Cowboy Caviar

A friend of mine made this for a party she had and I had to get the recipe from her because it was so delicious! You serve it as an appetizer (or as we say here in Hawaii a "pu-pu") with chips. My friend even said she puts it on top of lettuce and eats it as a salad too. I think I will try that next!

15 oz. can of shoepeg corn (it was $3 a can here so I used regular corn)

15 oz. can of black eyed peas (they only had them with chile's so I used froze ones)

2/3 cup cilantro

2/3 cup green onions, chopped

1-2 avocados cubed

1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped

Dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. salt

1 t. cumin

Mix all veggies together except avocados and tomatoes. Mix dressing ingredients together and then toss with veggie mix. Marinate for 2-3 hours before serving. About 1/2 hour before you serve it add the avocados and tomatoes so they don't get soggy.

homemade hummus

I love this stuff and could eat it every meal. I get a loaf of fresh french bread and cut it up into bite size pieces and then dip it in the hummus. Yum! This is my friend Julie's recipe:

• 1 can of chick peas (save liquid or I just use water)
• 1/4 c.-1/3 c. sesame tahini (I found this in our health food store but it may be in the grocery stores there since mainland stores tend to carry random things like that. But this is the key ingredient)
• juice from 1/2 lemon (sometimes I omit this because it definitely changes the flavor, so you can experiment)
• salt or soy sauce to taste (I use about a dash of soy sauce)
• 1-2 T. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (crushed)
  

Mix in a blender. Add water to thin it out just a little bit. Serve right away or can be refrigerated for a few days. Fresh is best though.

7-Layer Mexican dip

The Deans had us over for a Cinco de Mayo celebration last night. I brought this dip, cause it's one of my favorite fiesta-type indulgences. I'm sure that all of you foodies have made the 7-layer dip before, but mine is a little tweaked for more flavor... and I'm also just posting it here so I can be reminded of it, if I need an idea!

Layer in a dish:

1 can Refried beans- mixed w/half a packet of taco seasoning
1 can Green chilis
1 can chopped black olives (I always leave these out... cause I just don't like 'em)
Sour cream- enough to cover
Guacamole - enough to cover (sometimes I just chop up avocado if I don't feel like making it...)
Chopped tomato - mixed with salsa and/or taco sauce. I always add a bunch of salsa cause I really don't like a dry dip!
Grated cheddar cheese- enough to cover

Refrigerate and serve w/chips.

Sorry I forgot to take a picture...

Leftover Goodies

I just had a fabulous lunch with some leftovers just now. And it was something that hadn't occured to me before, so I thought I'd pass it along in case you all need some new quick ideas!

We had taco salad for supper two nights ago, complete with meat, black beans, corn, and all the regular veggies. After supper I combined the leftover corn and beans and stirred in some store-bought salsa and taco sauce. Today for lunch I heated it up with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on top. It was SO good. It was easy, and pretty healthy too! (although I'm sure it'd be fabulous with chips too- like a good corn & black bean salsa). So simple-I just wish I'd thought of this before!

fruit salsa

This is a recipe I got from Erin back when she lived in Chattanooga. It is so good! It's rather labor intensive b/c of all the chopping, but it's well worth it. She may have the exact proportions, but it's one of those recipes that I end up just doing a little of this, and a little of that. So Erin, feel free to correct the measurements if I'm way off base. The recipe below is typically what I do when I make it just for me:

Fruit Salsa:
1/2-3/4 pkg of strawberries
1 small apple, pealed--I usually use Rome or Gala
1-2 kiwis
spoonful of jelly--I think the recipe calls for apple, but I use whatever's in my fridge
spoonful of honey

Chop fruit in very, very small pieces. Stir in jelly and honey. (When I visited Erin in Hawaii, we made this a few times. As it turns out, the recipe calls for brown sugar instead of honey, but for some reason when I got the recipe from Erin the first time, I had it in my head that it was made w/ honey. It seems like it might be a little heathier w/ honey, so that how I've kept making it.)

Cinnamon/sugar chips:
3-4 medium sized flour tortillas
Pam cooking spray
cinnamon/sugar mix

Preheat oven to 425-degrees. Spray tortilla with Pam. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture. I usually go back and spray the areas where the cinnamon/sugar is not wet so it will stick to the chip better once it's cooked. Use a pizza cutter to cut the tortilla into wedges before cooking. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes. Ken likes them a little chewy, so I put his in for less time than mine. When it's for me, I usually cook them the whole time, but you may want to check after 8 minutes to see if they look done.

And then just use the chips to scoop up the salsa, and enjoy!