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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Corn Salsa

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One of my most favorite things to eat is a Barbacoa Fajita Burrito from Chipotle. I'm a total wimp when it comes to bringing on the heat, but I honestly cannot get enough of the corn salsa (the medium salsa) that they will put on my burrito.

After some investigating, I found a couple knock-offs and just did my best to combine what I liked. The grown-ups in our house devoured the stuff.

"Chipotle" Corn Salsa
12-14 oz. cooked corn (I used frozen but cannot wait until the end of July when real corn is in season and I'll roast it first)
1 small red onion
2 jalapenos (no seeds or veins for mild, add veins and seeds for heat)
2 small vine ripe tomatoes (you could probably do without these if you wanted)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Juice from 2 limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop, mix, chill for a couple of hours.

Eat it all in about 10 minutes.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A little bit of baking

May was a big month for baking in our house. Here are a few of the tasty treats.

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First up, pink lemonade cupcakes for a friends, daughters birthday. After a lot of tasty experiments, I ended up using a white cake mix, doctored up with my secret doctoring concoction, with an additional ingredient of almost an entire can of pink lemonade concentrate into the batter.

And the frosting, a basic butter cream with about 1/3 cup of thawed pink lemonade for extra pucker.

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For my mother-in-law's birthday I went with a chocolate caramel cake. The trick to making this one absolutely delish....almost 24 hours in the refrigerator. There is just something about a chilled cake that makes it so much more dense and wonderful. Try it next time, you'll be absolutely amazed.

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Next up, the husband's birthday. For this we went with a rich vanilla cake and milk chocolate frosting. Holy cow it was yummy.

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The most fabulous creation was next, for my birthday. I wish that I would have taken a picture of the inside of this cake, it was gorgeous. I wanted a cake that tasted like a chocolate malt so that's just what I fixed. I started with a yellow cake mix and added about 4 tablespoons of malt powder. Then I divided the mix evenly and added about 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder to one half, making it chocolate. I cold have added some melted chocolate chips, too but I didn't think about that until later.

So, the cake was a decadent chocolate malt marble cake. And such a cake wouldn't be complete with out chocolate malted frosting as well. This was an absolute bomb of a cake and may have been the tastiest thing I've ever made or eaten. And, I made it really small, a 6" round which was perfect because once my guests and I were served, there wasn't anything left. This was not something that my waistline needed a second helping of, even though after several glasses of milk, my taste buds were craving more.

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And finally, the baking ended this past weekend. My brother earned his Eagle Scout award and my mother commissioned me for 100 Eagle Scout cupcakes to serve as refreshments. I found an eagle scout candy mold and made the little cakes as patriotic as I could muster. They were vanilla with chocolate frosting, milk chocolate with chocolate frosting and chocolate chocolate chip with vanilla bean frosting.

Phew!

I gained 5 pounds just writing this post. If you want more details on cakes and recipes, just send me an e-mail.