We cleaned up the mess from Thursday and launched right into the next endeavor: fiesta night! Nan drove up on Friday, so between Matt, Mara, Jen, Nan, and I, we had a WHOLE lot of cooks in the kitchen. This time, though, everything turned out great:
Jen and Mara made Mara-style guacamole (read: avocados mashed with salt and a squeeze of lime.) Sidenote: when Matt and I get around to registering, someone remind me to put a masher on there. Sorry, Jen.
Meanwhile, Matt, Liza Nan and I created a health-conscious seven layer bean dip:
The bottom layer is four cups of black beans blended in the Cuisinart with garlic, cumin, lime juice, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste. Top that with a spread of organic sour cream (took me a while to find one not containing that dang locust bean gum...). The next layer is just a couple cups of frozen corn, thawed on the stove with some chopped fresh cilantro and more lime juice. Finally, a fresh salsa from chopped red and yellow tomatoes, a jalapeno, more fresh cilantro and lime. The flavors are wonderful, and because it doesn't have any cheese and not much sour cream, it's also remarkably low calorie.
We also heated some C&D ground beef on the stove, simmering with cumin, chili powder, salt, and cayenne, and everyone built their plates...
The last one there is mine, because it is noticeably missing a taco shell or tortilla. We didn't have the energy -- or, for that matter, room in the kitchen -- to home cook tortillas, and all the packaged varieties contain things like Yellow Number 5, so I stuck with Donkey Chips and was perfectly satisfied.
The only thing we were missing was margaritas.
After the dishes had been washed (thank you, family), we whipped up a quick pot de creme.
I love that I can say that: "whipped up a quick pot de creme".
No, wait, I don't love that I can say that, because pot de creme is TOO EASY to whip up and TOO DELICIOUS not to, and this impacts my hips alarmingly.
In any event, we whipped it up and popped it in a fridge, and then I forgot about it because Matt and I dashed over to Amy and Lauren's birthday party (happy birthday!) and when we came home, everyone else had knocked out in sheer exhaustion.
So we had pot de creme for breakfast on Saturday.
Nobody minded.
And whipped cream, which Jen and Matt had whisked up the night before.
Also on the registry: an egg-beater. Sorry again, Jen.
Mara took the inaugural bite:
... I think she approved.
There's nothing like one big happy family, all together, sharing a pot of chocolate pudding for breakfast.
The Pudding was amazing. So amazing that it deserves to be capitalized.
ReplyDeleteKatey and I made tortillas last night--super easy!
ReplyDelete1 cup of flour (approx), 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and around a half cup of water per person (one "serving" will make around 3 or 4 tortillas, depending on size). Mix it until it turns doughy (you may need to add some flour), knead it for a minute, let it rest 10 minutes, pull off one-inch pieces, and roll them out. Cook them in a pan or on a griddle on high (dry!) for 30-40 seconds per side. In the interest of time, I definitely recommend an electric griddle so that you can do three or four at a time. We had ours with venison fajitas and homemade guacamole, brown rice and black beans.
Mmm, venison fajitas -- that sounds amazing. Thanks for the tortilla recipe, Dave!
ReplyDelete