Avocado Pico De Gallo

Either serve this as a side to your Mexican meals, with tortilla chips or simply top your salad with it to create a tasty and healthy addition to your meal.

Ingredients

1 cup diced tomato
1/2 cup diced white onion
2 tbsp minced jalapeno (remember the membrane and seeds will determine the heat)
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 tbsp lime juice
2 ripe avocados peeled, pitted, and diced

Stir to combine the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl to blend. Carefully fold in avocado and season to taste with salt.

Chocolate Zuchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from a recipe by Rachelle Hughes

Zucchini you say????? Try this recipe just once and you will see why on earth I made this cake. I tried a piece of zucchini cake with raised eyebrows years ago and was instantly converted. I was given giant zucchini's a week ago and instantly new where it was going... in the cake tin. Give this moist chocolate treat a try.

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 Cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 Cup oil
1 3/4 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
2 C grated zucchini
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 Cup buttermilk or sour milk
4 Tbsp Cocoa powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder.
1 Cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Cream butter, oil and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips. Mix well and stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips.
Oil and flour a bundt pan ( you can use a regular spring form baking pan but it will be take longer to bake and not be as consistantly moist all the way through). I sprinkled the remaining choco chips on the bottom of the bundt pan. If using a normal cake pan sprinkle top with remaining choco chips.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool before removing from pan. Pour or spread on frosting. Recipe follows.

Frosting

Ingredients

1 8oz packet cream cheese softened

1/4 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all ingredients together until thoroughly combined

If you like you can add a spoonful of jam to this mixture, however I like the plain vanilla cream cheese combination with the chocolate cake.

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are a basic must know in my house. With so many long winter months it is the perfect comfort accompaniment to those winter meals.

Every one has their own idea of what the perfect consistancy of mashed potatoes is... sloppy... firm and chunky.. I say.. do whatever you like.. as long as the flavor is good. Here is a basic recipe to work from.

Ingredients
6 Small Potatoes or 4 large - peeled and cubed evenly into medium sized pieces
(keep all your pieces the same size so they cook through at the same time)
1/4 cup butter cubed into little pieces
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup grated cheese

Mix milk and cream together. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender all the way through.
Drain in a colander. Add the potatoes to a large bowl you can mix in. While potatoes are still hot mix in the butter pieces. Add about a tablespoon of your milk mixture and then with electric mixer start mashing potatoes. Gradually add in more of the milk/cream until reaching the consistency you desire. Every batch is different so feel free to add more or less milk. Mix in cheese while it is still warm enough to melt through and then taste and add salt as needed.
Serve steaming hot !!!!

Sour Cream-Horseradish Mashed Potatoes

Based on recipe by Bon Appetit Nov 2006


Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes (I usually estimate 1 potato per person)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup prepared horseradish
salt to season

Directions

Follow Perfet Mashed Potatoes recipe but do not add milk and cream from original recipe instead --- Whisk 1 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup chopped chives, and 1/4 cup prepared horseradish in medium bowl. Fold sour cream mixture into potatoes. Season with salt.

BBQ Shredded Beef

This is a fantastic recipe to make the night before or just let it cook all day while lyou're out. With a wonderful balance of sweet tangy and smokey the Leftovers are just as good if not better the next day.

Recipe Courtesy of Stephanie Hughes

Ingredients

4 1/2 pound boneless beef roast

2 beef boullion cubes

1 1/2 tsp Worcestshire Sauce

1 large onion chopped (white or yellow)

5-6 cloves of garlic chopped

Place all ingredients in a crockpot and cover with water.Cook for 8-12- plus hours on low ( My sister in law puts her on the night before- if you are in a time crunch it will shred in 8 hours.. remember though.. the longer it cooks the more tender it will be so i12 hours is ideal)
When roast is done, drain and pull apart into small pieces.

Sauce Ingredients
1 Tlb. chili powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. salt1 tsp. pepper
1 tbs. liquid smoke
1 tsp. vinegar
4 cups ketchup

Place chili powder, brown sugar, salt, pepper, liquid smoke, and vinegar in a bowl and mix well. Add ketchup and blend. Pour sauce into slow cooker over the shredded beef, cook on low for 2-3 more hours, serve alone or on a toasted roll with some yummy cheese to have as a sandwich.

No Bake Chocolate Raspberry Cream Pie

Recipe courtesy Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

O.k. I have not tried this recipe yet.. BUT I am going to this week so I thought I would post it and if any of you make it feel free to let me know what "tweaks" you would or wouldn't make. It's a no bake berry cream pie with chocolate wafer crust... really wants not to like about that!

8 servings
Prep: 30 minutes
Total: 2 hours 30 minutes (includes chilling time)

Ingredients
7 oz chocolate wafer cookies (about 32), coarsely broken
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup sugar
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup crème fraîche
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
2 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (two 6-ounce containers)
Preparation
Place broken cookies in processor. Using on/off turns, process until finely ground. Place chocolate chips, butter, and sugar in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high at 15-second intervals until melted, stirring occasionally. Add chocolate mixture to processor and blend until combined. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch glass pie dish (do not pack firmly). Chill crust while preparing filling.
Whisk condensed milk, crème fraîche, lemon juice, and lemon peel in large bowl to blend. Add half of raspberries. Stir, pressing gently on some raspberries, until raspberries begin to break apart and filling turns pink. Transfer filling to crust. Chill until filling is set, about 2 hours.
Scatter remaining raspberries over pie. Cut into wedges and serve.
Kitchen Science
The filling firms as it chills, creating nice clean slices of pie—but it doesn't contain any thickeners. The secret? Lemon juice. When it reacts with the other ingredients, it helps thicken the filling.

Creme Fraiche Info

With a tangy flavor and thick consistency, crème fraîche is the natural result of letting cream skimmed off the top of milk ferment at a warm temperature-or at least it is in its native France. In America, we pasteurize milk, killing off the bacteria that would cause fermentation. To make crème fraïche with American cream, you have to add buttermilk or sour cream; they contain bacteria that thicken cream.
Similar to sour cream, crème fraîche makes a delicious topping for desserts and adds body and flavor to sauces and pasta dishes.
How to make your own crème fraîche:
Combine 2 tablespoons of buttermilk with 1 cup of whipping cream in a glass container. Cover and let it sit at room temperature (about 70ºF) for 8 to 24 hours. Don't despair if your cream doesn't thicken after 22 hours; sometimes it happens nearly all at once. When it has thickened, stir well and refrigerate up to 10 days.