Category Archives: snacks

Fresh salsa

snacks, vegetables 6 Comments

I know. A salsa recipe! From ME! It’s shocking. I’ll give you a minute while you collect yourself.

This one comes courtesy of my BFF’s boyfriend, and it is so good. Very different from my usual roasted salsa roja, and perfect for right now when the tomatoes are in season and easy to find. Around here we can still find a farmer with a card table of tomatoes and a cigar box for cash sitting out at the end of the driveway. Best tomatoes in the world!

Anyway, the salsa is also easily customizable, so you can make it anywhere from diced tomatoes to melt-your-face-off hot (which, you’ve probably figured out by now, is my preferred level of heat).

Fresh salsa:

  • 6 Roma tomatoes
  • 1 medium-large white onion
  • 3 serrano peppers
  • 1 bunch cilantro*
  • salt, and black pepper to taste
  • 3 large limes

To assemble:

  1. Dice tomatoes, onion, and peppers and stir together in a bowl
  2. Chop the cilantro and add in
  3. Add salt and pepper, then squeeze in the juice from the limes
  4. Stir, and enjoy! The longer it sits, the hotter it gets — just something to keep in mind

*A note on cilantro: for the last three years or so I kind of hate it (pregnancy was weird), so the first time I made this myself I just left it out. And I MISSED it. It really makes that much of a difference, so my advice is to try just a little bit in it even if you think you hate it.

Random: this reminds me so much of the now-defunct Salsa Y’all. Does anyone else remember that?

Alabama white sauce

lunch, snacks, supper 14 Comments

I am really, really lucky.

And by really, really lucky I mean I live about a mile away from Martin’s BBQ Joint. This is nationally acclaimed BBQ practically in my back yard!

One of my favorite things there (which is a pretty major decision; it’s all amazing) is the Alabama white sauce. It’s incredible on Martin’s smoked wings, but it’s also incredible on turkey sandwiches, meatballs, you name it. Fortunately Pat Martin shared the recipe with Garden & Gun a while back, so I get to make it at home now, too. I scale it way down to 1/4 of his recipe (see below); you can see Pat’s original proportions here.

Alabama white sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Duke’s)
  • 5 ounces cider vinegar
  • 3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt (heaping)
  • 1/2 tbsp. black pepper (heaping)
  • 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Instructions

  1. Stir it all together (I use a whisk), then store in a squeeze bottle or Mason jar
  2. Add to everything you can think of.

Pimento cream cheese

lunch, snacks 5 Comments

As discussed here over honey mustard, I’m still new to liking mayonnaise. One of my favorite things about liking mayo, though, is pimento cheese. It COMPLETES me. I always have some in the fridge now. Pimento cheese on Wheat Thins? Possibly a perfect snack.

My very favorite kind of pimento cheese is Palmetto Cheese, which is made with mayo and cream cheese. The cream cheese gives it a little extra thickness and tang and it’s just so, so good. When I heard Damaris Phillips mention on TV that she made her pimento cheese with cream cheese, I knew this was a recipe I had to try. I change hers up just a bit, using sharp yellow cheddar and adding some hot sauce; it’s a definite staple in my house now.

Pimento cream cheese

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces softened cream cheese
  • 2 ounces mayonnaise (I use Duke’s or homemade)
  • 8 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 4 ounces diced pimento (one small jar)
  • Hot sauce to taste (I use Louisiana)
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Mix together cream cheese and mayo until thoroughly combined
  2. Add in cheese and pimento and stir till well mixed
  3. Add hot sauce, salt, and pepper, tasting as you go till it’s perfect to you!

If you haven’t yet,  you really must try mixing pimento cheese into your scrambled eggs. I also love it on the afore-mentioned Wheat Thins, and of course pimento cheese sandwiches.  How do y’all eat it?

The meatball recipe

snacks, supper 9 Comments

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I originally found this recipe. It’s been saved in my Evernote for years, simply titled The Meatball Recipe, and I use it a lot. These have great flavor and never dry out on me.

It’s a great go-to recipe because it works for so many different seasons and occasions! I love it any time of year served with dipping sauces: barbecue, sweet chili, and ketchup all work great. They can be grilled in the summer when it’s too hot to fire up the oven. They’re obviously good to throw in a big batch of spaghetti and meatballs, but I also like to divide them up and freeze them in little baggies of three each so I can add them into quick pasta/tomato sauce lunches — instant protein add!

How would YOU use these?

The meatball recipe

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 24 meatballs

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp minced fresh Italian parsley
  • 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 lb 80% lean ground beef.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425F
  2. Stir together Panko, eggs, water, cheese, garlic, parsley, seasoning, salt and pepper in a large bowl
  3. Add beef and mix by hand until just barely combined
  4. Scoop up meat mixture and gently roll into meatballs
  5. Bake on baking sheet, 1 1/2 inches apart, for 15 minutes or until internal temp is 165F

Cheese straws

baking, snacks 14 Comments

After talking and hemming and hawing about it forever I finally bought a cookie press. It’s so much fun! I can’t believe I waited so long. I just had to try cheese straws first, and they were fantastic.

They also kind of made me want to wear a big hat and drink mint juleps, but that’s for another day.

The cookie press I bought came with a recipe book with this recipe included; I changed it to use butter instead of margarine, because yuck.

Cheese straws

Yield: 5 dozen 3 inch straws

Ingredients

  • 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, graded
  • 3/4 cup butter, well softened
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp hot sauce (I used Louisiana)
  • 1 3/4 cups flour, sifted
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you like the heat)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven 400 F
  2. Blend cheese, butter, egg and hot sauce and set aside
  3. Sift together flour and spices, then knead into butter mixture, either by hand or in a food processor with the metal blade
  4. Use cookie press with star disk, or pipe out of ziptop bag onto ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 10-13 minutes until golden brown. Remove immediately to cooling rack; store in airtight container when completely cooled

By the way, show of hands: who has had cheese straws before? Turns out my lived-in-the-South-all-her-life friend Vanessa had never had them. What about y’all?