ~7-8 minutes. (I don't have a panini press. This could possibly take this sandwich to a whole new level for me. I don't plan on buying one any time soon. But I can dream.)

Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup

Panera Bread Broccoli Cheese Soup

Love Panera Bread! LOVE THIS SOUP!!

If you don't have a Panera near you. I am sorry. We are bread people. Bring on the carbs. Hello Fontega Chicken Panini. Hello Cinnamon Crunch Bagel. Hello French Bread (for French toast). We <3 Panera!

Anyway, back to the recipe.

What I did...

I chopped the broccoli into tiny, tiny pieces.

I used bagged shredded carrots.

I didn't set the sauteed onions aside. One less dish to clean, the better.

I skipped the whole puree part. Again, less dishes to clean.

I didn't have any on hand tonight, but serve this with a yummy French bread baguette. When I'm in Panera I use my baguette as my spoon. :P

Albondigas Soup

We love this soup three ways:
1. from 3 Margaritas
2. from Auntie Barbara
3. this way:

Grandma Salazar's Albondigas Soup

This is a Cooking Light recipe, so when it gives you the directions on cooking the meatballs, it uses cooking spray. I found this to be a complete mess b/c the meatballs kept sticking to the pan. I gave up and just used veggie oil and ended up completely satisfied.

By the way, this is not a quick meal...so plan ahead.

Pavo Panini

Lagarto’s is one of my favorite restaurants. Their panini’s are THE best. Sadly, I hear they are closing in the near future because the rent is too high. This is surprising to me because every time I’ve been there it’s been busy. Hopefully they won't completely close and will find another location. Anyway, one of my favorite paninis there is called the Pavo. I’ve made it at home and it's pretty close.

If you don’t have a panini grill, you can just to what I do, use two heavy skillets. One skillet not heavy enough? Stack the second one with a couple cans of tuna :)

Pavo Panini

Pesto Sauce (Preferrably home-made – I made a sauce using almonds instead of pine nuts because I had them already on-hand and they’re cheaper)
Cranberry Sauce (I used canned and jellied sauce)
Oven roasted turkey breast
Brie cheese, sliced
Focaccia bread, halved

Heat the grill or skillet medium-low to medium.

Generously spread some pesto sauce on one half of the bread. Generously spread some cranberry sauce on the other half of the bread. Layer a few slices of turkey breast and the cheese between the bread slices.

Place the sandwich on the grill and press. Heat until bread is toasted and cheese is melted.

If using two skillets, place the sandwich on the heated skillet and top the sandwich with the other skillet. If the sandwich doesn’t get pressed down, weigh down the second skillet with a couple of cans (tuna works well – they have a low center of gravity :)). Flip the sandwich over to toast both sides.

Sometimes, if I can't grill my sandwich fresh, I'll just eat it un-heated, which is also yummie.

Enjoy!!!

Our Louisiana Must-Eats

• Boiled Crawfish - our new favorite place to get them from is Salvo's in Belle Chasse (too bad it's a little far)
• Tony's Seafood Market
• Cane's - "I'd like a Caniac Combo, no slaw, extra toast, extra sauce, and lemonade."
• Boiled Crawfish
• Middendorf's - the small special, thin-fried catfish
• Sweet Tea, please!
• Larb - from Thai Kitchen
• Boiled Crawfish
• Boiled peanuts!
• Muffaletta - only the original, from Central Grocery store in the French Quarter
• Chicken Caesar Salade and Strawberries Romanoff - La Madeline's
• Cafe du'Monde beignet - not the most appetizing, but you gotta anyways
• Eddie's Frozen Custard - this is a new one for us
• Snowballs - stuffed or love nest style (meaning layer flavored shaved ice with ice cream...heaven!)
• Boiled Crawfish - did I mention this already?