Cinco de Salsas and a Contest Winner

I didn't have time to announce the winner of the cookie contest on wednesday, 

and my many attempts to do a blogpost on my iphone were unsuccessful.

( i really need to keep working on that, 

because i would definitely post more often if i could blog from my phone). 

anyways... the random winner of the dozen cookies for mother's day is christina neal.

christina, please email me your mom's contact information so i can get her cookies to her next weekend.

thank you all so much for your participation and support. i have gotten SO many orders in the past few weeks. it has been encouraging to see this tiny little cookie business become a reality.

and i also thought while i was actually at a computer that i would post about our cinco de mayo celebration.

i love mexican food... i would eat it about 5 times a week if i was the only one influencing our dinner decisions, so any opportunity that i get to make it is welcomed. 

i decided for cinco de mayo that i would make 

5 kinds of salsa for our 'lunch'.

so i thought that i would share those 5 recipes with you.

here, in no particular order, are our 

'cinco de salsas':

starting top right and going clockwise:

 traditional fresh salsa, roasted tomatillo salsa,

black bean and corn salsa, creamy avocado salsa, and mango salsa.

I have already done a blogpost about the first one. 

it is just a traditional fresh tomato salsa, and is probably my favorite.

here is the link: 

garden fresh salsa

i thought that i would also add a few pictures of how to easily peel the tomatoes for this salsa.

begin by cutting a very shallow 'x' into the skin of the tomato.

drop the tomatoes into boiling water.

boil for about 1-1 1/2 minutes. 

remove the tomatoes from the water once the skin begins to loosen at the 'x'

immediately place the tomatoes into ice water to 'blanch' them.

once the tomatoes have cooled in the ice bath, the skins will easily peel off.

Combine the tomatoes and the remaining ingredients and process well in food processor.

next i will share the

roasted tomatillo salsa recipe:

begin by peeling and rinsing 7 or 8 tomatillos

half and seed 2 or 3 jalepenos, 

and peel 3 or 4 garlic cloves.

place vegetables 4" under the broiler on a baking sheet or pan with raised edges.

broil about 4 minutes on each side, (turning to broil each side).

 remove from oven and cool, reserving juices from roasted tomatillos.

Once cooled place broiled vegetables and juices in blender with 2 T. chopped cilantro.

(i used my immersion blender)

Blend well and then add 1/4 c. finely chopped white onion 

and 1 t. salt.

Chill before serving.

One of my favorite salsas/dips is 

black bean and corn salsa

whisk the dressing ingredients:

1/4 c. red wine vinegar

1 1/2 T. olive oil

3 T. honey

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cumin

dash of pepper

then add 

1 can (or 2 c. thawed frozen corn)

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion, chopped finely

2 green onions, sliced

combine all ingredients with dressing 

then add 6 oz. crumbled feta cheese

and let sit for several hours or overnight.

this saturday morning we went to the Greenville, SC saturday downtown market.

 it is one of my favorite things to do on the weekend,

 and this was the first saturday market of 2013 so i was very excited to go.

the saturday market combines so many of my favorite things.

i love fresh, quality, organic food and produce.

i love supporting small, local business.

i love our downtown.

and i love people watching. ;)

one of my favorite booths at the market is the

spinning spider creamery booth

they have the most delicious goat cheese. 

my favorite is the spreadable fresh chevres.

i usually can't resist the garlic dill chevre and the rosemary fig chevre. 

my summers in France gave me a ridiculous love of cheese!

but this week i decided to get the aged feta 

since for some reason in the past few weeks i have been eating feta by the pound. 

spinning spider has quite a few aged cheeses, which are very strong, but delicious!

they have samples of all of them at their booth, so you don't have to blindly invest in a cheese without knowing whether you will like it or not.

my favorite of the 5 salsas that i made today was the

creamy avocado salsa

combine in blender:

(i used the immersion blender)

1 avocado, pitted and removed from peel

1 c. water, 

1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped

1 t. white vinegar

3/4 t. salt

2 t. cilantro, chopped

2 t. white onion, chopped

blend until smooth and creamy and chill.

