Guacamole by Mortar & Pestle

Last weekend Dennis and I met my parents for dinner at this Mexican restaurant called El Dorado. My dad ordered some guacamole and the waitress actually wheeled out a cart and made it for us at the table. It was pretty awesome, and Dennis was very taken with it. I deduced it after he asked me to get us a mortar & pestle while I was at Marshalls this week. I have mad deduction skills!

I got us some stuff to make guacamole and so tonight we made it. I learned from the recipe that guacamole comes from two Aztec Nahuatl words - ahuacatl & molli, or "avocado sauce." Interesting stuff!

Ingredients
2 avocados
1/3 red onion
1-2 hot peppers (I used 1 jalapeno and 1 purple coffee pepper)
2 tbsp cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/2 tomato (about 1/4 cup)

This is pretty basic. Just put all of the ingredients in the bowl and mash them up! If you don't have a mortar & pestle then you can use a fork to smash up the avocado. My dad told me to watch the waitress cut up the avocado, which was great because she did it way more quickly and efficiently than I used to. Well, never again!

She sliced it in half, longways around the seed. Then to remove the seed, she just whacked it with the knife so it got stuck, then pulled it out with the knife.

Neato!

Once the seed was out, Dennis just scooped the avocado out with a spoon and dumped it into the mortar. Then he started pestling.

Action shot!

Close up

 Then we added all the other ingredients and pestled some more. Annnnd scene!

This guacamole was pretty awesome and very easy to make. One quick tip - the recipe said don't add the tomatoes until right before they are being served. I'm guessing the tomatoes go bad more quickly than the rest of the ingredients. We put half of the recipe in a tupperware in the fridge, then added the tomato to the rest and pestled that as well.

Here is the link to the original recipe.

Meghan's World Famous Chicken Noodle Soup That I Made For the First Time

Holy crap, I have not written anything in awhile. But I haven't really made anything worth writing about in awhile, so what are you gonna do. Dennis was feeling sick last week so I made it my business to make him some chicken noodle soup.

Of course I forgot to take pictures even though I had plenty of opportunities. I made a huge batch of soup and ate the leftovers for days, and still I didn't think to pick up a camera. Well lucky for you, I made so much that I had to freeze some of the broth and therefore another opportunity will present itself soon. Byah!

I perused a couple different recipes to help me with this soup but it was mostly to gauge the timing so I'm not even going to dignify them with a link. That's right - I'm taking sole credit!!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
15ish chicken bouillon cubes
1 bag of baby carrots
1 white/yellow onion
1 bunch of celery
1 bag of egg noodles
salt & pepper to taste

Fun fact: Did you know that celery, carrots, & onions are considered the "holy trinity" of French cuisine? The French term is a "mirepoix," or a mixture of chopped vegetables usually used as a base for soups, stews, and sauces. Fun stuff!

I headed into this endeavor with an open mind for experimentation, so my directions are going to be approximate. I think it is really hard to screw up this soup but maybe you all can prove me wrong. :) First things first... get a big ole pot. I have no idea how big mine was.. it was a large pot about 1 foot tall. I filled it up 3/4 of the way to the top, keeping in mind that I was going to have to leave room for the ingredients.

I brought the water to a boil and put a good amount of salt in it. Well that doesn't really help you at all, does it? A good amount could mean anything. Ever seen one of these doohickeys?

These contraptions dispense my salt and pepper because I am high society. So when I say I put a good amount of salt in the water, I mean I cracked the salt grinder about ten times. You could say I put 10 pinches of salt in there. Where was I? Oh yes, the water.

So when the water is boiling, I dropped 2 chicken breasts in there along with 15 bouillon cubes. I say 15, but that is really just a guess. I had no idea how many to use so I just kept adding them until I felt at peace with my chicken broth. I also didn't cut the fat away from the chicken because well, I'm just that lazy. But don't worry I did it later. I let the chicken boil for 10 minutes, then I took it out and checked it with the thermometer every ten minutes until it read the USDA approved temperature of 165 degrees. Then I removed it from the water and cubed it. THEN I cut the fat away. Twist ending.

At this point, you should bring the water down to a simmer, and there should be some fat or oil floating on the top of your water. Use a spoon or a mesh strainer thingy (like I did) to skim the fat from the water. Then you can put the now-cubed chicken back into the water and add your veggies!

I got a bag of baby carrots because I don't know why. Usually when you see carrots in soup they are cut up in little circles, right? Well, I just now came up with a reason. Dennis doesn't like carrots and I thought it would be easier for me to fish them out if they were in baby carrot form so that is why I deviated from the norm. I chopped up the celery and onions like normal though because I guess in some ways, I am still a conformist.

So I let all of that mess simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes. I kept setting the timer for 10 minutes and then checking the carrots. Once the carrots were soft I felt like my work was done. Oh, this is kind of weird but one website said to put SIX whole peppercorns in there and for some reason I did. I do not recommend this. If you have never cracked open a peppercorn in your mouth, you will have lived a full life. Don't do it, and don't chance doing it by putting whole peppercorns in your soup. Yech! Just crack some pepper in it like a normal person.

Now at this point, you should add the noodles. CAUTION! If you are planning on freezing your leftover soup, do not add the noodles to the broth that you will be freezing! I put half of my broth into a separate bowl and let it cool off. Then I added half of the bag of egg noodles to the big ole pot and turned the heat back to high. Using my same trusty method of checking every ten minutes, I tried the noodles until they seemed to be cooked all the way through. One ten minute interval is probably all the time it took.

