MJ's Kitchen

Time to Cook up a Pot of Pinto Beans

by mj on May 23, 2013

Those of you who have been visiting MJ’s Kitchen for a while know that I love cooking up dried beans and putting them in all sorts of dishes. You’ve had my black beans and bolita beans, but you haven’t had my pinto beans. In fact, I haven’t had my pinto beans for years because I’ve been eating so many black beans. However, that’s about to change.

Last week I received a package from Diaz Farms in southern New Mexico. Inside the package was a bag of their dried pinto beans, along with a few other items to be revealed soon. I think these beans have made me fall back in love with pintos. They were so buttery and flavorful and made a great bowl of beans for Sunday’s supper and burritos on Tuesday. I wonder what I’ll be making with the rest of the beans.

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Chipotle Grits with Feta Cheese

by mj on May 18, 2013

Before I tell you how chipotle peppers ended up in grits, I have a question for you. What are three things that you absolutely can not run out of? Running out of any one of these three things would be devastating. Do you have them? I would be willing to bet that the first item is toilet paper. No one wants to run out of toilet paper and believe me, having used the pages of a Sears catalog when I was a kid visiting the grandparents, toilet paper has no substitute. O.K. so TP is number one. What about the next two items? In this house those items are milk and green chile. Well, guess what I ran out of a couple of weeks ago? Green chile!!! Yep – you read it right. I ran out of green chile.

I was planning on making Grits and Green Chile and had already started the grits, when I went to pull some green chile from the freezer. There was none to be found. UGH! So what’s a girl to do? You know how it is – once your family expects one thing, you better come up with something just as good if not better. Rummaging through the pantry I found a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, so decided to give them a try in place of the green chile. Instead of cheddar cheese, I went with feta which turned out to be the right decision. What a delicious bowl of grits!!! I’m not going to to say it was better than grits and green chile, but it certainly turned out to be a fabulous substitute. We’ve had it twice since and I still haven’t bought any green chile. I think that might convince you as to how good this is.

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A Festival of Strawberry Salad Recipes

by mj on May 14, 2013

It is well into strawberry season here and really warming up. What better time to start throwing in a few refreshing strawberries to sweeten up those summer salads. I’ve shared a couple of strawberry salads with you in the past, but thought you might like some more. After a little time searching through blogs and Pinterest, I found several other people that like strawberry salads as much as I do. However, I was surprised that I didn’t find more. Maybe we can start something here. Below are several delicious strawberry salads and I believe the inspiration for many more.

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Apple Pecan Crepes with Cheddar Cheese

by mj on May 9, 2013

If somewhere in the human genome there is a gene for a sweet tooth, then my family has it! We always had desserts and sweets to nibble on when I was growing up and we all still need that little bite of something sweet after each meal. One of my favorite sweet treats that my mama use to make, and one I still love today is taking a piece of apple pie, topping it with a big slice of cheddar cheese and putting it under the broiler until the cheese melted all over the pie. Mama’s apple pies were already delicious, but when she added the cheddar – I was in heaven!

These Apple Pecan Crepes with Cheddar Cheese kind of remind me of that pie, but are quite a bit lighter in calories and texture. The crepes themselves are delicate and delicious, and folded into the crepes is some grated cheddar cheese. The apples are gently sauteed in butter, topped with cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a touch of maple syrup, then placed on top of the crepes. Pecans, chopped and toasted to enhanced their flavor are sprinkled on top, followed by a drizzle of warm maple syrup. Now if that doesn’t get your mouthwatering, then nothing will!

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Bourbon Carrots – Four Ways

by mj on May 5, 2013

Who doesn’t love carrots? Carrots are one of those vegetables that are as good raw as they are cooked, and when cooked, the possibilities are endless. The market where I shop has some of the tastiest organic carrots. They are fresh, large, and so sweet. Needless to say, I buy them a lot; therefore, I have a number of carrot recipes. I posted one of our favorite recipes a while back - Glazed Carrots with Sage. Bourbon carrots with a little oil or butter then topped off with an herb or spice, is another of our favorites.

