August » 2011 » Living Lou

Loaded Nachos

I really love nachos, always have, always will. Nachos are one of those snacks that take a little bit longer to throw together than some other snacks, but I find that the extra effort pays off in how satisfying these nachos are. I love to make my nachos loaded, none of that melted cheese on corn chips dipped in salsa business, I want all the toppings. The thing about nachos is that it is a snack that you can tailor to your own taste. I love olives, so I like to add olives to my nachos. The day that I made these nachos, I wasn’t in the mood for spicy, so I decided to omit jalapenos.

Once you have decided what toppings you want, making the perfect nachos is all about layering. A layer of corn chips followed by all the toppings, followed by another layer of corn chips, followed by all the toppings. Just repeat these layers until you have a tower of nachos. Throw them in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and voila!

Loaded Nachos (serves 2-4)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lbs ground turkey
1 tbsp + 1/4 tsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp sour cream
1/2 tbsp water
Corn chips – I didn’t measure how many corn chips, just use your judgment for 2-4 people
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup chopped olives

Directions

Over medium-high heat, heat olive oil and crumble ground turkey. Cook turkey until fully cooked and add in 1 tbsp of taco seasoning. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare sour cream. Mix 1 tbsp of sour cream with 1/2 tbsp of water and 1/4 tsp of taco seasoning. Set aside.

Now, on a baking dish, put a layer of corn chips, followed by half the shredded cheese, 1/2 the ground meat mixture, 1/4 cup of salsa, 1/2 tbsp of the sour cream mixture and 1/8 of a cup of chopped olives. Follow by another layer of corn chips and layer on the remaining ingredients.

Put nachos under the broiler for 2-4 minutes or until cheese is melted.

These loaded nachos make the perfect after school snack, or snack during sporting events.

- Lou

Garlic Parmesan Orzo

Up until a week ago I thought I hated orzo. I had a valid reason though, there was this one time when I had a bad experience. All I’ll say about said experience is plane food. I think it’s pretty self explanatory, but plane food is usually rather revolting, and orzo on a plane might just be the grossest meal I’ve ever had. Shudder. What was it then, you ask, that made me decide to try orzo again? A little something called The Secret Recipe Club. Which is a wonderful take on the idea of a recipe exchange, except it’s all done in secret and revealed on the reveal day, which is today!

This month I was assigned the blog The Jey of Cooking a wonderful, cleverly named blog written by Jey. Not only is she hilarious, as seen in a recent post where she talks about how her love of garlic means that she is most definitely not a vampire, but her blog is chock-full of delicious, simple and healthy recipes. I perused her archives, spending hours going all the way back to her very first post to decide what I wanted to make. I stumbled upon this recipe for Garlic Parmesan Orzo and was completely smitten when I read the list of ingredients, garlic, parmesan and spinach – a winning combination, the only issue, orzo. I conquered my fear and am so glad that I did so, this recipe for garlic parmesan orzo will blow. your. mind. It’s one of my new favourite recipes and I can’t wait to make it again.

Garlic Parmesan Orzo
Recipe source: The Jey of Cooking originally from All Recipes

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked orzo
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cups spinach, finely chopped
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook orzo, following the directions on the package.

In a large pan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add garlic, cooking for 4 minutes, or until tender. Turn off the heat and add the chopped spinach and cook for a minute, allowing to wilt. Next add the Parmesan, orzo, milk, salt and pepper. Allowing the cheese to melt into the orzo.

What I love about this recipe is not only does it taste heavenly but it is also extremely simple to make. After eating this orzo, I can definitely say that I am no longer a hater of all things orzo.

- Lou

Basic Salsa

Right now I’m watching The Food Network, eating chicken and writing about my favourite homemade salsa – it’s all food, all the time over here at Living Lou. I guess you could say that I’m slightly obsessed. As you know by now, I’m a big fan of making food from scratch, and salsa is no exception. What I like the most about making it myself is that I can control how spicy, salty, and cilantro-y (definitely not a word) my salsa is. There are days when I feel like eating a mouthful of fresh cilantro flavor, and other times when I feel like eating a salsa so spicy that I need a big glass of milk to soothe my mouth.

