Mango Pico de Gallo

This is a light salsa good on top of tacos or just for dippin'. You could even bulk it up with black beans and make it a side dish. I did just this for a picnic with some of my running friends, and they raved about it. Making it is so simple a Caveman could do it  any child could do it (I really effin' hate those commercials).

Start by peeling and cutting a mango (this may be the toughest step).

Then add the zest and juice of a lime.

Next, chop some tomatoes.

Then, add chopped cilantro. If you're like me and luurve cilantro, add a lot.

Next comes the chopped avocado.

Then add S&P and a bit of hot sauce. Had I had a jalapeno around, I would've added that too, but since I didn't, hot sauce sufficed. Give it a good stir (but don't crush the avocado) to coat everything in lime juice and the seasonings.

Isn't it pretty? So many bright colors. If you want to impress someone, make this. Just don't tell them how easy it was.

I served mine on top of some chicken tacos, which I also garnished with taco sauce and plain yogurt (which simulates sour cream).

And there you have it! Ole!

Rice Paper Rolls

One of my favorite appetizers at Thai restaurants is the vegetarian rice paper rolls. The rice paper is chewy and the vegetables are fresh and crunchy, and the accompanying peanut dipping sauce is salty and tangy. It makes for a delightful combination. I purchased some rice paper rolls way back in the day and needed to use them up, so I made some homemade. They turned out pretty damn good--a pretty decent likeness to my favorite Thai restaurant's version.

Here we have the assembly line for the rolls. You want to make sure to have everything ready to go before you wet the rice paper, lest you end up with a soggy, rice papery mess and no roll. And that would be sad.

 

So, I assembled all my ingredients:

*Scallions

*Shredded carrot

*Shredded cucumber

*Shredded yellow pepper

*Avocado

*Cilantro

*Spicy wasabi peanuts (which were leftover from a random road trip but worked perfectly for these)

Then, you simply take the rice paper and run it under warm water for about 10 seconds, making sure to saturate the whole thing. Next, lay it flat on your work surface and place all desired fillings closer to one end, then roll up like a burrito. Try to roll them tightly so they don't end up falling apart when you bite into them.

I didn't make a tangy peanutty dipping sauce, but instead used Trader Joe's teriyaki dipping sauce, which I could drink with a straw it's so good.

I paired these rice paper rolls with my attempt at homemade pho. Stay tuned to hear about that adventure!

Farmers' Market Fresh: In My Glass

One of my favorite cocktails as of late is the Strawberry Royale from one of my favorite Happy Hours as of late. Blue Hill is within walking distance of our house, and they have a lovely outdoor patio with great specials, so what's not to love? 

I wanted to recreate this drink at home, so when Cookie Monster and I picked up a pint of fresh strawberries at the farmers' market, I did. 

I muddled 3-4 strawberries with one shot of vodka, then dumped into a champagne glass. Then I simply filled the rest with sparkling wine. Voila! It was a pretty good replication, especially with the fresh berries.

A lovely happy hour cocktail, or something delicious for Sunday brunch.

Apple Oat Bran Cranberry Pancakes

Here are some delicious pancakes I made in order to use up some apples that were turning bad. They got involved with some other bad apples at school and were headed down a bad path, straight toward the Appletinis. But I reformed those apples and made them into something wholesome: these healthy and tasty pancakes.

Ye Olde Internets yielded this recipe, so naturally I have no idea from whence it came. Hmm... does applesgonegood.com exist? Nope! But maybe it should.

3/4 cup oat bran

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon oil

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup apple, chopped finely

I combined all these ingredients per instructions, but found the batter was a bit thin. So I just added in some oatmeal until it reached a more pancake-like consistency.

I served them on my adorable new springy placemats, courtesy of the Easter Bunny. 

Actually, it was my mom, who, from 3000 miles away, devised an apartment-wide Easter Egg Hunt for Cookie Monster and me. At the end was a See's egg (a definite throwback to when I was a kid), some Peeps (which are just now the crunchy consistency I prefer. Not kidding.) and these placemats with matching hand towels. Thanks, Easter Mommy!

You can just see how healthy these pancakes look. They're hearty and chewy, and the apples give them a little unexpected crunchy surprise here and there. The cranberries add some sweetness. Overall, they're really good.

Preparation

You know you have a race tomorrow when...

(This pic was taken on April 24, the night before my 6K race. But it illustrates a point.)

Apple Pie Soufflé

We had four apples that were looking pretty sad and needed to be used ASAP.

They look ok here, but were starting to get mushy.

I found this cool recipe in the paper a few months ago for a carrot soufflé, which turned out awesome. At the time, I thought it would pretty much work with any flavoring in place of the carrot; the recipe simply calls for pureeing cooked carrots to give it the carrot flavor. I think asparagus, cheese, roasted peppers, artichokes or corn would all be good substitutes for the carrot. So today, as I was brainstorming how to use up those sad apples, I thought of the souffle recipe. Enter: apple pie soufflé.

I started by peeling two of the apples, then chopping into pieces.

Then I pureed them in my mini food processor with a bit of milk to make them a soft puree texture.

Then I just followed the recipe, of course with my own additions here and there.

Here's the recipe (which is cut in half from the original):

1 cup cooked carrots (or whatever flavor you're going for)

1.5 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup + 1/8 cup  milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon honey

2 eggs, beaten

1/8 cup butter, melted

So obviously I used the pureed apples in place of the carrots here. I also added some pumpkin pie spice, molasses in place of the honey, cinnamon and cardamom.

Then I baked the whole thing at 400 in a greased casserole dish for about 45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the middle came out clean.

Et voila! Apple pie soufflé! Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.