Spicy Texas BBQ Sauce
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 @ 12:48 PM Spicy Texas BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup diced onion
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes. Use on all your favorite BBQ dishes!

| Tabouli - Bulgur Wheat Salad
Saturday, September 25, 2004 @ 10:27 AM Tabouli - Bulgur Wheat Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup bulgur
5 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
3 Tbsp. mint - fine chopped
1 bunch scallions - fine chopped
2 fresh tomatoes - diced

Directions:

Put bulgur in a bowl with 2 cups cold water & soak for 1 hour. Drain well. Toss in salad bowl with remaining ingredients. Taste and check seasoning. Chill before serving.

| Orange Julius
Wednesday, September 22, 2004 @ 10:19 AM Orange Julius

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (6 oz.) can frozen orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
14 ice cubes

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a blender. Blend till smooth. Serve.

| Hot Sour Pickles
Thursday, September 16, 2004 @ 6:26 AM Hot Sour Pickles

Ingredients:
1 gallon jar Sour Pickles
1/2 box cloves
4 lbs. sugar
1 head garlic (peeled & sectioned)
1 large jar of salsa

Directions:
Drain pickle juice from the jar of pickles. Slice the pickles crosswise into 1/2" - 3/4" thick wedges. You will then start layering the pickles, then sugar, then cloves, then garlic sections, then the salsa making about 4 layers in the 1 gallon pickle jar. For 7 days leave the jar on the counter and (making sure the lid is on tight) flip jar over and leave resting on the lid. Flip the jar every day from top to bottom. After the seven days on the counter, Refrigerate for 7 more days still flipping the jar.

*Info: Don't let the name of these pickles fool you! They are great! The level hotness depends on which kind of salsa you use. The hotter the salsa, the hotter the pickle! This recipe was given to me by my friend Lynn and they are terrific!

| Fresh Salsa - Basic Recipe
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 @ 9:08 AM Fresh Salsa - Basic Recipe

Ingredients:
3-4 Roma Tomatoes
1 whole Jalepeno
1 can plain diced tomatoes
1 tsp. crushed Red pepper
5-6 green onions or 1/2 cup reg.
dash garlic salt
7 drops (shakes) Tabasco Sauce
pinch black pepper

Directions:
Chop all the vegetables in to large size pieces and place in blender. Use the button called chop. Blend all the way up to the top. Stop. Don't overblend or it will be too watery! This fresh salsa usually keeps up to about a week in an airtight container!

Variations: (some like it hot)
The basic recipe is pretty mild, but if you are like Me and my family like it very hot! Also I usually use whatever tomatoes I have on hand from the garden or whatever. I also usually put 9-10 shakes of Tabasco or Piquin Sauce in mine. You can use whichever brand you like as far as the pepper sauce goes also. Now as to the jalepenos I usually put anywhere from 5-7 very hot fresh jalepenos from my garden. You can use store bought pickled ones if you don't have any fresh they work good too. Also the kind of peppers can vary too - you could also use habaneros or serrano peppers. Whichever you prefer. Also if you don't want to use any canned tomatoes you can just substitute them for fresh. And with the green tomatoes the more of the green part you use the darker and less red your hot sauce will be. It won't hurt anything and will taste fine, just if you want a pretty reddish salsa don't go overboard with the stems.

| Something About Me
Monday, September 13, 2004 @ 8:31 AM Hey! Or shall I say howdy? Anyway for those reading this who don't know me (and even the ones who do) I thought I would start this blog out by telling a little bit about myself and one of my favorite pastimes - Cooking! Now I don't claim to be a gourmet chef or anything, but I do know my way around the kitchen and my family hasn't taken away my chef's hat or apron yet so I guess I do alright. Anyway about me: I am a 38 year old Texan, wife, and mother of 4 wonderful daughters! I have always loved to cook and being married at the age of 18 I have been cooking meals for 20 years. My sisters and sometimes even my mom will call me and ask " How did you make that such and such?" And most of the recipes aren't something I came up with from scratch! Although I can when needed. Most of them are ones someone gave me and I either make them exactly to a tee or improve upon them. Lately I have been making fresh salsa with the jalepenos from my garden so at the moment that is the recipe everyone seems to want! So next time I post will be with the Fresh Salsa Recipe! Until then I leave a quote from my favorite chef Jack Peppin...... "Happy Cooking"