Black Bean and Corn Salsa

As I wrote the title for this fabulous little dish, I thought, "Hmm...relish...salsa...relish...salsa..." What's the difference anyway?? According to foodreference.com, they are the same thing! Relish is French and salsa is Spanish, who knew? But honestly, "salsa" sounds more fresh and tasty to me than "relish" which reminds me of hot dogs, which though I love them, isn't the connotation I want this Black Bean and Corn thing to evoke. So now that we've gone over that, let's get to this delicious dish. It's technically an appetizer I suppose, but it's so versatile, that it's hard to categorize definitively. I know that there are many, many variations to this recipe, so I am giving you one I make at home all the time.


Black Bean and Corn Salsa

1 Can Black Beans, drained and rinsed
Red Pepper
Green Pepper
Jalapeno
Corn, fresh (cooked and shucked) or frozen (thawed)
Red Onion
Tomato
Cumin, about 1 tsp (optional)
Lime Juice, about 2 sections
Vegetable Oil, about a capful
Red Wine Vinegar, a few good shakes
Salt and Pepper

To begin, I didn't give you specific amounts because I want you know it is not set in stone. What ever you like more, add more, what ever you like less, add less or omit. I don't add vegetable oil, but many similar recipes call for it, up to you. Cilantro is optional, I forgot to buy it so it was out this time :o) This took me 9:54 seconds once I collected the ingredients to chop and throw all together, that even includes photo op stops!

1. Grab a big bowl. Glass is perfect because you can see all the pretty colors. Drain and rinse your black beans-throw in bowl. Put about 1-2 cups of frozen corn in a colander and run cool water over it for a few minutes to thaw. If you're using fresh corn (so tasty, more time consuming, you're a mini Martha), boil/grill/microwave til tender and shuck. Lucky you

2. Dice your veggies up. I use a little more than half of the green and red peppers. Slice them long, stack 'em up and chop away. Use as much of the tomato you like (I used 3/4 of one). Cut in half, use your fingers to scoop of the seeds, and chop up. Throw it all in the bowl.

3. For the jalapeno- God speed. You will be very miserable if you are not careful here. Chop off the top, then in half, then in slices and then dice. If you are adverse to the heat (and it will be spicy if you skip this step), carefully (carefully!!) run your knife along the inside of the two halves to remove the seeds and the white membrane. Try not to touch ANY of the seeds or membrane. Hours can pass and if you rub your eye after touching a seed...have mercy. Into the bowl.

4. Dice up about half or less of the onion, depending on your taste. Add it to your bowl. Squeeze a few sections of lime juice (or more! once the hubby added an entire lime and it was extra limey and extra yummy!), pour in the oil and vinegar, sprinkle with cumin, salt and pepper  (you are using Kosher salt, right?). Stir gently. Ohhh yum. The longer it sits, the better it gets. So I suggest making it the night before you need it if you can, refrigerate, re-stir (that's key!), and serve it up! But it also perfect right away-who can wait that long anyway?

A perfect dish for my "Look at all the pretty colors...!" tendency.

5. Here's some serving suggestions:
   *Traditional, with Tostito Scoops
   *Aside grilled chicken; I smothered mine with Mexican cheese because it's always better with cheese
   *Inside a wrap, using sour cream instead of mayo
   *Lightly sauteed and hidden inside an omelet
   *On top of grilled/baked salmon
   *Inside cheesy quesadillas

This is the grilled chicken topped with cheese option. That's Mexican rice that I made from scratch using the Knorr rice mixes, it's really good. You could heat the salsa in a skillet but I like the hot/cold combo. Plus I'm lazy and don't need more dishes to scrub, that takes up wine time! :o)

Lemon Garlic Chicken Breasts

I don't usually make recipes by the Barefoot Contessa because they are typically super complicated and scarey for a weeknight cook like me. But I saw her on Food Network the other day and I just had to try this recipe-it turned out great!! She kept saying that is simple enough for a family meal or fancy enough for company-it's so true. The prep took about 10 minutes and then I was left with a full glass of wine to hang out with my husband while the chicken cooked. What's not to love? I served it with mashed potatoes and broccoli-absolutely perfect. I'm giving you the recipe for 2, but just go here to get the original recipe for 4.

Lemon Garlic Chicken Breasts

Just a few ingredients!

