Cilantro Lime Dressing

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Recipe by Our Best Bites 

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
ignore directions on the packet
1C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

This is tough folks. Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend ‘er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat. One of the most commonly seen brands is Herdez. Herdez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I’ve tried. Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking. There’s no way I could put the whole 1/4 C in my dressing like the recipe calls for (but then again, I’m a wuss.) I like to buy La Costena (pictured below) because their medium is actually really mild. That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce. If you’re not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you’re getting into!

Bean and Corn Salsa

 We love this recipe! It's easy, quick to make, and delicious. 

Ingredients: 2 boxes of twisty noodles, 1 bottle of Italian dressing, 1 can of olives, 1 can of corn, 1 can of pinto beans, 1 can of black beans, 2-3 tomatoes, one onion, one cucumber, 1 avocado

Directions: Cook the pasta. Drain and cool under cold water. Mix in large bowl with chopped veggies and drained beans. Add Italian dressing and chill until ready to serve. 

Fresh Homemade Salsa

Fresh Homemade Salsa 

  Ingredients: 

Three 28 ounce cans stewed tomatoes-drained , 1/2 bundle of cilantro 1 bundle green onions, 2 garlics 1 or 2 jalapenos (Take the seeds out for mild salsa), 1/8 tsp ground cumin, fresh lemon juice, salt, tortilla chips

• Cut cilantro, green onions, garlic and jalapeno to small pieces.
• Add to blender and blend away.
• When ingredients are cut up fine, add the drained tomatoes
• Blend.
• Add cumin, lemon juice and salt to taste.

Hints: It is best to keep the tomatoes out of the blender until the other ingredients are added and chopped to keep a good texture.

Brooks' Bread

Brooks' Bread 

Recipe from "Cook's Illustrated" 

Posted by Brooks 

 Makes 1 loaf 

 Ingredients: Dry 18 3/4 oz AP Flour (about 3 1/2 cups) 1 t Salt 2 1/4 t Instant Yeast Wet 2 T Unsalted Butter (Melted) 3 T Honey 1 c Whole Milk 1/3 c Water 

 Directions: Turn on the oven to 200 (it will become a proofing box) Mix the Dry ingredients (minus 1/4 c of flour) in a stand mixing bowl Mix the Wet ingredients and heat to approximately 110 Turn on the mixer to low Introduce wet into the dry Mix for about 10 minutes If, after about 5 minutes, the dough is too wet, add from the reserve 1/4 cup (1 T at a time) Turn off oven (the oven should have been on for 20-30 minutes by now) Remove bread from bowl and knead a few times, shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl Cover with plastic wrap and place in proofing box (oven) until doubled (40-50 minutes) Shape into loaf and place in greased bread pan Start heating oven to 350 Let rise until about doubled (Not in your heating oven)(20-30 minutes) Bake until interior reaches 195 (30 minutes or less)

Cheese Balls

Another delicious recipe from MaJo! We make cheese balls every Christmas. Not only are they delicious, but they make easy gifts for friends AND if you take the labels off the little cheese spread jars (soak them under hot water) then you have perfect little glass cups! Tripled recipe makes 8 regular sized balls.

  Ingredients:

• 1 (eight ounce) cream cheese
• 1 (five ounce) Rocha Blue cheese spread
• 2 (five ounce) Old English (cheese spread, not the cologne)
• 1 tablespoon grated onion
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
• Couple tablespoons fresh parsley-chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• Choice of crackers (Ritz, etc.)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients EXCEPT the 1/2 cup of nuts, the parsley and the crackers.

(You still mix in the 1/4 cup of chopped nuts, just not the 1/2 a cup. Make sense?)

• Lay down plastic wrap, enough to wrap around a ball and tie.
• Mix the 1/2 cup of nuts and the parsley.
• Lay out a small amount (enough to cover the outside of your ball) of nut/parsley mixture on plastic wrap.
• Drop desired amount of cheese ball mix onto this.
• Wrap up plastic wrap to form a ball and tie closed.
• Refrigerate until ready to eat!

Cabbage Beef Soup

Okay, I know that a cabbage soup doesn't sound good, but trust me on this one. This soup is GOOD! Super easy to make and healthy too! I found the recipe online somewhere a few years ago, but we modified and changed it according to what we like. 

Cook Time: Approx. 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

One pound of ground beef, cooked

1 16 ounce can of kidney beans. un-drained

1/2 to 2/3 a head of chopped cabbage

1 28 ounce can chopped or stewed tomatoes (We used a "fennel and red pepper" can) 

2-4 bouillon cubes (We use the little jar of soup base found next to the bouillon cubes at the store. It is easy to add a little extra flavor without having to use another cube since it is liquid. 2-3 teaspoons of this base was perfect.)

Spices: Garlic salt, pepper, oregano, minced onions... and whatever else suits your fancy.

1-2 cans worth of water

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all of the ingredients together and cook until the cabbage is tender, approx. 20-30 minutes. (TIP: You can start everything else cooking while you cook the ground beef to save on time!) The great part about this recipe is it is so easy to add extra ingredients if you want more. Another can of tomatoes, extra beans, etc. Also, it re-heats very well so leftovers are still delicious!

Ham Roll-Ups

Recipe passed from Grandma Buis to Mother and down to us. Ingredients:

• 1 box of cream cheese
• 2 large containers cottage cheese
• 1 seasoning packet of Onion Soup Mix (NOT both packets that come in the box.)
• 2-3 packages of very thinly sliced lunch meat

Even though these are called HAM roll-ups, I think the turkey lunch meat is a thousand times better. It is thinner and easier to roll too. We usually buy the pre-sliced meat that you would find near the bologna. Directions:

• Warm cream cheese on the counter until soft.
• Mix cream cheese, cottage cheese and onion soup mix together until blended and there aren't any big clumps of cream cheese.

Feel free to add more cottage cheese if the onion taste is too strong for your liking.

• Put small amount onto middle of a slice of lunch meat.

Fold bottom part of meat up. Then fold in the sides and last the top. These keep their shape easier if they aren't over filled and if you stab them with a toothpick after making them. Good luck getting these onto a serving tray. We eat about half of ours just in the assembling process!