The Nifty Foodie

Part of me cannot believe that the Superbowl is Sunday. I mean, that’s the end of football season until next Fall. I have to wait at least six months to watch another game after this. Sad.  (If you know me, you know I’m being dead serious about how sad this is to me. Crazy football fan here!) A perk of Superbowl Sunday? Watching Millie run up to the TV when I randomly switch over to the Puppy Bowl.

To mourn celebrate the end of another football season, here’s some great recipes that will definitely disappear if you serve them at your Superbowl parties.

Restaurant Style Queso Blanco

Restaurant Style Salsa

Crawfish Pies

Crawfish Cheesecake

Pork and Sausage Jambalaya

Berry Mash Bruschetta

Sugar Cookie Bars

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownies

Oreo Cupcakes

Oh, and if you have an occasional puppy bowl break, I’m pretty sure the dogs at your party would love you for these!

Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Dog Treats

Greetings from our new kitchen! We’re still unpacking boxes around the house, but the kitchen is completely set-up! The kitchen was definitely a priority for us when it came to unpacking, because take out was definitely starting to get boring. Since we moved a little further from the city, our choices are VERY limited. So yeah, it was time to turn on that stove!

Since I was in the mood to make tex-mex (and H didn’t really mind that craving either), we made chicken enchiladas one night and then chicken taquitos with this salsa the next night. Tex-mex two nights in a week? Heck yes!

This salsa is really a big favorite in our house, and I’m really not sure why I haven’t shared this recipe with y’all until now! We’ve made it quite a few times, because it’s ridiculously easy to throw together and way tastier than anything you can buy in a jar! While this salsa makes a lot (and I mean A LOT), it’s really not difficult to go through this stuff fairly quickly. It’s addictive, for sure!

Restaurant Style Salsa
Source: Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

• 1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes with juice
• 2 10 oz cans of Rotel
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 whole jalapeno, quartered and sliced thin (remove seeds if you don’t want as much heat)
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 cup cilantro
• 1/2 of a lime’s juice

Directions:

1. Take all ingredients and put them in a blender.
2. Pulse the blender until you reach your desired consistency.
3. Enjoy!

My husband and I really love a good bowl of queso blanco. Whenever we go to a tex-mex restaurant, we have to order the queso, and it never fails to just hit the spot. Sometimes, I even wonder why I order a dinner…it’s the queso that I’m really after!

I really wanted to know what type of cheese was in the queso, so I’d research and various folks would mention mexican cheeses that I’ve never worked with, so I was intimidated. Plus, I tend to have trouble trusting people on random forums, like Yahoo! Answers. Why waste my time. Then, I saw a post on Confessions of a Foodie Bride about making this infamous queso, but the cheese totally threw me for a loop. White American? Really…that’s it? So, I had to give this a try, because I love Shawnda’s blog, and I knew she wouldn’t steer me wrong here.

Y’all, this is restaurant queso blanco. I’m not lying. If you want queso blanco at home, make this…you won’t regret it. We definitely loved this recipe and it couldn’t be easier to make!

Restaurant Style Queso Blanco
Source: mildly adapted from Confessions of a Foodie Bride

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp cooking oil (veggie, olive, canola – whatever you have)
• 1/4 cup white onion, diced
• 1 large jalapeno or serrano, seeds and stem removed; diced
• 12 oz white American cheese, shredded
• 4 oz Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded (not pre-shredded…grate this yourself)
• 1/4-2/3 cup cream, half-and-half, or whole milk

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a pot. Add the onion and pepper and cook until until softened and reduce heat to medium-low.
2. Add the shredded cheese and 1/4 cup of the cream. Stir until well combined and mostly melted.
3. Add in additional cream a little at a time until you reach desired consistency.

pictured with boudin balls

This appetizer that we offered at the party was a lighter alternative to the fried boudin balls and ultra gooey cheese fondue. I originally wanted to do a fresh tomato bruschetta with home-grown tomatoes, but due to some weather not being favorable (too much rain at one time), my tomatoes ended up with blossom end rot. I was a little bummed, but I took the unfavorable weather as a sign to just stay true to this recipe, which called for canned tomatoes. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about it tasting, well, canned, but in the end, it was delicious and no one could tell they were canned tomatoes. I guess I can blame the fresh garlic and the basil that came straight from my backyard!

This recipe is so simple to put together too. You could get away with making the filling ahead of time, and just add to the bread the day-of after it’s slightly toasted.

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Bruschetta
Source: Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

• 1 (32-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves, washed and spun dry
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large French baquettes, sliced 1-inch thick (about 36 slices)
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4-inch thick

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of a food processor, add drained tomatoes, 1 cup basil leaves, olive oil and 2 cloves garlic. Pulse until smooth, but somewhat chunky. Season with salt and pepper.
3. On a baking sheet, line up baguette slices. Toast in oven for about 3 minutes or until light golden brown. Working quickly, rub the remaining garlic on the toasted side of each slice and then lay a piece of mozzarella cheese on top. Place bread back in oven and melt cheese slightly, about 45 seconds. Remove from oven and spread one tablespoon of the tomato mixture on each piece.
4. Place bruschetta on decorative platter and garnish with basil leaves.

I love cheese. There, I said it. When recipes say “sprinkle” cheese, I COVER it in cheese. Cheese is just awesome. One of my favorite foods that involve cheese is fondue!  Whenever I go out for fondue, which is rare, I go crazy on the cheese fondue. It’s so fluffy, stringy and warm..oh, nom nom nom! Sadly, hubs hates fondue. He can’t stand it. So, I do not own a fondue set. It would be really useless to own a set knowing that I’m only going to eat off of it.

For the party, I wanted to bring in a dangerously cheesy dish, and what is more cheesy than fondue? I searched the Internet like crazy, and found a recipe that sounded simple and had great reviews. I wanted something that tasted like it came straight from a restaurant, so I wanted it to be authentic and have a swiss cheese base.

I also knew fondue involved wine, and I will admit, I am the furthest away from being knowledgeable about wine. I need things spelled out for me in a recipe. “Dry White Wine” as an ingredient  in a recipe didn’t help me, so I asked a few friends for help. It was a toss-up between using a sauvignon blanc and an unoaked chardonnay. My cheap self couldn’t find an unoaked chardonnay for less than $10 (at least the label didn’t say unoaked), so I settled for some Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc ($6 a bottle and it had seemingly good reviews for a frugal wine on the Internet). In the end, I couldn’t even taste the wine. I just don’t have a sensitive palate, I guess..all I tasted was cheese, cheese, cheese! This dish was a HIT!

Just to note, I ended up making this in a non-stick pot on low heat until it came together, then I threw it in a small crock-pot on low, since we don’t own a fondue set. It worked well at keeping the cheese warm.

Cheese Fondue
Source: adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry white wine (I used sauvignon blanc)
• 1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese
• 1/2 pound shredded Gruyere cheese
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• french bread, cut into cubes
• broccoli florets
• baby carrots
• apple slices

Directions:

1. Simmer wine in a small pot. Add Swiss cheese, Gruyere cheese, 1/4 pound at a time. Stir after each addition of cheese until melted.  Note: It might not look like it’s coming together at this point. Just keep stirring and add the flour. That’s when my fondue came together.
2. Stir in flour. When all the cheese has melted, stir in salt. Place in a small crockpot on low heat to serve. Serve with bread cubes, broccoli, carrots and apples.