and the 5th and final salsa recipe:

mango salsa:

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped

1/4 c. red bell pepper, finely chopped

(i used 3 small sweet red peppers)

2 green onions, sliced

2 T. cilantro chopped

2 fresh jalepenos, chopped finely

1/4 small red onion, chopped finely

2 T. lime juice

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 t. salt

combine all ingredients and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

i also made some guacamole deviled eggs

 since avocado makes everything seem mexican.(?)

first i boiled 8 eggs, cooled them, 

then halfed them length-wise.

i removed the yolks and added them to 1/2 of a pitted, peeled, and mashed avocado

then i added

1 t. red wine vinegar

1 t. yellow mustard, 

1 T. mayonnaise

1/2 t. salt

dash of pepper

i combined all of the ingredients with a fork until it was smooth.

then i placed the yolk mixture in a small zip-lock bag.

i cut the corner off the bag and 'piped' the guacamole-yolk mixture into the boiled egg whites.

i garnished the eggs with paprika and some chopped cilantro leaves.

don't they look festive?

so this was our 'cinco de salsa' lunch.

what did you do to celebrate cinco de mayo?

the cookie kiln

once again it has been months since i have blogged.

and again, not because we have had nothing worth blogging about, 

quite the opposite actually. our life has been beyond busy.

on a daily basis i think about multiple things that i should blog about, 

not because anyone else would want to read about it, 

but because i know that someday i will want to remember it.

so today i had a little down time and i decided that i would do a little blog update.

several months ago, with a little (actually, more than a little) encouragement from my husband,

 i decided to open a part-time, custom sugar cookie business out of our home.

my husband came up with the name,

 'the cookie kiln', 

which i thought was rather clever, 

as a kiln is just an extra-large, extra-hot oven for baking pottery.

i created a facebook page, 

www.facebook.com/cookiekiln

so that i would have somewhere to post pictures of the cookies that i had made

and to have a place to direct anyone interested in seeing my cookies.

i honestly didn't think that i would get many orders at all, 

and in a way i hoped that i wouldn't get many,

 as i am fairly exhausted after working 50-60 hours a week as a nanny to 5 very active children.

but i thought that i would just give it a chance and see what happened.

i have been overwhelmed with the number of orders that i have gotten, 

mostly word-of-mouth by friends and family.

it has been a very fun, tiring, and incredibly exciting few months.

i honestly never could have hoped to see this kind of response 

without actually marketing my little business in any way...

 facebook and friends are amazing things. haha.

we are praying about the next steps to take in growing this little business. 

but for now i am just enjoying all of the fun, creative orders that my clients have been sending my way.

i will post a few of my favorite orders from the past few months.

i actually made these little onesies for a baby shower last fall.

it was after this shower that my husband really started pushing me to try to make a business out of my baking.

i LOVE paisley!!! 

so i made these for a sweet mommy who was  in the hospital on bedrest,

awaiting the arrival of her baby boy.

these little paint palettes were for a 6-year old's art-themed birthday party

i thought that these little birthday cake cookies were pretty fun.

and a great option for those who dislike cake.

i had several easter cookie orders. 

they were a little time-consuming because of all of the colors, 

but they were SO much fun to make.

and these guitars were for a highschool student's senior thesis presentation.

he actually made that guitar, which i thought was really awesome! 

i had 2 bachelorette party orders the same weekend. 

i thought that they were pretty fun. :)

and i never would have imagined that an upside-down heart-shaped cookie cutter 

would have made such adorable lingerie.

these cute little mommy and baby giraffes were for a baby boy shower this past weekend.

mother's day cookies-

 i did a mother's day cookie give-away on my facebook page.

i ended up giving away 3 dozen because there were too many deserving moms nominated

that i felt like i should give more than one of them an opportunity to win.

another mother's day cookie set

and this was probably one of my favorite cookies that i have made.

i love paisley, and turquoise and seafoam are my favorite colors.

so that is a little bit of what has been going on inside my kitchen walls.