Skin-on Chicken Breasts (they're sold at Publix with a rib bone, just ask the meat guy to take it off for you if you don't want to cut it off at home)
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1/4 cup White Wine
4-5 Garlic Cloves (I think they should definitely be fresh, not jarred)
1 tsp. Lemon Zest (this is one whole lemon)
1 Lemon Cut into 8 Wedges
1/2 tsp Thyme, minced (I'm sure dried works fine, I happened to have fresh)
1 tsp. Oregano
Kosher Salt
Pepper


1. Preheat oven to 400F. First off, you're going to mince the garlic. I hate chopping garlic because it makes my fingers smell awful, so let's get this over with fast. To peel it, place your big chef's knife on top of the clove, smack it, and the skin should peel right off. Do this for all the cloves first. Then cut of the root ends and chop them all up at once using a rocking motion with your knife. This will minimize touching the garlic, hooray. Put that into a prep bowl (check these out, I adore them and use them daily).

Not me but I wanted to show the technique

2. Zest your entire lemon into a prep bowl and then cut it into 8 long wedges. Mince your fresh thyme and put in with the zest; all this chopping can be done on one cutting board, don't even bother wiping it off.

3. In a small saucepan, heat your olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and let it cook for about 1 minute-you don't want it to burn. Then take it off the heat and add the white wine, lemon zest, thyme, and salt. Then squeeze two of your lemon wedges right into the broth. If a seed pops out, just fish it out with a spoon.

4. Leave the saucepan off the hot burner and pat dry your chicken breasts. Pour the broth into a 8 x 8 baking dish and place the breasts skin-side up directly on the sauce. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5. Tuck your remaining 6 lemon wedges all around the breasts. Cook for 30-40 minutes (broil it for a couple minutes if the tops aren't quite brown enough for you) and then set out, covered with foil, for 10 minutes to let the juices rest. You're going to want to spoon lots and lots of the sauce onto your chicken. I even brought the pan to the table and we added more during the meal because it is so good with the potatoes and the broccoli. Serve and enjoy!!

You can actually eat the lemon whole!! Tart and tangy but good!

Florida Orange Rice

If you haven't noticed by now, I adore carbs. Bread, pasta, rice, yum yum yum. I know for a fact that I would rather die than ever go on any low-carb diet. Pasta is my all time favorite go-to carb and even though I like rice, I usually shy away from it. More times than not my rice is crunchy, and it's not supposed to do that. Even with the cutie little rice maker my mom got me for Christmas (based on the fact that when she asked my husband what I wanted, he said, "Well, she can't cook rice right." Which is true!) it doesn't always turn out perfectly. SO imagine my delight when I found a rice recipe that is delicious and consistently gives me soft and almost creamy rice! There's a little more prep than your average Uncle Ben's, but it's worth it. This rice is perfect for summertime, served with fresh fish (Crispy Tilapia Fillets, perhaps?) and your favorite veggie. Enjoy!

Florida Orange Rice

I decided to add the Lemon Pepper at the end so alas, Miss Pepper is absent from the class photo this year

Here's what you'll need:

2 Tblsp Butter (a little less would be fine)
2 Tblsp Onion, finely chopped
2 cups Water
1/2 cup Orange Juice (fresh or bottled)
1 tsp Salt (I would start with a little less and add more at the end)
1/2 tsp Grated Orange Zest
1/8 tsp Thyme (dried is fine)
1/8 tsp Lemon Pepper (or Florida Seasoned Pepper add a bit more after tasting if you like)
1 cup Long Grain Rice


1. Chop the onion up pretty fine. Melt the butter over medium-ish heat in a large saucepan and toss in the onion. Stir it occasionally for about 3 minutes until it gets soft and almost golden.  Don't let the butter get too hot, it can burn pretty fast. Sometimes I have to pick up the pot and just hold it in the air for 30 seconds to cool it down.

I love having everything ready to go! It makes a little more mess, but less stress. I combined the zest, salt, thyme, and lemon pepper in one.

2. Stir in the water, the orange juice, the zest (a crucial ingredient, you can get a zester for pretty cheap or look in your drawer-you probably have had one for a decade and used it once-so use it again!), thyme, lemon pepper, and salt. Let it come to a boil, then add the rice and let it boil again. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or all the liquid is absorbed!

A yummy snack but of course it's meant to be served with a light meat such as fish or chicken.

