My favorite snacky thing in the whole world, is chips and salsa. I love a good salsa. There are so many varieties and I love them all, except for sweet ones. This one is a real favorite of mine. It has tang, it’s creamy and it has a bite. I can’t handle the heat like I used to. But I do like this one pretty spicy. I use serrano peppers, but jalapeno works just fine. Unfortunately with this batch, I had a pretty crappy avocado. Don’t you just hate that!! You pick out a pretty avocado…..you’re all excited to cut it open and then yuck…..little brown specks. Oh, that makes me mad. 🙂

So tomatillos….have you used them before? People refer to them as little green tomatoes. But did you know that they are actually a berry? Well, so they say anyway. It’s pronounced Toh-Mah-Tee-Yo. They are very tart, have a papery husk and once you peel away the husk, they feel a bit tacky or sticky. They are used a lot in sauces. I usually boil or roast them for salsa. But you can also use them raw. I prefer them roasted.

I highly recommend this salsa. Grab some good tortilla chips and dip away!! Or make some tacos. YES!! Oh, and it’s good on scrambled eggs.

Avocado Salsa

1 medium sized avocado
5 or 6 tomatillos (husks removed and cut in quarters
2 or 3 cloves of fresh garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
handful of cilantro
1/2 of a medium onion, cut in large chunks
1 lime
1/4 tsp ground cumin (optional)
salt to taste
1 or 2 fresh serrano or jalapeno peppers

Heat oven to 400. On a baking sheet, toss the tomatillos, garlic, onion and peppers with about 1 Tblsp of vegetable or olive oil. Roast for 10 – 15 minutes. They should be soft.

In a food processor, add the roasted ingredients, cumin and cilantro. Squeeze the juice of half of the lime into the mixture. Pulse, pulse until smooth.

Scoop the avocado out of its skin, and dump it into the mixture. Pulse again to desired consistency. If you like a chunkier salsa, you can leave some parts of the avocado in chunks to stir in.

Add salt to taste. Tomatillos are tangy, but if you want more tang, add more lime juice. Allow to sit for a while, tightly covered. Store in the fridge. The lime will keep it from turning brown.
Good stuff!

Every year, I get so excited for soup weather. Nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a cool, drizzly day. Soups are so much fun to make since you can just totally get crazy with it and make it your own.

A few years ago I went to this fabulous little Mexican restaurant here in San Diego. I ordered a bowl of albondigas soup. Albondigas soup is basically a meatball soup. It was very different from most albondigas soups that I have had. I was hooked. It had so much stuff in it. Recently, I went to a local restaurant and ordered a cup. It was a bland broth with one giant meatball in it. That was it. One lonely meatball. BORING!!!! Other places put a chunk of carrot and maybe a chunk of potato.  Other places load it up.

So, you albondigas experts out there may have your favorite way of making it and maybe mine isn’t a traditional albondigas, but it’s really, really good.  In the second picture, forgive the “steamy” pic.

Albondigas Soup

For the meatballs:
1 pound ground beef
2 Tblsp water
1/2 cup cooked and cooled rice (I also add some rice to my bowl of soup)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1/2 tsp taco seasoning
Mix together the ingredients listed above. Form into little 1 inch balls. In a skillet, brown them all around.

In the meantime, in a large pot, add the following:
6  cups of water
2 cups of chicken broth
1 chicken buollion cube
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup onion, minced
2 large red potatoes, cut in large chunks
1 – 2 carrots, cut in large chunks
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, minced plus a few sprigs for garnish
1 can green beans (or fresh beans)
1 cup corn (optional)
1 Tblsp taco seasoning (I use spicy)

Note: I have used a jar salsa instead of the taco seasoning, but I prefer the taco seasoning.
Note 2: You may need to add more water, to your liking. I like my soup thick with stuff. 🙂

Add the meatballs and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Test the potatoes to make sure they are done. Pour the soup over some rice in a bowl. Garnish with whatever the heck you want! This is a great soup to serve with some tortilla chips.

YUMMMMMM

Happy New Year friends! I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been a little under the weather. Hmmm, “under the weather”…..what exactly does that mean anyway? I’ve been sick, ok? The holidays were busy, busy. I painted a lot of cookies, had a little holiday party, put away all the Christmas crap and now I’m sick. So much for the “good luck/good health” Japanese soup that i made. Honestly, why do I even make it year after year. Hahahahha, my friends are always suggesting that maybe I skip it. But it’s tradition. Oh well.

I hope your holidays were great. I hope you are managing to stay away from this flu and cold bug thing that is going around too! Let’s hope that this is a great new year for all of us. I thank you all for sticking with me. I would also like to welcome my new followers. Thank you for joining me!

Ok, so I will try to post some healthier recipes this year. I said “try”. Hahahahah. But if you have looked at the “Healthy Recipes” section of my blog, you can see I definitely need something there. Hahhaha. But we will start that later. Not today.

Have you ever had a Stromboli? My friend Patti A. introduced me to this so many years ago. It’s basically a dough wrapped around stuff and baked. It’s kinda like a calzone. You can pretty much stuff it with anything. I posted an Italian Stromboli awhile back. You can even do a dessert Stromboli. Yup, so good. But today we have ham and cheese Stromboli. I love that word…….strom-bo-leeeeeeeee. I was going to add some scrambled eggs to this, but forgot.

Anyway, this is a really quick and easy dish. It’s also fun. You will make it again and again, using all kinds of stuff inside. You just use a store-bought pizza dough and whatever you have in your fridge to stuff it with. Here we go.

Ham and Cheesy Stromboli

1 roll of pizza dough (I use the Pillsbury canned dough)
2 cups of cheese (I used a combination of Swiss, Monterey jack and American)
a few slices of good ham (I used about  5 oz.)
2 Tblsp good mustard

Heat oven to 350.

Line a  baking sheet with parchment or lightly spray the pan with cooking spray.
Carefully roll out your dough to a good sized rectangle. Spread the mustard on. Lay down the slices of ham down the middle of the dough. Top with cheeses. Bring up the 2 long sides of the dough, lightly pinching together. Pinch together the ends as well.

Poke the top with a fork in 2 places, to allow the steam to escape. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to set for about 5 minutes. Slice in 3-4″ slices or just cut in half if you want a bigger piece. Sooooooo good.

Variations:

Turkey and cheese with green chiles
Bacon, egg and cheese
Egg, egg and chorizo
Chicken, cheese and green chiles
Ground beef and cheese
Italian sausage, pepperoni and provolone