This recipe that I’m sharing today is a basic salsa recipe that can be tweaked to your liking, if you like it spicy, go ahead and add in some more jalapeno, if you love cilantro then add in another handful, don’t be afraid to make a recipe your own. Salsa is extremely easy to prepare, and when I say easy I mean that you literally throw everything into a blender and blend. I don’t really like chunky salsa, but if you like yours chunky, you can blend it as much or little as you want.

Basic Salsa (makes 10 servings)
Recipe Adapted from: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
1/4 large onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 jalapeno, roughly chopped
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1/2 whole lime juice
1 18 oz can of diced spicy red pepper, tomato and onion

Directions

Place all ingredients except can of diced spicy red pepper in a blender. Blend until desired consistency. Add in the can of diced spicy red pepper and serve.

This recipe makes a lot of salsa, and when you get tired of eating it with chips, I have a few recipes coming up this week where this salsa can be used.

- Lou

Cocoa and Chili Rubbed Pork

The combination of cocoa and chili has always intrigued me, at first it seemed like such a random combination that I couldn’t imagine that flavor it produced. The first time I heard of this combination was during an episode of Iron Chef America in which Bobby Flay uses the combination of cocoa and chili, then when I was in Mexico earlier this year, I took the plunge and tried a mole sauce (pronounced moh-lay) which is a sauce often used in Mexican cuisine. This sauce can be a mixture of chiles, tomatoes, spices such as cumin, cinnamon and lastly, chocolate. I stumbled upon this recipe for Cocoa and Chili Rubbed Pork the other day and I knew it was something I had to make right away. Unfortunately, the pork chops that had been in my fridge went bad, so I had to wait a few days later until we got some new pork chops. Woops, bad planning. But, I’ll tell you, these cocoa and chili rubbed pork chops were by far worth the wait.

I’m not usually a fan of pork chops, but these were so easy to prepare and they cooked on the grill quickly, and were so juicy and tasty that I don’t think I’ll ever eat pork chops another way again.

Cocoa and Chili Rubbed Pork (makes 6 pork loin chops)
Recipe adapted from: Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients

6 small, boneless pork loin chops
1 quart of water
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper

For rub:
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp ground coffee

Directions

To prepare the pork, brine chops in 1 quart of water, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper for an hour in the fridge.

In a small bowl, combine chili powders, brown sugar, cocoa powder and coffee.

Remove chops from brine, and sprinkle half the spice blend on one side of all the chops, lightly patting it in before flipped over and sprinkling the remaining half of the spice blend on the chops and lightly patting it in.

Heat grill to medium and cook chops for 4 minutes on one side with the top down, before flipping and cooking an additional 5 minutes or until meat reaches 160 degrees.

Note: Cooking time may vary due to thickness of pork chops, my chops were not very thick so adjust cooking time as necessary.

These pork chops were spicy and one of my favourite meals thus far this summer. Get grilling tonight and make some of these pork chops, they pair perfectly with my Nana’s Coleslaw.

- Lou

Coleslaw

I’ve recently rediscovered my love for coleslaw. I find that it’s such a good snack to have in the fridge at all times because it’s just so tasty. This recipe is a variation of the recipe my great grandmother, or Nana as we called her, would make. She was an awesome cook, and a pretty stellar lady herself. She never ran out of stories of her days growing up in Northern Ontario, and her many siblings. She would always be drinking her beer, and somehow, despite her small stature she could eat more than all of us. She never failed to order dessert, one of her favourites was the apple crumble.

It was pretty ironic that I stumbled upon her hand written recipe card the other day, a recipe which she had written down for my mom back in 1989. It was only last week that I had been thinking about how delicious her coleslaw was, and finding this recipe was definitely something I welcomed with open arms. It really is one of the best I’ve ever tasted, I find that it has the perfect balance between tangy and sweet. Try out the recipe for yourself and let me know what you think.

Nana’s Coleslaw (makes 6 cups of coleslaw)
Recipe adapted from my Nana’s by Lou

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup +1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup water
6 cups of shredded cabbage
1 shredded carrot

Directions

In a small saucepan, bring olive oil, sugar, vinegars, salt, spices and water to a boil. Boil for 30 seconds and remove from heat.

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing. Personally, I like my coleslaw to be drenched with dressing, but start by pouring 1 cup of dressing, and adding the other 1/2 cup if you want to. Toss to coat.

Enjoy your coleslaw, I’m going to have a bowl right now.

- Lou