Rice 101

So clearly I am not the rice cooking guru based upon my confessions earlier, but I do have a couple helpful tips I have picked up along the way after ruining many batches of rice:

**Do not take the lid off the saucepan, no matter how bad you want to. Sooo tempting. Don't do it. To check for absorption, shake the pan a little and see if there's still too much liquid.
**Make sure your heat is truly on low, like 1 or 2; otherwise the liquid gets absorbed too fast and the rice is still crunchy.
**Fluff it with a fork when you think it's done. Sort of hard to do when you're using teflon, but just be gentle and sort of toss the rice with the fork.
** To reheat, sprinkle in a little water and cover your rice with a moist paper towel.


I got this recipe from this gorgeous cookbook that I actually keep on my counter in the unusable corner because it is so pretty. Who in their right mind would ever actually do this beach front dinner...but a girl can dream! Most of the recipes are too complicated for me but it's a fun read and there are lots of beautifully inspiring pictures and recipes.

Roasted Vegetables

Roasting vegetables is such an easy side dish that is always so yummy. You can add whatever seasonings you like and whatever veggies you love! Roasting always brings out a complex and sweet flavor from the veggies. The combo I did tonight was just what I had on hand and needed to use! The tomatoes were a little wrinkly but I figured they'd get even more wrinkly in the oven, so who would ever know, and the potatoes were spouting those creepy eyes so I peeled them and all was lovely under the surface. Usually I like to keep the skin on the potato since it gets super crispy in the oven-it's my favorite part! And I looove cooked onions so I threw those in too. All you need is a piece of grilled chicken or steak and you've got a complete dinner.

Roasted Vegetables

I'll see you when you're delicious!

The ingredients can be anything you want, and I just used olive oil, salt and pepper to season. Couldn't be easier!

1. Preheat the oven to 450F. Dice the potato, throw them in your skillet, baking dish, whatever, toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe some cayenne if you like it spicy! It's important to let the potato go in first by itself because it takes longer to roast than the other veggies.

2. In the meantime, chop your onion into big chunks. I wish they would stay like that, but obviously the chunks fall apart in the oven.

3. After your potatoes have been roasting for about 15 or 20 minutes, take them out of the oven. Add the onions and tomatoes to the potatoes, drizzle in more olive oil, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and give it a good stir. I like to use my hard spatula/turner for this job.

4. Roast for another 15-20 minutes or so, you could stir it halfway through but be gentle! It's more of a flipping motion than a stir to keep the veggies in tact. Soooo yummy!

I especially love this because it's the only side you really need. It's got a starch and two vegetables, more if you want!! Which means just one dish to clean! What's not to love?

Jalapeno Cornbread

Two things I love are being Southern and pretending to be more Southern than I really am. The truth is, I am Southern mostly only geographically speaking. I was born in Alabama (can't get much more 'neck than that...) then lived briefly in North Carolina and the rest of my years in Florida. Despite being born in the one of the more camo states of our union, somewhere along the way I lost all hopes of being a real Southern girl. I love all things Southern, but if you gave me a Southerner litmus test, I would fail. Let's try and think of 5 things that all true Southerners can do and see which of them I can check off:

1) hunt - no way, I cried over a dead lizard on our sidewalk last year
2) speak with twang - I fake it occasionally, but it's not that believable. I can say y'all though!
3) have a confederate flag - this is just a can of worms here...
4) make cornbread - this is one I am working on to increase my Southern-ness and I will give you the recipe to help YOU increase YOUR Southern-ness too!
5) love sweet tea - okay this one I can check off, but only with a little check mark. Of course I love sweet tea but I always order it "half and half", half sweet, half unsweet. That's basically half northern which is mostly half treason...

So I can check off 3/4 of 1 and 1/2 of another, which makes me...lemme do the math...3/4 + 1/2  = 6/8 + 4/8 = 10/8 = 1 2/8 = 1 1/4 out of 5 =  5/4 x 1/5 = 1/4 soo I'm 25% Southern and 100% annoying teacher. Yikes.


Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

Honestly, I have no idea where the pock marks came from...but I didn't want to waste a perfectly good picture over a couple of dents! Yours should be smooth on top...oh well! Like I said, it's not Food Network :o)

This is for your 10 or 12 inch skillet.

1 cup Finely Ground Yellow Cornmeal
1 cup Flour
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
2 Tblsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Chili Powder (remember it is very spicy!)
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Half & Half
6 Tblsp. Melted Butter
2/3 cup Fresh or Frozen Corn (to thaw frozen corn, put in a colander and run cool water over it for a couple minutes)
1-2 Tblsp. Jarred or Fresh Jalapeno, diced
2/3 cup Cheddar or Mexican Cheese (also known as a handful or two)

1) Preheat oven to 400F. Butter the sides and bottom of your skillet. Get your fingers involved so you don't miss a spot. I rub the stick all over and then smear it around.