there is so much more going on in our lives beyond the walls of my kitchen,

but i will stop for now.

and just because i am feeling extra generous this year, i thought that i would give away one more set of a dozen cookies on my blog. 

send me a comment either on the blog or on my facebook page telling me about a mom 

(either your own mom, or a friend who is a mom)

that you think should win a dozen cookies.

i will have the random drawing wednesday evening.

no soup for you! - a week of soup recipes

in the next few blog posts (at the request of my sister and several others)

 i am going to share 5 soup recipes 

that we could eat over and over again.

i will share 2 today 

and hopefully (i promise), 

i will share the others 3 later this week.

it goes without saying that this post is far more than overdue...

but i just said it. 

my poor neglected little blog. :(

i know that it would take more than one blog post to get you updated on all that has gone on since i last posted.

first of all, we moved to a new house.

 the combination of the actual move and 

reorganizing our lives

has occupied more than a great deal of my time.

[i will post pictures of our house and the resulting projects in another post.]

amos celebrated his 1st birthday and has not yet stopped growing... 

 

to give this a little perspective, my husband is 6' 2"

and this picture shows amos's height sitting down.

paisley and amos are inseparable, which just makes me so happy!

best friends. :) i love the 'hug.'

and i know we are crazy, but we have added another furbaby child to the family

this is our new kitten, reggie.

please excuse the 

instagram 

screenshots

he was 3 months old when we rescued him. 

i wanted a black, male cat. i was hoping for a slightly younger kitten, 

but we got so lucky to get a kitten with so much personality,

 that both of our dogs fell in love (obsession) with instantly.

he LOVES the dogs, in fact he thinks that he is a dog.

and the dogs (especially amos) love him. 

amos is completely obsessed with him and won't leave him alone.

reggie was supposed to be an outdoor cat... 

which we still both keep saying is what he is going to be

but he had several health issues that we were trying to resolve before we let him go out.

and since he seems to be enjoying his indoor life [a lot], 

we are in no hurry to release him to the 'barn' (garage), which was where he was intended to live.

ok, so now for the recipes.

i will start with my husband's new favorite.

i made this for my family last weekend and topher requested that i make a second batch the very next day.

always a good sign! :)

White Chicken Chili

ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, boiled and shredded 

2 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, diced finely

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 jalepeno

2 cans green chilis

1 lb. great northern beans

8 cups chicken stock (or 2 boxes chicken broth) 

1 1/2 T. cumin

1 T. chili powder

1/2 t. paprika

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 c. whole milk or 1/2 and half

2 T. masa harina (or cornmeal)

optional garnishes:

sour cream

grated monterrey jack cheese

avocado

cilantro

tortilla chips

directions:

boil chicken for 20-25 minutes. 

let cool and shred, then set aside.

(you can just buy and shred a whole rotisserie chicken if you prefer)

heat oil at medium-high in a large pan or dutch oven.

add onions and garlic and cook for 3 mins or until onions are transparent.

add jalepenos and chili peppers and saute an additional 3-5 mins

rinse dried beans  then add them to the pot.

then add the chicken stock or broth.

decrease heat to low, cover,  then cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

next add the shredded chicken, the salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and paprika.

when the beans are tender

mix several tablespoons of masa harina (corn powder) 

into the cup of whole milk. 

{again, if you can't find masa harina you can use cornmeal. it is just to thicken the soup.}

whisk together and let sit for several minutes before adding to the soup. 

cook soup for an additional 10 minutes.

serve with sour cream, guacamole, cilanto and cheese.

again, sorry for the instagram picture. 

i didn't save the picture to my phone after i instagramed it.

next....