Why bourbon? The flavor of bourbon is such a great complement to the flavor and sweetness of carrots. I’ve tried vermouth as well as cognac, but wasn’t as crazy about the results. In these recipes, the carrots are first steamed in a little bourbon. By the time the carrots are cooked, the bourbon has evaporated but its sweetness has incorporated into the carrots. You’ll be surprised how good these carrots taste before you even add anything else. Once cooked, the carrots are tossed with a touch of butter or your favorite oil, then topped with an herb or spice. You can also add a touch of honey or maple syrup for a little more sweetness. Below are four different ways that I serve these carrots, and this is only four of many.

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Mixed Berry Jam – Quick and Easy

by mj on April 30, 2013

When it comes to making jam, the days of torturing my feet with a 12 hour day processing the fruit and making 20 jars of the same jam are over. Now I make jam one jar at a time and as needed or whenever I have a little excess fruit that needs to use before it becomes compost material. Because we eat a lot of berries, we almost always have a jar of Mixed Berry Jam in the refrigerator.

This recipe for the perfect jar of Mixed Berry Jam is one I’ve been working on since last spring. I’ve been looking for the ratio of fruits that yielded the flavor of “mixed berries”. What I mean by that is one of my earlier batches tasted like blueberry jam with a hint of other berries. Another batch, with matching amounts of blueberries and raspberries, tasted like raspberry jam. The recipe I’m sharing with today isn’t dominated by any individual flavor. You’ll be able to taste “hints” of each berry used – a little blueberry, a little raspberry and a little blackberry. If you don’t have blackberries, you can substitute strawberries with the same mixed berry jam result. Both versions are delicious!

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Southwestern Pileup

by mj on April 26, 2013

Today I’m cooking up a southwestern classic in a dear friend’s kitchen. Swathi of the Zesty South Indian Kitchen invited me over to share one of my southwestern dishes, so I decided to take this Southwestern Pileup, a deliciously spicy and hearty dish. You’ll find it on the menus of many New Mexican restaurants, but I love making it at home. It’s an easy dish to make and so versatile that you can change it up to fit your mood. So please head over to Swathi’s and check it out. But wait – while you are there you really need to check out some of Swathi’s delicious recipes.

Swathi is extremely creative and comes up with some real jewels that will satisfy anyone’s tastes. A lot of her food is just downright fun! Here are just a very few of my favorites.

Spicy Mini Cream Crackers
Batter Fried Plantain Fritters
Coffee Flavored Tres Leches Cake
Pineapple in Spicy Lentil Soup
Then there is her World Cuisine page that features recipes from Russia to Singapore.

So as you can tell, there is a lot see over at Swathi’s. Please spend some time there. She is such a gracious host who loves and appreciates everyone who visits! You’ll instantly find a tasty dish that will make you want to go back for more.

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Red Chile Infused Oil

by mj on April 21, 2013

If you have never made an infused oil, I truly believe that this recipe will change that. This Red Chile Infused Oil only takes about 15 minutes to make and captures all of the flavors of a red chile sauce. You can use it for fried eggs, sauteed vegetables or as the oil in a salad dressing. See the Kitchen Notes for more suggestions. It is so good and there are so many uses for it that I guarantee it will become another staple in your pantry.

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Thai Tea Apricot Smoothie

by mj on April 16, 2013

Now that it’s spring I’m really focused on getting last year’s produce out of the freezer to make room for this year’s. A couple of weeks ago I used some of the corn and a roasted bell pepper in my Braised Red Chile Chicken and Vegetables, and then finished off the roasted bell peppers in the Roasted Bell Pepper Cheese Spread. For several weeks I’ve been working on the abundance of frozen apricots from last year’s prolific crop. One of the things I’ve been making is the smoothie: apricot smoothies, apricot banana smoothies, apricot peach smoothies and my favorite – Thai Tea Apricot Mango Smoothie.

Several weeks ago I came across a simply delicious Thai Iced Tea recipe over at my friend’s blog – Wok with Ray. I immediately ran out and bought a one pound bag of Thai tea, the smallest size bag the Asian market sold. With all that tea Bobby and I have been able to mix up our afternoon tea time with Chai tea and Thai tea as well as play around with other uses for Thai tea. When developing this smoothie, I went with the orange color of Thai tea and selected apricots and mango as the fruits. What a delicious way to get your vitamins and morning caffeine all in one drink.

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