2) In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking soda and powder, sugar, salt, and chili powder) with a whisk. Set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, combine your wet ingredients (eggs, sour cream, half and half, and about 4 Tblsp of the melted butter). Stir all that up and then throw in the corn, jalapeno, and cheese. Oh yum.

4) Add the wet mix to the dry and stir until everything is just moist. Don't overmix it, and you know, don't undermix it either. Once I was pouring in the batter and a huge chunk of the dry ingredients fell out. Whoops.

5) Heat your skillet in the oven for a few minutes or on the stove-this helps get the crust crispy. Pour in your batter and makes sure it's all nice and level.

6) Bake for 10 minutes, then pull it out and drizzle 2 Tblsp. (the rest) of your melted butter on top. Return to the oven and bake about 10 more minutes or until it's golden brown. Careful not to overcook it though, or else it gets crumbly.

Enjoy, y'all!! 

My piece is a little puny compared to yours because I actually halved to recipe and used my 8" skillet. Still delicious!

*adapted from The Cast Iron Skillet cookbook...oh! does owning a cast iron skillet make me more Southern?? Because I have 7. Literally. I should get about 5 percentage points per skillet, so 35 points plus the 25...I'm half way there! I'm practically Paula Deen already!!



Bonus! Get to know your host day! 
Here are 10 Southern things that I do know a little something about:
1) making biscuits from scratch
2) country music
3) FSU football
4) being wife-ly
5) family
6) front porches
7) magnolias
8) ante-bellum mansions
9) seersucker
10) church on Sundays

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

This delicious and easy (I promise!) spaghetti sauce was introduced to me about a year ago by my best friend Sarah. The recipe has been in her family for years and I am honored that she is letting me post it here. Served over noodles alongside fresh baked garlic bread with a big ole glass of red wine, you will not be disappointed. And your husband will think you are a sauce-y goddess, which always makes a girl smile! Of course store bought sauce is still used in our house from time to time, on those really exhausted nights, but if you have a little time to spare, this sauce will blow Prego's socks off.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I am going to give you the original recipe; I always halve it though and have plenty for several Italian meals. Gather up these ingredients (side bar- getting everything you need before you start is very fancily termed "mise en place" in the cooking world; it truly makes the whole cooking experience much easier and therefore enjoyable!):

2-3 lbs Ground Beef
1 Onion
1 Green Pepper
2 (22 ounce) cans Tomato Sauce (I hear Muir Glen is spectacular, I am too cheap so Hunt's it is)
2-3 cans (14 ounce) Diced Italian Tomatoes
1 tsp. Worcestershire (so fun to say!)
6 Bay Leaves
1-2 Tblsp Kosher Salt (go easy at first, you can always add at the end)
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1/2+ tsp Cayenne Pepper, to taste (a little goes a long way)
1/2 tsp Paprika (optional, but I always use it)
1 tsp. Garlic Powder (or fresh, bottled, or dehydrated, whichever you like and have on hand)
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to taste (optional, if you want it even spicier)


1. Dice onion and green pepper to a pretty uniform size. If you have trouble chopping onions (oh the tears!), watch this tutorial.

You'll have more onion than green pepper. Which makes sense if you think about it because the green pepper is hollow. I just thought of that...I was wondering earlier why there was so much onion...!! Blonde moment #1 of the day .

2. In a large pot or dutch oven (mine is 5 1/2 qt and there is room left over with half the recipe), brown the meat along with the diced onions and peppers. Season with a little salt and pepper. Break up the meat as it cooks with a hard spatula (called a "turner" according to Kitchenaid) or blunt wooden spoon.

3. Drain the mixture. Depending on the percent fat of ground beef you use, you might be able to just tip the pot up, move the meat to one side with your spatula/turner/wooden spoon and let the fat pool at the bottom. Then you can use a couple paper towels to sop it up. I used 93/7 and I definitely needed to drain it in a colander.


4. Return it all to the pot, add the tomatoes, undrained, to the mixture. Add all seasonings, the bay leaves, and the Worcestershire. Stir it all up, cover, and let simmer on low for 2-3 hours. That's it!

No great reason for this shot. I just wanted to show off my beautiful dutch oven my momma gave me. I love, love, love it. And you need one at some point. But it's ridiculously priced so don't let your kids starve for it. 

