Pot Stickers with Chris' Homemade Dipping Sauce

We have been craving oriental food, so you are getting several recipes that have that influence.  This particular recipe reminded me a lot of making tamales. Why, you ask?  Because it is easier, and definitely more fun to assemble, if you have help.Chris and I made these while watching Star Wars, episode 3.  (My kitchen counter faces the TV.) So we made our little  pot stickers, each with our own design. Chris made the dumpling shape and I made triangles, which were not pretty so I did not photograph them.
When I bought the Won Ton wrappers, rectangles were to only ones available.  If I had thought of it, we could have used a cookie cutter to make the wrappers round, but it just dawned on me, now.  I think these would be much nicer made with round wrappers.  Oh well, I will just have to make these again.  That will be great because these were very, very, very YUMMY!

Corn Relish and The 4th of July

We are having a Hot Dog Bar for our July 4th celebration.  With the extreme heat of this summer, already underway, this works out perfectly.  It takes very little time to assemble and we get to spend time with our guests.

Squash Chow Chow

This is Chow Chow made from more of the Aultman's produce.  I had so much fun making this.  Canning saves Summer for later in the year and there is something wonderful about the process that I can not describe. It makes me happy!

Breakfast (or dinner) Tacos with Green Chili Salsa

Before I had heard of breakfast burritos, I had the pleasure of trying these little tacos.  The ones that I had were at a restaurant at a little resort in west Texas.  The restaurant served egg with potato and a green sauce.  The sauce was probably a tomatillo sauce but honestly, I do not recall.  What I remember is that these were wonderful.  Over the years I have made these for breakfast, lunch or dinner and I served these with red salsa but I have this great recipe for a green chili sauce that I hope you will try with these. Besides we have not fried a main course lately, so I thought we should revisit the frying pan. This takes three separate cooking pans.

Oil for frying
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
6 flour tortillas
green chili salsa
cilantro
cooked bacon or sausage (optional)

In a large skillet, heat oil to 300 degrees and carefully add potatoes, cooking until tender and brown.  Cook in batches if using a small skillet.  Remove and set aside.  Add onion and cook until brown.  Set aside.  In a separate skillet, cook eggs until done. Evenly fill 6 flour tortillas with the potatoes, onions and eggs.  In the third pan, spray with vegetable spray and heat on medium.  Place the filled tortillas on the heated skillet and brown until slightly crisp.  Serve with green chili salsa, cilantro, and bacon or sausage.

Green Chili Salsa

In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon of oil, add 1 finely chopped onion and 1/2 of a green bell pepper, finely chopped and 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic.  Cook until softened.  Add a 3.5 ounce can of chopped green chilies. Heat through and cook for 5 minutes.  Add 2 Tablespoons of Lime juice , salt and pepper . Cook  3 minutes until flavors are combined.  Serve with Breakfast taco, burgers, or chicken enchiladas.

Enjoy!

Deloris

Roasted Salsa (or not)

The big mistake

Okay, so I had let my tomatoes get a little soft and the Jalapenos turn red, trying to remember to purchase cilantro the next time that I went to the grocery store and that ended up being a long time. So when I finally got the cilantro, I had these questionable ingredients to go with it. So I decided to roast the tomatoes, hopefully offsetting the lack of firmness. Then I thought about it and decided to roast the onion, too. Next I thought, what the heck, I"ll throw in the red Jalapenos. I drizzled all of them with olive, sprinkled on salt and pepper, and roasted the whole pan at 250 degrees for about 3 hours.  When I combined everything, it was so good I could hardly wait to serve it the next day. That will be another story for another day.  I hope you try this recipe both roasted and fresh.  Both ways are excellent!  You will need to preheat the oven to 250 degrees if you are roasting the salsa.

3 large salad tomatoes or 6 Roma tomatoes
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
3 Red Jalapenos, seeded and ribs removed(or not, if you like salsa hot)
1 large bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
1 to 3 limes
salt and pepper to taste

If you are roasting the salsa, do not chop the tomatoes, onion or jalapenos until you have finished roasting them.  Put the tomatoes, onion, jalapenos in a pan, drizzle with vegetable oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper, roast about 3 hours.  When you have let the tomatoes, onion and jalapenos cool enough to handle them, roughly chop and put in a serving bowl.  Remember that the tomatoes will still be juicy and the juice will remain hot to the touch longer than the outside of the tomato.
Add the cilantro and squeeze 1 lime over entire mixture and stir.  Keep adding enough lime until you get it to the point that you like it.  I say this because some limes have more juice than others.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 
As I mentioned previously, you can make this salsa without roasting it, just chop everything and mix it together.  It is just as delicious just in a different way.
Now all you need is some chips or tortillas.

Enjoy!

Deloris