Chili's copycat chicken tortilla soup:

ingredients:

1 T. olive oil

3 large chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" cubes

small yellow onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves (pressed or chopped)

4 c. chicken broth

1 c. masa harina

3 c. water

1 can enchilada sauce

12 oz. velveeta cheese, cubed

1 c. fat-free half and half

1 t. salt

1 1/2 T. chili powder

1 1/2 T. cumin

optional toppings-

pepper jack cheese, shredded

avocado

pico de gallo

tortilla chips

directions:

heat olive oil at medium-high in a skillet. 

brown chicken cubes, about 4 minutes per side. 

remove chicken and set aside. 

brown onion and garlic for about 4 minutes, until onion is clear.

add chicken broth. 

combine masa harina and 2 cups of water. whisk well.

add to the onion mixture. 

add remaining water, enchilada sauce, velveeta, half and half,  and the spices to the pot and bring to a boil.

add the chicken, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.

serve with your choice of garnishes.

hope that you enjoy as much as we did.

healthy-ish {paleo} living

i know, i haven't posted in months... 

we decided to turn our internet off for the summer

because we were both out of town more than we were in town this summer. 

i shouldn't complain that i was able to go to the beach 6 times this summer, several times with work and a few days with my husband as well. but i definitely disliked living out of a suitcase and am very convinced that although i LOVE traveling, i am a bit of a home body and i really missed being at home with my husband and our puppies. and i missed my kitchen more than i should admit.

my favorite trip this summer was definitely our trip to iowa to visit family.
{we decided to take the dogs, which was quite an adventure}
we had a family camping trip with about 25 family members. it was such a fun week with so many fun memories.

here are a couple of my favorite pictures



after 17 hours in the car together they were the best of friends.
this is just the sweetest picture of my puppies

uncle dave's girlfriend, krista got this awesome picture of amos at the campsite

paisley loved the easy access to nature.

 there were so many things that she could chew on .

this is most of the collogan clan at the campsite

and this is my favorite! 3 generations of collogans- topher, lyle, and jim

this summer has been anything but relaxing, but despite the craziness, i have been busy with projects and cooking and baking here in our own kitchen.

my husband and i had both gained a little weight in the last several months. 

and a few months ago my husband decided that he wanted to join crossfit and he assured me that he was more than serious about living a healthy lifestyle, so i bought him a membership at one of the local crossfit gyms. he has been incredibly dedicated to it for several weeks now and i am so proud of him. i know that i don't need to lose much weight, but i also know that i need to 

work on eating a healthier diet and i am training for my first race... and i decided to start with a big one. i am hoping to do a half-marathon at the end of october, so i would appreciate any support and insight that any of you runners might have for me.

i am doing my best to encourage my husband to continue in his workouts and to make healthy dinners for us.

we have been trying to stick to the paleo diet as much as possible.

and honestly, the meals that we have had since we started eating more healthfully have been delicious!

the only thing that i have really missed has been cheese. i am pretty sure now that i could live without sugar, bread, and pasta, but cheese is definitely my guilty pleasure.

several of our favorite paleo recipes so far (which i will attempt to blog in the next few days) have been zucchini hummus (which i must say, i could not even begin to imagine that it would taste so much like hummus), eggplant stacks = amazing!!!!, and tilapia with peach-mango salsa, which i think was our favorite.

tonight i made the HUGEST batch of paleo marinara sauce, which i plan to use in 3 of our dinners this week.  i know that i am probably a little prejudice, but it was incredible!

****note: this makes an EnORmOUS batch of marinara,

but it is SO worth it.

i sauteed 

1 large red onion

5 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 1/2 T. olive oil

for about 5 minutes,

then add

2 carrots, grated

1 large zucchini, grated 

and sautee for 3-5 minutes

add

3 T. fresh basil, chopped

2 t. fresh oregano

1 t. red pepper flakes

4 packets splenda

salt and pepper, to taste 

( i added about 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper)

then add 

1 - 35 oz. can roma tomatoes (i used Nina, roma tomatoes from costco), chopped, with juices

let simmer at medium heat for 30 minutes to 1/2 hour.

tonight we had grilled chicken marinara 

(a grilled chicken breast, seasoned with balsamic vinegrette, salt and pepper), 

and it was everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

omorrow we are going to try paleo 'spaghetti' with julienned zucchini 'noodles' and marinara...

i will let you know the results.