Homemade Salsa and Easy Pumpkin Spice Cookies!

It just occurred to me this past week that it could be awesome to try homemade salsa and if we liked it to jar some! Hello, duh! Everyone stop buying the canned and bottled and jarred stuff at the store. It's ridiculously easy to make it at home and it tastes so good. Plus, you can tweak it however you like! Here's the recipe I came up with after reading a few different ones like this and this

3 vine tomatoes
3 tomatillos
1 very large bell pepper
1 poblano pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
1 large clove of garlic
lemon juice
2 tsp cumin
a lot of cilantro
1 tsp sugar


      I tossed everything, one or two at a time, into my blender and added it all together in a bigger bowl.  My blender is annoying so any big chunks I'd just throw back in for a minute. We won't be saving this batch so I put it right into the fridge for a while to let all the flavors meld together. This is a sweet, tangy salsa with a decent kick to it. I left the cores and seeds of the peppers out or it would've been much spicier. I also used just a little bit of lemon juice to make sure everything stayed pretty and fresh but it also adds a nice smidge of flavor. My husband (salsa connoisseur) prefers a heavy, bold restaurant-style salsa but he liked this too! It's so easy to pick up the produce, chop it up, and throw it all together. You can tweak it however you want too so it's more to your taste.

 Also, I've seen this simple recipe bouncing around pinterest the past few weeks so I finally gave it a try. There are only TWO ingredients: a boxed spice cake mix and a can of pure pumpkin. I plopped the mixture on the pan and put them in my oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. They came out very soft, almost sticky. They are comparable to cookies you'd make with pudding. Definitely a quick and easy, festive cookie.  Oh, and if you get the cake mix and pumpkin at Aldi's then it's only going to cost a couple bucks! I wish I had some butter pecan ice cream to go with them. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of these. The kids ate them up before I remembered to take one. They were sneaking them so have no doubt they were tasty!

What's in YOUR freezer?

     Oh, hormones and craziness. I cleaned my freezer out just before 7am this morning. Because, I felt if I didn't something tragic would surely happen, I guess. The fridge in our apartment is just your average, ugly-tan, mid-90s variety. The freezer is small and obnoxious but hey it discourages the purchase of too much crap food, I guess (not really but I tell myself that).

     For everyone's sake (mostly mine) I only have after pictures. We'll pretend I forgot and that I'm not intentionally being coy with the innards of our fridge. hehe Anyway, it was uber nasty. Some black eyed peas had fallen out of the bag and stuck to the back wall. Something brown (ice cream or . . . coke?) had congealed in one spot on the bottom. Colorful pink and purple splatters from either popsicles or fruit were on the inside of the door. It looks better now. I threw out a lot, unfortunately: 2 cornish hens (oops, they were buried so I forgot), unopened package of boca burgers, a half bag of baby shrimp, a bag of lima beans, that bag of black eyed peas, and a bag of blueberries. Oh well.

  But have you ever seen those posts about the contents of people's refrigerators being totally indicative of their entire lifestyle and personality?

     Fascinating, right?  So what the heck. I have a blog. I do what I want. I'll post a picture of the freezer and the fridge even if it's gross, embarrassing, and pathetic. We'll pretend I "forgot" to take a picture of the inside of the actual fridge and didn't feel like going back. It's ok. We'll pretend this is just about the freezer! YAY!

 In the freezer door: 

• small ice pack
• two cans of OJ concentrate
• box of popsicles
• three boxes of butter

In the freezer:

• bags of homemade waffles
• chicken breasts
• boneless leg of lamb
• ground turkey
• green beans
• broccoli
• sliced carrots
• asparagus spears
• kidney beans
• black beans
• raspberries
• blueberries
• strawberries
• mango smoothie blend (mango, pineapple, strawberry)
• mango
• fresh local spinach! 

In the fridge door:

• 2 sticks of butter
• ketchup
• mustard
• mayo (the real stuff!)
• raspberry hazelnut vinaigrette
• ranch dressing
• kikkoman soy sauce
• sweet baby ray's
• grape and strawberry jellies
• sliced jalapenos

In the fridge: 

• half a jar of salsa
• 3 blocks of cheese (sharp cheddar and colby jack)
• hot dogs
• applesauce
• pickles (vlasic, not claussen or homemade, sadly)
• a little less than 3 dozen eggs
• half gallon of almond milk
• half gallon of dark chocolate almond milk (for me!)
• partial gallon of skim milk
• one orange vitamin water
• one kombucha canned drink
• two monster energy drinks (eww) 

     So this is the contents of mine (after cleaning and before a big grocery shopping trip). Don't think anything of it. We totally ate digiorno, hot pockets, and loads of icecream last week. Not sure why I'm saying that. Frankly, the total lack of bacon makes me very sad.

 What's in yours?!

It's fall . . . time for some white turkey chili!

     I've tweaked this recipe several times and it's almost perfect. It's been cooler this week so I decided I should welcome in the Harvest season with some tasty crockpot food. First, I pull out all my ingredients because half the time I'll forget something if I don't. My hubby eats it plain. I love it with a glob of shredded colby or pepper jack, a giant spoonful of sour cream, and fritos.

 Refried beans keep it nice and thick. I personally just like the cannellini beans (white kidney) and black beans. I normally use fresh tomato and a small can of chopped green chilies too but oh well. And, the enchilada sauce is new. We'll see how it goes. I'm substituting this for chicken broth.

 And, of course, you have to have meat. I love traditional chili BUT turkey is just as easy but it is leaner and better for you. Yay!

 Yup, that's cocoa. It adds a heavy, robust flavor. I usually mash up one small clove of garlic but I completely forgot. I used plenty of the chili powder and red pepper because I also forgot the jalapeno and pablano peppers (what I'd use normally) and didn't feel like running to walmart to find not-so-great peppers (this is what farmer's markets are for, best produce EVER) . I'd probably still add the powder and pepper anyway. I also use a secret ingredient but unfortunately I ran out.*

 MMM. Fresh bell pepper and chopped tomatillo and a hint of sweet and crunchy! I chop these up, not to fine and not to thick so they still hold their own flavor and crunch but are tender. I actually love bell pepper raw with ranch . . . yum.

Once all the cans are opened and the veggies and fruits are chopped I plop it all in together. No pre-cooking or anything.  It should cook on low for at least 6 hours and I like to put it on high for an hour to make SURE the meat is done. I season to taste. I promise it's better looking cooked. It's smooth, thick, and a warm tan color with specs of bright yellow, red, and green. Yum.

                                    

 *Canadian Whisky