TABLE OF CONTENTS

Josh's Mexican Rice
Jen's Yummy Salsa
Chicken Diavolo Recipe
Chicken Fried Rice
Hot Air Caramel Popcorn
Mexican Flan

Click HERE to download recipes

JOSH'S MEXICAN RICE

Olive oil (Canola oil is okay)
1 C uncooked long grain rice
1/2 medium sized onion
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 cups cold water
1 small/med jalapeno (remove core/seeds for less spicy)
Small diced tomato (or 1/4 C Tomato sauce)
1 Tbsp chicken bouillon
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp Cumin (optional)
Salt, to taste

Put a little olive oil (Tbsp or so) into a medium-sized pot and heat
to a medium temperature, add the rice, uncooked, and brown in the oil.

Make sure all the rice is lightly coated with the oil. You do not have
to stir the rice around very much at first, while browning, but as the
rice becomes browner you want to be stirring it around to make sure it
all browns evenly and doesn't burn. It will turn brown, but it's not
burning unless it's turning dark/black or smoking.

Towards the end of the browning, add the garlic and onion so that it is sort of sauteed/browned.

Next, dump the water on the rice (it will steam up loudly) and add the
remaining ingredients. Stir well and partially cover (with a small air escape). Reduce heat to medium, and let cook until you can see the steam holes in the rice and the water level is barely below the top of the rice. This takes 5 to 10 minutes. Cover the rice completely and turn heat to low for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste the rice. If it is soft then it is done.

The essential rule of this recipe is "Do Not Peek" while the rice is
cooking. It should be dry, not saucy.

You can adjust the spices/peppers to your taste. The recipe can be
changed by keeping with the 1 cup rice/2 cups water ratio, and
adjusting remaining ingredients to taste

Return to top

JEN'S YUMMY SALSA
1 medium tomato
2 avocados,
1 cup of sweet white corn (I get a frozen bag from Costco)
1 Bushel of green onions
1 can of black beans
Garlic Pepper
Garlic salt w/ parsley
Tapatio Sauce

Place drained black beans and corn into a large bowl
Dice up the tomato and green onions and add them in the bowl.
Season with the garlic pepper, garlic salt and tapatio sauce to taste.
Mix everything around and then taste it to check seasoning.

Add chopped avocado and mix it around one more time (I do the avocado last so the little diced pieces don’t get all mushy in the initial mixing process).

Return to top

CHICKEN DIAVOLO RECIPE
Serves/Makes: 8
Ingredients:
* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 3 cloves garlic, sliced
* 1 can (28-ounce size) whole tomatoes
* 1 can (8-ounce size) tomato sauce
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
* 3/4 pound linguine
* 1/4 cup fresh basil, cut into strips

Directions:
Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; saute 8 minutes or until softened, without letting garlic brown.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, salt and pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer, breaking up tomatoes with wooden spoon; simmer over medium heat 10 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, cook linguine in large, deep pot of lightly salted boiling water until al dente, firm yet tender.
Stir chicken into sauce; cook 3 to 4 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Drain linguine. Toss with sauce. Garnish with basil.
Per serving: 285 calories; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 19 grams protein; 45 grams carbohydrate; 4 grams fiber; 929 milligrams sodium; 86 milligrams cholesterol

Return to top

CHICKEN FRIED RICE
2 cups uncooked rice
4 cups water
1.5 tbs of chicken bouillon
1 chicken breast (cut into cubes)
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 eggs
3-4 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2-4 servings

1. Cook your rice the night before!! This is the key point to make the rice. It’s even better if it sits in the fridge for 2 days. When you cook the rice add the water and the 1.5 tbs of chicken bouillon.

2. Let your rice cool completely pack it up in a bowl and let it sit in the fridge over night.

3. Heat a wok over high heat with 1 tbs. of oil. Add you chicken cubes and cook the completely (l like to drizzle a little bit of soy sauce and sprinkle some brown sugar on the chicken while it’s cooking to give it a “teriyaki flavor”. Then add eggs and scramble until cooked. Add peas and fry for about a minute. Note: You can add or omit any veggie/meat combo you want.

4. Remove omelet from wok. Clean the wok out a bit so the leftover egg doesn't burn while you're heating up your wok and oil again.

5. Add remaining oil to the wok and heat over high heat until it is very hot. Add your cold rice to the wok and stir to coat every grain. (You can add some more oil if you want; it just depends on how greasy you like it.)

6. Stir fry for a while, stirring constantly until there is no liquid left, then chop up your omelet and add it, along with the soy sauce and salt. Stir. You can add more or less soy sauce and salt according to your taste. NOTE: In this case, the salt is simply to enhance the flavor of the dish, not to make it salty. And remember that soy sauce is salty in itself--unless you use the salt-free or low-salt type. (It is an MSG substitute.)

7. Enjoy! It's the best homemade fried rice you'll ever make!

Return to top

HOT AIR CARAMEL POPCORN

1⁄2 cup of popcorn kernels popped
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1⁄4 cup white Karo syrup
1⁄4 to 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda (depending on how long you bake it for)
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla

Cook butter, sugar and Karo on medium heat until it boils…Boil for 2 minutes, then take it off heat and add 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda, then add 1⁄2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Pour caramel over popcorn, bake at 250 for 10 to 30 minutes depending on how crunchy you would like the popcorn. My family likes it gooey so we only cook it for 10 minutes and then eat J Otherwise take it out stir it around and put it back in for another 10 minutes until you've done it for a total of 30 minutes.

*Cool tip* You can take 1⁄4 a cup of popcorn kernels and put them in a paper lunch sack taped shut and pop for about 1 min and 40 seconds in the microwave. Do that twice and you have a ton of fresh popcorn to dump the caramel over.

Return to top

MEXICAN FLAN

1- cup and ½- cup sugar, divided
6- large eggs
1- 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
2- 13 oz cans evaporated milk
1- teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need 6 ramekins or other specialty flan cook ware and a large baking pan to put them in. (Note: you can use a cupcake pan instead of ramekins, but that pan needs to fit into the large baking pan.)

Pour 1 cup sugar in warm pan over medium heat. Constantly stir sugar until it browns and becomes caramel. (Note: do not add any liquids. If the sugar isn’t melting, turn up the heat little by little until it does)

Quickly pour approximately 2-3 tablespoons of caramel in each ramekin (1/2 to 1 tablespoon if using cupcake pan), tilting it to swirl the caramel around the sides. Reheat caramel if it starts to harden. (Note: heating up the ramekins really helps)

In a mixer or with a whisk, blend the eggs together. Mix in the milks then slowly mix in the 1/2 cup of sugar, then the vanilla. Blend very smooth after each ingredient is added.

Pour custard into caramel lined ramekins. Place ramekins in a large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with about 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 45 minutes in the water bath and check with a knife just to the side of the center. If knife comes out clean, it's ready.

Remove and let cool. Let each ramekin cool in refrigerator for 1 hour. Invert each ramekin onto a small plate, the caramel sauce will flow over the custard.

From about.com (mexicanfood.about.com/od/sweetsanddesserts/r/easyflan.htm)

Return to top