Once the noodles were done, the soup was complete! I like my soup spicy so I added some tabasco. Dennis buttered some bread and we ate soup and bread. It was delish. I was really proud of myself.

Once the broth that I wanted to freeze had cooled off, I poured it into 2 ziploc bags and put them in the freezer. The reason you should freeze the broth without the noodles is that sometimes this process can make the noodles soggy or give them a weird consistency. You could thaw your soup and throw the noodles in the same way you did with the other noodles, or you could boil the noodles separately and combine them with the heated soup - your choice! Bon appetit!

Scrambled Eggs with Sausage Biscuits & Gravy

An easy one, and a two-parter. What did you do to deserve this? You can thank Mere. Normally I probably wouldn't have put this recipe online, but one of her friends demanded that I put the breakfast up and that Mere's picture appear on the blog. So, feast your eyes on Mere.

Anywho, scrambled eggs. Not hard to make, but I do have my own way of doing it. It might be the same as everyone else's way but who knows.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

shredded/sliced cheddar

salt & pepper to taste

5-6 drops of Tabasco (optional)

This is all guesswork (for 1 serving) except for the eggs, because I usually just eyeball the amounts. If you have the patience to shred your cheddar cheese, good for you. If you are like me, I cut a few slices and break them into small pieces then toss them in. I mix up the eggs with a fork, using it like a whisk. Toss a pad or 2 of butter into a pan, use the fork to coat the pan with the butter, then pour the mixture into the pan.

Try to resist the urge to mess with the eggs too much. Just let them be for a few minutes, then try to flip the entire mixture over if you can. The key is minimal contact! If you make these eggs well, you won't need any condiments. I love em.

Now for the Sausage Biscuits & Gravy, a favorite for Dennis. He introduced me to them and they are so simple yet utterly delicious. All you really need is a pound of breakfast sausage, some flour & milk, and a package of biscuits (unless of course you want to make your own from scratch).

First, put the biscuits in the oven and while you're waiting for them to bake, you can prepare the sausage & gravy. Just cook the sausage however you normally would - break it up in the pan and stir it occasionally. Once the sausage is done and you have a decent amount of grease in the pan, add 2-3 tbsp of flour and pour milk in until it covers the bottom of the pan (try 1 cup and work your way up from there if you are uncertain). Stir the mixture around until a gravy starts to form.. it shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

And that's it! Dennis likes to spread his biscuits around the plate and smother them with the sausage gravy, whereas I like separating my food into quadrants (as evidenced from the picture above). Happy breakfasting!

Easy Lasagna (No-Cook Noodles!)

We made lasagna for dinner tonight, which was off the hook in case you were wondering. I have used this recipe before and it makes the seemingly daunting task of lasagna-making much easier because you don't have to cook the noodles. We made it a little differently since we made our own noodles... that's right you heard me. Made the dough by hand and cranked it through the pasta machine. Boo ya.

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef OR 1 roll of sausage

1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce

32 ounces cottage cheese

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 teaspoons dried parsley

salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

9 lasagna noodles

1/2 cup water

Brown the ground beef in a large pan, drain the grease, and then add the spaghetti sauce. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Dennis decided to switch things up and use hot sausage instead. It was a good substitute!

Mix the cottage cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the parmesan, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

Now use a 9x13 inch baking dish and spread 3/4 cup of the sauce mixture in the bottom. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 & 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture, and 1/4 cup sauce mixture. Repeat the same layers twice. Top with 3 more noodles, the rest of the sauce mixture, and the rest of the mozzarella & parmesan. Add 1/2 cup water to the edges of the pan then cover the top with aluminum foil.

Put the pan in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving so you don't burn yourself.

This lasagna is great and has a lot of servings. It's even better if you have some garlic bread to scoop up the extra gooeyness that will inevitably ooze out. :) Will feed at least 4 strapping young lads.

Side picture so you can see the layers! Here's the recipe from AllRecipes.com.

Quick and Yummy Hummus

I stole that name from the actual page where I got the recipe, but it is a really good title because well... it is quick and it is yummy!

Ingredients

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

First of all, I felt really dumb when I read this recipe because I was like, "What the hell are garbanzo beans? Where's the recipe with chickpeas??" So for those of you who are challenged like I am, garbanzo beans = chickpeas. Oops.

So anywho, drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. I found a couple little stray pieces that didn't belong in there so it's worth sorting through the beans before you go to the next step.

Now, the next step! The recipe basically says to dump all of the ingredients into a food processor or a blender and mix them up. My food processor is a little small for my recipes lately, especially when it tells me to blend all the ingredients together (rather than just one ingredient at a time). Also, it doesn't really break them down as much as I'd like, so after my first attempt with the food processor, I poured the somewhat chunky chickpea paste into the blender and used that for the rest of the recipe.

So next I add the yogurt to the mixture. I got a single serving (6 oz) container of Dannon plain yogurt and it yielded just over 1/2 cup so go me! (I was eyeballing the amount and wasn't positive it was going to be enough).

Lemon juice, oh lemon juice. I love it but I never know how much one lemon will give me. I'll say have 1 lemon handy to get the 2 tbsp. The rest of the ingredients are easy enough & self explanatory. Just put them all in the blender and well... blend.

It should be smooth, creamy, and kind of beige colored when it's ready. Then just grab some carrot sticks, pita bread, or whatever else you want to dip and go nuts!!