6. Serve over spaghetti noodles, top with parmesan cheese and ENJOY! Don't forget your crusty garlic bread and red wine. Healthier people would probably start with a little salad, but oh well. I adore this easy and amazing sauce and I hope you will too!!

Crispy Fish Fillets

A few weeks ago I discovered a fantastic new technique for breading fish and chicken. Informercial voiceover time (use your imagination for the action), cause I am going to sell you on this:

"Are you tired of soggy fish? Does your breaded chicken taste likes it's been soaking in flavorless mush? Are you inept at everything you do in life? Don't these people who are pretending to be the cooks look like they've never even seen a kitchen before and could cut themselves with a plastic spoon?? Then you need AWESOME AND EASY BREADING MACHINE!! Even these people will stop looking so stupid in no time!"

Okay so it's not a machine and you don't have to actually buy anything, but you're welcome to send me two easy payments of $19.99 any way. But seriously, when I started breading this way (and it's really just one tiny little change) instead of the traditional way, the food was exponentially better. "Wow! No more soggy fish!!"

All you have to do is one eensy extra step and it will make a huge difference. Okay, I'm just going to get to it now.


Crispy Tilapia Fillets

Panko (not breadcrumbs, I repeat, not breadcrumbs)
Butter (I'm using garlic butter for a little extra flavor but it doesn't matter)
Any Seasoning You Like *** (see note at end)***
Kosher Salt (for the record, it's always kosher salt for these dinner recipes, make the change if you haven't already)
Flour
Egg
Tilapia Fillets (or whatever fish you like, these are cheap and yummy. 2 grouper fillets at $21.99 or  6 tilapia at $7.99...Your decision)

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. In a small frying pan, melt the butter over medium low heat and add about 1/4 c. panko for each fish fillet (it's always good to make a little more than you think, it's sad when the last fillet gets the short straw on the breading). Mix in the seasoning and some salt and stir the panko til it gets nice and brown. Maybe about 4 minutes. It can go to burnt fast, yuck, so watch it carefully. 

Try the pan flippy method if you're brave...

Ready! Look how pretty and brown!

2. Line up three bowls for your breading. After the last bowl, have your baking sheet ready. Lining the baking sheet with foil makes cleanup much faster.

    Bowl 1 = 1/2 c. or so of flour; add a little of your seasoning
    Bowl 2 = 1 beaten egg; add a little more of the seasoning-we're gettin crazy here
    Bowl 3 = Panko; don't add more seasoning, that would be ridiculous

3. Pat dry each thawed fish fillet (with paper towels, just like the chicken yesterday, but not as salmonella-y) and dredge in the flour, making sure to cover fully but shake off exess; then the egg, making sure to coat but let excess drip off; and finally the panko, making sure to crust every square mm with the delicious breading. Place the fillet on the baking sheet and repeat!

They look good enough to eat! But they are not cooked yet, so don't.

4. If you have any extra breading, don't be shy, smush it on top of your fillets! Can't hurt! Unless you're on a diet, in which case this blog will not be good for you at all. 

5. Bake for about 8-12 minutes, longer if you are using thicker fillets of fish.They say it's supposed to flake if it's ready, I usually just hope for the best. Enjoy!!

*At the last second, I decided to make a quick little sauce to top the fish with. Nothing crazy-just mayo, a little mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice, a healthy amount of cajun seasoning, and some salt. It was actually good! Like a remouloade jr sauce.

And no final photo op tonight. My sides were frankly embarrassing. I was so preoccupied with prancing around taking these pictures that I forgot about the rice-and that is not something you can whip up in a minute or two (unless you have minute rice, which I didn't). So the hubby got leftover mashed potatoes and I settled for just green beans. Hey, this isn't the Food Network people!! We roll with it! :o)


Conclusion: The beauty of sauteing the panko first is that you don't have to count on the oven to brown the crust for you, you've taken matters into your own hands. Because the oven is bad at browning and crisping up panko, your fish (or chicken, this works great for them too) will end up soggy at least on the bottom, likely all around. Am I the last person on earth to figure this out or have you learned something new tonight?

***Ohhh, don't you hate it when they leave it so wide open? I always think, "Just tell me what to use!" Here are some ideas: Lemon Pepper, Italian, Old Bay, Seasoning Salt, etc... It isn't really fair because I am one of the lucky people to live near a Penzey's Spices store. Never heard of them? Well please follow the link and order a catalog, you will not be disappointed and you may actually become addicted. I am using Florida Seasoned Pepper for this recipe and it is so good with fish. We'll talk more about Penzey's soon.