Chipotle Salsa Chicken

One of my good friends was nice enough to share her salsa recipe with me a few years ago.  I love it!  I could drink it.  But I can't leave well enough alone.  I started with her excellent salsa recipe, made a few changes, and made dinner.

Chipotle Salsa Chicken

1.5-2 lbs chicken breasts
1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes
2-3 chipotles in adobo, seeds and ribs removed
1 medium onion, cut into l chunks
3-4 cloves  garlic
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
Optional ingredients:  sour cream, chopped cilantro and shredded cheese on top.

Place chicken in crock pot.  Put the remaining ingredients in the blender and chop.  Pour ingredients over the chicken and cook 4-6 hours on high.  Shred.  I serve over rice but would also be good in a burrito.

Notes:  I always use frozen chicken breasts, so it was closer to 6 hours.  Fresh breast would be closer to 4 hours.  Chipotles can be hot!  So don't forget to remove the seeds and ribs and wash your hands after handling.  If you want a milder version of this, substitute a small can of green chilies for the chipotles.

6 Great Uses for Cornstartch

I recently bought a new container of  cornstarch and decided to look for uses for it outside the kitchen.  Most people who cook enough know that it can be used for thickening sauces and gravies, but here are some other interesting uses.

My Top 6 Uses for Cornstarch

6.  Clean sticky playing cards.  Place a few tablespoons of cornstarch in a Ziploc bag with the cards.  Shake well, then dump the cards out and wipe with a towel.

5.  As a carpet deodorizer.  Mix 1 cup baking soda and 1 cup cornstarch and a few drops of your favorite essential oil.  Sprinkle on carpet and let sit 15-30 minutes before vacuuming.  I like using lemongrass oil.  It makes the house smell kind of like Fruit Loops :)

4. Use as baby powder.  Works great on diaper rash and its unscented! 

3.  Make powdered sugar if you run out.  Blend 1 cup granulated white sugar and 1 Tablespoon until smooth.  Makes about 1 cup.

2.  Dry shampoo for your dog.  Rub cornstarch into fur, then comb or brush out.

1.  When you are trying to cut your son's hair and he moves and you cut his ear and the blood is everywhere and just won't stop no matter what you try... a little cornstarch on a cotton ball or paper towel dabbed on the cut will stop the bleeding almost instantly :)  Or when you accidentally cut a baby's nails too short and cause one to bleed... dip fingertip in cornstarch.  Works great on shaving cuts, too! 

An Easy Tasty Dinner

When we order pizza, Shaun often asks for BBQ Chicken Pizza while I normally want pepperoni.  And when we do BBQ Chicken, many times I don't really care for the sauce.  So one night I decided to surprise him and make BBQ Chicken at home.  Doing  it at home means I get to use a BBQ sauce that I really like.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 chicken breast (approx 8 oz) cooked
2 cups of shredded cheese (I like a mix of 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup mozzarella)
4-6 oz BBQ sauce
1 refrigerator pizza crust  (the type in the can with the canned biscuits)
sliced red onions (optional)
crumbled bacon (optional)

Following the directions on the pizza can, preheat the oven and roll out the dough.  Spread sauce and cheese.  Slice the chicken breast into 1/8-1/4" slices and place on pizza.  Add bacon and red onion for more flavor. Bake and enjoy!

Tip #1:  When I cook the chicken, I normally microwave it until its almost cooked.  It will continue to cook on the pizza, so it's okay if it's a little pink still when you put it on.  If you cook it completely before putting it on the pizza, then it comes out of the oven over cooked and tough.  If you have a meat thermometer, I usually cook it to about 145 degrees.

Tip #2:  Resist the urge to add more sauce, thinking more is better.  Too much sauce makes a very sloppy pizza.

My favorite BBQ sauce for pizza.

Not So Healthy

I was trying to make a recipe that I have made several times in the past, but this time I decided to use fat-free cream cheese.  The finished product had an odd consistency that it had never had before.  I could feel something "weird" in my mouth.  Since the recipe only called for 4 oz of cream cheese, I had the remainder in the refrigerator.  I put a small amount in my mouth and wanted to throw up.  It was the most disgusting thing ever.  The texture wasn't smooth like full fat cream cheese, it was kind of grainy.  It was quite clearly the "thing" that changed my recipe.  Trying to be just a little healthier, I ruined my dinner.

Now for those wondering what I was making, I was making pizza spirals.  It's laughable, I know.  Why try to make pizza more healthy when the reason I like it is that it's quick, easy, and tasty :)  Some times my experiments in cooking fail so horribly.  This was the second major cooking fail in less than two weeks.  Makes me sad, but I'm happy to know what the problem was and how not to make it again. 

Red Footed Tortoise Cake

This is one of the photos I used as a reference for this cake.  Some have yellow on the head and others have red like this one.

This is the finished cake.  (This is not a sea turtle, but the birthday boy's favorite color is blue, so that's why the tortoise is on a a blue base.)








For a step-by-step look at what it takes to put this type of cake together, scroll down.

2-6" round stacked on top of 2-8" rounds.  Cut to more oval shape.

Covered in ganache.

Top view.

Rice crispy treats shaped for legs and head.  Base color gray fondant for the body.

Legs and head covered in fondant and attached.  Toothpicks for the legs and a skewer through the body and head.  (Better pictures of head later)

Tortoise place on fondant covered board and shell added.  Lines drawn on shell with sculpting tool.  Rolled paper towel is supporting the head while it dries so that it doesn't fall off.

Petal dust added for shading on shell and on the yellow parts of the head to make it look more real.  I really liked it like this.

Grooves panted with black food coloring.

Black and brown food coloring used for painting.

Red fondant pieces added to legs.

Maui Onion Pretzels

Target has a great bag of Maui Onion Pretzels.  I could eat the whole bag by myself in a day.  But I don't get to target very often, so I decided to make them at home.  The recipe is easy and I always have the ingredients in the pantry.  The sugar gives a subtle, but a nice contrast to the salty flavor.  I'm a little obsessed with flavored pretzels right now.  Fun and crunchy!  Buy the cheap store brand pretzels.

Maui Onion Pretzels

1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp garlic salt
2 Tbsp onion powder
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 lb pretzel twists

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag.  Add oil and mix well.  Add the pretzels and shake well to coat evenly.  Pour into large dish or onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.  Let cool and enjoy!

Buffalo Ranch Pretzels

I love flavored pretzels, but most of the time they come in small packages, cost the same as a bag of chips, and even though they say there's 9+ servings in the bag, I can polish them off in a day or two.  I'm not proud of it, but my inner fat kid has very little self control when it comes to tasty, crunchy snacks. I buy the cheapest pretzels I can find, normally the store brand.


Buffalo Ranch Pretzels

1 lb bag of mini pretzel twists
6 oz of Frank's Red Hot
2 Tbsp melted butter (optional)
1 pkg of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix

Preheat oven to 275.  Mix the Red Hot, butter and ranch powder in a 1 gallon ziplock bag (or a big bowl) until well combined.  Pour in the pretzels and shake well to coat.  Pour into a large roasting pan or large cookie sheet and spread them out evenly.  Bake 1 hr 15 min, stirring every 15 minutes.  Let cool in pan or spread on paper towels.  If they aren't crunchy enough when they are cool, put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes (every oven cooks a little different).

Frank's Red Hot and butter are used to make a traditional wing sauce, but you can leave the butter out of this recipe if you want to cut fat.